[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers.]
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Otto Schmidt
Summary
The citizens of Seattle try to decide what they think about Green Arrow while the team plans their next move.
Positives
The cover by W. Scott Forbes is pretty cool. I love the target in the background with sirens used as the main color scheme. The characters are drawn in a more animated style than Juan Ferreyra’s covers but I like this quite a bit. It almost looks like a screenshot from an animated Green Arrow movie.
The interior art by Otto Schmidt is great as usual; he draws and colors the issue. As usual, my favorite aspect of his work is the coloring. Team Arrow starts to build a new headquarters in a forest just outside of Seattle. This forest is gorgeous; the green Schmidt uses looks spectacular.
Benjamin Percy does a great job of writing distinct voices for the three protagonists. This issue actually allows time to appreciate that now that the characters get to just talk without underwater bullet trains or robot bears. The dialogue Percy writes cannot be said by just anyone. It matters who says what and fits with the personalities established throughout this run.
Percy has a lot of fun with current politics and I enjoyed that aspect quite a bit. It’s both hilarious and sad because some of the people depicted in the book are insanely over the top but there are people in the real world just as over the top. Percy isn’t being unrealistic here. All of the talk about SJWs and “liberal blowhards” really made me laugh. There’s even a character that I think is an analogue for Trump. Percy also deals with police brutality and how people react to that which is interesting. The current political climate is a perfect setting for an interesting vigilante story so I am excited to see where this goes.
Negatives
I am not sure how I feel about Black Canary in this. She states that Oliver needs to focus on the city and not his company. He’s being selfish thinking about getting the company back from Cyrus. I do agree with her. However, she is a little forceful. She is right but practically makes it an order. The company is all Ollie has left of his family besides Emiko. She could be a bit more understanding of the problem. She implies by the end that she isn’t going to let him go off alone so that he doesn’t try to take his company back. Besides all of that, a seriously evil dude is running Queen Industries. While Ollie certainly has selfish motives, he isn’t wrong. Cyrus is using the company for evil and needs to be stopped. Dinah is a bit too simplistic in her thinking and not really fair to Ollie.
Verdict
Overall, this is an enjoyable issue. The art is great, especially the colors. Percy manages to engage even though not much happens in terms of plot. The political commentary is well done and I enjoy the banter between the members of Team Arrow.
