Rating: Summary: Dogma + DC history = GA:Quiver Review: The best way to describe this is it's Oliver Queen's journey though the supernatural and DC continuity. He just came back to life, doesn't know he was dead, thinks he just finished his "hard-traveling" with Green Lantern and believes it's still the 70's, er, 80's. It features loads of guest stars: Batman, Arsenal, Black Canary, Conner Hawke, Deadman, Hal Jordan, Aquaman, Black Manta, Jason Blood/Etrigan, Spoiler, Superman, the rest of the JLA, a character from Smith's CLERKS cartoon and some I wouldn't want to spoil here. There's more than a fair bit of quasi-theology, continuity, and in-jokes (much like Smith's movies) but if your into that stuff or if it at least it doesn't go over your head then your in for a real treat. I don't think that this includes Green Arrow #11 which is too bad since it provides a great epilogue for the story, oh well.
Rating: Summary: I agree, best resurrection storyline EVER! Review: This is by far the very best ressurection storyarc ever, it blows Superman's lame comeback so far out of the water. Kevin Smith is also a god amogst men and quite possibly the greatest person to ever put a pen to paper. Kevin proves with this (as well as his run on Daredevil - by the way, if you haven't yet, buy that now, just click on Kevin's name at the top and you'll find the book), that he can writes comic books, as well as movies. It also proves that Kevin can be a serious writer as well (though who doesn't love a good dick and fart joke every now and then). I think it was described best as Dogma meets the DC Universe. Anyway, BUY THIS BOOK NOW! Also, this is the lowest price that I've seen anywhere.
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.
Rating: Summary: well worth the hype! Review: this was a book i couldn't wait to get my hands on and it didn't disapiont me.i have been a fan of the arrow since the '70s.i was disapionted when dc decided to kill him off.kevin smith wrote one of the most briliant storys ever.the art took a little while to get use to,i'm not a fan of the"tv type anamation",but it was colorful and nicely drawn. there are guest shots from a great amount of people from arrow's past,including hal jordan.it was a story i read that i couldn't put down.it even has twist and turns i didn't see coming.i would say anyone who is a comic fan will like this book.
Rating: Summary: Welcome To The Resurrection Review: Unless you have been living under a rock for the past five years or so, you would know that Kevin Smith is one up-and-rising film director and comic book writer. While I've generally enjoyed his films and his comic books quite a bit, I think the attention (worship and adoration is more like it) given him is really a little above what a mortal should be receiving! Seriously, I like the man a lot for his wit and his obvious gift for dialogue. But not all the fawning over him! Check out his View Askew website or any issue of Wizard Magazine for all the endless fawning over the man. Yuck! OK. Having gotten all that out, let me move on to an objective review of his Green Arrow work.Firstly, we see the writer and artists really having fun with this work. Their obvious joy in turning out the pages are so infectious that you feel it as a reader. This is obviously the work of fans who totally love the title character, Oliver Queen. That's not a bad thing. In fact, I think one of the reasons comic characters grow boring and old is because they are usually assigned to work-for-hire creators who have no more passion for writing the book. Not the case here. Kevin, Phil and Ande loves the book. The story starts out with a really good "prologue" chapter introducing the dramatis personae (so that even someone with little prior knowledge of Green Arrow can get into the story). Then it hits the reader with a punch in a last page appearance of a haggard, dirty and smelly Oliver Queen (who was believed dead for several years already!). Then we are treated to a Rip Van Winkle take on the character who is slowly trying to piece together his life (he still thinks it's the 1970s!!!). The greatest thing with this story is really the intimate conversations Ollie has with his bewildered friends and family - Hal Jordan, Black Canary, Connor Hawke, Roy Harper, and the JLA. Kevin Smith puts every bit of his genius with dialogue into all these scenes. You'll laugh and cry with the characters. You know they are still comic-book characters but then they are comic-book characters who have grown with you over the years... almost like close friends. This is also the first time I read a "resurrection" story in a comic without feeling cheated. My one complaint is in the characterization of Mia. She's a 15 year old who was raped by her father and then her "uncle" and then sent out on the streets to be a prostitute. I was expecting the liberal, social-conscious Green Arrow to take up her case and make a big deal out of it (the 1970s Dennis O'Neil version would have). But then we are treated to one rescue scene and in the next chapter, she simply comes across as just another smart-talking girl with no emotional scars at all. I mean, this kind of thing scars a person for life - what more a 15 year-old. It's this kind of writing that makes comic-book lose its "realism" and prevent it from gaining the respect it should garner. I've always thought that while the superhero genre allows all kinds of mind-blowing, out-of-this-world antics, the characterization and emotions and personalities should always be as "real" and "identifiable" as possible. That's what makes fantasy potent - otherwise, it's just unreal nonsense. Maybe Kevin was too caught up with writing all the reunion scenes. Maybe he was putting in too many cameos in the story (the Phantom Stranger appearance is really quite needless). Or maybe he was just having too much fun and didn't want to get into the overtly "dark" themes like child-rape and child-prostitution. I think that would have made a powerful theme, though. Here we have this girl who was abused, and we also have another kid who is abused by the villain of the story for occultic motives and we have Green Arrow, who was never much of a good father himself. These themes could have been tied up together more seriously to make a stronger and more potent story. Complaints aside. This is really a very good comic-book. And the production values for this hardcover version is the best I've seen so far. Phil Hester and Ande Parks did great work with their slightly cartoony but very energetic art. And Alex Sinclair's colours make everything beautiful here just like he did over on Jim Lee's Batman. Finally, it's a great feeling that Oliver Queen, the original Green Arrow, is alive and well... and in good creative hands.
