Arrow #30 (Web Comic) - A Review

Patient Zero, this week's web comic, allows Arrow to do its' own spin on the Outbreak style of medical thriller.  A virus as lethal as it is rare starts to wind its' way through The Glades, getting Team Arrow's attention even before the rioting begins.  It's up to Ollie to keep the streets safe while Felicity tries to find the common link between all the victims of the disease and uncover the identity of the "Typhoid Mary" who may be spreading it intentionally. 


Mary Iacono's script is fast-paced and riveting.  This issue does give us the closest thing the series has yet to an actual super-powered villain and an incredibly plausible idea for how a Poison Ivy-style villainess with a deadly kiss could work within the reality of Arrow.  We also get to see Ollie use a new trick arrow that is not outside the realms of possibility in the show's more realistic setting.


The artwork by Sergio Sandoval, apparently inked by the artist himself this time, proves equal to the fine script.  Unlike previous issues where Sandoval's pencils were over-saturated in shadows, this artwork here is clear and bright when it should be.  Sandoval is particularly skilled in capturing the likenesses of the show's regular cast, though Oliver does seem to lose his beard in some panels.  Despite this minor issue, I'd definitely recommend Arrow #30 as being worth the download.

Arrow #26 (Web Comic) - A Review

The blurb on Comixology for Arrow #26 asks "So what happened between Tommy and Laurel during the five years that Oliver was presumed dead?"  Well, the answer is nothing shocking.  He bummed off his rich father.  She got her law degree.  And the two of them had a lot of sex, all while insisting that each time would be the last time ever.


The script by Tiffany Williams and Mary Iacono offers no broadening of the characters and no new information.  There's nothing of value here, save to an obsessive fan seeking to build a perfect Arrow timeline that tells us precisely when Laurel earned her law degree.  The artwork by Allan Jefferson and Le Beau Underwood is equally shapeless and undefined.


Arrow #26 is an ultimately unnecessary story that does nothing to advance the larger story of the show and tells us nothing about its' characters that we didn't already know.  If I were to sum it up in one word, I would choose "skippable".  Spend your $1.00 on another web comic.

Arrow #21 (Web Comic) - A Review

Detour is the name of our story this week.  The plot focuses upon Oliver Queen and John Diggle being car-jacked by an attractive young lady, who posed as a damsel in distress with a broken car. It turns out that young damsel IS in distressed and that her carjacking was born of desperation as she tries to escape from her car-thief boyfriend.


Reason #237 Ollie Is Cool - Flirts With Women Who Could Kill Him.    The script by Mary Iacono is fast-paced and thrilling, but not quite fast-paced enough to escape some rather glaring plot holes.  I can forgive some rather questionable gaps in logic, such as the young lady being afraid of her boyfriend and his gang despite the fact that she owns a gun.  Many abuse victims become illogical when faced with their abusers and she may have been in a rush when she came up with the "car-jack somebody to escape" plan.  Yet I can't help but wonder exactly why the car thieves leave Ollie and Diggle behind after stealing their car and taking the girl only THEN to say "go back and kill those guys who can identify us."  I also have no explanation for how Ollie and Diggle were able to track down their car later.  Maybe Diggle left his phone in the car and Ollie was able to track it using a "lost phone" app?


While I may quibble with the plotting, I have nothing bad to say about the artwork.  The car chase that takes up the larger part of the comic is very well illustrated.  Artist Xermanico also perfectly captures the likenesses of our regular cast members and has a grasp of shadow-usage that rivals Mike Grell's. 

Arrow #18 (Web Comic) - A Review

Arrow #18 gives us another flashback look at the life of The Lance family.  Set sometime just after Sara Lance's disappearance and presumed death, we find that Laurel is about to undergo a series of mock trials - the final test before being awarded her law degree.  This would be stressful enough without the revelation of Sara's death, Laurel's discovery that her boyfriend (also presumed dead) had been cheating on her with her sister and her mother walking out on both her and her father. 

Needless to say Laurel needs her father's support more than ever, but Quentin Lance is equally troubled.  Not only by the death of his daughter and the collapse of his marriage but by a sudden break in a cold case involving a dormant serial killer he was never able to catch.  Faced with a chance to finally nail "the one who got away", will Quentin ultimately keep his promise to be there for his daughter at one of the toughest times in her life?



The script by Mary Iacono and Tiffany Williams is enjoyable despite indulging in every single cliche of crime fiction.  The serial killer is ultimately tracked down by analyzing the mud he left at the scene of the crime and the police even call him "The Night-Stalker", for crying out loud!  Still, the drama as Detective Lance goes into Javert mode is thrilling and this issue is a great analysis of his character.  There's also quite a bit sly humor regarding Quentin, on the show at-least, apparently being one of the only two detectives in Starling City as Quentin's partner says "You don't have to be the one catching all the bad guys."


