Green Arrow #34

Writer: Benjamin Percy

Artist: Stephen Byrne

Letterer: Deron Bennett

I'm not too keen on Stephen Byrne as an artist, but I have to admit I had a nice enough time with this issue. Or at least a better time than I usually have with this series.

Let's start with Byrne. He hasn't contributed much to this series, but whenever he has, I always come out of the issue feeling disappointed. This is the best comparison I could make, and I don't mean to disparage anyone who does this, but his art reminds me more of web comic art or quick doodles people post on Twitter. His style doesn't scream "sequential" to me, and I had much of the same problems here. His colouring might be the reason I don't connect to it at all, which gives his art the aforementioned looks. That's not to say his art is bad; I like a lot of the characters he draws and his faces work for me, but that's about it.

As for the story, I don't think Benjamin Percy dives as deep as I was expecting. Oliver is facing a conundrum, as he's struggling with the idea that his mother is alive and how he should proceed from there. Understandably, it's interfering with his fight against "the man", but I don't fully understand exactly why that is. I also fail to understand why Oliver isn't showing more hostility towards his mother for being a prominent member of the Ninth Circle, an organisation that dealt with such fun activities as human trafficking and blatant murder.

This isn't a bad issue by any means, but it does nothing special at the same time. The art is almost mediocre while the story is fun but not as deep as I thought it would be.