Green Arrow #10 – Joshua Williamson, Writer; Sean Izaakse, Tom Derenick, Artists; Romulo Fajardo Jr, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: Joshua Williamson has done an amazing job of building up the Arrow family, giving them as much of a complex history and dynamics as the more famous Batfam. But there are still a few members who haven’t gotten the spotlight—until now. Ollie is on the trail of Roy Harper, who has apparently been kidnapped by Amanda Waller and sent out to track down the Sanctuary files. But Roy has now gone missing, and Ollie is next on the team. Ollie and Conner descend into the frozen wilderness, heading for the base where Roy was last seen, but they’re not alone—Roy is apparently backed up by a team of the Arrowfam girls, including Emiko, Red Canary, Arrowette (who isn’t actually part of the family and is sort of annoyed to be here) and Mia (making her first full appearance since Flashpoint). The reunions are a huge part of this issue, and do pack a great emotional punch, especially in the flashbacks.
The twisted part of the reunion between Ollie and Roy, of course, is that both thought the other was dead for a long time. Roy was still gone when Ollie wound up lost in time, and Roy returned to Ollie having presumably been lost in Dark Crisis. So this is the first time the two have been able to fully reunite, and Williamson packs it with a lot of great moments. But there’s the looming threat not just of Waller, but of how the files are protected from any intruders. I am loving every bit of this series, but this issue did drop one detail that briefly took me out of it. This may be by design, since she’s the DCU’s current big bad, but if Waller is in fact kidnapping random minors with archery skills and sticking brain bombs in them, she’s so far gone that I don’t even recognize this character from the one John Ostrander built. Great book, but it’s leaning into a DC status quo that I’m still not 100% sold on.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
