Green Arrow #40 - A Review

Green Arrow #40 is one of the most contrived, over-the-top and outright ludicrous comics I have ever read. And I loved every page of it! This issue is a fitting capstone for a run that has tried to do as much as possible to resurrect elements of the Green Arrow mythos long dead while simultaneously turning the New 52 reality into something recognizable to fans of the Arrow television series.

It remains to be seen just how successful Andrew Kreisberg and Ben Soklowski will be in that regard in the long-term. With a new creative team set to come on post-Convergence we could well see yet another shift of the status quo on a book that has been continually unstable since the first issue!

For the moment, at least, I am content.  Whatever faults this run had - and there are many - it managed to at least be amusing and avoided being dull.  How can it be dull when you have the likes of Lex Luthor, Batman, Katana, Arsenal and an army of Green Arrow's other allies, enemies and acquaintances uniting to bring down the tyrannical billionaire John King and his Subjects.


This issue is packed with a lot of action and very few explanations. For instance, the panel above is all we get to see of the villain Cupid in this issue. Except for a quick cameo on the final page of last month's issue, Cupid has not been seen in The New 52 Green Arrow book.  No background has been given for her and there is no explanation of who she is. So if you didn't read the Green Arrow/Black Canary book almost a decade ago or see her recent appearance on Arrow... well, too bad. Perhaps it is unreasonable in the Internet age to expect these things to be included as part of the narrative when we are given enough information to look up Cupid's page on ComicVine. Call me old fashioned but I like to see these things in the book itself. That just seems like Storytelling 101.

A similar problem comes up in the final battle, where - in defiance of all logic - King elects to go after Green Arrow with a sword. He hasn't been shown to be a swordsman before now. Nothing has been said about him using a sword to kill people. And it adds nothing to the final battle (other than looking cool) as this is merely a set-up for an obvious trap.

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE... billionaire playboy with a royalty-based surname in this town!
The artwork of Daniel Sampere and Jonathan Glapion lends an epic scope to this material that it doesn't truly deserve. With a lesser art team, this series might have looked as ridiculous as it seems.  As it is, it looks amazing and the fight scenes that make up the majority of this issue are all well depicted.

In the end, I'd say this run on Green Arrow was a success.  It lacked the depth of Jeff Lemire's run but it did set out what it was meant to do. And an Arrow Cave with Felicity Smoak and Mia Dearden in the house should prove to be a welcome starting point for the series to begin with in two months time.

Green Arrow #38 - A Review

As Green Lantern and Green Arrow reluctantly team forces to save a hospital full of victims from John King's men, Mia Dearden falls into her father's clutches.  Even with the aid of Katana, can the Emerald Allies save the day? Can they even stop arguing for two minutes?!


If I were to sum up my feelings about Green Arrow #38 in a word, it would be 'torn'.

There is so much about this comic that doesn't sit right with me.  I don't like that Mia Dearden's past as a drug-using teen prostitute has been brought back into play. There was just no reason for it with her new background as the daughter of sociopath billionaire John King.


Another problem I have with this comic is with its lack of explanations for any of the new characters' backgrounds.  We have no idea how long Mia has been on the streets, but the previous issues suggested that it hadn't been long - perhaps a year or two at the most. And we've been given no explanation as to who the heck Mack Morgan is and just why he is so important to John King.

Perhaps the biggest problem with this issue is John King's descent from ordinary rich jerk villainy into "cartoonish supervillainy".  Now, granting that this IS a superhero comic, the best Green Arrow comics have had some grounding in reality regarding their villains motivations. And yes, John King is a social Darwinist who would think nothing of killing an entire hospital to cover up one murder. But when we reach the point where the bad guy is ordering his minions in a hospital to stop providing care to the dying and expecting people to just go along with it with no questions asked, you have also passed the point at which one can still credibly believe John King to be an arrogant but subtle manipulator. Captain Planet villains are more subtlety evil than this!

So why am I torn on this book if the villain is so melodramatically awful?  Because the treatment of the heroes is so perfect!

The Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen of the New 52 universe are not the best of friends.  Heck, they don't even like each other that much! But the chemistry between the two characters is apparent here - the classic situation of two people not liking each other because they are so much alike. The banter between the two is hilarious and becomes doubly so when Katana is forced to put up with them.


One thing I'm not torn on, however, is the artwork of this issue.  Daniel Sampere and Jonathan Glapion provide their usual high-quality work.  The action of the issue is well blocked throughout and colorist Gabe Eltaeb depicts everything with a rich and vibrant palette.

