GREEN ARROW #60

Crawling Through The Wreckage, Part 1: New Sheriff In Town

May 2006

Written by Judd Winick

Pencils by Scott McDaniel

Inks by Andy Owens

Cover by Scott McDaniel & Andy Owens

Synopsis

One year later…Star City is still reeling from the explosions that nearly leveled a third of the city, including most of the south end.  The Willowbeigh Project has attempted to rebuild the project but is meeting resistance from the new Mayor.  Two of the Mayor’s assistants disagree to the new Mayor’s resolutions and one quits his job.  Meanwhile, on the south end, which has been barricaded from the rest of the city, looters and poachers rule, but former mob boss Danny Brickwell (aka Brick) has decided to protect the people who stayed behind and kills a few looters.  A green arrow lands near Brick with a note:  “Nice work, but stop killing them.”  In Madrid, Spain, two lackeys deliver a message to Slade Wilson (aka Deathstroke):  their boss would like to have the Mayor of Star City assassinated.  Laughing, Deathstroke agrees.  Back in Star City, the mayor is informed that his one assistant has quit.  The Mayor didn’t like him anyway.  And the mayor is …. Oliver Queen (aka Green Arrow).

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

So, Oliver Queen is now the mayor of Star City. I like the idea and think it will be interesting given the anti-authoritarian stance Ollie has taken over the years.  Unfortunately, this is not the issue where this is going to be explored.  It is not until the last page that it is revealed who the new mayor really is.  The problem is that all of DC’s solicitations for this issue blurted out this information.  So, when they say “he’s been in office for 10 minutes” or when the lackeys tell Deathstroke the target is “the Mayor of Star City,” we know exactly who they are referring to.  And if there is one thing I really dislike is when adverts for books or movies (especially movies) give away plot points that are revealed at the very end.  And that is exactly what DC did with their solicitations.  Conversely, DC made sure not to reveal who died in this month’s Detective Comics and that happens at the beginning.  But for Green Arrow, they reveal the ending (the cover doesn’t help, either).  So upsetting.  I mean, I liked the fact that Ollie is not seen to the end, it sets up all of the different stories perfectly without Ollie needing to get involved.  I just wish the ending had not been ruined.  And no I am not that stupid to think it would’ve been someone other than Ollie given his absence from the issue, but at least let me come to my own conclusions rather than being told.

Now, besides that main point, you might ask, how was the rest of the issue?  While reading I get the sense of been there, done this with regards to a city trying to overcome a catastrophe.  I was reminded of the year-long (1999 to 2000) crossover event No Man’s Land in the Batman family-related comics.  It is very much the same idea.  In fact, I distinctly remember in one of the Batman titles someone remarking on why idiots spend so much money/time/energy on getting bullets when it would be easier to get food.  It was an eerie feeling reading in Green Arrow.  However, I will reserve my wrath until I see where they may or may not go with this.  Judd Winick certainly has a soft spot for preachiness and I hope the large wall protecting the south end does not become a huge soapbox of social injustices (you know, the wall divides the rich and the poor, the white and the black, north and the south.  Get it?).  And of course this is also a large comment on the US and FEMA and their lack of reaction to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  I realize that Green Arrow has always been political/social, but as long as it is not overt, I am okay with that.

Brick’s change of heart from bad guy to good guy is similar to all of the other such changes going on in the DCU for the One Year Later shift, so I was not surprised.  The question at this point is:  will he stop the killing as Ollie implores or will he remain his own bad ass self?

Comic Connection

Hints to the whereabouts of Conner Hawke and Mia Deardon (aka Speedy) are provided in Teen Titans, issue #34.

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