Customer Reviews

Green Arrow: Straight Shooter (Vol. 3)

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This is the 4th TPB collecting the new Green Arrow; I just wanted to help clear up any confusion anyone might have when looking around at the trades and trying to figure out what happened with the missing issues.

The TPBs collect:

Issues #1-10: "Quiver"
Issues #11-15: "Sounds of Violence"
Issues #16-21: "Archer's Quest"
Issues #26-31: "Straight Shooter"

Issue #22 was a stand alone story, and Issues 23, 24 and 25 were part of a crossover story with Green Lantern's book, which does not seem to be released in trade form at this date.

AS to whether any of these are worth reading - they definitely are. I started collecting the book simply because Kevin Smith resurrected the character and based on his movies and his work on the Daredevil character, I gave it a shot. Oliver Queen quickly became my favorite DC comic character, with great apologies to the Bat, but the writers have just done a great job with this character.

Give it a try. the Amazon prices for the trades cannot be beat.

This was the story where Judd Winick first proved that he had no idea how to properly write Green Arrow.

Fresh from the grave, having turned his back on Heaven to save the life of his son, do the right thing and put right everything he failed to do in life before his untimely death, what does Oliver Queen - who not a few issues earlier in a story by Brad Meltzer almost proposed to his long-time girlfriend Dinah Lance.

He sleeps with a woman he barely knows - the niece of an alleged old friend - and is indirectly responsible for the same woman getting killed.

Even ignoring the continuity problems with this story (a google-search for "Tony Isabell +Judd Winick" will bring up multiple sites that will tell that tale), there's a wealth of other characterization problems. Not only is Oliver Queen party to a horribly out-of-character act of carnal knowledge but Jefferson Piece (aka Black Lightining) - the man who once retired from heroism when he thought he couldn't safely use his powers after he accidentally killed a woman - kills a man in cold blood.

"Straight Shooter" is actually volume FOUR in the Green Arrow series rather than volume three as indicated on the cover. It follows the two volumes by Kevin Smith ("Quiver" and "The Sounds of Violence") and the volume by Brad Meltzer ("The Archer's Quest"). This book collects issues 26-31 of the regular series and marks the debut of new writer Judd Winick. The artwork on all four volumes are by Phil Hester and Ande Parks, an artistic team that is fast growing into the *definitive* Green Arrow artists of our generation (following the greats of the past generation: Neal Adams, Trevor Von Eeden and Mike Grell).

The *new* Green Arrow adventures actually begin with this volume. Kevin Smith brought him back from the dead and Brad Meltzer brought him back to LIFE after a self-examination quest. Judd Winick picks up the baton and runs with it, giving us the first new adventure of Oliver Queen in his own title. Winick understands the challenge of writing someone like Ollie and in my opinion, he's doing a fine job with his first outing. We have a story of Ollie going up against a "fat-cat" corrupt corporation in Star City, flirting with a young lawyer, stuggling with his doubts and childishness and finally the introduction of a scary villain in Drakon (a first step in creating a "rogues gallery" for Ollie).

"Straight Shooter" shows a lot of promise by the new creative team. I'm looking forward to future volumes by Winick and gang.

This collection takes issues 26-31 of the series and reprints them as one. It's a reasonably good storyline, with a couple of interesting cameos and a good fight scene for Connor against a short killer with amazing abilities. The storyline revolves around a construction site that's being inhabited by a monster. The identity of the monster (and all the others afterward) is supposed to be the big shocker, but if you don't see it coming you aren't trying. Black Lightning makes an appearance here, but Superman has to be credited with possibly the shortest and most convenient cameo I've seen in comics for years. GA is surrounded by 20 or so monsters, suddenly Supes comes from nowhere and ties them all up, then leaves. Sounds almost like a video game using a cheat code or something! He's in the book for one page (literally!), and then he's gone.

There's also another problem here. GA is quickly turning into Wolverine. He's this big bad character who supposedly would just as soon kill you as look at you...and yet he never actually kills anyone! He's just sort of turning into a bully in the DC universe.

Another problem is his involvement with one of the female characters. He's in love with the Black Canary--he comes back from the dead and is still in love with her, for crying out loud!--and yet he throws it all away for a one-night stand. What in the world is up with that? Why aren't they developing this character more?

All in all, this story had enough interesting points to make it worth reading. Unfortunately it doesn't really progress GA's character that much, and the ending is a little subdued for the rest of the book's hype. Still, I'm glad to see another GA collection and would buy the next. Mildly recommended.

Green Arrow is fighting an ethically challenged, or even evil corporation who will stop at nothing to get the sort of real estate deal and development that they want, through.

His head is turned by a woman that it should not be, and this causes tragedy and a confrontation. He still has the criminals and the monsters to deal with.

Strait Shooter picks up where archer quest left off. It shows the even green arrow is human and makes mistakes. Also a seceond string chararcter like Black Lighting can be dangerous when provked.