Written by: Chris Condon
Art by: Montos
Colors by: Adriano Lucas
Letters by: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Cover art by: Taurin Clarke (cover A)
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: November 27, 2024
Green Arrow #18, by DC Comics on 11/27/24, finds Oliver Queen settling back into his nightly rounds in Star City when he learns about a serial killer targeting executives of a chemical company.
Is Green Arrow #18 Good?
What's great about Green Arrow #18?
What's not great about Green Arow #18?
Honestly, there's not much to criticize above minor nitpicks with the story. After everything Oliver went through to finally reunite with his family and endure the Absolute Power event, it seems ridiculously weird that his first order of business is to move away from his family and into a bachelor pad, but it's likely a DC editorial mandate to give the "family" a break.
How's the Art?
Here comes the biggest caveat. I'm not sold on the costume redesign or the rough inks in Montos's art style. The layouts and perspective look great, and you get the right tone for a detective noir-inspired story, but the lack of crispness in the lines gives off an indie comic vibe, which doesn't fit well for a member of the Justice League.
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 #18 begins a fresh start and a murder mystery for DC's Emerald Archer and a new creative team. Chris Condon's detective noir plot is a perfect fit for a street-level hero, so the new direction for Oliver Queen shows promise. That said, the art style and costume redesign may not be the best choice.8/10
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Is this the guy who's going to be doing ultimate wolverine?
ReplyDeleteSee, the thing was all this time I wanted THIS setup with Ollie, solving crimes and street level fights and fighting against injustice coupled with his personality ALONGSIDE his family. Williamson gave us a baffling plot that didn't make sense and didn't fit GA and his family and now we got a setup that does fit but apparently no family! Though hopefully that might change. I don't even think the whole family should be there for every issue, but one or two characters per arc would be nice and would give the story some drama that happens alongside the crimefighting and might tell a personal story. No cosmic grand scale stuff, just street level stories which I think is what GA is best at and brings to the table for Justice League, representing a side of the world that he is suited for tackling like all the other members having one for themselves.
ReplyDeleteApart from this, there is not much to criticise about the issue itself. It's just a standard case and investigation, however this stuff fits Batman solo cause he is generally an introspective detective that details his cases like a writer(when written well) but GA should deal with this stuff with some partner to bounce off of (hence why I think Roy or Connor or some other member should be there, a duo of GA and Connor or Roy going case to case in this setup would be very neat). Feels like DC got the wrong idea of what was wrong exactly with Williamson's run. (Spoiler: it was the bad writing for characters without their histories and the nonsensical plot, not the idea of a GA family).
In conclusion, I am interested in this series (the costume is a definite improvement from the previous one) and cautiously optimistic about maybe Connor showing up for some father and son dynamic. Agree with your score. A fair one.
Nice first issue capturing the atmosphere of my favorite iterations of the character, Long bow Hunter saga, Year one and Lemire's New 52 run.I am sick of the "family" trope in DC comics.
ReplyDeleteThey barely do the "family" trope right anyway, they just add members then do nothing with them individually or write interesting interpersonal dynamics that affect the plot so it just feels unrealistic and hollow. Then we get a solo run with no named characters that will only be there for maximum 5 issues or so that get no development for some time that also amounts in no progression for the main character, rinse and repeat.( aka also see Spiderman. He is stuck in one place) Usually it goes like this, I think the only exceptions of doing it or at least fine enough (though not always) are Flash family and sometimes the Green Lantern corps (some members at least)
DeleteThe "no progression"/stagnation problem is the main issue in Marvel/DC. they are just going to remain in cyclical storytelling mode indefinitely because their goal is for these characters to remain perpetually young and publish them forever.
