Green Arrow #34 – Review

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

The Story: How to slay a Dragon with a single arrow.

The Review: Not that I don’t appreciate a bit of moralizing in my comics, but I also prefer that it not be overt. As any of us who have ever encountered a born-again evangelist screaming at joggers and bicyclists in a park know, preachiness can be a real drag. Once we reach a certain age, that After School Special (A.S.S.) tendency to say outright the moral of the episode is boring and tiresome. We know what the lesson is; we just choose not to use it sometimes.

Lemire’s a family man and a bit of an innocent in his writing, so maybe he can’t help himself, but it’s nonetheless disappointing when he resorts to a final cliché between Dragon and Ollie. As Dragon has Ollie in dire straits, he crows, “[Y]ou’re not good enough anymore, Arrow.”

“Maybe, Dragon,” Ollie admits. “But you know the difference between you and me? I don’t’ have to do it alone.” And like clockwork, Ollie’s supporting players fly into action and Dragon is defeated by that most wonderful of things, teamwork. It’s the kind of thing you’d find endearing in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but embarrassingly corny here.

Green Arrow #33 – Review

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

The Story: Ollie gets to experience the joy of having an annoying little sister.

The Review: When the DCU relaunched, the idea was supposedly that we were in a sparkling new world, with the characters living out their early superheroic histories before our very eyes. Going by that theory, you assumed that in the first few issues of Green Arrow, Ollie had only recently started going about town in his emerald hoodie. The introduction of Diggle thus creates a slightly awkward pre-history to this early period, one even odder since Ollie never gave a hint of its existence before now.

Lemire tries his best to reconcile these two eras in Ollie’s vigilante life, using the death of his mom as a sensible dividing line. But from a character development standpoint, there are redundancies. Lemire goes through a great deal of trouble playing out Diggle’s disgust with Ollie’s indolence after his mother’s death, accusing him of being a “self-absorbed, spoiled little rich kid with a lot of fancy toys.” Given that Ollie resumed the Green Arrow identity by the first issue of this series, Ollie must have taken those words to heart. But then what should we make of his self-loathing remarks about being a spoiled kid in practically every issue of Lemire’s first arc on this series?

Green Arrow #32 – Review

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

The Story: Don’t look so down, Ollie; it’s always a shock going back to the grind after an overseas trip.

The Review: Sometimes, I really feel sorry for ol’ Green Arrow. Although technically a contemporary of Batman and a predecessor to Hawkeye, in recent years, they’ve overshadowed him to the point where he feels like a craven copycat. As a billionaire vigilante fighting the good fight in a crime-riddled metropolis, Ollie’s got nothing on Batman’s legendary war in Gotham. As a human among near-gods in a premier superhero team, both Batman and Hawkeye outclass Ollie in reputation, skill, and personality.

The mythic Outsiders had the potential to change all that; at the very least, they might’ve sent Ollie in a radically different direction from his counterparts. Imagine if Lemire had committed to a long-term, globe-hopping adventure, allowing Ollie to take his time and discover all the ancient secrets each band of Outsiders held. Imagine epic battles of weaponry that’d give you new appreciation for mortal combat. Imagine him gaining knowledge and skills that could finally let him rival the Dark Knight himself. Too bad the Outsiders turned out to be little more than a squabbling band of cosplay nerds with ambitions of terrorism and white-collar crime. Too bad the most Ollie got out of the experience was some unwanted family members and a broken arrow.

Arrow S02E23 – Review

By: Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg (story)

The Story: Mercenaries versus assassins versus special ops versus superheroes. Go!

The Review: So I just took my last law school final ever yesterday! Aren’t you all proud of me? No? Get on with the review, already? Okay. The last season has seen Arrow fully embracing its comic book origins with pride, drawing in established characters from the DC canon from all levels, the great and the obscure alike, all in an impressively organic way. The finale is thus a culmination of the work and spirit of the season as a whole, which is what a season finale should be.

