Green Arrow #47 Review

Power To The People

Written By: Julie Benson, Shawna Benson

Art By: German Peralta, John Kalisz, Deron Bennett

Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: December 5, 2018

It's last call for the Bensons on this book and the finale to their Citizen's Arrest arc and while I haven't been a fan of this story, I do hold out hope that this issue could bring it all around and make it into something worthwhile.  Mostly, I just feel bad that their story was high jacked because Roy Harper died and they were forced to do a funeral issue out of nowhere.  In our previous issue, we saw Oliver Queen kidnapped by The Citizen so that the villain could put him on public trial and determine whether or not he deserved to live.  Let's jump into this issue and see how Green Arrow overcomes and whoops the Citizen's ass.  Let's check it out.

For this finale we see the Bensons do the usual victory lap that writers like to do when they leave a book and while normally I find them forced and pointless, especially when the book is continuing.....for whatever reason, this one actually hit pretty well with me to the point that I could lean back from the book, nod my head and say "good for you Oliver, good for you".  That being said, it's still a bit heavy handed in it's forced commentary on society, but it's alright in the long run.

As for the story itself and the defeat of the Citizen...... Well, it was all wrapped up pretty quickly in a silly manner to get Black Canary involved and it feels like it could have been handled a bit better if we didn't have to work on the social commentary and the victory lap angles of this issue.  What we essentially get is a villain that feels really weak and leaves you wondering how the hell it took Green Arrow this long to catch him because by the end he was just a big nothing and didn't come off as all that much of a threat.......... actually the real threat here seems to be how the citizens of Seattle can be manipulated into violence.

All in all the art in this issue is strong, but the situations were lacking and silly at times and felt forced from the get go.  Yeah, I really got into the Green Arrow tells you how it is/victory lap moment, but I can see how it won't be for everyone and in the long run I hope that the next writers can do something fun with Oliver Queen because this series has been struggling in my mind lately and I'd like it to become something that I look forward to again.

Bits and Pieces:

While this finale didn't really do anything for me, there may still be some fun to had in this issue.  The art is great throughout and there are some decent victory lap moments that the Bensons seemed to put more thought into than the story itself, but with the future looking bright for Green Arrow and Black Canary, maybe the emotion feels that you get are more important.

6/10