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Review: Green Arrow #46

Nemesis

When does a vigilante become a criminal?  Is there a difference in comics or in real life?  Can a struggle for change or social justice become a self-destructive crusade that destroys good people as a means to an end?  These are some of the issues tackled in Green Arrow #46.

Oliver Queen finds himself beset by allegations of bribery and the negligent homicide of an innocent years previous.  Leading the call for “justice” is Citizen, a vigilante seeking to overthrow the established order and bring down the rich and powerful.  Citizen has already been implicated in civil unrest city-wide and the deaths of several individuals in episodes of vigilante justice.  Queen, as his alter ego Green Arrow, and Black Canary are scouring the city for Citizen before he can do any more damage or hurt any more people in his crusade.  Along the way, they find that Citizen has inspired a citywide group of followers.  Sporting replica copies of Citizen’s mask they are seeking to emulate their hero and exact revenge upon the “elite” of Portland.  Canary and Arrow manage to put down the mini revolt before resuming their hunt for answers.  Eventually, Green Arrow finds answers he didn’t know he was looking for.  These new revelations paint his current struggle against Citizen in a new light.  Resolved to draw out his foe, he resumes his role as Oliver Queen.  Coming out of “hiding”, Queen goes on the attack and the issue ends with Oliver facing the consequences of choosing to fight this battle in a public forum, in this persona.

Green Arrow continues to be a book that pushes envelopes.  Oliver Queen is the unofficial social conscious of the DC Universe and he often finds himself in stories that tackle touchy themes and subjects.  Sometimes, he is the hero of the story and sometimes he is the villain. Okay, not the villain but wrong.  However,  his stories often go where other stories won’t.  Above my computer is one of those story arcs, Justice League: Rise and Fall.  A story of drug addiction, revenge and murder.  You will have to decide for yourself what meaning you give to this story but as always DC and writers Shawna and Julie Benson give us a lot to think about.  Not to be outdone by the wonderful story the artwork in this issue is very well done.  The pencil work and design of the book are tight and the action scenes are dynamic and flowing.  The inking is good, adding depth to the wonderful artwork.  The colors are dynamic and vibrant.  Green Arrow and Black Canary fairly fly off the page because of them.  This is a very good book that is worth reading on many levels.

Writing 4.5 of 5 Stars
Art – 4.5 of 5 Stars

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Story – Shawna Benson, Julie Benson
Art – German Peralta
Colors – John Kalisz
Letters – Deron Bennet

Author Profile

Nemesis
Nemesis is a poet, writer and author of the upcoming novel The Long Game. He is a writer of science fiction and supernatural thrillers. Besides novels and short stories he writes for UK based ASAP Comics developing new stories for Level 8 and OPSEC. Nem is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and tries to bring those experiences into his writing.

He lives and works out of his home in Riverside, California with his wife and three children. When not writing he enjoys reviewing comic books and graphic novels for ComicCrusaders.com and living the Southern California life with his family.
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