Green Arrow #17
DC Comics, $2.99, color, 32 pages
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Andrea Sorrentino
OK, this is more like it.
I read the first issue of The New 52 Green Arrow, then a year later the "zero" issue, and neither interested me in the least. Oliver Queen seemed to be little more than a spoiled attention-seeker, with a cliched Wendy-and-Marvin support team. I had no interest in following his adventures.
Now comes a new creative team and a new direction, and I actually enjoyed it. Bringing the book a little more in line with the TV show Arrow, Lemire introduces a conspiracy behind everything -- including the events that put Queen on The Island. Again, like Arrow, an archer clad all in black, one superior in both archery and hand-to-hand combat, is introduced (by kicking Queen's butt).
But there the comparisons to the show end. There is no Queen family like on the show, and now -- like the last time Green Arrow was memorably revamped -- Oliver has lost his fortune. Oh, and his support team is dead, the head of Queen Industries has been assassinated, and Queen has been framed the latter murder. So, you know, it's not really going well in both of his lives.
I don't know how this squares with Green Arrow's presence on the new Justice League of America team -- touted as "the team you can trust" by Amanda Waller's PR campaign -- but I'm interested in following Green Arrow for the first time in The New 52. Maybe I'll even grow to like Oliver Queen. He has some growing up to do, and if Lemire takes him there, I'll come along for the ride.
My one major complaint is that Lemire opens with a framing sequence -- the issue occurs in flashback -- and that is not resolved. I'm sure it will make sense in the inevitable TPB, but in the context of a single issue, it leaves the first page unexplained.
Replies
Agreed on this series, Cap. As I said in this thread, Cap, I tried Ann Nocenti's run and it fell flat for me. This first issue was pretty dynamite, and it seems like they are bringing him back to the days when he had practically nothing. Yet, Jeff Lemire is doing a different spin on it. I can't comment on how it compares to the Arrow series since I've only seen one episode, and haven't really gotten a feel for it.