Green Arrow #26 Review

Team-Down?

Written by: Ben Percy
Art by: Stephen Byrne and Nate Piekos
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: July 5, 2017

It's the start of the Hard Traveling Hero arc and I am still trying to wrap my head around the idea of Ollie skipping town (and Kate Spencer) after getting bailed out of jail.  I guess he can just kiss that ten million dollars in bail money goodbye...unless he is innocent.  Actually, I don't know how any of this court mumbo jumbo works and hey, it's comics so I really don't need to.  So, now that I am good to go, I am looking forward to seeing Ollie hit the road and take down those damn Ninth Circle bastards and by the looks of the cover, he'll have Flash to help him out.  Sounds cool, but is it?  Let's find out...


The issue opens with a crazy scene that will probably make Bambi lovers cry a bit, but it's an intriguing start as we see Ollie do his best Easy Rider and hit the open road.  He's headed to the Cascade Mountains on a tip from Henry and it's easy to see that whether or not Ninth Circle is involved, things are not right.

It's also pretty obvious that the Speed Force is involved and after Oliver almost gets in a crazy accident, Barry Allen shows up and confirms any suspicions the reader may have.  He is here to investigate an anomaly in the Speed Force and while it seems like an instant team-up, that isn't the case.

Let me tell you, I love the idea of a Green Arrow/Flash team-up, but Ben Percy does not make a great case for it to happen in this book.  The interaction between Oliver and Barry feels off and it all boils down to his characterization of Barry.  He just comes off as a real jerk here.  I love the Flash...but not this version,

Character problems continue as we head off to see Emiko meet with Kate Spencer.  Kate is rightfully pissed that Ollie shipped bail, but why ruin Emiko's drink?  It's nice to see Emiko dressed like a normal girl for once, but hearing that Ollie doesn't want her doing her superhero stuff seems odd after what we've recently seen.  Plus, what is Dinah doing hanging around?  I thought she was leaving at the end of last issue.  The scene gets back on track by the end when Black Canary asks Emiko for help taking down the Underground Men.

Back to Ollie, he tracks down where the Ninth Circle base is and is quickly joined by Barry again. That's when the heroes (and the reader) finds out that their missions are intertwined...the Ninth Circle are funding Black Hole in some crazy Speed Force experiments.  If you are reading both this book and Flash, you will know what that means immediately.  If you aren't, Ben Percy will get you up to speed.

After everything is set up, Barry and Ollie go on the offensive and attack the Black Hole/Burned bad guys, but it's all over too quickly for me to say that it was cool.  The two manage to stop what is going on, but it's a bit of winning the battle, but still needing to fight the war.  They find out that what they stopped was a Speed Force bomb, but it's more of where it was headed that is the big reveal.

This issue was okay.  That's really the best way I can describe it.  A Flash/Green Arrow team-up should be a lot more fun than this and really, fun is what it really lacked.  We are left with a beginning that seems more interested in putting characters together instead of telling an interesting story with those characters in it.  Because of that, this was a quick read with not much to it.

Stephen Byrne's art is good, but he seems to want to make ever panel glow for some reason.  It doesn't look bad, but it does come off a bit more cartoony than this book is used too.

Bits and Pieces:

The Hard Traveling Hero story begins with a Flash/Green Arrow team-up that felt off and not much story to write home about.  The pieces are in place to hopefully give us something more going forward, but this start was a disappointment.

6.5/10