For quite some time now, Green Arrow has been *the* DC book
for me, with a lot of that adoration surrounding Lemire and Sorrentino’s work
on replacing Ollie’s previously barren mythology with a far more engrossing and
exciting take on his origins and his family. Namely, the idea of the different
totem clans and the Outsiders have managed to work their way quite seamlessly into
the character’s story, the likes of which haven’t been seen since Andy Diggle
and Jock’s ‘Green Arrow: Year One’. Now the time has come for all the build-up
regarding the Outsiders and the clans to finally come together in the form of
the 6 issue arc named ‘The Outsiders War’. To say I was hyped would be somewhat
of an understatement.
The book's art, as before, needs no introduction. Sorrentino
and Maiolo hit their mark every single time, with their famous double page
splashes returning once again to great effect. The way this particular issue is
drawn makes it feel more like a Hollywood epic than just a conventional comic
book, with sweeping establishing shots blending seamlessly alongside detailed
close-ups and mids of character interaction and expression, which ultimately
make this issue all the more enjoyable to read as well as to gaze upon in sweet
admiration and jealousy. However, never to abandon his calling cards, the
familiar panelling style of Sorrentino returns once again for one particularly
imaginative scene regarding Ollie’s time on the island which I was left
particularly pleased with as it incorporated both his interesting grasp on
temporality as well as his semi-monochrome panels for emphasis on particular
things of interest. Also, as a wee side note, that cover is just outright stunning.
As I mentioned before, this is the first part of ‘The
Outsiders War’ arc, and so you would be excused for predicting that this issue
would be fairly sub-standard in comparison to other issues. This, thankfully,
is not the case with GA #26. While this issue may not be the high octane action
packed arrow fest that many of Green Arrow’s recent issues have been (not a bad
thing either way) it still serves as a very interesting, albeit quite tame,
introduction into this arc. The concept of the network of clans amongst the
Outsiders is further developed upon, with the re-emergence of two characters
that recent readers are bound to recognise, reinforcing the idea of a hierarchy
among these individual orders. This is again expanded upon through the creation
of a new villain who takes his position as the head of the shield clan. Readers
of GA #25 should recognise him as the big bugger who booted Ollie off of a
cliff at the end of the issue. His name is infact (I don’t consider this a
spoiler as it is already a piece of info that’s readily available online) Kodiak,
and he looks pretty bloody menacing, although I’ll leave the rest of that
discovery to you. This issue gives an overriding sense of something far bigger
than just one character’s story, especially one who isn’t even held with the
same level of reverence as the likes of Batman (for some undoubtedly ridiculous
and disappointing reason), but that is where the concept on paper is beaten to
the ground by the execution, as something that feels too big for Ollie alone
actually feels quite right, and that is impressive. Although I feel that
without Ollie’s current supporting cast, it wouldn’t be quite as well fitting,
but that is, again, a credit to Lemire’s storytelling and character building
abilities.
Verdict:
Green Arrow #26 is yet another fantastic issue that, while
not being as explosive as previous issues, is still just as enjoyable a read as
any of the others, leaving me wanting more from this arc which already has the
potential to be one of the best, if not the best, Green Arrow arcs ever. This
is how Green Arrow should have been from the start of the New 52, and hopefully
it will stay this way.
Score:
9.5/10
