GREEN ARROW #28

Straight Shooter, Part Three:  Beasts Of Burden

September 2003

Written by Judd Winick

Pencils by Phil Hester

Inks by Ande Parks

Cover by Matt Wagner

Synopsis

Walking around the construction site of the Elevast Corporation, Ollie Queen (aka Green Arrow) encounters three large creatures that had recently killed several security guards.  Ollie fights them, but is beaten badly, so he runs away, though he is chased by one of the creatures.  Eventually, Ollie is able to subdue the creature.  With Connor’s help, they take the creature to the city morgue and Connor’s friend, Dennis.  While looking over the body, Ollie thinks the creature may be one of the immigrant workers Elevast had hired to work on the project.  To learn more on the immigrant workers, Ollie visits Joanna Pierce.  She notices Ollie’s bleeding and dresses his wounds.  Ollie then undresses her and the two make love.  Later, Connor calls Ollie, worried that he has not heard from Dennis.  Ollie goes to investigate and encounters Constantine Drakon, who has been paid to take care of the creatures.  Since he has not been paid to take care of Green Arrow, Drakon beats Ollie to a bloody pulp before he leaves with the creature.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

To a large extent, I think one’s enjoyment of this issue may depend on how you liked Constantine Drakon and the fight at the end.  I can see how someone could easily dismiss how idiotic and silly that fight occurred; I would think it would be impossible to catch all of those arrows.  Besides, Ollie is too talented to shot them in bunches like that.  Yet, it was an interesting scene, notable mostly for Drakon’s dialogue, which helped put across his arrogance and his extreme talent more than just showing him beating Green Arrow to a blood pulp.  For the moment, Drakon is an intriguing character.  We know very little of him and what we do know just makes us want to know more.  Eventually there will be a rematch and I am curious to see how Ollie wins the fight. 

I am unsure what to make of Ollie sleeping with Joanna.  On the one hand, it seems to go against previous issues of Green Arrow in which Ollie seemed to be ready to propose to Dinah.  On the other hand, I always pictured Ollie as a womanizer (and a little bit of a bastard) so it seems to keep pace with his characterization.  I think the key to whether or not this was a good idea will be determined on how well Winick handles their relationship, not only because of the age difference but also in terms of others learning of it, such as Connor, Mia, or Joanna’s uncle Black Lighting and, of course, Black Canary.  Sleeping with Joanna is going to bit Ollie in the ass. 

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