2018:007 Green Arrow Vol 4: The Rise Of Star City

I mentioned a few posts back in my 2018 post that I've been introduced to some new comic nerds that I've been chatting with a lot lately.  Most of them agree that they're dropping this title.  I can't wrap my head around that.  This is one of DC's top Rebirth successes in my opinion.  This book is so fucking good.  I'm sure I've said it before, but I'll say it again.  The New 52 was a shit show.  I don't know what DC was thinking, but none of it was good.  They learned with Rebirth.  If they wanted to reinvent the entire DCU, this is how they should have done it.  This book is the (near) perfect meld of the old DCU Green Arrow, the New 52 Green Arrow and the tv Green Arrow.  All the best parts mixed together to give a contemporary look at the character.  Ben Percy is my hero for what he's doing with this book.  Best part of this for me is seeing how Roy Harper's history fits into the GA mythos in this new DC Universe.  And it does fit in again.  Team Arrow For Life!!

Green Arrow Vol 4: The Rise Of Star City

Written by: Benjamin Percy

Illustrated by: Juan Ferreyra, Eleonora Carlini, Mirka Andolfo, Otto Schmidt

DC Comics

128 Green Arrow Vol 3: Emerald Outlaw

Ask me what my favorite Rebirth book is currently and I'll tell you Green Arrow.  This book is fun.  This book is interesting.  The action is great.  Everything about it is very appealing to me.  Ben Percy took a few elements from the Arrow tv show, introduced them, but didn't let them crowd anything else out.  

Ollie (and Team Arrow) are fighting to take down those that took Ollie's fortune and framed his as Seattle's big bad.  It's a really well thought out story and a joy to read.  I read this on the plane from Albany to Baltimore a couple weeks ago.  I was so afraid we were going to land before I could finish it.  Luckily the timing couldn't have been more perfect.

If you were to read only one Rebirth book, this is the one I recommend.

Green Arrow Vol 3: Emerald Outlaw

Writer: Benjamin Percy

Artist: Otto Schmidt, Juan Ferreyra, Eleonora Carlini, Carolos Rodriguez, Gus Vazquez

DC Comics

119 Green Arrow Vol 8: The Night Birds

For some reason, this book was on back order from my comic distributor for a long time.  But I finally got it.  It's a little jarring reading it out of order, but I quickly got my bearings.  

I love everything Benjamin Percy has been doing with Green Arrow.  DC did good giving him this book.  He gets the character, he turns in solid stories and he digs a little bit into DC lore to do it.  It was kind of cool for him to revive Tarantula for this story.  She hasn't been seen, as far as I know, in the New 52 before this.  I've always had a soft spot for her, even though I don't think DC did good by her.  I hope she'll be back again after this volume.

This story is all about death cults, death drones and a rescued wolf.  It's kind of cool and I recommend it to everyone!

Green Arrow Vol 8: The Night Birds

Writer: Benjamin Percy

Artist: Patrick Zircher, Fabrizio Fiorentino, Federico Dallocchio

DC Comics

076 Green Arrow Vol 2: Island Of Scars

The first volume of this series ended on a cliffhanger.  And it pissed me off because I didn't want to wait to see how it was resolved.  Luckily the book is on a twice-monthly schedule, so the wait wasn't that long.  

Team Arrow was left scattered and possibly dead at the end of the first storyline.  This volume shows us what happened to everyone.  It's split into two distinct stories.  The first one involves Arrow's sister Emi.  I was less interested in this story (told in present day and flashback, just like the tv show) than what happened with Oliver, Diggle and Dinah.  But Emi's story wraps up the storyline with her mother nicely and frees her to get back into the main storyline.

With the rest of the team, they find themselves stranded on a deserted island (a recurring theme for this character!) which turns out to be not so deserted.  Diggle gets captured by robot bears (really!  and it's not as ridiculous as I'm making it sound), Dinah finds Ollie and they both find and rescue Diggle.  Which then puts them right into another adventure aboard a high speed train zooming under the ocean.  You know I'm awful at writing when I put those words down but tell you to trust me, this is good stuff.

Green Arrow is one of DC's most improved books, hands down.  It made it's way back into a good place pre-Flashpoint.  New 52 Green Arrow practically destroyed the character. If it wasn't for the success of the Arrow tv show, the book would have been immediately cancelled and who knows if we'd ever see Green Arrow again.  But because the book was so bad and the tv show was so good, DC brought in Jeff Lemire to fix things before passing the book on.  Benjamin Percy is my new hero for what he's doing with this character.  Green Arrow is fast on track for shaking off the stink of the New 52 and getting back to the character we all know and love.

Green Arrow Vol 2: Island Of Scars

Writer: Benjamin Percy

Artist: Stephen Byrne, Otto Schmidt, Juan Ferreyra

DC Comics

034 Green Arrow Vol 1: The Death & Life Of Oliver Queen

Once upon a time, DC Comics decided to shoot itself in the foot and relaunched it's entire line under the New 52 banner.  This meant scrapping everything good about the DC Universe and starting fresh, making comics as awful as possible.  Green Arrow was one of the worst.  I have no idea what the fuck TPTB were thinking, but it's obvious they weren't.  Green Arrow was awful.  And DC realized over a year into it that something needed to be done.  They had a hit TV show based on this character and the comic was unreadable.  So they hired Jeff Lemire to reboot this reboot.  And it worked.  As far as I'm concerned, the first three trades do no exist.  Jeff's run is the New 52 introduction of Green Arrow.

Anyway, his run was great.  Then he left and I panicked.  But the book has remained solid ever since.  This volume is no exception.  In fact, it may be just as good.  It took everything great that Jeff and added in regular old DCU stuff.  He's still a different Oliver Queen than the pre-New 52, but he's evolving into that character.  And Black Canary is along for the ride.  Hopefully that character will get straightened out with Rebirth.  They fucked her up so bad with the New 52.  So many different versions of her and none of them jive together.  This BC seems fun and consistent with the Batgirl version.

And as I mentioned two posts ago, Shado is back.  I'm amused that both GA books I read this weekend featured the return of Shado.

I'm most excited that this volume ended on a giant cliffhanger.  Can't wait for volume two.

Green Arrow Vol 1: The Death & Life Of Oliver Queen

Writer: Benjamin Percy

Artist: Otto Schmidt, Juan Ferreyra

DC Comics