Not only does every cast member get a big part in the proceedings (except, perhaps, for Dinah), nearly every major character introduced in the last two seasons shows up, with appearances from Malcolm Merlyn, Deadshot, Amanda Waller, Nyssa Al Ghul, and even Lyla, flying in on a helicopter and firing a rocket launcher to ward off some of Slade’s army. The conflicts range from the epic (a city-wide war between an army of superhuman convicts against Team Arrow and a battalion of assassins, all with the threat of an A.R.G.U.S. drone strike looming overhead) to the personal (Ollie’s fight to the death with Slade, twice over). That’s what I call a season finale worthy of superheroes.

Green Arrow #31 – Review

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

The Story: Ollie attends the least heartwarming family reunion ever.

The Review: So Lemire was serious about killing off Robert Queen after all. A pity, though not much of one, in all honesty. Having revealed he was still alive only four issues ago and showing little character to be admired since then, it’s not as if you’re particularly attached to his existence. Even Ollie, after giving himself a moment to mourn for all that was wasted between them, refuses to get maudlin about it, and allows the Outsiders to bury Robert on the island, away from the rest of his family, significantly enough.

There’s a poetic, even karmic, justice to all this. Robert, whose pointless obsession with the Totem Arrow led him to abandon his wife and nearly kill his son, dies for the sake of his family, even if it’s not the one he left behind in Star City. Komodo gets his comeuppance, too. After raising his child to be an Outsider on a foundation of lies, his child lives up to her upbringing by taking out the man who betrayed her all her life. A deserving end for Komodo, but at a monstrous cost to Emiko.

Arrow S02E18 – Review

By: Marc Guggenheim & Drew Z. Greenberg (story)

The Story: Have you seen this girl? If so, call the Arrow on his encrypted phone line.

The Review: When Slade swore revenge against Ollie, you assumed he was seeking retribution equal to the suffering he believed Ollie caused him—an eye for an eye, appropriately enough. By that calculation, and factoring in Shado’s death, you expected this meant the death of all of Ollie’s loved ones. But we’ve seen since that Slade’s vengeance is nothing so simple. He’s had ample opportunity to kill everyone in Ollie’s orbit since he came to Starling City, yet he’s held back every time.

Of course, Slade has changed objectives since the island. In “Three Ghosts”, he promised anew, “I am going to tear everything [Ollie] cares about away from him. Destroy those who choose to follow him. Corrupt those he loves.” Ollie dies only after “he has lost everyone and everything he values[.]” It’s a psychological breakdown Slade wants for Ollie, not unlike the one he’s experienced since the dual trauma of being injected with the Mirakuru and losing Shado.*

Arrow S02E17 – Review

By: Mark Bemesderfer & A.C. Bradley (story)

The Story: Ollie encounters the wrath of girlfriends past.

The Review: While any intimate relationship between human beings leaves its mark even after it’s over, romances tend to have the most profound effects on people—not surprising, as you’re often baring more of yourself to your partner than anyone else, even your friends and family. Looking at a person’s ex, how they met, how they got along, and how they broke up, you get a fairly complete portrait of who that person is for however long the relationship lasts.

After last week’s episode put Diggle front and center, you’d think the focus would shift right back to Ollie this time around. Instead, the spotlight trains elsewhere, only partially illuminating Ollie on the fringes. Since all three of the main players—Helena, Sara, and Dinah—have been romantically entangled with Ollie at one point (some twice!), the episode isn’t entirely divorced from its star, but his role is felt rather than seen. He’s an influence, but not the focus.

Arrow S02E16 – Review

By: Keto Shimizu & Bryan Q. Miller (story)

The Story: Diggle doesn’t dig his ex-wife’s new pals too much.

The Review: I’ve been getting kind of worried about Diggle for a while, now.  Though in my mind, the core Arrow team will always be him, Felicity, and Ollie, the recent membership of Roy and Sara threatens to significantly erode his presence.  What need does Ollie have for an ex-soldier when he’s got a powerhouse and a trained assassin?  Felicity will always provide the techie know-how; Diggle’s value needs to be similarly set in stone.

