Written by: Benjamin Percy
Art by: Juan Ferreyra
Publisher: DC
Green Arrow has been my second favourite DC title out since rebirth (although I’ve been hearing fantastic things about Wonder Woman) and this latest issue certainly doesn’t disappoint.
The issue follows straight on from the last with Ollie on the run from his security force and police after breaking into his company, which has been used as a front for a criminal empire. While Ollie recuperates his losses and meets ups with some old allies, Black Canary continues her own investigation into where kidnapped civilians are going.
I see this issue as a bit of a necessary evil, it’s kind of dull and nothing overly interesting happens but it manages to keep the plot chugging along and sets up the crescendo to the climax of the arc pretty well.
In this issue we see John Diggle and Oliver Queen, meet up for the first time since rebirth and honestly? It’s pretty disappointing. I had to look up who John Diggle was as I haven’t been following Green Arrow lately because it’s been… not great since the show started and the comic gives you next to no introduction to who he is or what he’s like. Ollie doesn’t really seem to share much chemistry with anyone this issue, either his conversations with people are bland and boring or he’s a bit of an ass, referring to people as worthless and so on.
Over to Black Canary’s side of the story as she’s still filled with rage because she thinks Green Arrow is dead. What I don’t understand is how fast Canary and Arrow’s relationship has progressed I mean it feels like we’ve gone from them not knowing each other at all to the closeness they had pre-flashpoint in only about an issue and a half spent together. It’s pretty jarring if you go back and read through the issues.
While a bit more action-filled and interesting than Ollie’s adventure this week, Dinah’s escapades still left me wanting. With very slow progression and panels being put to waste to draw out the reveal of what happens to the kidnapped civilians, which you could have guessed two books back if you put any level of thought into the question.
My main problem with this whole storyline is the antagonists in this, the Ninth Circle, they just don’t seem threatening. I mean, yeah their empire is huge and they are powerful but it just feels like by this time in three months they’ll have been forgotten about and dealt with. I feel this is an unforeseen problem with the accelerated pace of story telling that the bi-monthly release schedule the series is now on.
This is the second Green Arrow rebirth issue that Juan Ferreyra did the art for and I gotta say, it’s a vast improvement over the last issue. While I still believe Otto Schmidt’s somewhat sketchy style was more fitting to the tone of this story and would prefer, panel to panel, there are more than a handful of moments where I’m glad Ferreyra was on the job. Moments like this mostly revolve around amazing backgrounds or landscapes such as the final panel (which is really nice and ominous) but some are just small, throwaway panels like the reflection of Ollie and John in Henry’s eye. As with many artists that seem to excel at drawing settings, Ferreyra sometimes falls short at conveying motion and I’m often very aware I’m looking at a still image.
Lets talk about colour and its application for a second or rather, how Ferreyra is a master of it. Using very bright, neon colours for Ollie’s fast escape while using dark and muted tones for Dinah’s stealthy infiltration was a really nice choice and adds some much needed character to the scenes.
Overall, with its slow pace and lack of memorable moments (from a story perspective, art-wise it’s amazing) I’m not sure if I could really recommend getting this issue as I find myself beginning to question what the point of this arc is. Is it to bring Green Arrow and Black Canary together again? It feels like Percy thinks that’s already been done well enough by the Rebirth issue. Is it to show make Oliver Queen broke like he was in the Green Arrow/Green Lantern days? It looks like it might be heading that way but that’s not the point of this story. I think it’s supposed to show Oliver that he needs friends or money to be Green Arrow and lately he’s been relying too much on money. I mean it must be that, I vaguely remember an argument in issue one about that but I don’t feel that theme has been laid down heavily enough throughout this series to make it in anyway poignant.
If you’re looking to get into Green Arrow I’d say go get the Kevin Smith collection, that just recently came out, then get the Rebirth issue when you’re down with that and by then this arc should be over and you can follow on from there. If you’re like me and you’ve been up to date so far then this is a minor blip in the arc before the climax but I don’t think this storyline with the Ninth Circle will be memorable as a whole.