I'll continue to read this book for now, but I hope that John King's madness is exposed soon and that there are no plans for him to be a long-running villain.  There's just no way for the character to last that long at his current pace of deterioration.

Green Arrow #37 - A Review

The mysterious Mia Dearden has been rescued and the reasons for her endangerment have been brought to light.  It seems she's the illegitimate daughter of billionaire philanthropist John King and she's gotten a hold of a list of thousands of "Kings Men" - bought officials ready to do whatever Mr. King wants. And what Mr. King wants right now is Seattle under his thumb and Green Arrow dead!


By all rights, I shouldn't like this new run on Green Arrow as much as I do.  Virtually all of the supporting cast has been jettisoned, with Felicity Smoak quickly sliding into the trusted techie role after only a single issue.  That sort of thing is normally a big no-no for me when it comes to established titles.

And yet, here it works to the book's benefit.  The honest truth is that for all the good Jeff Lemire did during his run on Green Arrow, he didn't do much to develop the supporting cast.  Most of the characters he introduced were unmemorable at best or outright annoying in the case of Ollie's half-sister Emiko.

For lack of a better way to say it, this comic just feels more like what a Green Arrow comic should feel like. Not only in terms of bringing in characters like Mia and Merlyn (he isn't identified by name in this issue but - c'mon, we all know who that archer in black is!) but in terms of setting Oliver up against an enemy who is a symbol of everything Oliver Queen should fight against - corruption and corporate power.  The final page of this issue is also a nod to the classic DC Comics of yesteryear and a relationship that has been sorely missed in The New 52 universe.

While some may quibble about the continuity of aesthetics between creative teams, I do not believe anyone can complain about the artwork on this issue.  Granted, my opinion may be biased as I'm a fan of Sampere and Glapion's previous work together on Batgirl but I do love the artwork on this book. The characters are all uniquely designed and the fights are well laid-out.  My one complaint is that colorist Gabe Eltaeb could try and offer a little more variety in the shades of yellow used to depict the many blond cast members.

Green Arrow #36 - A Review

On reflection, while Jeff Lemire's run on Green Arrow was a well-written series, I think I'm enjoying Andrew Kreisberg and Ben Sokolowski's run a little bit more.  That's a bold statement after two issues, I admit, but the new writing team brings a sense of fun to the material that Lemire didn't and that sense of fun is something that Green Arrow needs but has sorely lacked for a long time.

Don't get me wrong - I loved Lemire's run and its gripping sense of drama. But The Outsiders War, while setting up a grand mythology in the tradition of the ninja clans Frank Miller added into the canon of Daredevil. didn't really feel appropriate to Oliver Queen as a character. The storyline also turned Oliver Queen into a passive character in his own book, frequently confused and shunted from one information dump to the next as other characters explained what was going on.


On the surface, that seems to be true of Green Arrow #36 as well.  Very little of the action until the end of the issue involves Oliver Queen and our hero is in the middle of getting a huge information dump from Felicity Smoak when we first see him. And why is Felicity delivering all this information?  Because she was hired to kill Green Arrow, but had a change of heart about the job and decided she'd rather work for him doing good things instead.

Unlikely?  Yes, but John Diggle and Oliver Queen are both appropriately skeptical and cautious, even as they acknowledge that Felicity's knowledge is proving useful. Besides, they'd have no idea she was a hacker for hire unless she'd told them, so that proves she's trustworthy... right?

Another difference between two runs is that the story here makes greater use of the Green Arrow mythology.  Whereas Lemire utilized names while refining concepts, Kreisberg and Sokolowski stay truer to the classic form.  This issue finally gives us our first glimpse of homeless teen Mia Dearden and her attitude is ripped right from the pages of Kevin Smith, even if her circumstances are different. than that of the Pre-New 52 prostitute who became the second Speedy.


Some fans of Lemire have groused that Green Arrow is being turned into another Arrow comic. I personally fail to see why that would be a bad thing even if it were true. And I don't think it is. Yes, some trappings of the Arrow show are being introduced but Kreisberg and Sokolowski are also introducing a number of classic elements from the original comics that have been sorely missed.  The book may feel more like Arrow than it did before but it also feels more like Green Arrow than it did before.  And as far as this Arrowhead is concerned, that's pretty damn good.

In any case, I do not think anyone can argue against the fact that the artwork on this book is amazing.  Daniel Sampere and Jonathan Glapion deliver more of the quality work that made their recent run on Batgirl so magical.  Gabe Eltaeb makes everything appear bright and vibrant with his colors and Rob Leigh manages a neat effect with his lettering to emphasize Felicity's half-muttered sarcastic remarks.