DeleteHoneslty there is an easy fix for that and they have already cracked it and looks like they just don't realise they have:
DeleteYou can write in this era forever if you want, just establish some certain events in the timeline as fixes (for example for Batman, Thomas and Martha getting shot, Bruce having his back broken, Terry for example becoming Batman Beyond in future under Bruce's training etc etc) then just write different series each in a specific time setting. That way you could have young, middle aged or old heroes as you wish and people can buy whichever they want. They are already doing it with the Finest series running alongside the main titles and they used to write Beyond too at DC and they are semi successful and no one was bothered as long as they respect those certain "fixed" events.
The difficult part would be deciding on the fixed events but that could be solved by some serious meetings for some time to decide them and then they can write adventures that might or might not be referenced in each series as long as they aren't one of those "fixed" events. I mean people don't read the big two cause they fear if certain hero is gonna die in this recent adventure or not, they want to continue reading their adventures for the plot and character moments so as long as they decide on an ending in certain future for the character (when they die, who they marry, how many kids they have or at all etc etc) they can slide in all the stories they want in the years between fixed events and I don't think many will mind that they already know what happens in the future of this character or the like, the quality of writing would make up for that aspect for those who care about that.
(Then the reboots can be for when the timeline gets wayyy out of hand after years of a continuity going on or if some fixed events didn't pan out well instead of just this limbo that they keep rebooting without actually rebooting every two years)
Like the original Crisis relaunch and 2000s Ultimate Universe, DC absolute and Hickman's relaunch are what's keeping Marvel/DC relevant in 2024. People are sick of the status quo but the industry is so fixated on the status quo.
DeleteI hope they evolve different universes and take chances with ambitious new talent in manga style then doing what worked in the past. For example:
writer x will take control of batman for a few years. He tells the story of bruce's life span from beginning to his retirement or ultimate sacrifice. Another writer, y, comes in with a pitch focusing on his early years, his training and taking down crime and corruption in Gotham.A decade or so later, writer z comes in with another take, maybe tweaking his echo-system (think absolute batman/ Marvel Ultimate Universe) and so on.
I am talking about a run (not 6 issue mini series, but ill take that too) where the batman is killed while trying to solve a murder mystery and then red hood goes punisher max on Gotham corrupt officials and crime lords.
or another run where batman grows old and passes the mantel to Damian and becoming his "guy in the chair"
another scenario is if batman marries Selina in the beginning of the run and they divorce or she is killed later and batman looses it. then we get a time laps to old man bruce coming from retirement sillier to TDKR or old man Logan.
the possibilities are endless. batman does not have to be perpetually in his mid thirties cycling through robins and fighting the joker for the rest of his life.
This model would be similar to the movies. You have the Burten , Schumacher, Nolan and Reeves flavors to choose from.
I am getting sick of the whole "sliding time scale continuity", where you can't really get a meaningful resolution to the story or have actual change to the status quo "while" also "constrained" by an inconsequential fictitious continuity that gives the illusion of change and development.
It does sound like the movies and tv shows and also kind of like what they do with elseworlds stuff. I think regardless of what they should or shouldn't do, one thing is certain and that is that most fans are a bit tired of the recycling and sliding timeline aspect. That's why I think you should just set different titles in different time settings where some characters are still there or are no longer there or haven't been introduced yet etc and let go of this fear of older mature heroes or married heroes not having popularity or having a conclusion known in future would prevent people from checking out runs written in the past and present and so on when the opposite is usually proven.
DeleteThe sliding timeline worked way back because then the writers for good or bad, at least decided on a course of action between themselves and progressed the characters slowly there and there was wayyyy more synchronisation between different writing teams on titles so characters would get older and stuff happened that was actual history and had consequences ( and I am not talking about deaths or stuff, just actual events that happened. When was the last time Knight Terrors was mentioned for example?? Or Dark Crisis, or did City of Bane really have as much impact as No Man's Land on the history of Gotham?). Nowadays they've kept the model but feel like they are just trying to keep afloat instead of going somewhere, not saying the old stuff were all good, I am one of the people who has a more neutral stance on older comics and doesn't think everything was good, a lot of it wasn't but at least it had some kind of structure.