Oliver Queen is at his weakest. After being framed by Eddie Fyers in an elaborate plot involving the FBI, CIA and DEA (The Black Arrow Saga Storyline – read my review here), Oliver Queen meets the President of the United States of America, George Bush Snr, who angers Oliver and he is left feeling homeless and no longer a patriot. This is where we get this storyline, known as Last Action Hero, which features Oliver Queen going on a world tour of sorts for nearly ten issues before returning home. We see the archer go to Canada, Wales, England, Zimbabwe and many more, but what exactly is he looking for and what is the purpose for him travelling. Well I guess the answer would be to try and have a break from being Green Arrow, but we all know that won’t work…
The stories I will be reviewing are:
Spirit Quest --- Green Arrow (vol 2) 40
Hooray for Ollie-Wood/Fall Guy/ Legend of the Stupid Heroes --- Green Arrow (vol 2) 41-43
Rock and Runes/Raising a Rock as… --- Green Arrow (vol 2) 44-45
Round the Horn --- Green Arrow (vol 2) 46-48
The Last Lion/Home is the Hunter --- Green Arrow (vol 2) 49-50
Green Arrow (vol 2) issues 40-50 were published from Early December 1990 to Early August 1991 on a fortnightly basis. Like always, all stories are written by Mike Grell with numerous artists. Again, all of the issues were published under the “Suggested for Mature Readers” line and I have read these issues in the Green Arrow: Last Action
Hero trade paperback.
Spirit Quest --- Written and drawn by Mike Grell
THE PLOT
After walking through a jungle, Oliver Queen meets an old Native American man, who tells Oliver that he was been waiting for him thanks to an eagle that noticed Oliver nearby. The old man asks if Oliver can fix his truck. After getting the truck working while the old man speaks about Oliver’s shooting, the two drive off in the truck and arrives near some mountains. The two then walk up the mountain and make camp, where the old man hears the howl of a bear and explains that it is calling to the spirit that moves in everything. It is then that the old man gives his name as Stalking Wolf and he explains how he travelled the lands of the country when he was younger to see the animals and nature. After the long conversation between Oliver and Stalking Wolf, the two go to sleep and Oliver dreams about climbing up the mountain and obtaining his true name. However, he then awakens and finds that Stalking Wolf has vanished. Oliver decides to climb to the peak of the mountain, where he finds Stalking Wolf’s necklace talisman. Oliver puts it round his neck and walks back down the mountain.
MY THOUGHTS
To me, this is an incredibly strange story that doesn’t really feel like any of the stories we have seen before in the run. I think the greatest thing about this tale has to be the character of the Stalking Wolf, who basically speaks riddles, but when you deconstruct what he is saying, he is an interesting character as you learn about his tribal background and even though he only appears in this singular story, he becomes a sort of mentor to Green Arrow incredibly quickly, making him an important character. Climbing the mountain is obviously the goal of the story and while I think a lot can be done with that idea, I think this story lacks a lot of things…
My main issue with the story is that the ending and what the story is trying to get across. The story can be quite dull in numerous places, but to me, the story is too mystifying, and nothing seems clear. I understand the symbolic meaning behind climbing the mountain, but the ending and what it means come across as a bit naff. Why does the Native America disappear and what does his necklace talisman mean? The issue is that there isn’t enough to go on and due to that, nothing seems clear in any way. I didn’t hate reading this story and as a story I don’t think it is rubbish. I mean yeah, there are some strange unrealistic plot advancements like why on earth would Stalking Wolf have a car, but in the end, nothing seems clear and looking back, can this even be considered a story? In fact, the more I look back at it and write this paragraph, the more unlikely I will be to ever read this story again.
Although Grell is an excellent painter and his art in the Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters is excellent, his inked stuff isn’t particularly gripping, clear or nice to look at.
Don’t get me wrong, his use of storytelling and the methods that he shows scenarios in are detailed and great, but the overall finishes and textures look too rough. Like Denys Cowan (but to a much lesser degree), there are too many unneeded lines, and nothing seems completely black, as if Grell has messily covered a section of the page quickly with ink. Yes, the storytelling is excellent, but with a story like this and quality of the art, I’ve seen better.