Arrow News: 'Arrow' Might Turn Oliver Queen's Sister Into Speedy

SOURCE: 'Arrow' Might Turn Oliver Queen's Sister Into Speedy



It seems that the original character of Thea Queen (Oliver Queen's younger sister) on the new Arrow show might not be so original. Indeed, it seems it combines elements of the Roy Harper and Mia Dearden characters and has been planned to do so since the original pilot script...

In the "Arrow" pilot, Queen refers to his younger sister as "Speedy," an Easter egg that could easily get lost in the shuffle of an already jam-packed episode. But executive producers Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg didn't make the reference just for the reference's sake. In fact, there's an early version of the pilot that further teased Thea Queen's eventual assumption of the Speedy mantle.

"My favorite moment in the original script, which Andrew wrote, that didn't make it into the pilot is when she's in the room with [her friend] and they're crushing up the pills," Guggenheim told TV Guide. "The original stage direction was she reaches over to the shelf and grabs a junior archery championship trophy to crush the pills. I'm like 'Why didn't we do that? We never should have taken that out!'"

That's the third suggestion of a superheroine being a part of Arrow in as many days. Could this be paving the way to a Birds of Prey spin-off more in line with the original comics? We can only hope.

I Found You In A Chain Of Flowers...Sleeping Like A Marble Girl...Sleeping In Another World...

After nearly a month of journeying through harsh terrain, the party arrives at Shamballah.

After Ollie decks Travis Morgan and just barely avoids getting skewered by Tara's guards for his trouble, the questions are asked; where is the nearest exit out of here and can you magic up some medicine for Mia.

The good news is that the scribes and healers of Shamballah - having access to the ancient powers of Atlantis - know something about HIV. They call it "The Wasting Plague", but the symptoms are the same. What is more amazing is that they have actually devised a cure for the condition.

Naturally, there is bad news too. Quite a lot of it...

1. The Wasting Plague is now so rare that they don't bother to keep the potion/vaccine that cures it handy.

2. The key ingredient of the cure is a flower of a particular species of plant.

3. This particular plant is found only in the darkest part of The Shadow Forest.

Jennifer Morgan is able to weave a spell of stasis around Mia, giving the rest of the team what they need most; time. But even with that problem out of the way, they still need an expert woodsman and survivalist to lead the way into the Shadow Forest. And it would take a trained botanist to distinguish this one flowering plant out of all the others, based on the vague descriptions in the notes of the ancient Atlanteans.

Good thing Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance are there, eh?

Recovering the plant is a tricky business, what with the usual dangers of Skartaris on the way to The Shadow Forest. And then The Shadow Forest has its' own dangers, what with the near-total darkness, cannibalistic natives and man-eating plants.

And then... there's the other, less physical problems once the plant is actually found. Namely... they're sitting on a cure for HIV - what do they do with it? Or more accurately, what CAN they do with it?

Dinah is the first to point out that the plant isn't easy to get by any stretch of the imagination and that as best she can tell, there's not really a way to synthesize or cultivate the plant outside of Skartaris. So mounting regular expeditions from the outside world to gather up however little is left isn't practical, even if you ignore the complications in getting into/out of Skartaris in the first place. So as much as she'd love the credit for "discovering" this amazing plant, she doesn't see how it is practical to reveal the secret to the world.

Connor agrees with Dinah in principle, noting that there's also the issue of just what will happen to Skartaris as a result of the outside world becoming informed of the place. Specifically, what happens when some big business finds out about The Cure and they start rushing in trying to lay a claim on The Shadow Forest. Sure, it is a dangerous inhospitable realm... but everything has its' place and reason for being and even if the rules of Skartaris would allow this sort of thing to happen (they might not - magical realms are funny that way), there are a lot of peaceful natives who would be displaced along with the dinosaurs, cannibals and bad stuff.

Zinda? She's all for loading up a cart full of flowers and giving it the old college try. She's not much for Connor's talk about balance (cute as he is when he gets all serious) and as for Dinah saying it can't be done... well, no harm in trying right?

Mia? She appreciates what Connor and Dinah are saying... but honestly, she can't see how she can do this for herself and not at least make the attempt to bring The Cure to the outside world. Maybe this is how it is supposed to happen? Maybe this is how Skartaris gets dragged into the real world?

