Green Arrow #22 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Andrea Sorrentino (art), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: Kissing the same woman seems like one father-son tradition that can go away.

The Review: As a reviewer, I try not to let little details get to me.  A critic’s only as good as his credibility, and he’s not going to have much of that if he should start questioning the accuracy of every minor defect in the story.  But I’m only human; I’ve got my pet peeves and “things” like everyone else.  One of them is when a character says one thing, but does (or has done) something else which contradicts that—and without any self-awareness about it.

In this case, it’s hard to tell if it’s with irony that Ollie sidles up the pathway to Count Vertigo’s castle in a ridiculous, flapping cloak and robe, only to immediately get confronted by two guards.  “Well, so much for the quiet approach,” he remarks.  I apologize, but I had an inexplicably difficult time getting over this silliness.  The thing that gets me is how he makes absolutely no attempt whatsoever at subtlety.  I’m just saying, for someone whose talents take advantage of distance and surprise, Green Arrow embraces direct and close combat a bit too much.