REVIEW: Green Arrow #1 By J.T. Krul

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Green Arrow #1

Written by J.T. Krul

Art by Diogenes Neves

So the Fall of Green Arrow is over, the Rise of Arsenal has wrapped up, and Cry for Justice is thankfully now just a small roadbump on the journey to someplace greater. Star City has crumbled, the forest has risen, and Ollie is exile. It’s a brand new day for Green Arrow as the new status quo kicks in. And first impression? It’s….good. I wasn’t as wary as many others were coming out of Cry for Justice and the Arsenal mini, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t recognize the potential for this book to bomb on principle, so I was pretty glad to find that it was a good read that did a fine job introducing what’s going on with Ollie and Star City and made me interested for what’s to come next instead of wishing that things were a bit less brutal to get there.

This book could easily have fallen on the revenge kick and built into redemption, with Ollie angry that he was exiled from his own city for seeking vengeance for both it and himself and seeking to strike back against those that villainized him, but instead we truly do get a Robin Hood Oliver Queen who is fighting for the less fortunate who have been hit the hardest by the destruction of his home town. Those who survived but lost everything, while the upper class maintains their lifestyles. It’s hardly a stretch for the character, and truly takes him back to the roots that Denny O’Neil spent years establishing for him.

Another nice touch is the limited attempts to bring up the greater DC Universe, despite that this book is a Brightest Day tie in. There are a few, yes, but Krul does a great job at defining the Green Arrow universe and Star City as it’s own unique corner, one that isn’t dependent on Superman or Batman, one that is self contained within its own borders. It’s an important aspect in this book going forward if what DC claims is true, Star City needs to feel as important as Gotham, Metropolis, or Coast City. I mean, sure, it won’t, but they need to at least try, and they do.

The art is great, like, really really great. Very stylized, and I love the way the forest looks. Not to mention how clean the action is, as anyone who has seen a preview in the back of a DC comic in the last two months has been able to see. This book could easily be the breakout for Diogenes Neves, who, after looking at this resume, is pretty new to the industry. Everything looks pretty recent, but if he maintains this kind of a quality then he definitely has a very bright future.

Part of me wishes that this could have been the Green Arrow we received during One Year Later when Star City was….blown up and….Ollie became the defender of the weak. Listen, I’ve said it in the past that DC is reusing a plot, but the difference is that Krul does a hell of a lot better with it than Winick did. Ollie is without his friends and family, without a secret identity, and doing all that he knows how to do, standing up for what he knows is right.

Overall?

8.5/10

A lifelong reader and self proclaimed continuity guru, Grey is the Editor in Chief of Comics Nexus. Known for his love of Booster Gold, Spider-Girl (the real one), Stephanie Brown, and The Boys. Don't miss The Gold Standard.