Arrow S02E21 – Review

By: Holly Harold (story)

The Story: Beware the men in masks.

The Review: I actually watched this episode of Arrow the night it came out, and had an outline of a review ready to go yesterday, but due to circumstances beyond my control (i.e., desperately trying to finish a multitude of assignments at the last minute after putting them off for a week or two), I didn’t get around to writing the thing until evening. By then, it was time for my showing of Amazing Spider-Man 2 and of course, movies have priority over TV episodes. You know how it is.

Watching and reviewing ASM2 did have an interesting effect on my evaluation of “City of Blood,” though. Specifically, I suddenly became a lot more sensitive about the sketchier bits of plotting in this episode. Dinah’s illicit investigation into Blood’s records seems more questionable now than it did the first time around. I’m just saying it’s a good thing that tech specialist she and her dad persuade into assisting didn’t have too rigid a moral compass (at first hesitant about hacking the newly elected mayor, he gives in: “Hell, this is a dead end job, anyway.”). And thank goodness Blood for some reason keeps a timestamp at the bottom of his press release drafts, just so you know that he was forewarned of Moira’s death. Dinah and Quentin might have had to do some actual research, otherwise.

Arrow S02E19 – Review

By: Greg Berlanti, Geoff Johns, Andrew Kreisberg, Keto Shimizu (story)

The Story: Isabel may have had a point when she said Ollie would drag his company into ruin.

The Review: Not unlike the most recent episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Arrow had some fairly momentous developments last time around, but left almost no time for anyone to really process them. That task is left up to this episode, the entirety of which is less about taking action and more about responding to actions already taken. It’s a quieter episode than we’re used to, but perhaps a necessary one to allow the characters to inspect the damage that’s been dealt to each of them.

For Thea, this means a thorough examination of herself, to see how much of her identity has been eroded by the dual whammies of Roy leaving and discovering her true parentage. When you consider that around this time last year, Thea had nothing going for her character other than a cliché of a teen romance with Roy, it’s quite remarkable to see her running one of the strongest character arcs of the season. Her entire outburst to Ollie as to how devastating Slade’s revelation has been to her is genuine and effective throughout, starting from her correction that he isn’t her brother, but her half-brother.

Vibe #5 – Review

By: Sterling Gates (story), Pete Woods (pencils), Sean Parsons (inks), Brad Anderson (colors)

The Story: Generally, it’s not a good idea to run away with a girl while you’re on the job.

The Review: You know, we frequently give publishers a lot of crap for putting out inferior titles, but I think we don’t appreciate how deceptive a good pitch can be.  Think of the one for Vibe: Geoff Johns writing the adventures of an underdog, city kid from Detroit who becomes an dimensional border cop.  Sounds pretty good to me!  Who could have predicted that five months later, it’d be Sterling Gates writing a hopelessly insecure kid on the run from his own employers?

While I did think it was a good idea to have Cisco’s fallout from A.R.G.U.S. happen sooner rather than later, now I’m thinking it could have stood to happen perhaps a little later.  Neither Johns nor Gates (nor Andrew Kreisberg, I suppose) ever fully mined the potential of Vibe’s association with A.R.G.U.S. before throwing it on the rocks, which seems a sadly missed opportunity to me.  What about Agent Gunn playing Murtaugh to Vibe’s non-suicidal Riggs?  Think how much fun that would have been!

Vibe #3 – Review

By: Sterling Gates (story), Fabian Neves (art), Pete Woods (pencils), Sean Parsons (inks), Brad Anderson (colors)

The Story: Vibe discovers that Kid Flash can be a little touchy about being touched.

The Review: I have a soft spot for all the second bananas of the world; those are my peeps, right there.  When it comes to comics, much as I admire and respect the big names, the major architects of their respective universes, I also really like to root for the lesser-known but no less reliable writers.  Their individual styles might not stand out like their more famous peers, but they are solid craftsman who can deliver as needed.

I count Gates as one of these much overlooked writers.  I very much liked his work on the previous volume of Supergirl, and even when he’s been given some real dogs of titles to work on, you can see the talent underneath it all.  Putting him on Vibe is a great choice.  If you can’t have Geoff Johns putting his star power to work on the title, then you need someone who can bring a similar sensibility and level of attention to a fairly vulnerable character and story.