DCU Comic Book Reviews

GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY #18

Enemies List, Part Three:  Let Your Arrow Go

May 2009

Written by Andrew Kreisberg

Pencils by Mike Norton

Inks by Josef Rubenstein

Cover by Ladrönn

Synopsis

Green Arrow is searching for Merlyn, but having little luck.  He is in the midst of interrogating Count Vertigo when Black Canary stops him.  She is concerned he is getting to violent and obsessed.  He tells her not to worry.  At police headquarters, Detective Hilton shows the duo the dead bodies of various criminals, all of whom fought against Green Arrow.  Since all three had a common enemy, Green Arrow is a suspect.  Elsewhere, Brick wants to know why so many are dying in Star City.  A moment later, he is killed.  Green Arrow is crossed off the list because he was with the police when he was with the police.  At home, Dinah fears Ollie might be getting closer to crossing the line.  Ollie confesses that he is glad the criminals are dead.  Later, the police receive a message from Merlyn, who tells Green Arrow to meet him at the Natural History Museum.  Dinah doesn’t want Ollie to blindly charge in.  He disagrees.  Ollie makes sure Dinah can’t follow, then enters the museum, where he finds Merlyn waiting for him.  Ollie apologizes to Dinah before he fires at him. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

I like this issue and I like the way the storyarc is playing out, with Cupid (I am assuming that will be her name, so roll with me on this) committing atrocities that she thinks is doing good things for the man she “loves” but in reality are no better than the villains she attacks.  The fact that Green Arrow villains are being attacked, making Green Arrow a possible suspect to the murder helps the story.  Overall, I am enjoying what Kreisberg is doing and I am curious to see where it goes and what Cupid hopes to accomplish.  Having said all this, however, I still have a few problems with the story. 

The first, I think the story is moving way too fast.  The murders of the Green Arrow villains occurs too swiftly, with Green Arrow’s exoneration also occurring too quickly.  I would have liked to have this play out longer, with the death’s coming one at a time.  It would’ve worked as a good mystery as Green Arrow assumes he knows the killer, while we the readers know it is not him, but someone else.  Plus, we would have Detective Hilton doing his own investigating, first dismissing Green Arrow’s possibility as a suspect, but then coming around to the idea that maybe Green Arrow could’ve done it.  Instead, we get all of the above in a couple of panels.  It occurs too fast to really have much of an impact and the murders (and the characters) essentially get buried by the end as Green Arrow goes after Merlyn. 

The second, is that I don’t buy Green Arrow’s obsession with trying to get Merlyn.  Over the years, various villains have done far worse than what Merlyn did, so what makes this time so special.  It might’ve helped the story if Merlyn had done something to a character that Green Arrow (and by extension we the reader) cared about rather than random college kids.  Hell, Merlyn was trying to kidnap Sin, Black Canary’s adopted daughter, and he didn’t act this way.  Ultimately, Green Arrow’s behavior just doesn’t seem real or warranted. 

Third, Brick’s death was cheap and lazy.  In fact, the way it happens I almost got the feeling he was killed so quickly as a knock against Winick, who created Brick during his 5+ years as the writer of Green Arrow and the first writer on this series.  Even if it wasn’t, it is a sad way to see such a character go out, given his rich history with Green Arrow in the past few years.