Green Arrow #23 – Chris Condon, Writer; Montos, Artist; Adriano Lucas, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: The Freshwater Kills mystery has been building for a while now, with the reveal that there isn’t just one killer – it’s a society, with dozens of killers who were victimized by the corporation that pumped poison into their water. Their leader, the boy who developed seizures as a result of the poison and later lost his mother to cancer, has gone off the deep end and has escalated from targeting the guilty executives to targeting anyone who was even slightly involved. That included Oliver Queen, who was an investor in the company – and it includes Detective Benitez, who was investigating the killings and has now wound up in the society’s clutches. While this group started out rather sympathetic, their leader has become increasingly unhinged from desperation and lack of hope, leading to his plan to drown Benitez in poisoned water as a sadistic display of their revenge.
This kind of story, where the oppressed become the villains, is pretty divisive, but I think Chris Condon has done a good job of fleshing out the story of this cult without glorifying them. They’re people who have been hurt in countless ways, and found no support and even hostility from the people who were supposed to help them. They’re lashing out in increasingly dangerous ways, as their charismatic leader becomes the only support system they have. This issue gives us a tense battle filled with close-quarters combat, but it doesn’t resolve any of the larger issues here. The Freshwater Killers are too big a group to be firmly defeated, and they’re as much the victims as the people they killed. It’s clear that even as he puts the cuffs on, Green Arrow is anything but satisfying with the outcome. With only one issue to go, it’ll be interesting to see how Condon and Montos put a bow on this storyline.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
