Green Arrow #6

Written by: Benjamin Percy

Art and Colour by: Stephen Byrne

Lettered by: Nate Piekos

In the previous issue, Ollie and Diggle infiltrate the floating fortress of the Ninth Circle in an attempt to save Black Canary. Diggle dons the outfit of one of their leaders and sneaks into their meeting as a spy, while Ollie looks for Black Canary and sets up explosive charges in case things go sideways. Finding a room filled with treasure, Ollie is conflicted about blowing up the ship, considering all the good that that much wealth could do, but continues his search. Back with Black Canary, it appears that Emiko is about to torture her at the instruction of Shado, when instead she releases her, Diggle also revealing himself. Emiko explains to Ollie that she was a mole, and is committed to his cause of helping people. They all make their escape, when suddenly Emiko is sedated by Shado and taken away. Ollie blows up the ship to help them get away, but is thrown overboard, waking up as he is washed ashore on a deserted island.

This issue focuses on Emiko and begins to give the background on why she acted as a mole, all the while cutting back to the present with her and her mother. Emiko reminisces about her time with Ollie, how he didn't want her to turn out as a spoiled rich person like he had, so he treated her with tough love, trying to teach her responsibility, but straining their relationship out of costume. Emi decides to show her responsibility by investigating the over achievers at school, all of whom wear an odd watch. She investigates the watch shop, buying one for herself and realizing that she seems so speed up while wearing it, becoming able to accomplish much more than she could before. Unfortunately, there's a drawback as she begins to slow down and needs to return to the clock maker and do jobs for him to wind it back up, being unable to remove the watch without her heart stopping. In the present, Emiko is taken back to Japan to meet with the Yakuza, but escapes her mother instead, determined to hunt down the Yakuza leader to free herself and her mother from his grasp. This issue thankfully answered a lot of questions that I had about Emiko over the course of the last several issues, and is a good addition even if it doesn't do a lot to further the overall story.

The artist has changed hands from the last few issues, and while I prefer the more painted style that we had before, Byrne does a great job of making the transition easier. The action flows just as well as before, and there is no drop in quality. The artwork even looks similar to what we had before, just with a slight change in style. The characters clearly show what they are feeling on their face without the need for any narration at times, and the artwork overall is superb.

I really enjoyed this issue, even if id did feel a little weaker than some of the previous issues. The artwork remained solid during the artists change, and the story filled in gaps from the previous issues that needed filling in. While I eagerly await the continuation of Ollie's story, I'm more than happy to have a little time dedicated to Emiko to flesh out her character even more and get a good view of her away from Ollie, having to rely on her own intelligence and skills to get by with no safety net.