Green Arrow #45 Review

Fly True

Written By: Julie Benson, Shawna Benson

Art By: Javier Fernandez, John Kalisz, Deron Bennett

Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 3, 2018

After the massacre at the Sanctuary, it's time to witness the first of the fallout.  In the previous issue we saw that Superman had come to Oliver for the cliffhanger and we find out this issue that it was because Clark came to tell Oliver that Roy had died.  It's time to go to Roy's funeral now and see how our heroes react and how they plan on saying goodbye to a friend and a partner.  Let's check it out.

While you want to have the superhero feels in this issue in honoring a dead comrade, the superhero angle is kind of put on hold because we also have to include people who just knew Roy Harper as...... Well, Roy Harper and while this is something that I think may have worked well.  This issue kind of comes off weird because it's specifically stated that our heroes' real faces would have to be their masks here, but then they go on to talk about teams and whatnot and I had to imagine being at this funeral as myself and just wondering what the hell Roy was into by the eulogies being given.  

With that though, I think that this issue was handled pretty well in dealing with Oliver's grief in the matter and even his anger at his fellow superheroes in letting this go down.  My biggest problem is Oliver's revisionist history, where he for the majority of the issue believed himself to be a saint to Roy and this felt a bit off.  

Overall, this issue does bring you the feels, but it doesn't go as far as I think it should.  Yeah, it makes you think that the heroes actually cared about Roy, unlike Heroes in Crisis itself, but it all feels too little to me for some reason.  Also, I'm not a fan of Javier Fernandez' art and I think that this issue could have been way better if we would have had a different artist for this issue.  I had no idea who certain characters even were in this until they said their names and some......... Well, I have no idea who all showed up here and even with that, the faces of the characters that I could recognize felt rushed and just scratchy.  You know, "scratchy" an industry term.  All in all, this was a nice issue, but felt odd at places and didn't feel like it covered enough to honor Roy Harper as well as it could have and it's Oliver's anger at the situation that I found most compelling........ which I find to be a bit of shame for all the characters involved.

Bits and Pieces:

While you won't want to miss this remembrance issue of Roy Harper, I feel that this issue didn't do enough to really show off the fallen character or why everyone really loved him.  Also, I wish we could have had a different artist here because I would have liked to have been able to recognize some of my favorite heroes.  Even with those gripes though, there are some really decent scenes here that will give you the feels.  I just hope the series reflects this going forward instead of just going back to business as usual.

6.5/10