GREEN ARROW #38

City Walls, Part Five:  Oliver's Army

July 2004

Written by Judd Winick

Pencils by Phil Hester

Inks by Ande Parks

Cover by Marcos Martin and Alvaro Lopez

Synopsis

Star City has been cast into darkness, thanks to a spell that completely encloses the city, keeping everyone inside.  Inside the city, people are being killed by demons who only attack when someone breaks the law, such as stealing or looting.  Ollie and Connor approach the ganglords and the police, respectively, with a proposal:  they join forces to raid the house of the one who cast the spell in order to save the city.  Over one thousand able bodies agree and Ollie starts training them.  Mia also wants to help, but Ollie refuses.  She attacks him to show her she has the skills.  Reluctantly, Ollie agress, telling Connor to give her a mask.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

I liked this issue.  There really isn’t much to it, other than the standard montage scene of the heroes getting ready for the final battle.  But Winick handles these scenes well, including the cross cutting of the gangs and police at the beginning and the policeman egging on the gangbanger in the middle.  In an issue that doesn’t do much in terms of the plot, Winick manages to hold it together and at least make it somewhat interesting until the showdown in the next issue.  Unfortunately, Winick has written two issues in which not much will happen and as left all of the action for the final issue.  Personally, I think the last two issues should’ve been folded into one and let the action spill out into two issues.

As for the ending, well, I’m not sure I buy that Ollie would capitulate so soon in letting Mia suit up (but then I thought he was stupid to ignore her help in a time of crisis) and the sudden reversal seems a little strange.  Plus, I am not a fan of heroes fighting each other like that.  But this may be the first time such a tactic actually worked.  (And why didn’t the demons appear when they were fighting?)

When Mia first appeared in Kevin Smith’s first storyline, it was not a stretch to believe she was going to be the next Speedy.  Somewhere along the way, either because it was too predictable or because Smith left the book, Mia still has not adopted that moniker even though it has been nearly three years since that first appearance.  A large part of that, I think, is the Connor fits the role of sidekick so well.  If Mia joins the cast as Speedy, it might make it the proverbial, three’s a crowd.  Yet, it is looking like Winick is slowly moving towards allowing Mia to become Speedy and this particular storyline seems to fit that role.  As always, it is not necessarily making Mia into Speedy that will be discussed, but what Winick does with her that will be key.

PREVIOUS	Main		Page	NEXT