Story: 3/10
Art: 5/10
Hooray for Ollie-Wood/Fall Guy/ Legend of the Stupid Heroes --- Written by Mike Grell with art by Denys Cowan and Bill Wray
THE PLOT
As Oliver walks through a forest in Canada, he notices a woman hanging off a tree over a waterfall. She falls and without thought, Oliver jumps down and rescues her, only to discover it is actually a stunt man and there are a crew of film workers watching who are recording a film. The director runs up to Oliver and shouts at him for ruining the take. Oliver then speaks to the stunt man, named Terry Marsh, who is Irish. The two get on well and they speak how Oliver rescued him. After Oliver is introduced to several other workers, Oliver and Terry bond over their mutual love of Robin Hood and the stunt man in a film adaptation known as Howard Hill. The two then shoot arrows at targets together, which causes for Terry to offer Oliver a job as a stunt man to fire arrows for the film, which he agrees to. At night, Oliver and Terry go to a pub and they use Oliver’s archery skills to get free drinks. However, later in the night, Terry gets into an argument with a local supporter of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and a massive pub fight ensues. The morning after Oliver and Terry walk home from the pub, Terry shows Oliver crates of weapons which they use for stunts on the film, but to Terry’s shock, the crates are empty, and the weapons have been stolen. Canadian policemen on horseback arrive and speak to people, one of whom recognises Oliver but doesn’t know where he has seen him before. The crew members of the film then realise that the IRA could be the ones who stole the weapons.
After Oliver, Terry and the rest of the crew watch rough cut of the film they are producing (which involves human sacrifice), the director speaks about the progress of the film and how the weapons are needed to make the film seem more real to viewers. But, the detective on the scene says that if the IRA have taken the weapons, then they may well be out of the country already. The detective then believes that Oliver is behind the theft as he shows Oliver a newspaper that details his fake crimes of terrorism. Although Oliver explains that he was cleared, the detective still finds him suspicious, causing Oliver to leave. Oliver then meets a Canadian police officer, who Oliver had met before as the Horseman (from Green Arrow (vol 2) 17-18). The two speak about how things have changed since the last time they met and that he and the other law officers are searching for IRA member and operative Tommy O’Conner, who has been active in terrorism for five decades. Later on, Terry meets Oliver in the pub, who asks about his limp, but instead of answering, he asks Oliver about how he was betrayed by the government and made into a terrorist, despite the fact that he is cleared. Oliver then leaves and finds some footprints, which he follows and locates a crate to do with the film, but instead of reporting it to the police, Oliver in his drunken state falls asleep on top of it. Terry then arrives and wakes him up, but Oliver not only reveals that he hasn’t been drunk, but he also tells Terry that he faked his drunkeness and that the fight in the pub the previous night was staged. Oliver then tells Terry that he knows he is a member of the IRA, which Terry denies, causing Oliver to open the crate, which reveals all of the stolen weapons. After Oliver tells Terry that he knew he stole the weapons from the shape of the footprints caused by Terry’s limp, Terry then explains that he is Tommy O’Conner and he adopted the name from his grandfather (explaining the long time span of crimes that he has caused). The two then point their weapons at each other, but a car pulls up with Terry’s IRA friends in it and Terry leaves Oliver in the forest.
The next day, the director of the film is angered by Terry’s disappearance and his terrorist actions. The detective also questions Oliver, who wants to know why Oliver let a terrorist escape. Oliver explains that despite the fact that they have conflicting views, Oliver sees Terry as a friend. This is when the detective shows and explains some of the crimes that Terry has committed with the IRA, such as sniper attacks on the army, a train robbery and also hiding a bomb on a child’s bicycle, which the child rides down to a military checkpoint with and explodes, killing numerous people. After this, Oliver decides to hunt down Terry himself by going to Northern Ireland. Oliver walks into an IRA supporting pub and shouts about his search for Tommy O’Conner, which gets him kicked out. Afterwards, Oliver is greeted by numerous thugs and people working for O’Conner. They try to beat Oliver, but he beats them first and tells one of the thugs to tell O’Conner that he is coming for him. That night, Oliver gets a phone call from Terry, who tells him to go home, but Oliver refuses. The next morning, Terry arrives where Oliver is staying and meets him. Oliver has his bow pointed at Terry at all times, but Terry has got a detonator for a bomb which is hiding in a child’s bicycle, which he will ride near Prince Charles and Princess Diana who are visiting Northern Island and kill them. However, before Terry can trigger the explosive, Terry throws a knife at Oliver while Oliver fires an arrow at him. Afterwards, Oliver locates the child on the bicycle (who had just delivered flowers to the Prince and Princess) and he asks the child if he can have it. Oliver bribes the child with some money and as Oliver rides away on the bike, blood can be seen dripping down Oliver’s sleeve.
