Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Green Arrow

Uh?

It was Roy who lost an arm, not Ollie.

I was thinking of Dark Knight Returns.

Then there was that teaser up to GA #100 where they played with that idea, only to blow up the rest of him along with the arm.

Ugh. Please don't remind me of GA #100. Thank God for Kevin Smith resurrecting him.

I think I got the first issue of Smith's run and wasn't impressed enough to buy any more.

I got the first half a dozen Grell issues and that was about it.

The art in the mini series dated better than the story for me.

So, Green Arrow:

Millionaire or Pauper
Capitalist or Socialist
Gimmick Arrows or sharp, deadly arrows.
Beard or clean shaven
Bat-villains or street crime
Older than the other heroes or a younger version
Bumpy monogamy with Canary or lecherous old goat
Driven or whiny


My favourite Green Arrow moment is Canary going off to a JLA meeting. A meeting Ollie could have attended if he hadn't quit in the huff.

Pauper
Socialist
Gimmick Arrows
Beard
Bat-villains
Older than the other heroes
Bumpy monogamy with Canary
Bromance with Hal Jordan
Driven

Put the above together and you've got the perfect Ollie.

For what it's worth, I always thought he should wear a fake beard as Green Arrow.

Nah, all he has to do is trim off the more stylized edges.

You forgot Hal Jordan's bromance partner on that list, Fanfie!

But of course! I'll edit that in. Thanks, BraJa.

So, is anyone reading the current Green Arrow series? Bad question, I know, since the DCnU Green Arrow has pretty much been a disaster for three years. But from what I understand, they've introduced characters from the TV show Arrow--which is freaking awesome--such as Diggle and Felicity. I'm curious and may check it out.

I'm curious, too. The producers/writers of the show are writing it, now.

I didn't know those weren't regular Green Arrow characters. Diggle and Felicity are my favorite characters. I like Routh's too.

BTW, how much Arrow have you watched? I've gathered that you saw the Flash/Arrow crossover, but I'm assuming you've seen more, now?

Still not a lot! I bought my dad Season 1 for christmas and once he's done with I'm definitely following suit. Otherwise I've caught a few all out of order (which always happens when I like a new show).

I'm going the comics a try again too, and will report back!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, it just ain't Ollie to me if it ain't:

Caught up on all the episodes but like I posted in the Flash thread, it's a chore to watch this. I on-line binged Agent Carter and it's wonderful to see actual actors acting. Wish Arrow would get some into the main roles.

Too harsh?

BB, I think you're looking for the television show thread, as this one is about the comic book, though I don't think it matters all that much given the recent conversation here.

Lardy, following up on our posts above, I read the latest issue and...it wasn't bad. Not bad at all. I'm walking kind of into the middle of a story, but that actually might be better for me since the issue is really centered on Oliver, Felicity and Diggle (plus the Cheetah, the Wonder Woman villain). And that made it a lot of fun! I'm going to be getting the next issues too.

Fanfie, I hear what you're saying but I don't personally pigeon Green Arrow into that part of his history, myself. I generally like a lot of different parts of GA history, including even the 1950's "origional costume" GA in which most of his adventures were very Weisenger-driven stories about the media, overcoming small personal problems and having oddball "crisis of the moment" type things. I loved the Kirby renovation in the late 50's as well. I really loved the late Silver Age Ollie which everyone knew and came to love. But I also enjoyed Grell's much darker take on things, and then I truly loved Chuck Dixon's run on the title with both Ollie and then Conner. I loved Kevin Smith's story, found Meltzer's to be the most boring story he's ever done, and then liked Winnick for awhile but eventually found it nigh-unreadable. I like Ollie being a voice for the oppressed and underserved but don't think I like the idea of him being an out and out socialist. I loved the stories that addressed his aging into his mid to late 40's, but I actually am enjoying quite a bit seeing a younger Green Arrow again.

It's funny, Green Arrow was never among the protagonists I included among my favorites or "must read", but somewhere in the early 1990's I started to read his title--when Grell was still writing it and it was waaaay too serious for a 14 year old me--and have always collected and read it ever since.

So thus far, Green Arrow has been an excellent core part of DC Rebirth. They've started the series off with an epic "born again" type story where Ollie loses almost everything, and while that has certainly been done before, they've really done a great job showcasing the characters and telling the story.

The Green Arrow / Black Canary dynamic is excellent, and in the latest issue we got some great Diggle / Ollie scenes as Diggle truly joins the cast. Other characters like Shado, Emi, and others round it out nicely too. But the best part, for me, is how Oliver is being written. He's a really good blend of classic Ollie, the younger version we've seen and the television show, all the while not dwelling on any part of the past and really just moving forward as "the" Green Arrow of the present with confidence. I like that and its working for me.

The art has been steller too. I'm really enjoying the pacing and layouts and the colors have been great too. The series is moody but yet maintains some good 'pop' of superheroics. And GA's costume looks fantastic.

So, as mentioned recently in my "Pile" thread, I recently read the first TPB of the Green Arrow Rebirth launch. Overall, I have to agree with Cobie that this series got a lot of things right. First and foremost, it felt like I was reading about the Oliver Queen character that I've loved for a long time, and I can't remember the last time the character was done right in a comic. yes, He's not exactly the same character that I met in the Satellite Era JLA and who made a loyal patron of me during Mike Grell's long run writing him, but he's recognizable and engaging--and I want to see more.

