Reviewer: “Starman†Matt Morrison
Story Title: Know Thy Enemy (Black Circle: Urban Knights Part 5 of 6)
Written by: Ben Raab
Penciled by: Charlie Adlard
Inked by: Charlie Adlard
Colored by: Titjana Wood
Lettered by: Jack Morelli
Editor: Bob Schreck
Publisher: DC Comics
It amazes me how with every part, this series gets worse and makes me think “Well, at least it can’t get worse than this.â€
Silly Rabbit. Of course it can get worse.
We’ve talked about the plot and the art in past incarnations… and rest assured, those elements are still sub-par. But this issue… this issue achieved new depths with some bad logic and horrible characterizations and dialogue.
For the bad logic, consider this. Oliver Queen is about to pull his “bad cop†routine on a captured alien gangster when Kyle stops him and who tells him “There are other ways to make people talk than just threatening to bash their face inâ€. He suggests using psychology and ushers Ollie into the hall. He then uses the psychology of threatening to do something even worse than bashing his face in with his ring, just talking about how it can do “anything†that he thinks of.
Okay… so Kyle resorts to making threats of violence. Ollie Queen backs down from a confrontation. Yeah. This sounds natural.
As far as the characterization goes, Ollie and Dinah both sound perfectly in character… for a Denny O’Neil book from 30 years ago. I don’t think anyone, even in comics, has used the words “lechâ€, “broad†or “fracases†seriously since then. And while I enjoy a good retro tale as much as anyone, it is a bit distracting in a story that is supposed to be set in the modern day.
Not to mention the “Saw this coming a mile away†splash page at the end. With no spoilers, I will say that there is a revelation on the final page that will have all scholars of Green Lantern ring function history screaming and moaning about how what we see conflicts with everything we know about how the Kyle’s specific ring works.
