In this review of Green Arrow #17, following the events of Absolute Power, Oliver Queen has to pay the piper for his assumed betrayal. Fortunately for him, his friends and family are a pretty understanding group.
Green Arrow #17
Writers: Joshua Williamson/Chris Condon
Artists: Amancay Nahuelpan/Montos
Main Cover: Taurin Clarke
Variant Covers: Sean Izaake, Cliff Chiang, Daniel Sampere,
Release Date: October 23, 2924
This Review will contain spoilers
Green Arrow #17 begins before Oliver can get his comeuppance from the assembled heroes gathered on the new Justice League satellite there are a few loose ends to tie up; namely Peacemaker and Peacewrecker. The easy capture of them serves as a nice reminder of Ollie’s part in Absolute Power and gives him a chance to have a little closure in the form of a chat with the incarcerated Amanda Waller.
Oliver presents his case in a rather long-winded apology/justification which all serves for naught as the heroes already voted before he got there and it was a unanimous decision – Green Arrow is a Justice Leaguer, now and forever. Now that he has his friends and, more importantly, his family back together it’s time for Green Arrow to get back to the streets.
In the second story of the over-sized Green Arrow #17, “A Change of Scenery,” Oliver comes home. Along with the new creative team, we are introduced to Donald Sherman, a wealthy businessman formally of Horton Chemicals. Sherman, unfortunately for him, is introduced to the new villain and taken captive by the unknown assailant. Meanwhile, Ollie gets a visit from Batman just to let Ollie know that he will be keeping an eye on him before jumping out a window, as Bats is prone to do. Green Arrow, in a new costume courtesy of Black Canary, hits the streets and we discover Donald Sherman has met his fate at the hands of Star City’s newest villain.
Analysis
I have to confess that Green Arrow and his family are among my favorite characters in comics and I really enjoyed Joshua Williamson’s run on the title. Green Arrow #17 is the culmination of several issues tied-in with the Absolute Power event and has done an excellent job of bringing the Arrow family back together. Williamson and artist, Amancay Nahuelpan, have done a great job of bringing this complex character to life. It’s been easy, in the past, for some writers to make Ollie a one-dimensional, low-rent Batman knock-off and Williamson has done well to avoid that. His Ollie shows a complexity of character, making Oliver simultaneously his own worst enemy and his greatest advocate.
An example of this is the ramp up Ollie takes in his apology to the heroes who believe he betrayed them to Amanda Waller. He starts out contrite enough but by the end he’s talked himself around to basically telling them all to F-off and they’re just lucky he was there to save their asses…again. It’s a basic tenet of Ollie’s nature but the nuance is often hard to elucidate;
Thankfully, this was not the case during Williamson’s run. Everything in the first story ends on a positive note but we know it won’t be that way for long; Roy Harper is already headed back to the Titans and things are never easy for Oliver and Dinah – my favorite comic couple.
The second story in Green Arrow #17 serves as a quick introduction to the new direction of the book headed up by Chris Condon and Montos. This early “trailer” has me quite excited about the elements of the book with one, sort-of, exception. It seems like every time a new team tackle GA the first instinct is to “take him back to the streets.” This is fine and completely consistent with the character but I guess just once I’d like to see Ollie and Dinah dropped in the middle of some crazy space or time-travel adventure, but maybe that’s just me and I digress anyway. Back to the actual story on hand.
Condon and Montos seem to have a good grasp of Oliver Queen and their pages show extreme promise. Batman drops in to lay a little Bat-energy on Ollie letting him know he wants to trust him, but just needs to know he can. I’m reminded of a line from the end of Absolute Power where Batman is admonishing Martian Manhunter for not letting them know Ollie’s plan and J’onn says, “…you lecturing us about keeping secret plans is highly ironic” (insert laughing emoji). Montos’ art is a little grittier than the previous issues but is very reminiscent of Mike Grell which should cause GA fans to vibrate. Along with a new costume, a new grittier feel and a new villain, Green Arrow is poised to continue its run of excellence.
Final Thoughts:
A completely satisfying conclusion to a great run and a promising start to a new one should put Green Arrow back on the streets to excellence.
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