Written by: Joshua Williamson
Art by: Amancay Nahuelpan, Sean Izaakse
Colors by: Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Letters by: Troy Peteri
Cover art by: Phil Hester, Ande Parks, Ryan Cody
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: July 24, 2024
Green Arrow #14, by DC Comics on 7/24/24, sends the Arrow Family on a mission to stop Amanda Waller's robotic monstrosities by attacking them at their source.
Is Green Arrow #14 Good?
When last we left Oliver Queen, aka Green Arrow, in issue #13, Roy and Lian broke into Belle Reve North to help Cheshire escape Amanda Waler's inhospitable accommodations. When it looked like the family was getting away with the jailbreak, Roy was pulled back at the last minute by a lasso arrow fired by Green Arrow. During the heated confrontation, Oliver made it very clear that he was on Amanda Waller's side and that he was willingly working for her because he believed in what she was doing. The issue ended with Connor Hawke assuming the mantle of Green Arrow. In Green Arrow #14, Amanda Waller's Absolute Power attack is in full swing, with the majority of the world's powered individuals on the run, in hiding, or captured. Batman and Nightwing remotely conference into the Arrow Family to tell them to stay put. His reasoning? If the remaining heroes fall, the Arrow Family is the last line of defense. Roy's response? Nope. Largely, the rest of the Arrow family goes along with Roy's decision to not obey Batman's orders, especially when he unveils the unfinished Arrow Cave that Ollie didn't get a chance to finish before he joined up with Waller. Right off, Joshua Williamson gives readers all they need to know about the world's status quo in the middle of Absolute Power, and he uses Roy's decision to play up the respective characters' personalities in how they react to Roy's decision. What's the plan? The best way to get to Waller is to take down Task Force VII's Amazo robots, and the best way to do that is to find the man who built Amazo - Professor Ivo. Everyone hops on to one of three Flying Arrows to follow up on one of Cheshire's leads about Ivo's current whereabouts. Meanwhile, Ollie surveys Waller's multi-pronged attack from the Hall of Order when he deduces that capturing everyone's weapons is a poor substitute for capturing the people who built them. Bright takes the hint and sets off to correct that loophole. Say what you will about Ollie's partnership with Waller (it could be a double-cross), but he's convincingly contributing to Waller's offensive. Plus, sending Bright to add leverage to Waller's position is a smart move, even if it telegraphs what's going to happen from a mile away. The Arrow Family arrives at a secret lab in Death Valley to capture Ivo. Unfortunately, Ivo is prepared for the visit, and he unleashes a cybernetic character we haven't seen in a while, Tomorrow Woman to keep the family while he makes a hasty exit. Ivo's gambit works, but before the scientist can get too far, he's intercepted by Bright at the end of the issue. What's great about Green Arrow #14? Generally speaking, Williamson delivers a solid tie-in to the Absolute Power event. Placing focus on Ivo could have implications for the event's outcome, the characters are reasonably represented, and the return of Tomorrow Woman is a pleasant surprise. What's not great about Green Arrow #14? Connor's assumption of the mantle feels a bit silly since Roy is leading the charge and taking the spotlight on practically every page. It's like an adolescent boy declaring he's now the man of the house because he put on his father's hat. Further, there may be too many characters to handle in this issue since the script and/or the art confuses Arrowette and Speedy in a couple of spots. It may have served this issue better for everyone to divide and conquer.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Final Thoughts
Green Arrow #14 is one of the better Absolute Power tie-ins because it gives everyone in the Arrow Family something to do that feels connected to, and may have an impact on, Absolute Power. That said, Connor's assumption of the Green Arrow mantle feels forced and immature, and either the writer or artists mixed up Arrowette and Speedy in at least one or two spots. Still, this is a fairly decent superhero comic.