MY THOUGHTS
For the first of a series of stories where Oliver travels around the world, this is the best of them all, despite its problems. To start with, it is great to see the aftermath of Oliver’s fake terrorism charge coming back to bite him on the a*se. This is good because it retells the reasons for Oliver’s almost homelessness and why he is travelling. Plus, it adds some much-needed continuity, so the characters don’t forget previous stories. The main plot is actually not bad. It covers some pretty heavy stuff and while I think it can go off the rails sometimes, it is interesting. As Grell likes to add realistic factors to his comics, the IRA are villains and as they were (and are still) a terrorist organisation, it makes the threat in the story feel real. In fact, the mystery surrounding Terry as a character is pretty good and interesting. This is also disguised by the funny scenarios he and Oliver get into, such as Terry being saved by Oliver who mistook him for a woman and the huge bar fight. However, as we discover, the latter of the two was actually staged and he is an IRA terrorist. To me, it became clear as the story went on that Terry was the terrorist, but it does come across as a mystery at the very start. I thought his main task to kill the Prince and Princess of Wales was very smart and although it used a similar tactic, no, the same tactic that he had used before, his target made sense. When Green Arrow finds Terry in Northern Ireland, it is intense as not only is Terry’s plan seemingly going to be carried out, but he may kill Green Arrow. However, to me, although it is kept hidden if Oliver kills Terry, I think it is evident that he does in fact kill him due to blood dripping down Oliver’s arm, which is probably due to Terry throwing a knife at him and if he can hit Green Arrow and (continues after image)
hurt him, Green Arrow easily can due to his pin point accuracy and due to that, I believe that Terry is killed. Also, although it is a small one, it is good to see a cameo from the Horseman, who appeared earlier in the run. Again, this adds some continuity to the run.
However, there are numerous things wrong with this story to me. Firstly, I don’t get why Oliver had to pretend to be drunk when hanging around with Terry and also, the weapons are stolen days before Oliver discovers and surely Terry’s footprints wouldn’t still be around. I guess the thing I dislike the most about this story has to be its setting, an old film set. I find this kind of unsuitable for a Green Arrow story as it doesn’t really fit into his character and after the second part, it just gets forgotten about entirely. That being said, I find the story as a whole a bit too long and it really goes on for too long in my view. I think that this story could easily be two parts, with the revelation of Terry being part of the IRA at the end of part one. Overall, I do like the premise of the story and there are lots of good things about it, but there are plot holes you can back trucks through. Why is Terry working on a film set which has loads of people working on it? Surely wouldn’t it be easier for him if he just went into hiding as although he adopted his terrorist name from his grandfather, he must have committed crimes before under the name, meaning that people would recognise him as a terrorist. And finally, why does Terry have to have the bomb activator on the desk and not in his back pocket or something. He could easily set off the bomb at the end as he would be hiding it from Oliver.
Although before I have torn Denys Cowan’s a*se a new hole due to his honestly horrific art, here it isn’t so bad. This is certainly down to the inks by Bill Wray, which make the art look presentable. However, you can still see Cowan’s ugliness and inaccurate storytelling. There are some interesting uses of light, but overall, the art is average at best.
