Not That You Asked, But …

Green Arrow (2011) 35-40
DC Comics
Andrew Kreisberg and Ben Sokolowski, writers
Daniel Sampere, Jonathan Glapion, Gabe Eltaeb and Daniel Henriques, artists

OK, I'm behind on my reading. If you're a regular follower of this blog, that isn't news to you.

So why am I talking about these issues that are nearly a year old? Since the launch of the New 52, Green Arrow has been hit or miss with me, a miss more often than not. I talked more about that here. And I also raised the hope that the return of Andrew Kreisberg to the title might mean an upswing in the title's likability for me. Thus, here is the post where I answer that burning question I left you all hanging with.

Kreisberg and scripter/co-plotter Ben Sokolowski continue the trend of bringing elements from the hit CW show "Arrow" into the mix. They keep Diggle, introduced in a previous arc, and have added other television show elements such as Felicity Smoak. Katana, too. I like "Arrow," but I don't want my monthly dose of Green Arrow comics to too closely copy the television program. Well, that isn't what Kreisberg and Sokolowski are doing here. These characters aren't exactly the same as their TV show counterparts.

Also, Kreisberg and Sokolowski have re-introduced elements from past comic incarnations of Green Arrow, helping to further differentiate the comic from the TV continuity. The setting, for one, is Seattle, not Star City or Starling City. This story arc, "The Kingdom," also introduces the New 52 version of Mia Dearden and brings back Tommy Merlin, now a dark archer named Merlyn. Further cementing this continuity as different from "Arrow" is the inclusion of a number of DCU guest stars, including Lex Luthor and Batman from Justice League and Arsenal from the New 52 title he shares with Red Hood.

All of that adds up to a very enjoyable story arc that gives me renewed hope for the Green Arrow title. I still have the two-month Convergence titles to read, but this creative team seems to finally have gotten this title on track, reminding me why I like the GA character and making me look forward to each new issue of his title.

But then I remembered that the creative team once again changes with the issues post-Convergence. I hated the frequent creative team changes on this title before. And it looks like they haven't stopped. Maybe DC doesn't want me to like this title. I swear I'm about to give up trying to like it. But hey, if you get the chance, pick up these issues or the likely trade collecting them. This story, and this creative team, at least, are worth the price.

Will My Green Arrow Please Stand Up

Rather than a specific issue or story line, today I decided to talk about the wandering failure that the New 52 has wrought upon one of my favorite characters, Green Arrow, aka Oliver Queen.

I first became aware of Green Arrow in the late 1970s and early 1980s when he participated in Justice League of America stories or his own solo adventures in World's Finest Comics. I missed out on the new "relevant" Green Lantern/Green Arrow series created by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams in the mid-1970s, but the new costume and personality these two creators gave to the Emerald Archer influenced his characterization for the next decade, at least, and the hero I was reading owed much to their work.

Going back and reading reprints of the O'Neil and Adams stories in 1983 is when I grew to really appreciate the character and come to see him as one of my favorites. That affection grew and was nurtured by the Green Arrow miniseries that same year by Mike W. Barr, Trevor von Eeden and Dick Giordano and was cemented by Mike Grell's fantastic Longbow Hunters series in 1987.

Having said that, I don't know why I didn't immediately pick up the Mike Grell ongoing Green Arrow series that followed Longbow Hunters. I swear, I really did love that series right from the start. At this point, I did have a local comic shop I frequented regularly for my comics, but I was not online much and hadn't even heard of Previews at the time, so maybe I simply wasn't aware of the existence of the ongoing for a while. Whatever the reason, I started in on that series about two years into the run reading forward each month as well as backward when I could find copies of the back issues I'd missed.

I was very sad to see Ollie killed off in No. 100 of that series, then being written by Chuck Dixon, and while he was a very different character, I enjoyed the adventures of Ollie's son, Connor Hawke, as the new Green Arrow. I'm not nearly as big a martial arts fan as Dixon seems to be, so some of the Connor GA stories were less to my liking than others, but I stayed with the series until it ended with issue No. 137.

After a few dark nearly-Green Arrow-less years, it was announced that Kevin Smith was going to bring Oliver Queen back from the dead in a relaunched Green Arrow title in 2001. Smith was joined by artist Phil Hester, and while I was less impressed with Hester's more cartoony art at the time, I was glad to have the character back. Smith left the title after 15 solid issues, and we were treated to one of novelist Brad Meltzer's first comics-writing turns with his excellent "The Archer's Quest"  and then after a few issues, Judd Winick took over the writing chores. Winick is one of those hit-or-miss writers to my tastes. I really like some of his books while others just leave me feeling meh. But he did a good job at the helm of Star City's resident bowman and stayed with the title for the remainder of this run and into the 2007 Green Arrow and Black Canary relaunch. That title had the added plus of fantastic art by first Cliff Chiang and then Mike Norton. The Green Arrow and Black Canary series finished its second half with excellent writer Andrew Kreisberg and then J.T. Krul on the final three Blackest Night and Cry For Justice tie-in issues.

All of that background is to show I have a history with the character, reading Green Arrow's adventures, and for the most part, enjoying most of the tales he is featured in. I don't agree with everything that happened in Justice League: Cry For Justice or the subsequent Fall of Green Arrow, but I liked both titles and could see Oliver acting and reacting the way he was portrayed in those stories. Less to my liking was the 15-issue Green Arrow: Brightest Day series where Oliver is all about his forest, but I think most of that series stemmed from editorial dictates and might not be where series writer Krul would have taken Oliver without the whole Brightest Day framework, which I liked with regards to other characters. I base this, in part, on the fact that another writer finished the final three issues of that series. I also haven't read Green Arrow: Brightest Day again since it was new; maybe my opinion of it would improve with a fresh look.

