Green Arrow: Straight Shooter

Rating:
Summary: The Adventure Begins!
Review: "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.

Rating:
Summary: The Adventure Begins!
Review: "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.

Rating:
Summary: The James Bond DC hero...
Review: If you have read Green Arrow, then you know he's DC Comics take on James Bond. Reportedly very good at what he does, and he's also a ladies man, he has had relationships with 10 different women over the years. One that actually led to the birth of his son, Conner Hawke. Anyway in this book, Green Arrow once again meets a woman whom he likes at first sight and they end up going to bed together, kind of a let down when the writers promised that Green Arrow was going to marry Black Canary, a woman whom he has loved since the day he met her, although the writers have never done anything really great with that. It does not look like things will change anytime soon. The artwork by Phil Hester and Ande Parks is too cartoonish and this story does not have a happy ending ( or begining and middle for that matter.)

Rating:
Summary: Another good GA story
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: By the numbers . . .
Review: 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.