Green Arrow #36 – Benjamin Percy, Writer; Juan Ferreyra, Artist
Ratings:
Ray – 7/10
Corrina: Emiko In Peril
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW
Ray: So, I can’t review this Green Arrow issue 100% fairly, because it’s a very good comic on a lot of levels – spectacular visuals, great action, plot twists aplenty. But it also hits on multiple of my biggest comic pet peeves as the battle with the Ninth Circle hits its apex. When we last left off, Moira had betrayed Ollie and left him to die at the bottom of the ocean after getting what she needed from him. The opening page is one of the best of the entire series, as Ollie’s body begins to break down under the literal pressure. Fortunately, Dinah is on the case, and manages to pull off a daring rescue, while Kate Spencer and John Diggle do their own parts to protect Ollie in other areas of his life. I did like Dinah calling Ollie out on his reckless isolationist streak afterwards, and them having a serious talk about their relationship. I very much did not like her making that point by kneeing him in the crotch. I had this same issue with a story in Hawkeye – yes, the guy did something wrong. That doesn’t mean you get to physically assault your partner.
Ben Percy is always at his best when it comes to high-intensity, disturbing scenes, and this issue is packed with them. The despicable Cyrus Broderick, already in a bad place physically, meets his end at the hands of Shado this scene, but the parasitic Mayor survives and set his sight on Wendy to silence her for good.
So the issue has at least one woman in danger, but that’s not where my issues with the story end. Moira’s characterization so far has been…sketchy. She seemed at first to be an amoral but overall pragmatic woman. Now, her characterization seems to be driven by evil and a twisted relationship with Malcolm Merlyn. Her willingness to kill pretty much anyone who gets in her way makes her a mostly one-dimensional villain. Emiko taking the arrow she meant for Dinah is…upsetting, to say the least. Next issue supposedly has her “between life and death”, so the odds are she’ll survive, but if she doesn’t, it’ll cast a massive pall over this entire run for me.
Corrina: Once upon a time, in their joint comic before the new 52 reboot, Ollie and Dinah solved their fights via violence. I believe the issues were written by Andrew Kreisberg, the executive producer of the CW superhero shows who was fired for sexual harassment. Looking back on his comic run, which included the creation of the terrible Cupid, I have to wonder how much of his personal point of view oozed into his run. Given how many sexual harassers whose personalities have seeped into their work, my eyebrows go up when I read problematic work.
Percy needs work in showing (not telling) the romantic and sometimes other feelings between his cast. Like why would Ollie trust his mother? She just shows up out of the blue and it’s his mother, so goes his reasoning. Did she remember his favorite thing as a kid? Bring him back a trusted object that she gave him as a child to play on his emotions? No, she plays on just being his mom. Similarly, the Dinah/Ollie relationship is also bereft of them being, well, kind and considerate to each other. They’re shown having sex but I want to know why either of them would stick with the other and I’ve not received a satisfactory answer thus far. And now she’s kneeing him in the crotch. That is no way to have a respectful relationship with each other.
The action sequences are always good but there’s something missing from the emotions of this comic and I’ve probably said that every time I review an issue.
Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