Sergio Sandoval is proving quite the phenomena.  Out of all the artists to work on Arrow, he easily does the best job of caricaturing the cast.  Quentin and Laurel look just like Paul Blackthrone and Katie Cassidy, which is the best you can hope for in a comic based on a live-action property.  The action scenes are also laid out well.  Pol Gas does a perfect job on the inks, outlining and emphasizing the shadows without drowning the page in ink.

Enjoyable despite it's flaws, Arrow #18 is easily worth the one-dollar download.  It's a must-read for all fans of Quentin Lance's character as well as fans of true-crime thrillers and Arrowheads.

Arrow #14 (Web Comic) - A Review

Arrow #14 is a step back in several respects.  It's a step back in time, as this flashback issue focuses upon The Lance Family over ten years ago.  It's also a step back in terms of characterization for Laurel Lance and her younger sister Sara.

The main thrust of the plot is simple enough.  Sara is being bullied by a girl who thinks Sara is trying to steal her boyfriend.  Quentin asks Laurel, who is busy trying to figure out her college plans, to keep an eye on her.  Laurel blows off her father's request after Sara tells her she doesn't want help.  Quentin starts teaching both girls how to fight.  In fighting, Laurel learns something about life and herself that helps her find her path. 

The script by Mary Iacono fails to take advantage of the comic format.  At one point, Laurel talks to herself to convey that she is having trouble deciding what she wants to do with her life.  This information could have been revealed more naturally in the artwork, showing her looking at multiple college brochures in close-up.  Heck, even a thought balloon would have seemed more natural. 


The story itself presents a larger problem in that it minimizes Laurel as a character by making the impetus of her desire to help people come about purely from her father forcing her to get involved.  This is not to say that Quentin should have no role in inspiring Laurel or that it's wholly unbelievable that a teenage girl approaching college might be selfish regarding her problems taking priority over those of a younger sibling.  No, the problem is there is no sign of the personal drive that lay at the heart of the Black Canary we all know and love or the Laurel Lance we've seen on the show.  For that matter, there's no sign of the Lance girls' mother in all of this! 

It is Sara Lance who suffers the worst, though.  Her entire purpose in this piece is to be a victim to be rescued.  The conclusion of the comic even defines her as such!  Worse yet, all we glean of her personality in this story is a confirmation of the one thing we knew about her from the show, i.e. she's the kind of woman who thinks nothing of trying to steal someone's boyfriend.   


The artwork by Xermanico is half-hearted, at best.  The line work is competent enough in the close-ups  but suffers in the middle-ground and background as details are lost.  This problem is aggravated in several panels which are over-inked, further obscuring the pencils rather than emphasizing them.  On the bright side, Xermanico does a decent job of caricaturing and de-aging the cast, though the over-inking does leave Quentin Lance with sagging jowls at one point.

Bottom Line: This issue of Arrow is easily skipable unless you're a die-hard Black Canary enthusiast. 

Arrow #8 (Web Comic) - A Review

Arrow #8 tells the story of three teenage boys who travel to Starling City hoping to get video footage of The Hood.  One of their group loudly expresses his disbelief that The Hood exists while another, Pat, has personal reasons for seeking The Hood out personally.  Thankfully, after the boys happen across a mob hit in-progress, the skeptic is quite happy to be proven wrong as the local vigilante shows up and saves them from certain death.


While being full of some great action sequences, the script by Mary Iacono and Wendy Mericle is rather weak.  The problem with stories like this one, where we see our main character through the point of view of another character, lies in establishing a point of reader/viewer sympathy for the spectator character.  It's rather hard to do this when two of our three teenage protagonists aren't given names!  Only Pat - the believer with a brother who The Hood saved - is given any personality beyond The Complainer or The Agent Mulder.


The artwork by Sergio Sandoval and Pol Gas is similarly troubled.  Gas' inks obscure more of the art than they highlight, even in the scenes that are meant to have good lighting.  And as in Arrow #5, Sandoval still has trouble depicting the characters in this book as resembling the characters from the show.  His take on Ollie looks more like Garret from Thief: The Dark Project than Stephen Amell. 

A larger problem is that some of the action in this issue is better suited towards a Vertigo title than a comic book based on a TV-14 rated TV show. I'm not squeamish but even I was shocked to see the depiction of an arrow going completely through a human head - something I can see this take on Oliver Queen doing in a fight but not something I'd expect to see illustrated in-detail in a comparably rated comic book.  Between that and the half-hearted characterization, I'm comfortable in saying that only the most devout Arrowheads need pick up this week's comic.