Ollie? Well, he sees the wisdom of both paths. Sitting on the cure for a major illness doesn't sit right with him for a lot of reasons. But he trusts Dinah's judgement on how feasible it is and agrees with Connor's points on how they can't foresee the consequences of the outside's world effect on Skartaris, or vice versa.

What do they decide? Good question. Why don't you tell me in the comments? ;)

Either way - with a sample brought home or everyone deciding to leave well enough alone - everyone makes it home okay... just a few days after they left thanks to the wacky way time works in Skartaris.

Mia astounds her doctors with a miracle that is written off as a false positive the first time she was tested.

And on a quiet night a few weeks later when everyone else is on patrol or being babysat elsewhere... Dinah does show Ollie an outfit that Queen Tara had made special for her.

Dinah: "Me Jane. You Tarzan. You never speak of this to ANYONE."

Ollie: "As Mel Brooks said, It's good to be da King of the Jungle."

I never pretend to be something I'm not, You get what you see when you see what I've got...

Since my birthday is this weekend and I'm not sure exactly when - if ever - I'll be around to type these entries into the computer, I've decided to give you all Saturday and Sunday's entries a little early.

Even in an extended family full of orphans and semi-neglected children, Mia Dearden wins any “hard luck” contest.

Ollie may have been orphaned at a young age, but he had a trust fund to fall back on.

Dinah may have become as much a mother to her parents as they were to her, but at least she never doubted their love even as she worried herself sick staying up nights as her grades slipped.

Roy may have been orphaned and cast out by adopted family… twice, but he managed to land on his feet.

Connor may have been ignored by his mother most of the time, but at least he eventually found the support he needed at the Ashram.

Mia had no one. No money. No support. No love.

Her mother died at an early age leaving her with an abusive father, who took her innocence in every since of the word. The abuse drove Mia into the streets and into the arms of a pimp named Richard who promised her the love and protection she needed. Richard kept half his promise in a half-assed way, renting her out by the hour to anyone with the cash to pay the rent on their hotel room for another day or another hit of Meth..

It was better than life with her father but not by much. At a time when most girls are thinking about which college they should go to or what boy they’d like to go to the Freshman prom with, Mia was already an experienced call-girl and a junkie. Mia didn’t see much of a future for herself or a way out… until a knight in green leather saved her life. And then, more remarkably, gave her a chance at a new life.

Oliver Queen – newly returned to life and action as Green Arrow – happened upon the young lady as he was conducting a raid on the drug party of a corrupt city councilman. Quickly coming to the conclusion that the young lady the councilman was sharing his bedroom with was a) an unwilling participant and b) horribly underage, GA made his displeasure known (i.e. he roughed the councilman up), told Mia that there were a lot better ways to make money and gave her the business card for a youth center that needed help. A youth center run by his good friend Oliver Queen.

Mia, being fairly smart and street-smart, saw through Ollie’s "disguise" in under a minute. Still, with nothing else to look forward to (especially after having knifed a “frisky” Richard the night before), she threw herself into the role of kick-ball coach and an uneasy ally of the city’s protector.

Mia stuck around through all the weirdness – the revelation that the Ollie she knew was a soulless shell and a copy of the original, the return of the original Oliver Queen and a new roommate in the form of an easily teased monk and a half-dozen disasters ranging from alien invasions to demonic attacks. She pestered Ollie about learning the bow and becoming a superhero.

He reluctantly agreed to the former when she pointed out that – given his lifestyle – odds were she’d need to protect herself somehow. But Ollie protested against the later, noting that his experiences with Roy had taught him that teenagers have no business being put into the hero game but that he’d be glad to teach her everything he knew about heroing… once she was 21.

That plan changed drastically down the line, when a particularly harrowing disaster demanded extra help and Mia was the only other person in the city Oliver could trust watching his back. And in the aftermath of a full medical check-up following the attacks, that was when the whammy hit: Mia tested positive for HIV.

Whether it was from the sex or the shared needles was unclear. What was clear was that Mia’s life would never be the same. Things in general became a lot more urgent, as did Mia’s personal need to do something to impact the world in a positive way. So after taking every possible precaution and ensuring that Mia was in good enough health to manage some light vigilante work, Mia officially became the new Speedy.

Mia took to being Ollie’s partner like a shot although she didn’t take to being a Teen Titan nearly as well. Ollie may have meant well when he tried to get her a place in the Teen Titans, hoping some time among other young heroes might benefit Mia as it did Roy but Mia stood out like a sore thumb. In terms of life experience, she was much older than anyone on the team save perhaps Robin and as supportive as everyone was about her condition, Mia really felt more comfortable among her adopted family.

