GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY #1

Dead Again, Part One:  Here Comes The Bride

December 2007

Written by Judd Winick

Pencils by Cliff Chiang

Inks by Cliff Chiang

Cover by Cliff Chiang

Synopsis

It has been a month since Dinah Lance (aka Black Canary) killed her husband, Oliver Queen (aka Green Arrow), on the night of their wedding.  Since then she has become overly physical and aggressive with perpetrators.  She is also convinced that the dead body is not Ollie.  Hal Jordan tries to convince her that all medical evidence (DNA, tissue, dental records) indicates it is him.  However, Batman does not believe Dinah that it is not Ollie.  So he takes the body to the Batcave and with Dr. Mid-Nite, they perform an autopsy.  Eventually, Dr. Mid-Nite finds evidence that proves the body is that of Everyman, a shapeshifter.  Now that they know Ollie is alive, Dinah is adamant they find him.  And she thinks he knows where: Paradise Island with Athena and the Amazons.  On Themyscria, Ollie is bound and chained and held in a cage, but he defiantly tells the Amazons that his wife is coming for him. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

If there was ever a new series that needed to jump out of the proverbial gate in a hurry, it would be this one and Winick and Chiang nail it about as perfectly as they can get it.  They are saddled with a downbeat opener as Dinah mourns the loss of her husband, but Winick is able to infuse these early scenes with enough anger and sympathy that it doesn’t threaten to overwhelm the reader.  The scene with Hal and Dinah felt right and played well into their shared history with each other and Ollie.  Then the book shifts gears as Winick delves into the mystery of “Ollie’s” death.  More importantly, Winick provides the answer to that mystery, which is the key moment to this issue.  At the end of my review for the Wedding Special I speculated that the dead Ollie at the end of that issue was not really the Ollie that we know and love.  I can’t really give my self credit for guessing correctly on this; it just seemed like a no-brainer since it seemed odd that DC would kill a character so quickly after they had just returned him to the dead.  However, I also thought that it would take awhile before we got to the true facts of the case.  To this I must credit for Judd Winick for not stretching the mystery out.  By the end of the issue we learn who the dead person really is and we learn where Ollie has been and who is holding him.  In the era of decompression, Winick’s decision to quickly get on with the story rather than drag it out is a smart decision. 

I also like the fact that, in some way, this is connected to Countdown (and perhaps in a moment of delusion connected to what is happening with Holly and Harley).  Of course, this is assuming that the Amazons depicted here are actually part of Granny Goodness’ army that she has been assembling and not the “real” amazons related to Wonder Woman.  If Winick chooses to use real Amazons, then god help him, because he is going to need it since he would be going against the current continuity.  However, I doubt that.  Saying that, however, doesn’t alleviate concerns since most Countdown-related books have not been good.  Hopefully, Winick can buck this trend. 

The blurb on the cover is misleading, since Conner and Dinah don’t real interact or team-up in any meaningful way.  Of course, just having him on the cover is misleading since he is not the titular “Green Arrow” in this book.  However, DC obviously wanted to sell Ollie’s death so they couldn’t exactly put him on the cover too soon or risk blowing the ending.  In that regard, I must give DC credit.  I hate covers that reveal the ending. 

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