7/10
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Since this issue hasn't gotten the plot going yet (though I agree with your Green Arrow Conner comment) it gives me space to bring up a point about this run that has been bothering me in the background:
ReplyDeleteSo are we supposed to see Jade as a redeemed person now? I hope not cause she is an assassin for hire who has no qualms about killing innocent people in their sleep, both in the previous pre new 52 era and also rebirth. I mean if at least she was a warrior for some cause or an agent of some country, it would be easier to redeem her but she is just a killer for hire with no mercy. Just recently in that backup issue in Detective Comics they established that again. She is a villain who cares about her daughter, that's it. They have done close to nothing for redemption for her, just cause she loves Lian that doesn't make her forgivable. Now, I don't mind them working together for an objective, however as these issues go on I get the feeling they are trying to show her as Roy's partner or something, and someone who is just a bit 'edgy' not....murderous. That doesn't work at all and Roy's reaction to her has been out of character since she got him on drugs again and was the catalyst for him going to sanctuary and dying there. I don't think that's something to work out between them, that's a line crossed that is too far. If she was a guy and Roy a woman, this relationship wouldn't have even been contemplated, her having hurt him in the way most personal way to Roy. (Maybe with a lot of work done to redeem her but nothing near that has been done, again I think her portrayal in the recent Detective Comics issues and her stance there makes more sense and is better) In fact the only person having stuck by Roy during that period ( and also pre new 52) has been Donna Troy. Now I don't care who Roy likes but Jade just being treated as one of the guys is off putting to me.( and another indicator that the writers might not know or care about these characters' individual histories and relationships and write them as generic.) Also having some tension between the group for Jade being there and whether they can trust her goes a lot to make the dynamics interesting and unique and the interactions less one note.
I'm not sure if this is Williamson watering down or just changing relationship dynamics to fit his story better like Rose Wilson suddenly becoming a big sister to Damian instead of a snarky rival like she was before. Or this is another case of popular female villains slowly becoming antiheroes because they are popular while their male counterparts get much less. Especially given some of the things Jade did to Roy and countless innocent civilians, like in Qurac if that is still canon.
DeleteI am fine with Rose looking after Damian (though I would of course always wish they would do some character work to get to that place or set it up or something) because at least that didn't outright contradict her character or his and their history. It could be explained by a flashback or something of Rose realising Red Hood cares about the batfamily so she decides to look after Damian or her feeling sympathy for Damian by finding out about all the fiasco with Deathstroke in Priest's run plus Rose has been a caretaker before to younger characters and is kinda softer on them and she isn't a villain, at most maybe isn't opposed to killing her opponents who want to kill her first or is just working for the government etc.
DeleteJade however is in some depictions ( in Rebirth even) a psychopath or at least very very cruel. Almost in all portrayals she only ever acts 'soft' when Lian is concerned, her only connection to Roy and his to her is Lian. Outside of that she has been downright horrible to the Arrow family or Black Canary. Another problem is that even Lian herself isn't completely warmed up to her the way it is shown in this series, I truly wish they tried to at least keep some consistency between their own ongoing series let alone past stuff cause just some months before in Detective Comics Lian was shown to be very critical of her mother but ultimately trying to have her change herself to be better. Here it looks like they have been best pals for ages, and Roy acts like Jade is just merely too much sometimes but what can he do whoops. It doesn't fit their characters at all. It is mostly in the background for now and maybe (hopefully) will be forgotten in other series cause they had done nothing to earn this dynamic with them so I didn't mention it before. However this issue felt like an appropriate place to bring it up.
As to why they were written this way, I wouldn't know for sure and don't want to attribute something to people without knowledge but I think it is genuinely a case of the writer either forgetting the established events or perhaps going with a more recent depiction in the Young Justice cartoon where Jade is shown differently and more in a grey light. However that isn't canon to comics and shouldn't be applied but perhaps since more people would have seen that than read the comics they just went with that version to appeal to younger and newer readers.
I agree on Rose not being as eregious as Jade, it was just another case of Williamson getting characters to act a certain way for his story or for a desired dynamic that wasn't executed right. Rose's character shift is easily explained by her not being a monster like Jade is most times and Damian was getting wrapped in a death tournament but overall felt like Williamson mainly wanted to give Damian friends. I do wish he actually tied more of what happened in Priest's Deathstroke in there but Williamson 's mishandlings of the Wilson family is a different matter. I also want to give benefits of the doubt that Williamson should know better about both coordinating between other writers better as well as bringing in different character interpretations without much explanation. We have gotten too many headaches from similar cases before.
DeleteBut Connor already was Green Arrow wasn't he? He took up the mantle while Oliver was dead and kept being GA after he came back so why are they acting like he wasn't GA already? And if he wasn't already GA what was his superhero name?
ReplyDelete