Green Arrow 25
Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, Denys Cowan
Zero Year Crossover
Spoilers ahead! You have been warned!
This issue is probably the biggest contradiction of the month for me as a reader and a fan. The main story is almost perfect, and I want you all to realize just how much that means coming from me. I have not really been a fan of the New 52 version of Green Arrow since the reboot. I have not really been a fan of anything Jeff Lemire has written (although I do have to admit that my reading list from him is limited to exclusively DC superhero comics) yet. And Andrea Sorrentino’s artwork is far to similar to that of Alex Maleev’s for me to differentiate between the two and find him unique. But this issue was great. And the Count Vertigo Villains Month issue wasn’t half bad, either. So I’m definitely going to give this series another shot… Unless, of course, we see more of what happened in the backup story. Denys Cowan’s artwork was so visually displeasing that I almost didn’t read it. I should have stuck with my initial thoughts, because that backup story was complete and utter filler. So, like I said, a mixed bag. And the extra dollar on the price tag certainly didn’t help matters any.
The main story features the return of Oliver Queen, the donning of his Green Arrow disguise, and the saving of his mother from the new Killer Moth (who was actually quite terrifying, as opposed to a ridiculous joke, like he usually is portrayed). This story takes place during Batman’s Zero Year, so it was nice to see a great cameo by both Bruce Wayne on the TV screen and then Batman, teaming up (if you can call it that) with G. A. The artwork shines for the first time since the creative team’s pairing, excluding the page where the artist chose to be artsy fartsy and just not color in his frames. Personal taste aside, the artwork worked for me as a reader and reluctant enthusiast and the dialogue seemed perfectly believable. I really enjoyed the overall product of the main story. Then the backup happened. And I had to give the book some space. If there are no more backups, the price goes back to the regular 2.99, and they promise to do more interesting character-driven one-and-done type of stories in the future, consider this book left on my pull list.
But if they stray again, I’m done. The cover was excellent. The main story was pretty close to perfect (I’d give it a 4.5 out of 5). But that backup story. Man, oh man was it bad. I honestly don’t understand who thought it was a good idea to include that other than the higher ups at DC just saying “let’s charge an extra buck. Everyone’s going to buy it because it has a Batman event crossover on the cover. Oh. We should probably make it a little bigger. No one reads those backup things anyway, so let’s give Cowan a shot, even though he hasn’t done anything of any relevance for decades.” Yeah. That’s just blatant disrespect to your fans. So please, you got my extra buck. Take your victory and stop it. I know Lemire and Sorrentino can do this. Just let them do their thing.
My Rating: 2.5/5
