I LOVE COMICS 3000, PART TWENTY-TWO

#431, #432, #433, #434, #435  GREEN ARROW, Volume 3  #1-5  (DC, 2001) This was kind of a big deal when it was released. DC had held off on re-booting Green Arrow for a few years and fans were clamoring for Oliver Queen’s return. Film-maker and comics fan Kevin Smith was assigned to write (and the delays began, naturally), with DC hoping to strike lightening the same way Marvel did with Smith’s re-boot of Daredevil for Marvel Knights. Not even close, I’m sorry to say. 

I picked this up as a discounted set some years back and shelved it until now. It’s pretty lackluster, feels like Smith was just going through the motions. 

Ollie suddenly shows up in the poor side of town, looking disheveled and wearing a tattered costume, with no memory of the past ten years or the incidence of his death (supposedly atomized in a plane explosion, verified by Superman). 

Things get a little bit interesting in Issue #5 when Batman decides to give him a complete exam, just to make sure he’s the real deal and not a clone planted by the opposition to sabotage the Justice League.  Batman shows him the Oliver Queen newspaper obituary and film of the battle with Parralax (Green Lantern Hal Jordan) but he doesn’t remember anything and refuses to believe he died. More return to memory sites, like the abandoned Queen mansion. Batman feels he’s figured out the cutoff point and the reason for Oliver’s memory loss but still needs to determine the how when Jason Blood/The Demon shows up. This was the first issue so far that I actually enjoyed reading. Took you long enough, Smitty. TWO AND ONE-HALF STARS. 

#436, #437, #438,#439, #440  GREEN ARROW, Volume 3 #6 - (DC, 2001)  A little mystery. A little supernatural element. It took five issues of Kevin Smith’s re-boot of Oliver Queen to get me to take notice, but by Issue #6 I’m now interested enough in this story to want to continue. 

Jason Blood has identified Ollie as a “hollow”, essentially a husk or empty shell for demons to occupy and cross over to Earth. And the elderly Stanley Dover, the man Green Arrow rescued from a mugging in Issue #1 and then gratefully offered Ollie free room and board is acting suspicious and harboring some secret. Is he the Star City Slayer?  

In Issue #7, GA is rescued from near death by his old pal Hal, who is now The Spectre and transports him to a hereafter place. There GA learns how he was reconstructed and meets a very familiar face.

In Issue #8 soul meets body as GA and GA engage in some friendly competition at the archery range in “heaven”. Big surprise at the end of this issue, after soulless GA returns to earth. This is getting weirder.

  Satanism and the black arts are the focal point of Issue #9, as GA is about to get an unwelcome companion to take up residence within his “hollow” self. I’d never read any of the old DC Stanley And The Monster stories, but they surely were not like the origin depicted here. Smith is extra-wordy this issue, but there’s a lot of story to convey. Of course, GA is going to get saved next issue, but I’m still enjoying this. 

   Stanley’s Monster is kind of fun, once he makes an appearance in the final Issue #10 of the Quiver storyline. Conner Hawke to the rescue, plus a  merger between the two GAs.  I was not impressed with the front half of this story; but the second half more than made up for it. If you’re considering picking this up in the collected volumes, you can probably skip Volume 1 and not miss much.  THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.

#441 GREEN ARROW Volume 3 #73 (DC, 2007) The title is still going strong, 70+ issues later since Kevin Smith’s re-boot. Writer Judd Winick has taken GA in a different direction, but this is just as interesting. Oliver Queen is mayor of Star City, but is in danger of losing in a recall election due to his connection and financing of the rogue Outsiders. Lots of interesting soul-searching and conversation with family members and associates. A new criminal gang is forming, fortified by meta-humans with powers and the addition of Merlyn, and GA, Conner and Mia team up, with a late addition by Black Canary. THREE STARS.