[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers.]
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Juan Ferreyra
Summary
The Vice Squad, a group of murderous vigilantes, attacks a prison while Oliver tries to cope with how much of his life has fallen apart.
Positives
The cover by Juan Ferreyra is great. It misleads the audience in a really cool way that I appreciate. I also love the city colored as if it’s on fire. Additionally, the cover is incredibly well drawn.
The interior art by Ferreyra is excellent as usual. I always forget how strong of a colorist he is; his colors are incredible in this. The scene in which Oliver pays a visit to the newswoman that Malcolm tried to kill is gorgeous. Additionally, Ferreyra’s shading is really strong in this. I’ve never noticed it before but it’s effective throughout the entire issue.
I realized something reading this issue that I never thought about before; several things are going completely wrong in Oliver’s life but they’re unrelated to each other. Malcolm’s attempts to frame Green Arrow, Cyrus stealing the company and the Vice Squad are all seemingly unrelated which I like. It’s interesting to see Oliver have to face so much at once without it being some ridiculous master plan. When he lost the ability to be Oliver Queen, he took solace in that he could still be Green Arrow but Malcolm and the Vice Squad have both faced him with perversions of that persona. Ollie wonders in this if it would be better if he was no one; I like this identity crisis. In a single film, this would be too much. But in a serialized format, this works really well.
The action is great. Car chases are one of the most overused action set pieces so I am always impressed when one excites me. I love that Black Canary gets to crash an armored van; it is bad ass.
The ending makes me so happy. I won’t give it away but the final page is my favorite part of the issue.
Verdict
This is a great issue. The art and the writing are both in top form. Every panel is gorgeous with a great character focused story to go enhance it and vice versa. The action is cool and, as always, there are fun moments for fans of Green Arrow.