I like the different take on Dinah and Ollie. It's kind of a "he's so much more into her than she's into him" thing, except that she really is but has commitment issues. Thing is, it's a great chemistry that echoes their decades-long history while not feeling like the old ground is being trodden over and over again. Honestly, where Dinah and Ollie were before the New 52 was practically irreparable with how various writers did everything they could to tear them asunder, so this approach pretty much gets rid of all that bad baggage while reminding us of how great they can be together. Sparks they are a'flyin'!

It's interesting to see some influence being carried over from the popular "Arrow" TV show without exactly aping it. This Ollie also has a half-sister, but she's not Thea. He has a computer geek ally, but it's not Felicity and is in fact a guy. And we have Diggle, but he and Ollie seem less close than the TV duo. These are interesting choices, and it's apparent that these are all holdovers from the previous comic book. I'm curious to know more about some of these characters, but the TPB does a good job of giving you enough info that knowing it all is unnecessary.

The one thing I'm not crazy about (and this differs from Cobie's opinions) is the art. It's hard for me to not want an artist who in some ways might evoke a clear, realistic style for a Green Arrow book in the vein of some of his best portrayers like Mike Grell, Neal Adams, Dan Jurgens and the like. The principle artists on this arc, Otto Shmidt and Juan Ferreyra, are pretty far removed from that template. Both have styles that are somewhat painterly and expressionistic. The nearest artist I can compare them to is Frazier Irving, who drew the last Xombi series a few years ago. The art evokes less urban jungle and more of a horror vibe. In fact, the opening arc seems catered to their style as it features human traffickers who have all been hideously disfigured to to insure their loyalty. The non-disfigured members themselves wear evocative horror masks. The storyline itself is fine for a crusading kind of character like Ollie, but human trafficking is horrific enough without adding so much borderline-surrealistic horror elements.

Anyhow, it's not that the art is bad, per se, but I think it would be much better suited to a book like Constantine or even Batman. But for Green Arrow it feels off and the storytelling is sometimes confusing, to boot. To be fair, there are many scenes that work very well, such as many of the Ollie/Dinah scenes, but I hope this style, assuming the artists continue on, doesn't restrict the stories to strictly ones with horror/macabre elements. That would definitely be a mistake, longterm, on a Green Arrow book.

So the story and characters click on virtually all cylinders, but I have reservations about the artistic choices. I'll definitely be getting Vol. 2 when it is released and eagerly await it because the good in Vol. 1 was really good.

I'm loving your thoughts on the opening Green Arrow arc! I'm in total agreement over Dinah and Ollie, and I love the chemistry established here. Sure, it's not a true continuation of what came before, but you bring up a great point in that DC shit all over their relationship for a long while before the new 52. Here, all that is tossed aside and we get something much truer to the relationship the fans fell in love with.

Your opinion on the art is well noted. IMO, it must have been a common complaint, as there is a noticable shift in artistic trends after the first arc to something a little less stylized and a little more superhero-ey. It's not total, and there's certainly a stylistic element there still, but someone must have made that recommendation. Coloring-wise its also noticable. And the series benefits greatly from it too.

In fact, the next few arcs, which are a little smaller, are really great. The relationships between Ollie, Dinah, Diggle and Emi are in the forefront and the status quo in GA is really well established hereafter. What I like too is that the series keeps a "high octane action" sensibility to it, even though its clearly in the detective / mystery meets politically relevant corner of the superhero world. It makes Ollie seem like a man of action rather than just a complainer and that is so important for his character.

It's good to hear that Green Arrow lightens up a bit, particularly in the art dept. Ollie has always been such a grounded character that surreal, dark, macabre artwork just seems out of place. Basically, what I expect from a Green Arrow book is kind of a down-to-earth story with interesting characters and with some degree of social relevance, the latter of which stems from Ollie's own passionate personality. All of that was there in the first arc, but the dark arc and horror tropes felt out of place. I'm glad that things are being tightened up to play up to what should be the book's strengths.

So I'm pumped that Green Arrow vol. 2 is in the queue for Lardy's TPB Read Pile. Meanwhile, as GA hits #25 in the most recent issues, the series (like a lot of other DC titles) is veering off in to the next phase, and I'm very interested in where this is going. It begins with a team-up with the Flash, which seems very appropriate given their awesome friendship on the CW shows. I think the issue did a fantastic job setting up their relationship, which is not overly warm and fuzzy (to start at least).

This issue's threat wasn't too terrible but the Flash is sticking around for another issue or more, so there's time to present a credible threat to both of them. Here, it was all about Barry & Ollie trying to see eye to eye and work together, and I think it was well done: unlike the television shows, taking into account their long histories but focusing on the recent Rebirth "molds" of each of them, it does a good job standing on its own.

Plus, am loving the subplots, supporting characters and artwork. Definitely still among the upper echelon.

Started out really loving the Rebirth series, top two book for me. But I’m two trades and four issues behind now. Need to pick this up again and hope the spark is still there for me.