Story: 6.5/10
Art: 4.5/10
Rock and Runes/Raising a Rock as… --- Written by Mike Grell with art by Rick Hoberg and John Nyberg
THE PLOT
While Oliver has been travelling, Dinah has met a police officer named Aloysius Kazcinski, nicknamed Kaz, who is interested in going out with Dinah, but Dinah decides to not go out with him. Meanwhile in Wales, Oliver is travelling and comes across the home of the Jones family. Although they let Oliver have some water, they are unwelcoming and troubled by him, causi Oliver to leave. After he leaves, a cruel man named Barton arrives and threatens to destroy artwork created by Tom Jones (the father and not the singer) if the family doesn’t move out so Barton can buy the land, but Oliver comes back and confronts Barton and his men, causing for him to leave, but he swears he will return. Afterwards, Tom apologizes to Oliver and the whole family warm to him. Tom also tells Oliver that he has a plan to deter Barton from his plan, which is to reconstruct ancient and holy stones nearby. Oliver agrees to help Tom and afterwards, Oliver speaks with Laurel, Tom’s wife and Tommy, their son, who Oliver teaches how to use a bow. However, while training, Oliver hears chainsaws nearby and notices Barton’s men attempting to destroy the stones. Oliver runs at the thugs and with the help of Tom, they both drive off Baton’s men. Oliver then offers to use the money he has to reconstruct the stones, making Tom happy. That night, Oliver and the family celebrate while Barton secretly phones somebody who might be able to drive the Jones family away from their land.
Back in Seattle, Kaz is rejected again by Dinah, causing for the shop assistant Marianne to ask why, which Dinah says will mean that she has moved on from Oliver. Meanwhile in Wales, a friend of the Jones family named Angus helps out with Oliver to rebuild the stones, despite warnings from Tom that Barton and his men could return. At night while everyone is celebrating, Barton turns up with a negotiator that try and convince the family to give up the land. Barton then speaks to Tom, saying how his family could be torn apart due to Laurel’s obvious attraction to Oliver. After Barton leaves, Tom speaks to Oliver about how he lost his eye by not wearing safety goggles when working on a sculpture. While this is going on, Angus returns to the construction site at night where he is killed by Barton’s negotiator. After the funeral, Oliver and Tom decide to build the stones together on their own, but to their shock, Tommy has gone missing. Tom then gets his gun out and threatens to find Barton, but Oliver shouts at him and punches him, telling him not to go as he has a family to look
after. The two then fight, but Oliver manages to knock Tom out and he goes to look for Tommy. To Barton’s surprise, Oliver arrives at his home, expecting it to be Tom. Oliver then notices a thug with a gun pointed to the back of Tommy’s head, causing for Oliver to quickly fire an arrow at the thug to kill him. Oliver then fires his bow at the negotiator, who is firing her gun at Oliver. In the end, Oliver retrieves Tommy and takes him back to Tom and Laurel, who wants Oliver to stay him them. But Oliver tells her that he has his own home and he leaves the family.
MY THOUGHTS
Okay. Um. What do I write here that I classify as good? Um, I guess the tension between Tom Jones and his wife when he gets his gun out to find Tommy is good as it creates a sense of character and drama. And… uh… I like that Tom has got an eyepatch.
Plainly put, this story is absolutely f*cking dreadful and it is one of the most woeful things I’ve ever had to read. For starters, the main plot is pretty dreadful and unrealistic. Why does it matter so much to Barton that he has to get the land belonging to the Jones family? Can’t he just build somewhere else and why does it have to be that specific land. Also, I don’t see the need for violence against the family and the extreme ways of just to get them to move out. It seems too desperate. I mean, threatening to destroy some decorations is one thing, but killing one of the close friends of the family, that person being Angus is way too over the top. Also, I don’t see the point of the negotiator character. She isn’t really one and I get that that is the point, but we see before that Barton had men who work for him that are strong so why couldn’t he just hire them to do the job as it probably would a much more simple plan. F*ck it, if he wants the land that much then why doesn’t he just get his men to storm the land and kill everyone on it. Ugh, this story is a mess and the characters are completely cardboard. All of the members of the Jones family come across as dull and uninteresting. The only good thing about Tom himself is that eye patch, which only makes him look different to other characters. His wife is pretty dull too and his son barely even features in the story and he is only really there to be kidnapped. My main issue with the story is that this doesn’t feel like a Green Arrow story. I’ll be honest, this travelling storyline doesn’t work with Green Arrow and quite honestly, it slows the run down to a complete halt. I guess the only interesting bits of the story is where Dinah is featured with Kaz, but those parts are featured so rarely that you don’t even have time to process them. Why couldn’t Dinah feature in the story more. As I’ve said before, she is an important part of the run and the title belongs to her as well. Christ, I could go on for hours with this story, but quite honestly, I hate even talking about it.
