Art By: Daniel Sampere, Jonathan Glapion, Gabe Eltaeb
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: February 4, 2015
The Kingdom Strike's Back
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
In the last issue we had a lot of fun as Green Arrow teamed up with Green Lantern as the two tried to stop John King's subjects from killing everyone in a hospital. As you'd imagine our heroes pulled it off but it wasn't all victory and RC Cola for them; no, our heroes had to deal with John King upping the stakes a bit when Green Arrow had a reward put out for his capture by the politicians of Seattle who apparently work for King as well. If that wasn't bad enough, King also got his hands on his daughter Mia and tortured Oliver's girlfriend/assistant.......... you know what? She probably has a better job title than assistant but that's what I'm going with...... anyway, King tortured Zehra into possibly becoming loyal to him. At the end of the issue we saw our favorite ring slinger exit the story, so let's see if our Emerald Archer can pull off taking down King with the rest of his team sans superpowers. Let's check it out.
Explain It!:
Our story begins with Green Arrow's world crumbling all around him. Not only is their a reward for his arrest but it also seems that all of his money from the Queen Foundation Endowment has been transferred to John King's "Take over the city and make everyone his subjects" fund. Now if that wasn't enough to make you want a drink at the end of the day, when Oliver, Diggle and Felicity go to to Zehra to see how this could have happened, it seems that someone also tipped off the police to Felicity's illegal computer activity and she's taken away in handcuffs. The only piece of good news, if you want to call it that is before Felicity was ambushed by the Seattle P.D., she had traced the computer that transferred the Queen Foundation Endowment money to King and as we feared at the end of last issue, it seems that Zehra was the culprit and now swears allegiance to King......... Yeah, I guess being threatened with torture is a bit of a incentive to see people's views in a new light. Oh and obviously Oliver is breaking up with her. So Oliver talks to John King on the phone and King does that whole Bond super villain thing where he goes through everything that he's done to Oliver so far and then he tells Oliver that he's arranged that Felicity will never make trial. Now comes the real fun of the book. It's jailbreak time!
After Oliver finds out that John King had it arranged that Felicity be remanded to a Supermax that holds the most dangerous super criminals on the west coast, he quickly comes up with a rescue plan and has Steve Trevor do him a solid and sneak him in with this clearance. Now Oliver has three minutes to get in and get her out and for a bit it looked like that might be a problem because Felicity's roommate is someone she's screwed over in the past and that person happens to be Cheetah. Really this part of the book is so cool that I think it's worth the cover price alone. Plus, with Oliver doing a actual jailbreak, it kind of solidifies Felicity's place on the team. A lot of action, a lot of gratitude and just Green Arrow kicking ass.
In the end, John King tries to reason with his recently reacquired daughter Mia Dearden, but it looks like King might toss her to the curb in the future because after his whole speech about how the sick and injured are a burden on the community, we find out that Mia can't catch a break in any Universe because she says that she's sick too and since she was HIV positive in the old continuity, I have to assume she is here too. Don't worry though folks, this issue ends on a high note because while Oliver was pulling his jail break, Diggle was going through Green Arrow's rolodex......... Do people still know what a rolodex is? Diggle went through Green Arrow's contacts and called in some reinforcements so that the good guys could actually go up against John King and his army of subjects. I can't wait for next issue.
That's it for this issue of Green Arrow and while I really enjoyed this issue it seems like this deconstruction of Green Arrow by taking away his friends and money has already been done before. Even with what feels like a repeat, this issue was really enjoyable due to the jailbreak and the revelation that Oliver has himself a good assortment of super friends....... You know, not including the Justice League of America or the Justice League United........ Maybe revelation was a stretch, but it was sure as hell cool seeing everyone there at the end willing to lend a hand. In the past I've had issues with some of Daniel Sampere's art but here everything looked great and I have nothing negative to say about it at all. So yeah, a fun adventurous issue that looked awesome and ends on a cliffhanger that promises bad ass things to come. See you next month where we end this story and this creative team's run.
Bits and Pieces:
I had a lot of fun with this issue and it's balls to the wall approach of excitement. Things get bad for Oliver here but as we go into the final issue of this creative team's run next month, this seems like a turning point to try and get Green Arrow fun again and I'm all for that. Just a good time all around as we get hyped up by this cliffhanger for the conclusion to Kingdom. Check it out.
After Oliver finds out that John King had it arranged that Felicity be remanded to a Supermax that holds the most dangerous super criminals on the west coast, he quickly comes up with a rescue plan and has Steve Trevor do him a solid and sneak him in with this clearance. Now Oliver has three minutes to get in and get her out and for a bit it looked like that might be a problem because Felicity's roommate is someone she's screwed over in the past and that person happens to be Cheetah. Really this part of the book is so cool that I think it's worth the cover price alone. Plus, with Oliver doing a actual jailbreak, it kind of solidifies Felicity's place on the team. A lot of action, a lot of gratitude and just Green Arrow kicking ass.
In the end, John King tries to reason with his recently reacquired daughter Mia Dearden, but it looks like King might toss her to the curb in the future because after his whole speech about how the sick and injured are a burden on the community, we find out that Mia can't catch a break in any Universe because she says that she's sick too and since she was HIV positive in the old continuity, I have to assume she is here too. Don't worry though folks, this issue ends on a high note because while Oliver was pulling his jail break, Diggle was going through Green Arrow's rolodex......... Do people still know what a rolodex is? Diggle went through Green Arrow's contacts and called in some reinforcements so that the good guys could actually go up against John King and his army of subjects. I can't wait for next issue.
That's it for this issue of Green Arrow and while I really enjoyed this issue it seems like this deconstruction of Green Arrow by taking away his friends and money has already been done before. Even with what feels like a repeat, this issue was really enjoyable due to the jailbreak and the revelation that Oliver has himself a good assortment of super friends....... You know, not including the Justice League of America or the Justice League United........ Maybe revelation was a stretch, but it was sure as hell cool seeing everyone there at the end willing to lend a hand. In the past I've had issues with some of Daniel Sampere's art but here everything looked great and I have nothing negative to say about it at all. So yeah, a fun adventurous issue that looked awesome and ends on a cliffhanger that promises bad ass things to come. See you next month where we end this story and this creative team's run.
Bits and Pieces:
I had a lot of fun with this issue and it's balls to the wall approach of excitement. Things get bad for Oliver here but as we go into the final issue of this creative team's run next month, this seems like a turning point to try and get Green Arrow fun again and I'm all for that. Just a good time all around as we get hyped up by this cliffhanger for the conclusion to Kingdom. Check it out.
7.8/10
Has cupid been introduced earlier in n52?
ReplyDeleteAlso I am enjoying this run..true this is not as good as lemire but enjoyable nevertheless
I don't think Cupid was around...Andrew Kreisberg was her creator pre-New 52, so it's cool he brought her back.
ReplyDeleteI loved Lemire/Sorrentino so when they left the book I gave it to Eric to review. He's crazy and didn't like Sorrentino's art!!! He seems to like the new run. I fell off it.
Whaaat? Who could hate sorrentino??
DeleteJust kidding I could see why the lemire run could alienate some readers though
I know, I loved it! Eric has no taste, that's all.
DeleteWhat!Mia May have H.I.V in. The new52? Boooo over 9000! If Barbara gets to walk then, Mia gets to be clean or at least have a disease that doesn't make her lovelife difficult
ReplyDeleteI'm just speculating since she said she was sick. She could have something completely different, but with her being the first HIV positive superhero of the old continuity, I figure they'll keep that angle going.
Delete