Rating: Summary: Another long standing character destroyed by Smith. Review: What DC does not want you to know is that Smith always kept missing deadlines and the issues always shipped late, then when they did arrive, you have books that show a new Oliver Queen, who is supposed to be the way he was when Denny O'neill wrote the stories, but somewhat more wiser, and more keen to be faithful in his relationships with the Black Canary and his son, Conner. However the book really comes across as two dimensional drawings written by a one dimensional writer, just like his awful movies are.
Rating: Summary: Kevin Smith and DC Comics. Perfect Together. Review: When we last saw Oliver Queen in the Green Arrow comic, he had fallen in love with a female terrorist named Hydrax and together they both seemed to have died together in a plane explosion over Metropolis. End of Queen right? It would seem so. Because the Green Arrow who appears in this story is so out of character that he must be an Oliver Queen from one of DC's other alternate Earths. He looks younger, doesn't remember much about his earlier life, and then ends up becoming DC's new Green Arrow thanks to the poorest story ever written at DC by a limited talented film maker named Kevin Smith. People have liked this book left and right, I say "Oh Please." But then again DC hasn't been the same since Crises on Infinite Earths.
Rating: Summary: The Green Knight Returns..... Review: When we last saw Ollie Queen, A.K.A. Green Arrow, he was being blown to bits in an exploding plane above Metropolis. No less an authority than Superman confirmed, after scanning the area, that there was nothing left. There would be no hope for the miraculous resurrection that we comic fans take for granted. So when big-shot movie guy Kevin Smith started making noise a few years ago about doing a Green Arrow book with Ollie Queen, I was intrigued, to say the least. How could he bring him back without resorting to a cheap gimmick that would make the story a joke...? Having just read Quiver, I really can't answer that. The story involves Heaven, Hell, The Supernatural, Superman, The Spectre, The Demon, The Phantom Stranger, Deadman, and a long-forgotten team from DC's past. None of these things should gel with a street-level hero like Green Arrow. NONE OF THEM. Yet Kevin Smith, with the art team of Phil Hester & Ande Park, made me buy into every bit of it. Smith deals with bits of DC continuity that I thought no one could possibly remember, but does it in such a way that, while bringing a smile to the face of longtime comic readers like me, doesn't alienate new readers or make them feel like they're missing something. The writing is top-notch, as is the art, and all involved deserve a round of applause for making every member of the DC Universe spanning cast act and look distinctive. The ending is scary, exciting, and touching all at the same time, and the final page gives readers something they've been clamoring for for years. I can't recommend Quiver enough, both to comic book fans, and fans of Mr. Smith's movies. Great, Great stuff!
Rating: Summary: Excellent DCU Debut for Smith!!! Review: Writer/Director Kevin Smith shows he really understands the major and even minor players in the DCU. He gets the characterisation right for every character he writes in this incredible 10-issue epic. Before reading the book I was hoping that Smith would stay away from the supernatural when reserecting Green Arrow, but I take it back now that I have actually read the book. He presents a very interesting way of bringing Oliver Queen back from the dead. He throws twists in there to throw you off track and then just when you think you know what is going on, he changes the story's direction. There are some really funny moments in the book, particularly when Batman, The Demon and the JLA appear. He pays hommage to many characters and creators from the past including Alan Moore's legendary Swamp Thing run. Without giving anything away, I was impressed with Smith's and the DC editorial board's decision not to make Green Arrow a nicer, more innocent character, thereby ignoring Mike Grell's contributions. It seemed for a moment that they were heading in that direction but by the end it became obvious that they weren't which is good. I was a little bit disappointed with the ending which I thought was too convenient and bland, but overall, its an excellent start to what will hopefully be an excellent ongoing series.
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