Jul
20
2016
0

Green Arrow #3 Review

Written by: Ben Percy

Art by: Juan Ferreyra

Publisher:  DC Comics

What’s been so striking to me about Green Arrow since Rebirth is the incredible artistic talent that’s been involved in the book. The Rebirth issue, as well as #1 and #2, had Juan Ferreyra covers and Otto Schmidt interiors. And for this issue, we not only get another Ferreyra cover, but also get his stunning work on the interiors. His art style is surprisingly fitting for this issue. We see the most of the Ninth Circle we’ve seen yet, and he has a penchant for drawing super creepy characters. After all, he did come up on horror comics, and there are parts of this issue that are reminiscent of his work on Colder.

Of course, the rest of his interiors are incredible as well. There are a couple super visceral action scenes, and his art really encapsulates the visceral nature of those fights. His use of backgrounds is also incredible. There are scenes where he’ll just leave out the detail, which allows him to highlight the body language of the characters in those scenes. He seems to have an intimate understanding of exactly the best way to make each individual panel as effective as it possibly can be.

Unfortunately, Percy doesn’t quite know when to get out of his way. The first four pages of this book don’t need any monologuing – instead we get a bunch of overwrought exposition. Not only is it not interesting, but it gets in the way of the art, which is an even larger strike against this decision. And it’s not only the opening sequence that’s guilty of this. While the conversation between Diggle and Virgil is infinitely more interesting than Ollie monologuing about security, it feels out of place over the issue’s climactic confrontation. This part isn’t poorly written – I thought it was pretty great, honestly – it just gets in the way of some of the best art in the business.

In terms of Oliver, this issue kind of loses his character. He’s been so great in this series because of how he interacts with the supporting cast. Without them, it doesn’t seem like he can come up with anything even remotely interesting to say. Fortunately, the same cannot be said of Emi, Black Canary, and Diggle. I’ve already touched on Diggle, but Dinah also gets a few really great scenes in this issue. Aside from her not noticing an explosion that she clearly could have seen, her characterization is on point. I’m also really enjoying the direction they’re taking Emi – I’m not convinced she’s turned yet, but in any case, her dialogue is some of the best in this book.

It’s kind of ironic, really, that in a book titled Green Arrow, Green Arrow is the least interesting part. But this book has enough going for it that it’s still one of the standouts of Rebirth. It’s not the best issue of the series so far, but it probably could have been; had Percy written a little bit less and allowed Ferreyra to just take over for a few sequences. Even with that critique, the art is so fantastic that it really carried this issue for me.