Green Arrow #18 last year started an inversely toned run.

[thanekos]

The run's not like the preceding, which traded on the reader's investment in Oliver Queen as a character with a publication history in a shared universe - it's telling a crime story with only nodding acknowledgements to the greater setting, one where Ollie's role isn't obviously stage-setting for a future story.

The issue marks the shift in scope with Green Arrow's first appearance in it being the foiling of a convenience store robbery.

Afterwards, the crime's introduced.





The news told Ollie that his old acquaintance's death wasn't the first tied to Horton Chemicals - so off Ollie went, breaking into the scene of the crime.



He checked out the not-incorrectly-colored liquid:



From the present, he turned to the past. Flashlight-in-mouth, he examined Donny's wall-mounted memories:



Offered the hand Donny was shaking then, Ollie'd answered " .. I don't make a habit of shaking the hands of war criminals. "



(You can guess why there's " water " and " oil " in Donny's murder.)



Ollie heard a door opening behind him.



He drew on the stranger..



.. and threw her over.



(Can't fault depicting a modern-day bow-wielding hero's deftness with his weapon versus a gun pointed at him.)



(Pagecount's 6 and a little more than 6/10ths of 20 from Green Arrow #18 back in November 2024 - #20 came out this week.

Writing's Chris Condon, whom you might've seen on " That Texas Blood " at Image and this year's " Ultimate Wolverine " at Marvel.

Art's Montos, letters're Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, and colors're Adriano Lucas.

Publisher's DC.)

Comments

[blueprintstyles]

I lucked out and found a volume of Mike Grell's Green Arrow at a Dollarama. It was in the children's book section which is a faux pas I tried to warn the staff about, there was a corpse of a tortured woman in the first issue for Pete's sake. It was strange seeing the 'liberal' version of Green Arrow of then compared to today. He reads kind of problematically Right wing at points.