Hence a Diggle-centric episode .  In a rather clever use of the show’s usual structure, the flashbacks switch from the tropical trials on the island to the desert cliffs of Afghanistan, where we see Diggle in full army gear protecting a fleeing caravan of villagers with future ex-wife (then fellow soldier) Lyla.  Over the course of the episode, as we see Diggle save a wanted criminal and mourn over the death of a boy who shot at him, his value to Team Arrow becomes a little clearer: his moral rigidity.

Green Arrow #29 – Review

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

The Story: I sense great custody battles ahead for Komodo and Shado.

The Review: Speaking as one who has told a lot of lies in his time—never to you, of course (wink!)—I can tell you that lying itself can be a very powerful form of truth-telling.  The lies we tell invariably reveal something about ourselves because even as they deflect attention away from things we want to conceal, they also expose things we wish were true, whether you’re saying you’re younger than you really are or recounting college exploits that never happened.

With that in mind, Komodo has been telling his daughter some rather interesting tall tales, inadvertently letting his motivations peek through their chinks.  In flashback, we see him telling a younger, less bloodthirsty Emiko, “Your mother’s name was Shado.  She was beautiful.  She was the love of my life.  We were meant to be together forever.  Then a very bad man killed her…a bad man named Queen.”  I tend to weary of villains driven by love gone wrong, but it comforts me to know that Komodo will be getting his comeuppance soon.

Arrow S02E14 – Review

By: Wendy Mericle & Beth Schwartz (story)

The Story: Nothing like a tirade against your long-lost sister to ruin a family dinner.

The Review: Apologies for the lateness, but midterm duties called and I had to answer.  You know how it is.  But let’s not waste any more time than we have already.  This week’s episode finally puts a pin in the most troubled part of the show this season: Dinah, burgeoning alcoholic, pill-popper, drama queen, and all-around mess.  It’s not hard to see her trajectory towards rock bottom, but the ETA has been repeatedly delayed by new personal crises.

But then, Arrow has always struggled to find a place for Dinah, established early on as one of its major figures, but quickly overshadowed by the rest of the cast, even, lately, Roy.  At this point, Dinah is in a very risky position for a character in a fictional series: she doesn’t have a clear or secure position in relation to Ollie except as a romantic interest, nor does she have a purpose of her own to pursue.  The closest she came to either of these things was her untimely investigation into Sebastian Blood, which only led her further along her downward spiral.  Frankly, this was all starting to seem dangerously Mandy-esque.*

Green Arrow #28 – Review

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

The Story: It’s not a great feeling when your dad chooses a pointed stick over you.

The Review: To be honest, I’m still trying to wrap my head around last month’s revelation that Ollie’s dad is still alive.  Talk about your quintessential “What the what?” moment.  More than just the sheer soapiness of it all, however, the existence of Robert Queen means that a rather predictable family conflict is in store: Ollie’s initial rage and disgust at what is obviously a painful betrayal, and a later, probably forced reconciliation amidst tragic circumstances.

This issue features the first half of that developing relationship.  I must admit, Lemire’s pretty committed to milking all the drama out of this plotline, stacking one destabilizing accusation after another.  In some ways, Ollie’s incredulousness at what his dad has done helps us deal with just how insane Robert’s whole plan to turn his son into “a weapon” is.  Insane and selfish, as almost all of Robert’s actions revolved around his own lust for the Arrow.  Ollie’s reaction is nonplussed, to say the least: “It’s just an arrow.  You left me—you left Mom—for this?”

Arrow S02E12 – Review

By: Marc Guggenheim & Drew Z. Greenberg (story)

The Story: Starling City takes the integrity of the political process to a whole new low.

The Review: Have you ever noticed that even though ninety-five percent* of all hiring decisions are based on how closely the candidates followed rules and conventions, the people who rise to the top are usually the ones who break them?  Fiction tends to follow suit.  Characters who stick to the program more often than not become the dutiful, straight-man sidekicks to the rebellious heroes, with the possible exception of Star Trek’s Spock.

