Green Arrow #70
Seeing Red: Part Two - The Buddy System

 

Who doesn't love a good superhero team up?

 

Batman partnering with the ever expanding Arrow clan is a good start for issue 70 of DC's Green Arrow. Here though, it turns out to be the team up of Brick (who I admit just seems to be a kind of small scale Kingpin mod boss ready made for the DC universe) and the Red Hood (Batman's second Robin Jason Todd turned bad and regularly red hooded) that allows the story to take on a nice life of it's own.

 

The tone and humor of the title (which we've come to expect over the last few years) can be seen alive and well in issue 70. Judd Winick has been with this series for a while now and consistently delivers an entertaining storyline that has kept me a consistent reader throughout the occasionally average-at-best art. That typically kills a book for me (Outsiders anyone?). Thankfully this issue doesn't suffer in that area and looks good. McDaniel's art has found a good home with Green Arrow. His style is quite appropriate here where the arrows fly and I hope he and Winick stay paired on the title for some time.

 

In this issue, the interaction of the four primary characters (actually Speedy makes it five) throughout the read proves to be more than your basic Brave and Bold throwback smash-the-heroes-together type team-up. It doens't have that tossed together for the sake of promotion feel most team-up situations seem to present the reader these days. Here, instead, the gathering of friends and foes seems to flow along with the overall story within the title. I have no complaints when it comes to the basis for this crossover.

 

This time out, the Red Hood has made his way to Green Arrow's turf and that has the Batman following close behind. It's not clear what agenda brings the Red Hood to visit, but the Hood quickly manhandles the Brick into a partnership following an arms deal gone south (and the Red Hood killing his own thugs). The two villains form an unlikely if not strained team-up eventually exchanging targets as the Brick engages Batman while the Red Hood tests his luck againts the titles primary emerald archer at the close of the issue. Thankfully, the two villain partnership is strained due to the situaiton within the story, not the way the story was crafted.

 

As with many titles written by Winick, this issue focuses on three things: converation, humor and action. The conversation amoung both the primary characters and the thugs Batman drops off a roof (for information purposes only of course) come away with interesting dialogue and the kind of mildly off color humor that never hurts in a good comic. The action is typical for an issue of Green Arrow and only passingly exciting this time out, but the back and forth banter between these sceens is solid which make the title worth reading and very honest.

 

It's nice to see Judd get ot play with the Red Hood once again as he was the one who initially brought Jason Todd back from the dead and appears to be the best at evolving the character. I think the Hood should set up shop alongside the Brick for a while letting Judd refine the character a bit further. At least he would grow in a worthwile direction character-wise. So far, over in the Bat-titles, the Red Hood has assumed control over various gangs of Gotham and launched a one man's war against the Black Mask's empire bringing him to blows with Batman, the current Robin and others. It's been good storytelling, but not to the level Winick took it to during the ressurection.

 

The action in this one, as hinted above, was okay. It seemed "done before" within the Green Arrow series. A crafty villain seems to lead Green Arrow into an elaborate set of death traps with a cliffhanger fear of death moment on a regular basis. Here it's machine guns springing from delapitated cars. It was fun, but at times felt a little like past issues I've read from the series.

 

I stand by the Green Arrow series, have always been a real fan of the political take Green Arrow has on super-heros and the world around him and I'm glad to see much of the Identity Crisis tension fade between Batman and Green Arrow. There's a friendship or at the very least a level of respect which comes through between the two. This story was a welcome read filled with wit and an ending that left me itching to see the next issue. Given the mix of fights about to errupt on the last page, something tells me the action in issue 71 will be anything but old hat.

 

Jumping into the future, we find ourselves asking what lies ahead for the good folks at Green Arrow? According to Wizard #184, writer Judd Winick explains "Major familial changes for the Arrow family, which force us to reinvent the book." Winick continues "By the time we're done, it could practically be a whole new Green Arrow." Ominous words from the title's author.

 

Scale of 1 to 10 ... 6
January 22nd, 2007 ... Review by Chuck

 

 

Official Word from DC on Green Arrow #70

Written by Judd Winick ; Art and cover by Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens

 

The story: Brick takes sides with the Red Hood rather than hand over any territory to the out-of-town mobster — leading the two to a face-to-face showdown with Green Arrow and Batman!

 

DC Universe  |  32pg.  |  Color  |  $2.99 US

On Sale January 10, 2007