In terms of the art, well, we have the first story with Rick Hoberg and John Nyberg together and it looks average. I’ll be honest, while I don’t think it is too messy, I just think that it looks dull and it the dramatic scenes in the story look very crude. It is far better than Denys Cowan, but it is just a shame that we are stuck with these two for the rest of the run…
Story: 1/10
Art: 6/10
Round the Horn --- Written by Mike Grell with art by Denys Cowan, Mike Manley and Floyd Hughes
THE PLOT
In Africa, numerous hunters shoot and kill a rhino. A tour guide notices the hunters and tries to follow them, but he finds that they have moved their hunt to Mozambique. Meanwhile in London, Oliver Queen is travelling and a man in a car named Bryant pulls up who knows Tom Jones (from the previous story). He offers a task to Oliver, which he instantly accepts without even knowing what it is. After the car journey, Oliver and Bryant arrive at the residence of a man named Thaddeus Shabanye, who speaks to Oliver about a scheme he is running which involves mercenaries preventing hunters killing endangered species and animals like the rhino. He also tells Oliver that hunters must be taken out in any ways needed, such as death. Oliver agrees to this after he is shown pictures of dead animals and he heads to Zimbabwe with Bryant in a plane, which lands in a small valley named Mamba. (continues after image)
Oliver meets the mercenary team, which consist of Hans Krieger, Angel Hawkins and Ian Carmichael, all of whom are experts in a range of different fields. Later on, Oliver sleeps in a tent next to Angel, who carries a gun on her just in case. Oliver then sleeps, thinking that he will be facing a long night.
The next morning, Oliver and the rest of the team discuss how they are going to find and take out the poachers. Not only does Angel have a glider which she can use to find poachers, but Bryant has satellite photographs of where endangered animals are, making the mercenaries aware of where hunters may turn up. However, a wind arises and some of the photographs fly in the wing, one of which is a blue envelope that has a logo saying WWC on it. Oliver says that he has seen it before, but Bryant warns him that he didn’t see it then or now. Using the glider, Angel spots bulls and everyone else finds numerous animal traps which are poisonous. Angel also locates some of the hunters and their location is sent to Bryant and the rest of the team. When Green Arrow and the mercenaries find the poachers, a violent gun fight starts, and all of the poachers are killed. Later at night, Angel speaks with Oliver about Ian, one of the other members of the team, and how the two used to be lovers, but she explains that white people and black people still don’t get on well in Africa. Afterwards, as Oliver dismantles animal traps on a field, Ian watches him from afar.
The next day, Angel in her glider notices hunters with RPGs and they kill numerous animals violently. In rage, Angel fires at the hunters, but they fire back, and she is injured. Her glider crash lands, and the hunters also destroy the mercenary’s car, meaning that they are on foot for the rest of their task. However, Oliver discovers satellite photos in the pocket of one of the dead hunters, making the team confused about how the hunters could have got them. After one of the team members decide to stay behind to tend to Angel’s wounds, the others go off to find the hunters. On their journey, the mercenaries find an elephant wandering nearly dead with bullet holes in it and it is covered in blood. Oliver decides to kill it to put it out of its misery. Although Ian agreed that the elephant should die for humane reasons, he shouts in anger about the hunters and how the animals they face will be extinct one day. The team leave as Oliver looks back to the dead elephant and cries to himself. After walking and searching, the team find the poachers putting the ivory from the animal’s tusks into a truck to send to their employer. Using an explosive planted by Ian, the truck is destroyed, causing for the hunter’s employer to arrive at the scene. To Oliver and Bryant’s shock their employer is theirs as well, that person being Thaddeus Shabanye. While Bryant goes back to London to confront their employer about how he has been aiding the corrupt leaders of African countries to increase their wealth by adding more poachers to the country, Oliver visits a starving town, which is visited by a religious fat man on a horse. Oliver stabs the horse with an arrow, killing it so the African people can eat it.
