Monday, November 10, 2014

Green Arrow #36 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Ben Sokolowski, Andrew Kreisberg
Art By: Daniel Sampere
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: November 5, 2014



How To Make Friends and Be Influenced By TV


Last issue of Green Arrow we saw the start of the new creative team and their new direction for our Emerald Archer.  Our hero got back to basics as he took to the streets of Seattle taking out the low level crime and trying to get his name back out there to strike fear in the hearts of the yada yada yada.  But while Green Arrow was doing his thing we saw that a mysterious man named Mr. King is on the hunt for a young girl named Mia Dearden (Pre New 52 Speedy) and our hero found out that he has a contract out on his life and the person collecting that contract seems to be the New 52 debut and re-imagining of Felicity Smoak.  People are complaining that this is becoming too much like the show and if they mean that it's becoming more fun, then after reading last month's issue, I have to agree.  Let's check out what this issue has in store for us.

Explain It!:

Our story begins with us seeing Mia Dearden picking pockets on the street so she can afford food and her pseudo boyfriend's drugs......  Don't worry kids there's a happy ending here.  Her awful junkie friend is tazered to high hell.  Wait, wait, I'm getting a head of myself.  So if you thought living on the streets and pick pocketing to feed yourself was bad, well then add three hired goons in suits to chase after you.  It seems like Mr. King means business when he said that he wanted Mia Dearden last issue.  So back to getting tazered.  Mia doesn't seem too attached to her junkie boyfriend because in order to get away from the three suits, she pushes him in front of her and makes her escape.  Now I don't know if living on the streets give you parkour powers, but this girl could give Tim Drake a run for his money.  Eventually the suits corner Mia in an alley, but a strange man comes out of nowhere and shoots the three and pretty much gives Mia the Terminator line "Come with me if you want to live".  This character we'll find out later in the issue is named Mack Morgan and after having to do some research (They say the name nonchalantly like we're supposed to know it) I found out that way back in the strange 70's this character was like a Detective Lance.  He was a detective who fed Green Arrow information, but what he's doing here; shooting people and saving girls I have no idea beyond the fact that he used to know her mother.  


Let's head over to Green Arrow who still has a full bow draw on Felicity Smoak after she claimed last month that she was hired to kill him.  Don't worry kids, besides the fact that she's not technically the Felicity we know from the TV show, she still has enough of a moral center where she's decided that killing a superhero is too bad even for her.  So now that she's decided that being a hired killer....... Well being a hired hacker who leads people to their death, is something that she doesn't want to be apart of anymore, she figures that she'll join team Arrow and help our hero get to the bottom of who wants to kill him.  Since she happens to know everything that you could possibly know about Oliver Queen and his associates, Oliver decides that her being a techno guru could be good for the team, even with Diggle's objections.  So after using her hacking magic Felicity finds the middle man who gave her the contract, but when the they go to question him.......... Oh, There's a giant black arrow in his chest.  Now that sounds like someone familiar......... But we'll get to that and a discrepancy I have in a little bit.


We head over to a fundraiser/press conference for Mr. King, who looks like he's trying to get some publicity for building homes for low income families.  While he comes off as a great guy during this, we quickly see that he's not fucking around.  During the press conference, a reporter asks him about a lunch he had with Carmine Falcone and Mr. King tells one of his suit goons to have that reporter killed.  Seriously not fucking around.  After he learns that Mia Dearden was rescued by Mack Morgan and that Felicity Smoak has decided not to honor her contract, Mr. King tells his goons to hire the other guy they wanted..........  He's so mysterious.

In the end, using street cameras, Felicity pin points Mia's location but it looks like Mr. King's men have found her first.  It all boils down to Green Arrow kicking some ass and saving Mia from certain doom, but if fighting a bunch of guys with automatic guns wasn't enough, well it looks like the guy Mr. King hired is none other than the Dark Archer himself, Merlyn............. and......and he killed Mack Morgan...... I actually did research........ and he's dead.  As Mack dies he tells Mia that he can put Mr. King behind bars and that her mother was compiling evidence against him.  So much for Mack Morgan.


That's it for this month's Green Arrow and man is this title becoming a fun read and something I can look forward to every month.  While I might have bitched about the way Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne looked last issue, it seems that Daniel Sampere is on point his month and everything and everybody looks great.  Now last issue I said that Mr. King was Merlyn and while I'm technically wrong here, Arthur King was the name of the Pre New 52 Merlyn and I don't think I can be treated too harshly for me thinking it was the same character.  But what we have here is Mr. King, who's first name may or may not be Arthur, the assassin Merlyn and Oliver's best friend Tommy Merlyn, who's father may or may not be Malcolm.  That's a lot of people in this universe who bear the name of the Dark Archer, whether anything will ever come of this I have no idea, but you can see where things can get kind of confusing.  As for Felicity Smoak, yeah she's a fast talking, geek referencing, techno guru, but this Felicity definitely has a dark past that we'll probably discover somewhere along the way of this series, so for those of you who think she's just been transplanted into this series right out of the show......... Well you're kind of right, but this ex hired killer will bring something special to the book and it's great seeing Green Arrow surround himself with an ensemble we can all get behind and share in on their good times.  Make sure you're back here next month as we continue the "Kingdom" story and get to the bottom of what Mr. King's plans are for Mia and you know, see Green Arrow survives Merlyn's attack.  See you then.

Bits and Pieces:

I'm really loving this new Green Arrow and while I have some problems with this book just saying character names nonchalantly like we're just supposed to know who they are, I can get behind them attempting to wrap them in a sort of mystery, even if it's annoying for a monthly wait.  Daniel Sampere has definitely kicked his art up a notch this month and the introduction to all these characters definitely makes me geek out of control a bit.  It's a good time to be a Green Arrow fan because this creative team is bringing the fun back and making this title something to get excited about.

8.5/10

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