Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters/Mike Grell

Green Arrow:  The Longbow Hunters by Mike Grell, et al; graphic novel; 160 pages

Following the loss of his business empire, Oliver Queen relocates to Seattle with his girlfriend, Dinah Lance.  Queen, aka Green Arrow, hopes to make a fresh start in a new city, but a series of brutal murders by a mysterious archer makes it hard for him to build trust with the local police force.  Worse, Dinah (aka Black Canary) begins investigating a drug ring, and may soon be in over her head.

This is one of those collections that gets touted as a classic, so I read this out of a feeling of obligation.  While I'm glad to check this off my to-read list, I can't say that I was really enamored of this book.  The story was originally written in the late 80's (I assume, as the collection was first published in 1991), and the art comes off as a little dated (not just in terms of clothing and hairstyles, but the art style itself--colored pencil drawings, mostly--just wasn't my thing).  This was also a time that comics felt that they had to have "social relevance," and apparently this book chose a strong anti-drug stance for its message.  The preaching gets a little heavy-handed in places, making it hard to wade through for the action sequences.  The plot itself was rather thin (not to mention predictable), and the ending didn't sit quite right with me.  Not one of the better Arrow collections I've read. 

Green Arrow: Quiver/Kevin Smith

Green Arrow:  Quiver by Kevin Smith, et al.; graphic novel; 232 pages

Ten years ago, Oliver Queen/Green Arrow sacrificed himself to save others, and his friends have never quite gotten over their grief at his loss.  But recent crime scenes have been littered with the trick arrows that are Ollie's trademark, and people have sighted a hooded figure with the classic blonde goatee.  Ollie may be back, but he's changed--plagued with amnesia, he doesn't remember anything of his recent history, much less what's been going on while he was dead.  How and why is he back?  And what doesn't he remember? 

I admit I was a little hesitant about this book, given the generally poor reception to Smith's Batman arc, Cacophony.  However, I loved his work on The Widening Gyre, and I like his movies, so I gave it a shot.  (Also, this was the last of the three Green Arrow books owned by the MLC.  We may need to work on that).  I have to say this was up there with Year One in terms of quality, and made up for the "meh" taste left over from the last GA book I read.  This is a pivotal moment in Ollie's story:  he's returned from the dead--an event which will make him vulnerable during the Blackest Night arc a few years down the road--but he's also got some introspection and self-realization to do (I could say more, but that would ruin one of the great surprises of the book).  There are a great many cameo appearances in this volume, from the rest of the Justice League (both living and dead), to some more fringe DC characters (Morpheus!  Woot!).  Smith handles it all well, and seasons it with his characteristic humor, making for a fun read.  Part of my love for this series might come from the fact that Batman plays a prominent role in the story, and seeing the Dark Knight juxtaposed against the (more normal and well-adjusted) Justice League is always entertaining. 

Now I'm out of Green Arrow books, so I need to head down to Starclipper for some suggestions! 

Green Arrow and Black Canary: Five Stages

Green Arrow and Black Canary: Five Stages by various authors; graphic novel; 128 pages. 

So I've made a bit of a jump here:  I've gone from an origin story to a death story in two volumes.  Note to self:  check into these things instead of just picking random volumes. 

In this very recent storyline, Black Canary and Green Arrow are back together as a couple.  They spend most of this volume taking down a supervillain named Cupid, who uses her love potion to control the minds of those around her--and who is fixated on Ollie as her next conquest.  That story is pretty good, even if I only caught the second half.  The art is so-so, but the relationship between Arrow and Canary is sweet and believable.  The second-to-last issue collected here ends with GA and BC getting a call from Green Lantern  to report to JLA headquarters, and heading off.  The final issue in this volume is such a non sequitur that I have trouble even understanding its inclusion:  we pick back up with these characters at the climax of the Blackest Night crossover event, when an evil force has taken control of any hero who's been brought back from the dead, including Green Arrow.  Ollie watches helplessly from inside his own head as he attacks everyone he's ever cared about.  To their credit, Ollie's friends and loved ones do their best to stop him--Canary even goes so far as to try her sonic scream on him--but none of it works.  Eventually, though, the heroes are forced to, I assume, kill him in order to save themselves and the planet.  Thus ends this volume, and once again I'm left wondering who as DC is responsible for organizing these collections, and what they were smoking the day they worked on this one....

Green Arrow: Year One/Andy Diggle

Green Arrow:  Year One by Andy Diggle and Jock; graphic novel; 160 pages

For my first foray into Green Arrow, I thought I should start at the beginning (or at least, one of the more interesting of the many origin stories for this character).  Oliver Queen is a billionaire playboy not unlike Bruce Wayne's public persona.  The difference is that if the scratch the surface of Olive Queen, you find...more surface.  He's a thrill-seeking, hard-drinking womanizer who cares for little beyond his own pleasure.  But all of that changes when a double-cross lands him stranded on a deserted island, forced to fend for himself and fight off the forces of nature for his own survival. 

Loved this book!  I'm glad I went with one of the more recent GA origins, as this seemed to really fit what little I know of the character (I've only caught peripheral glimpses of him through Batman and Birds of Prey, but I like what I have seen!).  Of course there's more going on on the island than my blurb would lead you to believe, but that would be telling.  This is a fun book that manages to pay homage to the older versions of Green Arrow (boxing glove arrow, anyone?) without being too campy.  Yes, there are a few moments where I had to stretch my sense of disbelief (like the fact that Ollie is shooting with a broken arm, or that his "English long bow" is, in fact, quite short), but overall, this was a quick, fun introduction to the character.