DCU Comic Book Reviews

GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY #11

A League Of Their Own, Part 2:  Man Behind The Curtain

October 2008

Written by Judd Winick

Pencils by Mike Norton

Inks by Wayne Faucher

Cover by Cliff Chiang

Synopsis

After Team Arrow defeats the so-called League of Assassins, Batman contacts Ra’s al Ghul, who tells the assembled group that he never hired them.  Convinced it wasn’t Ra’s al Ghul, they then tell Green Arrow and the others how they were assembled, by “Ra’s al Ghul,” to assassinate various individuals, all of whom were considered bad guys.  Then “Ra’s al Ghul” orders them to kill Green Arrow, if Black Canary should rescue him from Themyscira.  When Green Arrow does escape, they make the assassination attempt, but miss the mark and hit Connor Hawke instead.  Angry at their failure, “Ra’s al Ghul” ordered the team to capture Connor.  But it still doesn’t explain who “Ra’s al Ghul” really is.  Then one of the others admits to seeing “Ra’s al Ghul” change into an Asian woman, called Shado....  

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Well, that explains things.  I think.  At the very least, we know that Shado has a history (and a son, Robert) with Green Arrow, so the attack (no matter who it was meant for) makes some sense on those terms.  However, it still doesn’t explain the why, which I am guessing will be revealed in the finale.  Winick has his job cut out for him in order to logically explain not only why Shado wanted Green Arrow dead, but then why she kidnapped Conner Hawke.  Regardless of that reason, I think this issue shows why a lot of people are annoyed with this series and why readers seem to be dropping like crazy:  it has take a year to finally reveal what happened.  Now mind you, all we have is “what,” but not the “why.”  And while the time to reach this point is not the problem, it is the fact that no much seems to be happening in the interim.  Let’s face it, the past two issues have basically been Team Arrow talking to the League of Assassins.  That’s nearly 44 pages of dialogue.  How difficult would it have been to cut some of that down in order to speed up the story?  I like the way Winick has used the search for Conner as a springboard for other adventures (Dodger, Plastic Man, even the faux League) bit it shouldn’t really take two issues to explain that Ra’s is really is Shado.  Having said all that, I must admit that I like Winick’s writing and the scenes are enjoyable, but ultimately it doesn’t add much to the overall plot. 

It seems like the abduction of Plastic Man was just an afterthought, tossed into the story as a red herring for the reader.  I mean, read this issue again and ask yourself:  why Plastic Man?  What was the point?  Does Winick have an in-story explanation or was he just thrown in there for no particular reason?