MY THOUGHTS
Before I get to what I dislike about this story (which is a lot), I must confess that I like the message. Like the Argon Oil story from Green Arrow (vol 2) 29-30, it is clear that this is something that Mike Grell is knowledgeable about and it is clearly something he wants to write about. There are some great and sad moments in this story, particularly with the dying elephant, who Oliver kills to put out of its misery. This adds emotion to the story, and it makes the poachers come across as evil. Lastly, I like the twist ending with the poacher’s employer being the same person that employed Oliver and the mercenaries, even if stuff like that tends to happen in stories by Mike Grell.
However, next to the story set in Wales, this pretty much sucks. The main problem is that this story is dull. It is basically three issues of walking around a field, occasionally attacking some hunters and fining a few dead animals. While I sympathise with what Grell is trying to show in this story, it comes across as too pandering and incredibly forced throughout. Yes, there are pages full of dialogue that detail interesting facts and statistics, but that’s not why I’m reading a comic. Sure, it may be a small part of that, but primarily, I read comics to enjoy them and take things in from them. This story left me feeling empty and there was no accomplishment or satisfaction after reading it. In terms of the character, all of them are dull and boring. Sure, there are small and tiny bits of information about them all which makes them sort of unique, but none of them are interesting characters. In fact, the most interesting character that features only in this story is Angel and that is only because of the suggestions made by her and others about sex and race. I think another problem with this story is that it doesn’t feel much like a Green Arrow story. The man who hired him said that he wants a person who can kill people, hence why he chose Green Arrow. If that’s the case, then why does everyone else on the team kill hunters like there is no tomorrow. Not only that, but the ending does seem a bit cruel and kind of against what the story’s message is. Oliver kills a horse so that a family can eat it. While I understand that the family need food, couldn’t Oliver have found another way around this rather than killing a horse for no reason, like the poachers would have done earlier in the story, who Oliver were trying to kill? F*cking hell, this story is a mess. It has a good message, but the plot is honestly crap, uneventful and it doesn’t even make sense in some areas. Christ, this is almost as bad as that story in Wales.
In terms of the art, well, f*ck it. Denys Cowan is inked by two people that really don’t make him look any better. While Mike Manley is a great artist with his art on the Batman titles in the 1990s, his inks over Cowan look shoddy, messy, ugly, deranged and hideous. Things don’t get much better with Floyd Hughes, who actually makes Cowan look worse to the point where reading this issue is a chore. Overall, not only does this story suck, but the art is even worse.
Story: 1.5/10
Art: 0.5/10
The Last Lion/Home is the Hunter --- Written by Mike Grell with art by Rick Hoberg and John Nyberg
THE PLOT
As Marianne covers for Dinah again when police officer Kaz arrives to ask her on a date (again), Dinah wonders if her relationship with Oliver has ended as he hasn’t come back home in a year. Meanwhile though, Oliver wanders around the lands of Africa and find a man named Stanley Yatima, who offers and drives Oliver to a small African village where the people live like Native Americans, meaning they hunt lions when a child reaches a certain age. However, this can no longer be held as laws have been put in place to prevent the killings of lions. Later at night in the village, Stanley watches Oliver shoot a lion with his bow, which makes Stanley say that every man has to face his lion. Back in Seattle, Kaz still tries to get Dinah on a date, but this time, it works, and she tells him to pick her up on Saturday at 8pm. Meanwhile, Oliver wakes up from his sleep and finds Stanley facing a lion. Although Oliver is prepared to shoot and kill the animal, Stanley looks at him in a way which tells him not to interfere, resulting in Oliver leaving while Stanley charges at the lion. But back in Seattle, Kaz speaks with a man named Vinnie, who tries to convince the officer to let his nephew go after he tried to kill her.
