GREEN ARROW #32

The Fall Of Green Arrow

June 2010

Written by J. T. Krul

Pencils by Federico Dallocchio

Inks by Federico Dallocchio

Cover by Mauro Cascioli

Synopsis

Now, Oliver Queen (aka Green Arrow) is arrested for the murder of Prometheus.  Earlier, Ollie and Mia Deardon (aka Speedy) had captured the Electrocutioner, who had helped Prometheus to destroy Star City.  Mia is ready to kill the Electrocutioner, but Ollie stops her.  She is angry that he can kill Prometheus, but he won’t let her kill Electrocutioner.  He tells her he regrets what he did.  Now, Dinah Lance (aka Black Canary) visits Ollie in jail.  She lets him know their marriage is over.  At Ollie’s trial, the jury finds Ollie not guilty.  The judge considers overruling the jury but instead orders Ollie to leave Star City and never return.  Afterwards, Ollie says goodbye to Hal and walks away. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Oh, sheesh, really?  I think I would’ve been more interested in Ollie if he remained a killer, caught between the heroes and police trying to catch him and the villains running away from him.  Granted, the resultant stories could easily fall into Punisher territory but as long as Ollie didn’t indiscriminately kill people, it could be an interesting scenario.  Add in the extended Arrow family and Roy’s status and there are possibilities with the storytelling engine of Ollie on the run.  But, alas, that was not to be, so what we turn to is Ollie alone and disgraced.  I am not sure how interesting this set-up will be, although I have to wonder if the recent events were just an elaborate method to get Ollie on his own without team Arrow and other supporting characters.  I hope not.  It seems stupid to go through such an elaborate story for such a simple idea. 

As it is, the ending is just stupid.  We spend so much time establishing the fact that Ollie killed Prometheus and he desperately wanted to kill Electrocutioner only to have him make the decision to suddenly realize it was wrong.  I call bullshit.  Not so much for the idea, but for the poor execution.  I never got the sense that Ollie felt any regret or remorse for his actions; he seemed to fully enjoy what he did and the cathartic feeling it gave him to make sure justice was handed to Prometheus.  I think there was a way to lead to Ollie’s surrender, but I don’t think Krul adequately wrote that conversion to regret convincingly. 

I will say this for the story, I was never quite sure what was going to happen and I was usually surprised by the events as they unfolded.  Of course, this is not exactly a good thing.  The perfect example is the trial.  I did not expect Ollie to be given a not guilty verdict.  It doesn’t make any sense.  It essentially tells the reader that there are moments when killing someone is justifiable.  Because a not guilty verdict by the jury essentially tells Ollie that he was right.  He was not right; murder should never be okay.

PREVIOUS	Main		Page