GREEN ARROW #48

New Business Part 2:  Greeks Bearing Gifts

May 2005

Written by Judd Winick

Pencils by Tom Fowler

Inks by Rodney Ramos

Cover by James Jean

Synopsis

Three weeks ago, assassin Constantine Drakon receives a contract from Brick to take out Green Arrow.  Now, Drakon watches Roy Harper (aka Arsenal) as he tries to find the bomb located in a bank full of hostages locked inside.  Outside, Green Arrow, Connor Hawke, and Speedy is fighting against the Duke of Oil, a sentient hillbilly android.  His ability to control machines makes it difficult to battle the Duke, as he controls cars to attack Team Arrow.  Ollie, though, finds a weakness and is able to disable the Duke.  At that moment, Drakon opens up the bank, allowing the hostages to go free.  Arsenal, however, remains inside trying to diffuse the bomb.  Ollie tells him to get out, but he is too late as the bomb explodes. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Despite the fact that this issue is an exercise in stretching out to 22 pages what could’ve taken about three or four pages, I liked it.  Winick manages to make the Duke Of Oil an entertaining adversary for Team Arrow and the shot of humor and action helps the lack of plot as not much changes between the end of this issue and the end of last issue except for the bomb exploding. But what Winick provided was entertaining.  Granted, the Duke of Oil was really just a diversion, both for the characters and for the readers, in order to get to the explosion, but I can forgive Winick just a little because it was enjoyable to read. 

The entire five page sequence at the beginning was useless other than to tell us that Brick was the one who bought Drakon’s services and that piece of information could’ve been handles in a narration box.  Beyond that, what was the point with the sniper and the two idiots at the restaurant?

How do we go from three weeks ago on page 1 to 72 hours later on page 6?  That must have been one extremely long phone call....

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