Green Arrow’s recent title in the New 52 has been meeting
with pretty much lack luster on almost all accounts. Things were not working be
it in the story or the characters and things looked bleak for the Emerald
Archer. This is ironic considering his first live action debut has been meeting
with recent success. But, seems the fans weren't the only one to notice this as
writer Jeff Lemire takes the task of trying to shoot new energy into the title
at hand.
The question how he would go about this was one in the
forethought on my mind. We have seen Green Arrow deal with some challenges but
nothing that really stood out for the character. So instead of just continuing
of the normal, we get the start of a complete stripping down of the character.
Not only the stripping of Ollie’s money and company. Many items and characters
first introduced when the book debuted have been removed, at times violently.
While Lemire was stripping down the character what is
impressive is that he is also trying to build something more. Hidden forces conspire
against Ollie, the force responsible for the actions leading up to this. That
he may not have had the chance to reach his full potential on the island he was
lost on. It is a fascinating look into the system where Lemire is using the
books current continuity and giving a reason behind it, while with moving the
story in a new direction and in the eyes of a lot of readers trying to correct
it. The question of is it working or not still won’t be answered until much further
down the line of the book. But, I can no longer call it a Batman with arrows as
I once did. It is completely different.
Even the art work put together by Andrea Sorrentino is a
reflection of the changes the books is going through and will be going through.
Inside at certain moments colors were removed save for the color green for obvious
reasons, or at times just black and white. These are things you often get drawn
to it, something is happening right there that is important. Times it might be
something small and other very big and crucial to the story.
The end of the issue might have removed nearly all of the
items from the previous arcs, it still introduces some new characters a ‘dark
archer’ and a man eyes were gone only to have ‘x’ where they were. And the
reveal like mentioned that Ollie had left the island too soon. There does feel
like there is more life in this book than before, a new beginning to a struggling
title. We can very well see people coming back to this title more. This also well get those wondering, are there other titles that could benefit from such a drastic storytelling method. A complete overall from the ground up? If this new Green Arrow continues to do as well as this issue that could be our answer.
OVERALL 8.0/10
Bryan "BAC" Clendening is a comic book reviewer and sometimes video producer, you can follow him on Twitter Here.
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