Green Arrow #43 Review

Writers: Julie Benson and Shawna Benson

Artist: Javier Fernandez

Colourist: John Kalisz

Letterer: Deron Bennett

It’s been a while since Benjamin Percy and Juan Ferreyra’s run on this book ended, and we finally have our new ongoing writers. The Bensons did some decent work on Batgirl and the Birds of Prey recently, and I’ve been curious to see what they do with this character since it was announced they would jump on.

I really liked this issue. The Bensons lay a really solid foundation in terms of its cast of characters. We have Ollie and Dinah, and Roy is apparently going to play a big part in the story as well. The villain that we meet, the Citizen, really makes an entrance and the cliffhanger really intrigued me.

I was also really impressed by the art. I’ve only ever read Javier Fernandez’s gritty work, like his work on Nightwing. Here he really gets to tell a bright and fun story, and John Kalisz is joining him on colours. The Fernandez/Kalisz combo is pretty beautiful and fresh, and exactly what this book needs to look like. Fernandez has a particular shading style that’s used at certain, more dramatic points in the story and it works incredibly well in a foreboding sense. That final page is absolutely stunning.

Anyone with a passing interest in the character should check this out. The art is stunning and the writing is tight and fun. This is the beginning of what could be a good run on the character, so jump on!