Green Arrow #25 Review

Green and Narrow

Written by: Ben Percy
Art by: Otto Schmidt and Nate Piekos
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: June 21, 2017

I enjoyed the Rise of Star City arc that just finished, but looking back at it, it did feel like one extended bit of setup.  Now, that isn't something that upsets me if what it's setting up is cool and that's why the start of the Broken Arrow story is so important.  The slow burn can continue, but I really hope that Ben Percy gives us some answers.  So, does he?  Let's find out...


The issue opens with Ollie being interrogated and while he wants his lawyer, he gets nothing by shade thrown his way.  The police are looking at him as everything wrong that happened to Seattle and while he was a douche in the past, we know he's innocent.  Nobody else does, however, and when his lawyer show, she doesn't seem quite on his side either.

We then get a little bit of Mayor Domini's spin doctoring while Channel 2 News tells a different story about what's happening to the lower class in Star City.  That continues as we see Fenton (he must be done with his lobster) bullied by some young toughs in Pennytown until Black Canary shows up. The scene has a bit of a transition problem and feels like a forced way to remind the reader that Ollie and Dinah are on the outs and reintroduce the Underground Men.

Back with Ollie, Emi shows up to break him loose, but he wants to clear his name the right way...so she just disappears right after a little recap of the series for new readers.  Then it's off to see what happened to Diggle and Merlyn.  It looks like after just walking into the deep end of that river, Diggle got them both to a mountain hideout and while we don't get much progression here, I was just glad to see them.

The fun continues with Broderick getting Domini on point, but his speech about the land of opportunity is a bit skewed here.  Plus, I was expecting more of a burn victim after what happened last issue.  As Broderick waxes poetic about his evil plans, Henry hears him and reacts like someone who really wants to be killed.  Damn Henry, be a little more subtle dude!

After Ollie does some social detective work on his lawyer, he heads to pay his respects to Henry's grandmother and discovers that Henry is alive...and loaded!  Henry proves once again that he is a great guy and Oliver heads off to help Dinah in the Seattle Underground.

Again, there is little to no transition between scenes and it just upsets me to see more evidence that Dinah is leaving the book sooner than later.  The issue then ends with Ollie heading off on his hog as Broderick shows us that he really didn't need Green Arrow or Emiko after all.  It's a pretty big moment and while I am not a huge fan of the character, it's going to rip Ollie apart.

This issue was okay.  For an oversized issue, Ben Percy had some problems getting us from scene to scene, but once he got there, I enjoyed what we got.  I liked Otto Schmidt's art enough, but after getting Juan Ferreyra for such an extended period, I already miss him.

Bits and Pieces:

Broken Arrow is underway and while this issue had some pacing and transition issues, I want Ollie to clear his name asap.  It looks like it will be a while more and the 9th Circle is making it even more personal.  I wanted more after the setup heavy Rise of Star City, but I think fans of this series will like what we get this week.

6.8/10