So the chances of Roy actually following through with Ollie’s training regimen were pretty much nil.  Part of the issue is that instead of explaining how each exercise is supposed to help Roy, Ollie just repeats the same stale line about “control” a dozen times.  On the other hand, just taking Roy out in the field proves to be counterproductive as well.  What Ollie fails to recognize is that as serious as his new protégé’s physical symptoms are, Roy’s problem is essentially an emotional one.

Arrow S02E11 – Review

By: Wendy Mericle & Beth Schwartz (story)

The Story: Dinah’s lousy, no-good, very bad day.

The Review: The moment Dinah took on this mission to discredit and expose a man with as much goodwill as Sebastian Blood, she should have known there was always a possibility that it would backfire on her.  Perhaps she can be excused for hoping that her father and closest friend might put more weight on her word than their own besotted view of Blood, but to do so without even a scrap of proof?  That’s expecting a bit much, especially for an assistant D.A.

Therein lies the structural weakness of Dinah’s storyline, or at least the show’s treatment of it.  It’s clear that the end goal was always to drive her into a corner then pull the rug out from under her.  Each episode has been systematically doing that from the season premiere, eroding away what little competence and confidence she had left after losing Tommy.  But even though the writers have accomplished their goal and finally left her reeling at rock-bottom, they had to take some major leaps to get there.

Arrow S02E10 – Review

By: Jake Coburn & Keto Shimizu (story)

The Story: Sebastian Blood’s rally is going to blow through the roof.

The Review: After pointing out Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s reliance on the monster-of-the-week episode format, it’s only fair to discuss how the format works in Arrow.  In season one, Arrow acted much like any other CW drama, each week introducing a new villain for Ollie to tackle and learn something from.  Since then, however, the show has mostly outgrown that formula, sustaining itself almost entirely on material from ongoing storylines.

Transitions like this usually happen across a long period of time, so I can’t point out exactly which episode marked the start of Arrow’s evolution.  Somewhere along the way, however, the showrunners must have realized the short-term benefits of developing corporate scumbags and various other criminals, only to put them away after a single episode.  From that point, Arrow invested fully in building continuity to last, drawing in new characters only in service to the long-term plot.  The show has done this very well for quite a while now, so when this episode falls back on old tricks, it’s noticeable and disappointing.

Arrow S02E09 – Review

By: Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Geoff Johns, Ben Sokolowski (story)

The Story: This will teach Oliver to distrust the life-saving powers of rat poison.

The Review: I still get a little mental jolt every time I encounter a decidedly non-comic-booky person who says he or she loves Arrow.  As delighted as I am, it’s all I can do to stop myself from asking suspiciously, “Why?”  The popularity of superhero movies, each one a massive dose of generally undemanding escapism, I can understand.  A TV show requires a certain amount of commitment, so how does Arrow earn it without playing on pure fanship?

For this episode, I tried looking at it through the lens of someone who had little to no connection with the DCU or its mythology at all, which was perhaps bad timing on my part.  Arrow has long outgrown throwing in the obligatory Easter Eggs; DC mainstays now make up a significant demographic of the show’s population, and it’s not just second or third-tier figures, either.  Here, the show is clearly confident enough to take on the big leagues, from the return of Deathstroke (with eye-patch, most importantly), the birth of Solomon Grundy, and Barry Allen’s transformation into the Flash—and you don’t get any bigger than that.

Arrow S02E07 – Review

By: Marc Guggenheim & Drew Z. Greenberg (story)

The Story: Vertigo’s out of order, Moira’s out of order, this whole city’s out of order!

The Review: Moira Queen is an interesting figure within the Arrow universe.  Central as she is to some of the show’s most important storylines, she’s never been much of an active player in any of them.  This is partially the fault of her character makeup; as an upper-class socialite with few discernible skills, she has little choice but to fall back on classic feminine wiles to exert her power.  She deceives, schemes, bargains, but rarely do you see her actually do anything.

Yet even in this limited capacity, Moira does far more than other characters in her position, which is mother to our hero.  Usually, these women are relegated to little more than sounding boards for their children’s exploits and had Moira been trapped in this role, she’d have a much smaller presence in the show.  As she is now, her sole purpose seems to be generating drama for the other principals to grapple with, a function which she serves very well.

