Green Arrow #49 Review

Misery Loves Company

Written By: Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing

Art By: Javier Fernandez, John Kalisz, Andworld Design

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: February 6, 2019

Count Vertigo has broken out of prison and has taken his powers to the next level, putting not only our two heroes in danger, but the city of Seattle as well.  If that wasn't enough for Oliver's plate, the Count is also asking about Roy Harper.  Oh yeah, this time it's personal as we jump into this issue to see what our Emerald Archer will do when he's confronted by not only one of his biggest villains, but also the grief that he's tried so desperately to hide.  Let's check it out.

While I will give this issue all the props that I can for trying to show some emotion out of Green Arrow as he and Count Vertigo commiserate over the loss of Roy Harper...... it's just that getting there is a bit of a hassle because of the willy nilly continuity that is presented along with Javier Fernandez' art that I'm not a fan of.  

With that though, this issue shows us that Count Vertigo will turn Seattle upside down to find Roy Harper and I like the idea if we had more background to it than Green Arrow just throwing out a line that is supposed to make this connection, but really gives us nothing beyond that. On top of this, the explanation about Count Vertigo's new powers came off a bit confusing to me because while this is supposed to be a power that affects people to think that reality has turned, it seems that Green Arrow is able to use that reality against our villain..... so it's possible that this entire battle takes place on a mind scape, but really........ I'm not completely sure.  So we have a battle and a bit of emotion by the end, but for some reason we still make time to show off the new character Jayce Riot who serves no purpose whatsoever in this issue and I can only hope that this character will play a bigger part in the next issue because without that there was no reason at all they should be here.

All in all, I don't care for the art in this issue, but there were some decent pages throughout that I could look past my normal dislike for the style.  The biggest problem is the battle that went on too long for us to get to the big emotional scene at the end and while it was nice...... it didn't take things nice enough for what I was hoping for from this issue, especially for how odd everything felt leading up to it.  The cliffhanger does leave me excited for what's to come next, but by that point it felt like too little too late to really be impressed by what we got here.

Bits and Pieces:

I'm more impressed with the idea of this issue than its actual execution because while there is a certain flavor at the end that satiated my want for the grieving I'd expect from the loss of Roy Harper, the way we get there is a bit forced and goes on way too long.  With that too, I'm not a huge fan of the art this issue, but still found myself liking some of what we got from that.  

5.5/10