Then along comes the New 52, and everybody and everything is rebooted back to square one. Except Batman and Green Lantern, which were seeing a great deal of popular story lines already, so the rebooting wasn't quite so evenly distributed. But I was all set to accept a new, younger Oliver Queen as Green Arrow. A fresh start didn't have to mean disaster. And the first three issues of the New 52 Green Arrow were good with story by Krul and art by the incredible Dan Jurgens. Oliver has a bit of a team working behind the scenes to assist him, but subtracting a few years and changing up his costume were pretty cosmetic; I could still see this as the hero I liked, just a slightly different guy from a slightly different dimension or something.

The problem was, those three issues didn't last. Issue No. 4 saw a creative change to writer Keith Giffen, who was replaced by Jurgens by issue No. 6. Then we got Ann Nocenti, who's run on the title lasted until issue No. 16. But her run on the book was all about horn-dog Ollie who thought more with his groin than his brains. This guy wasn't really a hero so much as a screw-up. With each creative change, I liked the character less and less. And there seemed to be a lot of creative changes.

Jeff Lemire's run (issue Nos. 17-34) was very dark for my tastes and centered way too much on the mysticism of the various clans he introduced into Oliver's back story. Then elements from the CW television series "Arrow" started to creep into the book. Now, I've watched "Arrow" since the beginning, and I very much enjoy the show and Stephen Amell's portrayal of Oliver Queen. I'm very happy the show has lasted into a third season, and I'll be happy to see it continue for several more years. But it is the television version of Green Arrow. That guy exists in an equally valid, but alternate dimension from the guy I like to read about in the comics. Television and comics are two different media; they have different strengths and weaknesses, and I believe they are best served by different approaches. I love watching the TV show, but I don't want to read the TV show in my monthly Green Arrow comic.

So, why do I keep buying the monthly comic if I don't like what they're doing with the character and haven't for basically the last 30 issues? I guess that means I have more money than sense, but my wife would be quick to remind that we don't have that much money. So maybe I just don't have any sense. But the creative teams change on this title so often, every time I convince myself to just drop what I'm not enjoying, I think, "But wait, a new team and direction are coming next month; maybe it really will get better." Except so far, it hasn't.

I hope the comic will find its niche now that Andrew Kreisberg is back writing the character as I enjoyed his work on the title pre-New 52. But Kreisberg is also one of the producers of the CW televison series. I'm hopeful, but concerned as well. But I'm still buying the title each month hoping for the best. At least, for now ...

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It's Not Exactly My GA, But It's A Valid GA And I Like It

Arrow tpb Vol. 1
DC Comics
Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg and others, writers
Mike Grell and others, artists

I think I've mentioned before that I tend not to like licensed comics based solely on movies or television programs. Quite often the comics seem like inferior versions of the properties' first medium. I don't like inferior versions of original things I've liked, and I don't care for comics that make the comics medium seem inferior.

A fairly recent example would be the Heroes trades based on the television series from a few years ago. These were short online-first strips that told further adventures of characters from the show or fleshed out events only hinted at in episodes that DC later collected. There were some genuinely good stories in those trades, but by and large, most of them were just -- meh. It didn't help that most of the stories had little real impact on the actual series. You can't have major revelations or critical events about a television show occur in another medium that not all viewers of the show will follow.

Every now and then, however, a licensed comic will fire on all cylinders. This is one of those comics. And I'm very glad that the promise of the Mike Grell artwork spurred me to take a chance on it. His art, as usual, does not disappoint. And neither does the storytelling in this trade.

Once again, these were short, online-first glimpses into the world of the CW's "Arrow," the series based loosely on DC Comics' Green Arrow character. Each chapter collected in this print version is a 10-page glimpse at events in that world. Early chapters are vague as not much was yet revealed to viewers about the series. But as time goes on, these vignettes provide some nice, but non-critical background. For example, during season one of the series, we learn that Moira Queen has a warehouse where the wreckage of her husband's boat, the Queen's Gambit, is stored. This is the sabotaged boat that Oliver and his father were on before Oliver ended up on the island for five years. One of the chapters in this collection shows how the wreckage was found and salvaged and how those remains of the ship ended up in that warehouse. Other chapters show defining events from the past in the lives of China White and John Diggle, two characters important to the show.

I would say you'd have to be a fan of the show to enjoy this trade collection. Not a lot of effort is made to explain who people are in the stories or how they relate to the overall narrative of the series; this collection is not new-reader friendly in that regard. But if you watch the show, you already know who the characters are and what roles they play.

For those of you who don't know, the show is pretty different from the Green Arrow/Oliver Queen depicted in the comics for the past seven decades. There are many familiar names and characters, and the basic origin story is pretty faithful, but the similarities end there. I am not one of those fans who is close-minded about different interpretations of characters; I think this incarnation of Green Arrow/Oliver Queen is just as legitimate, if done well, as the original one from the comics. And this television program is done well.

In fact, as a bit of a digression, I'm rather liking the CW version of Green Arrow better than I am the comic version of late. The first story arc in the life of The New 52! version of Oliver Queen was a good one, but then the title began to wander and start a downhill slide that continued until recent issues when Jeff Lemire took over the writing chores. I'm still unsure what I think of Lemire's run on the title; it's much better than what came immediately before it, but I'm still not quite sure where Lemire is headed or how I feel about his new direction. He is introducing characters and concepts from the television show, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I hope he is not trying to imitate the show too much. It is a different medium and a different, albeit very similar character, but I think it would be a mistake to make the regular DC comic too similar to the show. But that's just my two-cent's worth.