Bane of Kings and Shadowhawk take a look at the latest issue of Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino’s stelar Green Arrow run.

“This is an excellent jumping on point to DC’s best comic.” ~Bane of Kings, The Founding Fields

“Lemire and Sorrentino kick off a new phase in Oliver’s war against crime and it is spectacular.” ~Shadowhawk, The Founding Fields

Bane of Kings:

Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino’s run on Green Arrow has been the best that the New 52 has had to offer us and if you’re not reading this book already, you can remedy that by jumping on board here as #32 is a good start for a newcomer to the series – fans of the CW’s hit show Arrow will dig this just as much as those who have never encountered Oliver Queen before.

Taking Ollie back to Seattle, in a nice change of pace following The Outsiders War, Richard Dragon has the city in his grasp. It isn’t long before Ollie reunited with Naomi and Henry Fyff – where they learn that John Diggle has been captured. The fallout of Ollie’s absence from the city is handled well, and it allows the plot to kick-start in a fantastic way as a new arc begins.

The book also features the first appearance of Red Dart in the New 52, and her entrance allows for a great fight sequence that’s pulled off very well, utilising a variety of trick darts and trick arrows. It’s brief, but fun – and hopefully this won’t be the last time we see Red Dart in this series. Another introduction of a pre-New 52 villains was the appearance of the Longbow Hunters – something which Green Arrow fans will appreciate as Lemire handles them very well, the banter between them and Ollie is one of the book’s highlights.

John Diggle also gets a lot of time in this episode – a character created by the show Arrow, he made his comic debut in #24 and has been featuring consistently ever since then. With one of my favourite characters in the show getting a lot of pagetime here – it’s great to see Lemire handling his character and Ollie well, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens when the two come face to face.

The artwork by Andrea Sorrentino is of course, amazing. I’ve been saying this ever since he started the book and month after month, Green Arrow is one of the best looking books on shelves as well as the best written books on shelves. Sorrentino is a large part of that, with some stunning pencils and great visuals, bringing Oliver Queen to life. The colours are amazing as well, Marcelo Maiolo really enhances Sorrentino’s pencils making them look even better, and as a result both artists are the perfect fit for this title.

In conclusion then, Green Arrow #32 is the jumping on point that non-readers have been waiting for. This is a book that everyone who’s a fan of comics should be reading – it’s literally DC’s best book right now, and Lemire and Sorrentino are crafting an exceptional run.

Rating: 9.5/10

 

Shadowhawk:

With The Outsiders War arc now over, it is time for Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino to return Oliver Queen to his roots in Seattle and have him face off against the menace of Richard Dragon, someone who has emerged as one of his most powerful foes, both physically and otherwise. And the villain has started off by taking Diggle captive and putting out a 30 million dollar bounty on the hero’s head, a bounty that no less than three villains come to try and collect. That’s the issue in a nutshell and it is pretty damn good if I do say so. Lemire and Sorrentino have been among the most consistent creators that I’ve been reading for the last year or so and their run on Green Arrow has been nothing short of mind-blowing in every single way.

The story here is fairly straightforward but Lemire still throws in some great twists, such as in the climax when Diggle imparts a certain truth to Richard Dragon while held captive. The revelation pretty much throws the villain into the twist, and the same goes for the reader too, because it is unexpected and yet entirely natural, which was the point I suppose. Lemire excels at throwing the readers for a loop and he does it in the best way possible, which was the case here.

His characterisation of all the characters here, such as Oliver himself and his friends Naomi and Fyff is excellent as well and he nails their voices and their attitudes in a most complete manner, something that I’ve been looking forward to every month since I picked up Green Arrow #23 last year. Lemire really gets all these characters and he sets up some really fun situations for them, which allow him to explore each character in turn and also move the story forward in as flamboyant a manner as possible, while not giving the impression of overdoing things.

As always, we have Sorrentino on the pencils with Marcelo Maiolo on the colours and Dezi Sienty on the letters. And again, as always Sorrentino and Maiolo turn out another amazing and beautiful cover such as the one we see for this issue. It captures all the characters rather well. While Sorrentino doesn’t go for any crazy paneling this time, something that he is quite the master of, he still keeps things fresh and interesting. Plus, combined with Maiolo’s atmospheric and moody colours, the overall effect is one of pure awesome. And I say that as a full-on fanboy of this series. I mean, I love the art that these two creators churn out together, and they are among the best of the best, that’s for sure.

All in all, Lemire, Sorrentino and Maiolo are off to a great start with the new arc, and I can’t wait to see where they go from here, particularly given the big post-climax cliffhanger scene, which had my jaw drop from what happened. Things just got even messier for Oliver, and I didn’t that that was possible. Not at all.

Rating: 9.5/10

More Green Arrow: #24, #25, #26, #27, #28, #29-30, #31,