Even
though I enjoy the character of Green Arrow, I can’t say I’ve really been a big
fan of Oliver Queen and his Green Arrow disguise. A lot of what I originally
know and read of Green Lantern came from the 1970s team up of Green Arrow and
Green Lantern as they traversed the good ole’ U.S.A. bringing down criminals
and starting a personal war on drugs. Despite not being as familiar with the
character as I am with Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and Flash, I have
always liked Green Arrow.
Like
all of the DC characters, Green Arrow has gotten a complete reboot with the New
52. GREEN ARROW, VOL. 1: THE MIDAS TOUCH collects the first six issues of the
new Green Arrow. At the start of the series, Green Arrow is already established
as Oliver Queen’s night time vigilante alter-ego. Stealing a page from the
Christopher Nolan Batman movies, he’s been fighting crime for a long time now
and uses a division of his own company to research and fund his crime fighting.
The first part of THE MIDAS TOUCH storyline has Queen facing off against a gang
of street thugs who record all of their criminal activities and post them to
cyberspace. They aren’t all that difficult to fight, but the general premise is
an interesting one. What begins as a subplot but then becomes the main focus of
this volume is Green Arrow’s confrontation between a decomposing monster of
rotting flesh that calls himself Midas and his lady love, an assassin named
Blood Rose who has a personal vendetta against Oliver Queen.
As far
as comic stories go, GREEN ARROW, VOL. 1: THE MIDAS TOUCH is average.
Queen/Green Arrow are likeable enough, but too much of his character seems
copied from more updated versions of Batman. Green Arrow and Batman share
somewhat similar backgrounds, but the characters are not alike. The
similarities between Oliver Queen/Green Arrow and Bruce Wayne/Batman are too
many in this volume and take away from the overall character of Green Arrow.
For instance, Green Arrow operates with his own version of Batman’s Oracle.
Oracle works for Batman because Batman is a detective. It really doesn’t for
Green Arrow because he’s not first and foremost a detective.
The
other thing I disliked about the storyline is that it really doesn’t conclude.
For example, it’s never explained why Blood Rose wants revenge on Oliver Queen.
There is no sense of resolution. I realize that monthly comics have usually
been written that way, but it doesn’t seem much sense to drag out a storyline
beyond 6-8 issues anymore; readers (particularly younger readers) just don’t
have the patience for it.
I did
like the new look of Queen in this series and I liked the hints of the Justice
League, which Queen just learns of for the first time.
Longtime
fans of Green Arrow will probably be disappointed by GREEN ARROW, VOL. 1: THE
MIDAS TOUCH. New readers might enjoy it and even though there isn’t anything
all that extraordinary about the collection, there are enough tidbits to keep
those newer readers interested in the further adventures of Green Arrow.
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