Arrow S02E06 – Review

By: Ben Sokolowski & Beth Schwartz (story)

The Story: To Russia with love.

The Review: Almost every TV series, even the best ones, goes through the same pattern of growth, particularly during the early seasons.  The first season is all about setting tone: the characters’ core personalities, the general dynamics among them, the style, pace, and purpose of the show.  It’s usually the second season where things get exciting; with the basics out of the way, the writers can focus on having fun and expanding the bounds of the world they’ve created.

Arrow’s second season easily falls into this model as it steadily incorporates more and more elements from the comic book mythos which inspired the show.  In addition to passing references to particle accelerators and WWII-era genetic experiments, the show has officially opened the revolving door of DC character appearances, this time allowing Amanda Waller to step through and be her usual coercive self.*

Green Arrow #25 – Review

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

The Story: We have a knight and archer in the same room.  Now where’s the mage?

The Review: I confess that I have a certain amount of cynicism about crossover events in comics, viewing them usually as schemes to capture readers (and their dollars) who wouldn’t read these books otherwise.  The farther spread the crossover, the more suspicious I get, and Zero Year’s infection reaches far, indeed.  Having just read an Action Comics tie-in that was only marginally related to events in Zero Year proper, I wondered if Green Arrow will fare any better.

Lemire gets a leg-up on Action Comics #25 by actually setting his story in Gotham and allowing Ollie to run into the early Dark Knight himself.  True, it’s a little too fortuitous that Ollie’s return from the island coincides exactly with the chaos erupting in Gotham, but it’s a narrative necessity that mostly pays off, so you don’t take too much issue with it.*  At the very least, you get to see some interesting parallels and contrasts between two of DC’s most prominent non-powered superheroes.

Arrow S02E04 – Review

By: Andrew Kreisberg & Wendy Mericle (story)

Spoilers ahead.  From the moment it was announced a Canary would be appearing on the show, speculation ran rampant as to her identity.  Quite a lot of people immediately insisted that it had to be Sarah, the younger Lance sister who ran away with Ollie, only to meet her watery death.  I, always hoping that a story won’t be tempted to take such an obvious route, thought there was at least a possibility not-Canary would turn out to someone no one expected.

Once again, however, I find my hopes ruthlessly dashed.  From the moment that Felicity and Ollie hypothesize that not-Canary has been following Dinah, not Ollie, all along, it pretty much clinches the Sarah theory.  I’ll say this for Arrow, though: it doesn’t tend to dance around the obvious.  Rather than spend an entire episode delaying the inevitable reveal, the show gets it all over with in the cold open, leaving us free to enjoy the fallout.

Arrow S02E02 – Review

By: Ben Sokolowski & Beth Schwartz (story)

The Story: For once, you can’t blame incompetence for FEMA’s problems.

The Review: Turning over a new leaf is never an easy process.  Aside from the difficulty of changing old habits, you’ve now got to learn how to apply your new ones to your life.  When Ollie indicated last week that he’s ready to take a different tack to his vigilantism, that murder is no longer his first option, you have to wonder if he took into account the changes in Starling City since his Return from the Island, Part II.

With the Glades in total disarray, the city now seems legitimately in desperate need of a hero.  The villains have only stepped up their game since season one, carrying out more dastardly crimes than ever.  As she preys upon the medication lifeline from FEMA that the Glades’ hospitals depend on to survive, China White proves that she’s only grown fiercer and less scrupulous since she was hired to take down Malcolm Merlyn—and now she’s bringing friends.  Taking on a no-kill rule under those circumstances seems to signal a lot of future uphill battles.

Arrow S02E01 – Review

By: Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Marc Guggenheim (story)

The Story: Nothing like a good island getaway to relieve the stress of a devastated hometown.

The Review: Even though the first season of Arrow came with all the growing pains every new show experiences as it settles on its voice, it built a lot of confidence with viewers like me because it not only knew exactly what kind of story and tone it wanted, but it also had the humility to make changes as needed.  That makes Arrow’s second season job much easier, when the goal is to capitalize on early strengths while rejiggering the things that didn’t quite work.

