Green Arrow #5

Oliver Queen is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Or rather a very bad few weeks more like, but just as luck would have it, it all eventually runs out. Good luck, and bad. So perhaps his bad luck looks like it might just be on the verge of ending.

Publisher: DC

Writer: Benjamin Percy

Artist: Juan Ferreyra

Letters: Nate Piekos

So far Oliver’s managed to get two back onto his team, Diggle and Fyff, so he’s not so completely abandoned after all. It’s actually a turning point for him. He even knows where Dinah is, so he’s ready to go after her. Going after her also means infiltrating the Ninth Circle and taking down the cult that has effectively ruined Oliver Queen’s life. All he has to do is get his sister Emiko back on his side and Oliver Queen is about to get his golden life back. At this point it doesn’t look like the Green Arrow is floundering as much as he once was.

This is such a fun issue, after seeing so much downfall for Ollie, it was nice to see some things turning around for him, alongside all the makings of a good takedown against evil. There was some undercover infiltration which put Diggle in a crazy getup of one of the Ninth Circle council members, lots of action, every character pretty much being a badass, and certain twists of betrayal against family. All in all, it was jam packed with excitement.

Having things finally turn around for Ollie gave us a glimmer of the Oliver Queen many of us know and love, he was smiling, a little quirky, and what really made it was his smug expression throughout the bigger showdown near the end. Who can blame him though, he got his dream lady back after all. And as a sucker for the Dinah-Ollie romance, their reunion was a spectacle to behold. Sweet, funny, perfect.

Now that we’re into a couple more issues with Ferreyra’s art, it certainly has taken into its own. The detail in every character’s posture, action, and expression, is on point and tells the story in complement to the dialogue.

Naturally though it can’t conclude with sunshine and rainbows despite how nice that would be for everyone, the series would be over in five issues, and this series has so much potential, that would be a waste. Since the beginning Ollie has been struggling with defining himself, as Oliver Queen and as the Green Arrow. He desperately wants his life as Oliver Queen back, but it’s the Green Arrow that allows him to survive. He’s eventually left with a choice of who he’s truly willing to be, both choices of course coming with a price. And the choice he ends up making of course has consequences. The consequences of which ends up leaving readers with a rather cheeky final panel in the issue-- kind of fun for those familiar with other Green Arrow stories floating out around there.

Overall it was a fun issue, engaging with very charismatic characters that never leave the reader wanting. It delivers good story with dynamic action and has just enough of an ending to get readers back without feeling gimmicky. It looks like this series remains just as strong as ever.