Today, Mia’s role on the team has evolved somewhat with her having taken the role of the Arrow Family’s technical genius - a role which has been assumed more out of necessity than inclination. In truth, Mia doesn’t have much of a natural inclination toward computers or electronics. She’s no Barbara Gordon. She’s not even a Wendy Kuttler. And yet, Mia has taken on the role of the team computer geek for one reason – she’s the only one who can do it.

Ollie is uncomfortable with any technology more advanced than a crossbow and is still resisting trading his old vinyls in for CDs.

Roy is competent with a computer but isn’t around Star City enough to be a reliable tech guru.

Connor is – well – a monk. Say no more.

And Dinah – after years of personal tutelage at the hands of Oracle – is now using an iMac to manage the books for Sherwood Florist II. It’s not that Dinah is as bad with computers as she claims – she just feels uncomfortable with any electronics that doesn’t double as a fashion accessory. This is the real reason why her earpiece was built into an earring and her microphone into a necklace. Covert operations be damned – she just wanted something she could wear and not lose.

Still, Mia has used what talents she has effectively. It’s amazing how many criminals are stupid enough to post videos of their crimes on YouTool or brag about things to their friends on SpaceBook. And to two mentors who are used to using Mapsco, the ability to use GoogleEarth/GoogleMaps may as well be a superpower

Mia and Ollie: Mia admits that she ride the old man harder than anyone besides Dinah (“Ummm.. forget I said that THAT way.”), but she honestly does love Ollie. How can she not? She’d never voice her feelings in that way (before witnesses, at least) but she has totally bought into what Green Arrow had to sell the night he changed her life.

Mia and Dinah: With Dinah being who she is, she couldn’t help but become the closest thing Mia had to a real mom in a long time. Even when Dinah and Ollie were just dating, she took a hand in seeing Mia get some basic martial arts training (“Can’t have you making the rest of us girls looking bad.”). From there, a bonding of sorts formed, as they realized that they alone in the world had the power to make Oliver Queen freeze up with a few words.

Mia and Roy: See #13.

Mia and Connor: See #17 and #19

The emptiness, The craziness, Satisfy this hungriness...

There’s a romantic cliché that opposites attract – and what could be more opposite than a snarky ex-prostitute and a Buddhist monk? And there’s so much comedy potential in a man who blushes too easily being paired up with a woman who lives to make people uncomfortable with her frankness. But that’s not why I’d like to write a Mia and Connor romance. I want to do it because it was all there to be written… and yet nobody ever followed up on it. And if you think about it, they would be so good for one another.

Connor – being, for all intents and purposes, a monk – hasn’t had much experience in either the sex or romance department.. And as much as he dismisses other people’s concerns about why he doesn’t seem interested in that sort of thing (“why don’t you have a girlfriend?”, “you’re SURE you’re not gay?” and so on....), he does still have urges like any other young man. And while he doesn’t feel the need to rush into a sexual or romantic relationship and knows these things come in time if they are meant to happen... he does feel SOMETHING missing.

Mia is in much the same situation, not wanting to rush into a relationship - but for totally different reasons. Mia had – to put it mildly – a very rough childhood and grew up way too fast. She is old before her time and wise beyond her years. And while she learned all there is to know about sex at a young age, she knew very little about love; both the love of a family – which Ollie and Dinah have finally given her – and the romantic love that most teenage girls dream about.

Romantic love seemed to be closed off to Mia forever when she was diagnosed with HIV. She feared that nobody would ever find her attractive again. She was afraid that everyone would see her as tainted and bad and nobody would ever love her in that way.

Those fears were put to rest when Connor kissed her. And while he quickly dismissed the gesture as that of a friend trying to comfort another friend… deep down they both knew the truth. It would show itself in little ways across the coming months – quiet moments together, holding hands… Connor’s violent reactions to Mia being injured in the line of duty. All of them pointed toward something developing between the two.

After both of them returned home – Connor from his journey of self-discovery and Mia from her disastrous relationship with professional thief Dodger – the two realized how much they had missed one another… and exactly why, as much as they missed the whole family, they missed one another the most.

Dinah and Ollie were shocked at the news but not at all unhappy. Roy claimed later that he saw it coming and jokingly warned Connor about corrupting his innocent namesake. But it made perfect sense - Connor needed someone who could be patient and help him work through his own discomfort about his inexperience and naivety. Mia needed someone who wouldn’t judge her for her rough past. In that respect, it was a perfect match.