Review: Green Arrow #42

Oliver Queen finds himself guarding Parasite; a criminal who is locked away on Stryker“s Island for his crimes against humanity. With his task starting to allude him he is forced to chase a hopped up, scared beast through the bowels of the institution in an attempt to get him back to his cell. Green Arrow #42 (DC Comics) is an action filled book that left me feeling conflicted morally after its conclusion, but let me tell you why.

Mairghread Scott (Writer) has penned a cautionary tale that touches on what happens to people once they are locked away for atrocities. In this case, we have Parasite, which is really just a former bicycle messenger who was turned into a horrible monster in an accident. Once this was done, he was willing to do anything to make the pain stop. It just so happens that he would suck the life out of people to take the edge off. Rightfully, he was locked away for the benefit of all. Once this was done however, he was left to rot away. You certainly could not put him with others because, you know, touching them and stuff. It would be bad.
What happens to any living creature when it is locked away from the world? It starts to lose its mind. Parasite is no exception to this, and now Green Arrow is trying to clean up the mess which was made by the institution the villain is locked up in.

I didn“t expect the morality play in the story, where Green Arrow questioned if he was right in his attempt to stop the monster, but also questioned the warden on the way he segregated him from the rest of the inmates, never allowing him to see the sun again. Clearly this was the backbone of this book, the question of what to do with someone who can“t be trusted to not kill everything they touch, but treat them like a human as well. What is the correct answer?
This was done in a way that did not come across as “preachy”“ and did not try to sway readers to one conclusion or the other. The story simply presents a question and lets the readers decide how to feel about it. Beautifully done.

Matthew Clark (Pencils), Sean Parsons (Inks) Jason Wright (Colors), and Deron Bennett(Letters) make a formidable art team. I want to call attention specifically to the color work of Jason Wright, which is brilliant throughout the book. The cover work by Tyler Kirkham and Arif Prianto is classic Green Arrow, and fans also have the option to pick up another dazzling variant by the legendary Mike Grell.

I“m glad to have read this comic. Not only was it a fun and exciting story, but had a deeper meaning as well. It“s more thoughtful than you would expect, and I never felt there was an agenda being forced upon me. I know Green Arrow does lean in a bit on our morality usually, but this just felt very gentle. That, my friends, is great comic book writing.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

(W) Mairghread Scott (A) Matthew Clark (CA) Tyler Kirkham

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Bryan Spaulding

In his free time, other than reading comic books, Bryan enjoys listening to his ever growing record collection and driving his 27 year old roadster named Mingo.