The cold open does both tasks at once and thus sets a good for the rest of the episode.  No matter how poignant Ollie’s interactions with his family or intriguing his romance with Dinah, the relationship that truly drives the show is the dynamic between Ollie, Diggle, and Felicity.  Kicking off the season with Diggle and Felicity (now promoted to series regular), skydiving towards Lian Yu and barely escaping death by land mine thanks to a grappling-line rescue by Ollie, makes for a very good start indeed.

Green Arrow #24 – Review

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

The Story: Green Arrow wonders how many more shirtless villains he’ll have to deal with.

The Review: And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.  Lemire was one of the few writers who managed to use his Villains Month offering as simply another chapter of his ongoing series, which is all well and good.  It’s just kind of unfortunate that the story had to center on Count Vertigo, who has turned out to be a less than impressive figure, even just within the Green Arrow canon.  Even Komodo, a newcomer on the scene, has had more impact.

So I’m not sure we really needed to have another encounter with Vertigo so soon after the last one, in which the villain all but whimpered and curled into a fetal position once his disorienting powers were removed.  For his second act, Vertigo basically uses the exact same strategy as before, only on a wider—specifically, a “half-mile”—scale.  A blunt sort of strategy, but as a blanket response to archers, an effective one.

Arrow S01E22 – Review

By: Drew Z. Greenberg & Wendy Mericle (story)

The Story: Every good mother-son relationship is built on honesty—even if you have to threaten it out of them.

The Review: Last night I was talking to a friend online and when I mentioned that I watched Arrow, he asked, “Oh, yeah—how is that?”  I told him what I felt was the truth.  “It’s a truly mixed bag.”  And it really, truly is.  There have been some standout episodes this season, and ones that I could very easily forget, but overall, the average showing of Arrow is usually an uneven combination of high points and low points.

For example, can we be spared the pointless and awkward exposition already?  Dinah meets with Ollie at his club, then proceeds to give him a recap of what happened between them last week, starting, unbelievably enough, by saying, “Last week, I told you that I wanted to get back with Tommy—that I needed you to go to him and explain to him that you didn’t still have feelings for me.  But instead, you told me that you did.”  She might as well have preceded the line with, “Previously, on Arrow…”

Arrow S01E21 – Review

By: Jake Coburn & Lana Cho (story)

The Story: Felicity and Ollie take a bet on their teamwork as a duo act.

The Review: With the season winding down, it’s just about the time for the show’s writers to start tying all their various plot threads together into something suitable for the finale, a big task for a series as active as Arrow.  Over the last twenty episodes, we’ve seen a number of characters introduced, killed off or shooed away, then returned; a handful of romances sparked, some of which have already petered out; and the addition of several major cast members.

Through it all there was always the looming threat of Malcolm Merlyn’s Undertaking, ostensibly a final attempt to clean up the Glades for good, but really just an extreme strike back against the place which took his wife.  With all the other craziness happening in the show (e.g. Tommy discovering Ollie’s secret, Diggle going after Deadshot), the Undertaking has taken a bit of a backseat, and we really don’t know too many details as to what it’ll entail just yet.

Arrow S01E20 – Review

By: Ben Sokolowski & Beth Schwartz (story)

The Story: I suppose we can’t flip a coin to decide which assassin to take down first.

The Review: A few years ago, I took a course on opinion writing for my journalism major.  As a beginner’s exercise, we all had to write a short piece expressing our point of view on pretty much anything that came to mind.  One of my classmates delivered an impassioned tirade about Twilight, mostly about how Edward Cullen “sparkled,” which drove her insane because “Vampires don’t SPARKLE.”  She had strong opinions about supernatural figures, you see.

I can’t say I have too many pet peeves when it comes to fiction—and none that gets me riled up like sparkling vampires did for my classmate.  But there are little things that pop up in stories that sometimes bother me.  The one that gets to me the most is when writers subjugate characters to their story, turning them into means to an end, rather than figures who have personalities and lives of their own, separate from whatever story the writer has in mind.  This episode reminds me how Arrow often reduces the characters to mere objects, all orbiting around the show’s star.