Ben Percy’s Green Arrow is generally regarded as one of the better titles of DC’s Rebirth line-up, but I sadly disagree. This was by far the worst reading experience I’ve ever had with the character.
It’s apparent from the first page that the book carries an overly cartoonish message of “Liberals = Good; Conservatives = Pure evil”, which is dropped without an ounce of grace or subtlety. The liberal protagonist is introduced giving a hundred bucks to a street urchin, who happens to be holding a guitar with the “This Machine Kills Fascists” sticker on it. In contrast, the conservative politician who opposes him is an idiotic pig who absent-mindedly eats a fly after it lands near his lip. There is also a gratuitous panel of Donald Trump shaking hands with Lex Luthor, one of DC’s most famous supervillains. And the story’s villains? Bankers, or, as the narrator describes them, “the real bad guys” who are behind every other bad guy.
The protagonist himself is unlikable. Ollie/Green Arrow proudly calls himself a social justice warrior, but he is really just a jerkass. It’s mentioned that he broke into a rich woman’s house once and forced her to donate money to a local hospital by pointing an arrow to her chest. Later, he comes to the aid of a starving homeless man by bullying an old couple into giving him not only their dinner’s leftover, but also all the money in their pockets. I get that Ollie is supposed to be a Robin Hood-esque anti-hero, but the real problem is his violent acts are rewarded in ways that make no sense. This culminates in him being inexplicably offered a spot in the Justice League, in the same arc where he fights both Wonder Woman and Batman after they try to stop him from torturing mobsters.
The secondary characters are not much better. I absolutely hated Dinah, whose heart-warming scenes with Ollie are off-set by all the times she belittles and physically abuses him. Her preachiness also reaches unbearable levels when she throws a fit just because he had the perfectly understandable desire to reclaim the company that is rightfully his. Emiko and Roy are okay sidekicks, but they feel like rehashes of Damian Wayne and Jason Todd, both in terms of personality and backstory.
The dialogue is atrocious. Dinah and Ollie’s romantic turmoil is fueled by every cliché you would expect from a corny teen drama, including that ever cringy “Every time I get close to someone, they get hurt” crap. But the worst exchange in the entire series happens when a villain says that the world’s most valuable resources are gold and data, prompting Ollie to retort, in a completely serious manner, “What about love?” Blech!
As for the plot, the basic premise is that Ollie loses his company and is framed for a crime, leading him to discover an ancient conspiracy involving a secret society that has ties with his parents. In other words, it’s Jeff Lemire’s run all over again, only much more dragged out. Even the subplots are the same, with the appearance of an evil archer, an “escape from a deserted island” arc, the return of Diggle, and the Shado/Emiko family drama being all directly lifted from that run.
The fight scenes are a mixed bag. Most are actually pretty good, courtesy of Otto Schmidt and Juan Ferreyra's absolutely spectacular art, but there are some that are unapologetically awful. The confrontation between Ollie and the evil archer in issue 17 deserves special mention: The two are standing side by side, when the villain turns around and shoots an arrow at a bystander. The next panel shows Ollie running, and the following one has him intercept the projectile by putting himself in front of the intended victim. That’s right, a normal man somehow managed to outrun an arrow. There is Willing Suspension of Disbelief, and then there is insulting the reader’s intelligence.
Overall, this work is plagued by the awkward handling of its messages, the unlikable cast, and a lack of originality. I understand it’s a popular run, but I unfortunately cannot recommend it.
ComicBook The worst SJW ever
Ben Percy’s Green Arrow is generally regarded as one of the better titles of DC’s Rebirth line-up, but I sadly disagree. This was by far the worst reading experience I’ve ever had with the character.
It’s apparent from the first page that the book carries an overly cartoonish message of “Liberals = Good; Conservatives = Pure evil”, which is dropped without an ounce of grace or subtlety. The liberal protagonist is introduced giving a hundred bucks to a street urchin, who happens to be holding a guitar with the “This Machine Kills Fascists” sticker on it. In contrast, the conservative politician who opposes him is an idiotic pig who absent-mindedly eats a fly after it lands near his lip. There is also a gratuitous panel of Donald Trump shaking hands with Lex Luthor, one of DC’s most famous supervillains. And the story’s villains? Bankers, or, as the narrator describes them, “the real bad guys” who are behind every other bad guy.
The protagonist himself is unlikable. Ollie/Green Arrow proudly calls himself a social justice warrior, but he is really just a jerkass. It’s mentioned that he broke into a rich woman’s house once and forced her to donate money to a local hospital by pointing an arrow to her chest. Later, he comes to the aid of a starving homeless man by bullying an old couple into giving him not only their dinner’s leftover, but also all the money in their pockets. I get that Ollie is supposed to be a Robin Hood-esque anti-hero, but the real problem is his violent acts are rewarded in ways that make no sense. This culminates in him being inexplicably offered a spot in the Justice League, in the same arc where he fights both Wonder Woman and Batman after they try to stop him from torturing mobsters.
The secondary characters are not much better. I absolutely hated Dinah, whose heart-warming scenes with Ollie are off-set by all the times she belittles and physically abuses him. Her preachiness also reaches unbearable levels when she throws a fit just because he had the perfectly understandable desire to reclaim the company that is rightfully his. Emiko and Roy are okay sidekicks, but they feel like rehashes of Damian Wayne and Jason Todd, both in terms of personality and backstory.
The dialogue is atrocious. Dinah and Ollie’s romantic turmoil is fueled by every cliché you would expect from a corny teen drama, including that ever cringy “Every time I get close to someone, they get hurt” crap. But the worst exchange in the entire series happens when a villain says that the world’s most valuable resources are gold and data, prompting Ollie to retort, in a completely serious manner, “What about love?” Blech!
As for the plot, the basic premise is that Ollie loses his company and is framed for a crime, leading him to discover an ancient conspiracy involving a secret society that has ties with his parents. In other words, it’s Jeff Lemire’s run all over again, only much more dragged out. Even the subplots are the same, with the appearance of an evil archer, an “escape from a deserted island” arc, the return of Diggle, and the Shado/Emiko family drama being all directly lifted from that run.
The fight scenes are a mixed bag. Most are actually pretty good, courtesy of Otto Schmidt and Juan Ferreyra's absolutely spectacular art, but there are some that are unapologetically awful. The confrontation between Ollie and the evil archer in issue 17 deserves special mention: The two are standing side by side, when the villain turns around and shoots an arrow at a bystander. The next panel shows Ollie running, and the following one has him intercept the projectile by putting himself in front of the intended victim. That’s right, a normal man somehow managed to outrun an arrow. There is Willing Suspension of Disbelief, and then there is insulting the reader’s intelligence.
Overall, this work is plagued by the awkward handling of its messages, the unlikable cast, and a lack of originality. I understand it’s a popular run, but I unfortunately cannot recommend it.