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Review: Green Arrow #6

By | November 25th, 2010
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Written by JT Krul
Illustrated by Diogenes Neves

Green Arrow infiltrates Queen Industries to confront the Queen head-on. What shocking revelations will she reveal — and why is she wearing his mother’s ring? The answer may drive Ollie over the edge — again! And what lurks in the shadows that may spell the Emerald Archer’s doom?

I’m a fan of Green Arrow, but I won’t lie – this issue is the very definition of “make or break” when it comes to following a title. It’s actually the only issue I didn’t pre-order. So as I grabbed this off the shelf instead of a pull and took it home to read the “end” of the first arc, did Green Arrow remain in my buy pile? Find out after the cut.

As I mentioned earlier in my Teen Titans review, JT Krul’s number one problem is characterization. It seems like he just can’t seem to nail down any given character and instead writes every character he is working with now as a sarcastic and punny one-liner kind of hero. Ollie has fallen victim to that same routine, and despite being a rather nicely staged action comic, this Green Arrow storyline has just pushed beyond where I care to read.

To be honest, I think that Krul was actually given a difficult position when coming in to write Green Arrow. If ever there was a bad time to try and write the character, it would be now. With Justice League: Cry For Justice by James Robinson, the character’s life was left in shambles. Ollie became a murderer, lost his wife, and was exiled from his city as it lay in ashes. He began to hide in the woods that became Star City, “returning” to his Robin Hood routine. Unfortunately, the book has never really felt like that. The title has actually been mixed up rather heavily in Brightest Day, which led to an issue that directly intertwined with an issue of BD and resulting in a rather disjointed issue from the normal story. So while I don’t want to create empty excuses for why Krul’s work is just not working, he certainly doesn’t have an easy situation to work with.

That being said, Krul is not doing much with what he has. His few issues of Green Arrow before the relaunch were ok, but since the new title has started, the story has been incredibly disjointed and focused excessively on pushing Green Arrow in a tragic direction that he really doesn’t need to dwell in. This issue once again sees Green Arrow pushed in the direction of murder, but this time over something arguably small. The last time Ollie killed a man, it was because that man had murdered a city full of innocents – including Ollie’s niece. This time around, a woman revealed to him that she had relations with his father, a man who Ollie had often felt estranged too and notoriously did not get along with. However, Krul used the sequence to attempt to show us just how much Ollie is sinking as a human being, but instead of being something intriguing and full of depth of character, it felt cheap and inappropriate as Ollie simply spouted off ridiculous dialogue featuring rude remarks.

Green Arrow has certainly been one of those characters who has not been treated very nice by creators. Krul is no different. Poor Ollie has an image that the book wants to have but doesn’t manage to acquire at all. There is no Robin Hood aspect to this book, and even the “Knights of the Round” element feels forced and barely relevant. For the most part, the book is simply a stagnant title featuring a great character going nowhere fast.

That being said, Neves is a good pick visually for the book. Krul’s writing may be lacking, but he is continuously working with artists who are good in the visual department (see: Teen Titans and Nicola Scott). Neves is really no different here. The book is incredibly action heavy as Green Arrow swarms Queen Tower, and this allows for a lot of over the top antics and action sequences which let Neves really play with his visual capabilities. One sequence featuring Green Arrow swinging down the side of the building into a window is particularly entertaining, and provides a good look at the action it is depicting. While the dialogue might not be worth much, the directions laid by Krul for a story simply on the visual level lead Neves to a very nice looking issue (although his faces do leave something to be desired).

Unfortunately, Green Arrow has run it’s course in my book. I have no excessive loyalty to the character that makes me want to stay with the title any longer, and I don’t really want to read titles where the main goal is to break down the character for some “better” purpose. Green Arrow might have a bigger purpose soon, and I’d like to see Oliver rise up from the least popular super hero on the planet, but until that happens, I’m afraid this book has put itself into the “pass” category comic books.

Final Verdict: 6.4 – Pass


Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

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