The Return of Green Arrow
Written by Walter Percy Art and Colors by Otto Schmidt Letters by Nate Piekos
In the wake of DC Universe: Rebirth, the ability to read (or desire to read) these ‘Rebirth’ specials as a meta-text is very high. And, maybe, even without the revelations found in that book that view would still be there. The point of these specials is to simultaneously reclaim identity theft and promise the readership (new and lapsed) of a quality book going forward. But this is not a unique set of conditions, all new #1 issues and television pilots function in this way. With Green Arrow double shipping (issue #1 drops June 15) I’m curious if the next installment will follow the path of most TV wherein the second episode acts as a redux of the pilot, with less required foundation laying.
Green Arrow: Rebirth confidently walks the line between episodic story and something built into a multi-part story. This is first and foremost the story of Green Arrow and Black Canary meeting, teaming up, and their dynamics. While at the same time setting up our villain, that red arrow headed skull faced person from the solicited covers.
Green Arrow in the New 52 hasn’t felt like Green Arrow, an ideal formed through mixing DCAU, live action, and comics incarnations. Aesthetically the lack of a beard made him too young, and without that age he is kind of directionless. In terms of content it was a tonally dissonant mixture of Batman tinged darkness and the desire to be a daytime superhero. The New 52 run had its moments, mainly Jeff Lemire’s run (#17-34 and some one shots), but the book mostly just existed trying to find a new identity. In that search for identity, Oliver Queen appeared more often as a lame Batman riff (no Arrow isn’t that). That ability to be be Batman-lite makes sense given their their similarities but it misses their differences. Writer Ben Percy, continuing in someway I assume from his previous work on the title, and artist Otto Schmidt use their Rebirth special to map out the tonal and ideological strains unique and identifiable to Oliver Queen.
In the issue, Oliver Queen is referred to by multiple people as some combination of: arrogant, loud-mouth, sanctimonious, and holier-than-though. Combined they makeup the panache of Oliver Queen and finally added the missing ingredient: playfulness. While the issue uses very real and dark social ills such as homelessness and human trafficking, it’s never not playful and well comic book-esque. Oliver Queen is a self professed social justice warrior, a moment that is earnest and knowingly provocative. This uniformity of tone is completely due to artist Otto Schmidt’s art, his character and environmental designs are energetic and expressive.
A key way to bring up that playful quality is to give him something to banter against, that was one of the main reasons behind sidekicks in the first place. One Oliver hasn’t really gotten in the New 52, but now he has the Black Canary, Dinah Lance. The Canary finds herself on something of a walkabout after her series ended. And now they finally meet…for the second time. (OK, here's where you shouldn’t really try to think about the mechanics of stealing/restoring a decades worth of time and remember Johns meta promise). They are the yin to each others yang; a industrialist gadget driven vigilante and a punk. They just complete each other with their flirtatious repartee. It isn’t just flirtation, they act as a check on one another. Dinah sees his proclamation towards progressive values as hollow gesturing as he is in her word “The Man”. He counters with the charitable causes Queen Industries participates in. No, Oliver Queen isn’t some perfect paragon of progressive values, he doesn’t even know about The Jungle; a large homeless compound. But neither is Black Canary. Together though maybe they can become better well rounded individuals.
Otto Schmidt’s art helps to bring out a real human element that in the abstract the dialogue an overall sequences don’t have. My favorite moment in the book ins’t the barbs traded by Queen and Dinah, but the image of Oliver giving the young homeless kid he comes across a bath. Ben Percy and Otto Schmidt may not be the most evocative creative team but for this issue at least, they made Oliver Queen the Green Arrow I remember.
I am Michael Mazzacane you can follow me on Twitter and at ComicWeek.org
