Green Arrow #30 – Review

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

The Story: Komodo learns that dads should never get in between a mother-daughter relationship.

The Review: As cool a concept as the Outsiders may have seemed at first, they also seemed slightly antiquated and a little at odds with the criminal demands of the modern world, especially one populated with superpowers. I mean, characters like Green Arrow, Katana, or Hawkman* are in the same boat, or would be if they didn’t modify their martial artistry with trick arrows, magic swords, and Nth metal. The Outsiders haven’t kept up with the times quite as well.

Ollie made that pretty clear last month when he took out nearly an entire clan by himself with a single umbrella arrow. Even fighting amongst themselves, without the pressure of defending against gunfire—can you imagine the slaughter if there was such a thing as a Gun Clan?—we haven’t seen much to recommend them as truly formidable threats. If there’s a title that can stand to skew its balance towards action, it’s this one. The inter-clan battle in this issue is far too brief for its size, making it hard to appreciate the power and skill of the warriors involved.

Green Arrow #21 – Review

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

The Story: Ollie gets roofied by Magus and has visions of life on a tropical island—not the good kind.

The Review: In a society where our media increasingly places value in directness, I appreciate the virtue of subtlety more and more all the time.  In fiction especially I think writers can afford to be a little less direct.  There’s hardly a point to following a character arc or exploring a theme if the writer’s just going to straight out tell you what they are.  That just takes all the fun out of analyzing and debating these things for yourself.

So if there’s one crippling flaw to Lemire’s approach to Green Arrow, it’s not only making it clear that the story is about Ollie’s fall and rise, but reminding us constantly in every issue.  Look, I get it; Ollie used to have it all, then he lost it, now he has to rebuild himself, yadda, yadda, yadda—but enough of the self-hating monologues.  It’s gotten so old by this point that if Ollie was a real person, you’d be telling him to just start getting his act together instead of repeatedly bemoaning, “I was also Green Arrow.  A superhero—whatever that means anymore.  Just a rich boy’s pathetic attempt at doing something important.  Something meaningful.”*

Green Arrow #20 – Review

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

The Story: It’s hard to hold your breath in a graveyard when you have to fend off an assassin.

The Review: I love seeing gradual improvement in a comic book—heck, in anything.  In a world where good things tend to get worse as time goes on (How I Met Your Mother springs quickly to mind),* anytime anything actually gets better, no matter how minimally, is worth some kind of praise.  Lemire’s Green Arrow definitely had a rocky start, but in the last couple issues, his story has slowly taken shape and gotten more confident.

The one thing Lemire really has to get rid of are these morose monologues of Ollie’s: “I could just let myself become that shallow, pampered, rich kid I always pretended to be.  Just give up.  But I don’t.  I keep walking.  Because I know now I’m not that man.  I’m meant to be something more.”  Even if they make sense in context of Ollie’s story of personal growth, they just feel self-serving, almost like a backdoor brag.  If he’s really someone worth investing in, then we should see it in his actions; we don’t need him to reassure us about it.

X-Force #6 – Review

By Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost (Writers), and Clayton Crain (Artist)

I have to admit, this one surprised me quite a bit. I never thought that Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost would manage to get a satisfying conclusion out of the increasingly convoluted “Angels and Demons” arc, but, lo and behold, they have. While there are a few things keeping X-Force #6 from being truly great, it is easily the best issue yet.

In an effective change of pace, the storyline is framed within a status report given by Wolverine to Cyclops. Long story short, all hell breaks loose at the Purifier base as all the various tensions and plotlines explode into an orgy of violence. Wolverine breaks up a standoff between Risman and Bastion, Archangel goes on a rampage against the choir, X-23 and Warpath kill a lot of Purifiers before facing off with someone changed by Magus, and Rahne stands up to her Purifier father. All of it works extremely well to bring the first arc of the re-launched series to a satisfying and appropriately, open-ended conclusion. That said, I have to acknowledge that are a few gaps in the storytelling that I wish Yost and Kyle would have taken the time to explain. While I won’t spoil anything here, the gaps involve the nature of Magus and transformation of Warren Worthington.

I have to hand it to the writers for changing the storytelling style for this issue. The decision pays off in a big way and allows the few plot holes to be fairly understandable given the context. If I have one complaint, however, it is that Wolverine’s narration is a little bit heavy on the “tough guy” image from time to time. Also, he swears quite a bit (which actually works well in giving the narration a conversational tone) and it made me realize the series would be much better off as a MAX title. Clayton Crain’s artwork (which I’ll get to in a moment) is already shockingly (MAX level) graphic, so why the need for censorship for some commonly used swear words? I know that’s a discussion for another day, but I feel it’s worth bringing up.

Crain’s artwork (see, I told you I would get to it) has never been better. The color palette is still a bit too dark and the characters occasionally look oddly proportioned, but those flaws can’t overshadow how visually compelling the action in this issue is. It is brutal, disturbing, and (oddly enough) beautiful all at the same time. Some of the pages have to be seen to be believed.

I really don’t know how much more I can say. I went into X-Force #6 fearing the worst and came away from it more than pleasantly surprised. If the momentum from this issue can be sustained, X-Force is going to be one series worth keeping an eye on. Action fans and “X” fans, consider this one a must buy. (Grade: B+)

– Kyle Posluszny