Green Arrow #13 – Joshua Williamson, Writer; Amancay Nahuelpan, Artist; Romulo Fajardo Jr, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: Oliver Queen spent most of the first year of this series lost in time, with his family in search of him. He’s back home, and the entire group is having a much-deserved vacation—but there’s a dark cloud gathering in the form of Amanda Waller and her war against superheroes. Ollie cut a deal with the devil to get Roy free, turning over the Sanctuary files to Waller. But now she wants more, and one morning Ollie slips out of the beach house, dons a new uniform, and goes to work for Waller. There’s a hilarious segment where the entire family is bouncing off each other (including Mia and Lian having an interaction that defines “too far” in the best way) while Dinah desperately tries to get everyone’s attention to figure out where Ollie is. Ollie, meanwhile, is arguing with Peacemaker as the ruthless vigilante tries to push him too far—but his mission for Waller is about to get a little too personal.
Because he’s not the only member of the Arrowfam in the compound. Roy and Lian are breaking in to liberate Cheshire (who seems to have been retconned as a much less evil figure than she initially was). The wounded assassin is surprisingly grateful, and Lian even seems to be rooting for her parents to get back together. But Ollie is waiting, in his new fascist gear. It’s clear from the dialogue that he’s trying to pull a double-cross, but that requires him to pull some pretty horrible betrayals. The face-off between Ollie and his very first partner is intense, and it only becomes more so when we see what’s going on in the rest of the world—as Waller starts to make the moves that will play out in Absolute Power #1 in a few weeks. Then Williamson ends the story with a great callback to the 1990s—another display of just how deep this guy’s love for iconic DC Comics stories goes.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