After stealing evidence from his police station, Kaz speaks to Vinnie again and gives him the evidence which is related to a case involving his nephew who abused and raped a woman. In the court session, the rapist is let go, but the victim gets her gun out and is about to shoot him, but she is shot and killed by a guard. After the session, Vinnie and his nephew drive away, but a mysterious man on a motorbike drives past their car with a gun and shoots the two of them through the head. Meanwhile, Marianne speaks to Dinah about her date with Kaz and how Oliver hasn’t come back in nearly a year. Although she is sad about Oliver, Dinah opens the door to Kaz and the two leave. Both Dinah and Kaz go to the top of the Seattle Space Needle to eat, but just as they sit down, gun fire occurs and terrorists raid and trap the people inside of the building. As the news reports on this, Lieutenant James Cameron tries to negotiate with the terrorist, but the leader of the group throws a person out of the building to his death. Cameron is also aware that Kaz and Dinah are in the building and he hopes to himself that they will wait for the police to arrive before any fighting starts. Meanwhile, Oliver arrives at an airport and hears on the news about the terrorist attack. Once he sees Dinah’s name on the list of those captured by the terrorists, he bribes a man for his ticket to Seattle. Once he gets back there, he steals a jetpack from a flight museum and contacts Cameron through his audio device. He tells Cameron that he has got a plan to fly up to the top of the building and although Cameron is at first dismissive of his plan, he decides to let Oliver do it. Although things look bleak for Dinah and everyone in the Seattle Space Needle as the terrorists have planted explosives, Green Arrow flies up using the jetpack, sneaks into the building and takes out the terrorists with the help of Dinah and Kaz. Once the scene is cleared, Dinah asks Oliver
if he is back for good. He says he is and the two hold and kiss each other as Kaz looks at them negatively.
MY THOUGHTS
For the last story, I’m just glad Green Arrow is now back home after a multiple stories that are overall pretty below average. Focusing on his return, I think that Oliver’s heroic return fits in well and it is a great conclusion to the fiftieth issue of the run, which is double length. We also get more progression with Dinah and her date, Kaz, who we find out was actually the man on the motorcycle who killed Vinnie and his cousin. This is great as Dinah and Oliver obviously don’t know about that just yet, meaning that we are being hinted a story that will feature him as the possible villain. Oliver’s tactic of getting home after facing the lion, which I understand well on a symbolic basis, is pretty funny as he steals a man’s ticket using money, showing how urgent the situation is, even if he isn’t really freaking out about it. The reunion at the end is incredibly fitting as it really signifies the end of a chapter in Grell’s Green Arrow run whilst also hinting at a future story involving Kaz. The same can be applied to Marriane, who features briefly in the first part and although we don’t know why she is seemingly trying to get Dinah to break up with Oliver, we find out later and this is good foreshadowing by Grell. While I think the terrorist, villains are certainly threatening and although I would have preferred a supervillain or former super villain being in charge, it does make for a real fitting threat for this reunion story.
However, what really brings this story down is the first part of it, particularly the part featuring Oliver. I found the story with Stanley and the lions similar to the Spirit Quest story, firstly in the sense that they were touching upon very similar things and secondly, I hated both of them. I found this part of the story so nonsensical and unenjoyable that it made me happy to think that I was at the end of this part of the Green Arrow (vol 2) run. I just wanted Oliver back in Seattle with Dinah so we could get back to the normal great stories. So yeah, this part of the story genuinely made me bored and happy that we were nearing the end this long travelling part of the run. Other than that, the second part of the story is pretty good, even if it can go on for a bit too long and there is just a lot of standing around waiting for Oliver to come and take out the terrorists and rescue everyone.
In terms of the art, we are now back to what will be the regular team on book, those artists being Rick Hoberg and John Nyberg. It looks alright. It can look boring and it doesn’t look particularly interesting, but it doesn’t look bad and the action scenes can be interesting and appealing.
Story: 6.5/10
Art: 6/10
VERDICT
Overall, this is by-far the weakest point of Mike Grell’s run on Green Arrow. While I saw the positives and enjoyed parts of the IRA three-parter and the last two-story, the rest range from bad to terrible, especially the story in Wales and the rhino hunters. I think it is safe to say that now Green Arrow is back, we can get back to some decent stories set in Seattle, which makes the run by Grell so good and interesting.
Stories: 3/10
Art: 5/10
Highlighted Character: Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) (because everyone else is either barely in it or just plain sh*t)
Next Review: The Superman Stories of Alan Moore (Superman (vol 1) 423, Annual 11, Action Comics (vol 1) 583, DC Comics Presents 85). Written by Alan Moore with art by Dave Gibbons, Curt Swan, George Perez, Kurt Schaffenberger, Rick Veitch and Al Williamson. Expected to be published by 28/07/2019.
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