Green Arrow 1 Thoughts

Writer: J.T. Krul
Artist: Dan Jurgens

Forewarning: This just might be the only positive review of Green Arrow you'll see. If you want to have someone savage J.T. Krul and call Dan Jurgens' art average yet again, turn away now.

Going in, I'll just ask: Was anyone reading Green Arrow pre-relaunch? I was. It wasn't a bad comic, but it was incredibly depressing and almost the perfect reason for why this relaunch needed to happen. Ollie spent most of his time wallowing in depression and talking about how jacked up his life was. Most of the comic took place in a forest because Ollie had killed a supervillain who blew up half his city, so he was wanted for murder. His wife divorced him while he was in a jail cell. He had no clue where his son was. And his ward/sidekick, Red Arrow/Arsenal? Well, he was hanging out with supervillains, strung out on drugs again and beating people with extension cords after his daughter was killed by the supervillain Ollie murdered. All this after only being brought back to life less than a decade ago by his superhero-turned-supervillain-turned-Spirit of Vengeance-turned-superhero AGAIN friend, Hal Jordan.

It was all too much crap, and it all needed to go away. And it did. Green Arrow/Oliver Queen is one of the superheroes that had the reset button hit on him the hardest. Whereas the new Ollie looked to be hovering near 40, this one is probably just barely hitting 30. The old Ollie was an ultra-liberal, who owned a multi-billion dollar company named Queen Industries but gave it away because he wanted to be a man of the people or some such shit that made sense in the sixties but sounds completely idiotic now. (If you're rich--why not be a philanthropist instead?) He dressed up like Robin Hood at night and at one point he was the Mayor or something but I think he got fired after they learned he was actually Green Arrow.

The new Ollie is a globetrotting genius, who seemingly owns Queen Industries but has little interest in the main company so much as it's tech-division, Q-Corp, that he heads up. Basically DC's version of Apple, Q-Corp is cutting-edge technology for public consumption. It also doubles as Ollie's way of keeping up with heroes with powers by having access to bleeding-edge technology as Green Arrow.

The first issue introduces us to this new status quo, introducing us to Q-Corp's main scientists, what the relaunched Green Arrow operates like (think James Bond as a crack archer with specialized arrows), and creates a brand-new set of villains (thankfully--Ollie only has like...two) to throw at our hero.

With a fun opening issue and beautiful art by Dan Jurgens, this is one of the most satisfying comics I've read in a long time, but from what I've seen, you'll like it better if you're not a comic fan than if you are. A good test as to whether you'll find this character or not is to watch Batman: Brave and the Bold's version of Aquaman. If you like that guy, who's basically Batman but having fun with all his gadgets and superheroing--you'll like this.