This review contains spoilers.
Green Arrow #22 marks the beginning of a two-issue story arc called “Shados”. Jeff Lemire and artist Andrea Sorrentino pit Ollie against the new Count Vertigo (appearing for the first time in the New 52), and we learn some more shocking revelations. How juicy. So how did they do? (SPOILERS: GREAT).
I can make you blow chunks bro.
THE GOOD
This issue has a really fun and exciting story. It has a great balance of humor, action, suspense, and shocks. The banter between Ollie, Fyff, and Naomi is some great stuff (Map Arrows = Best Arrows). The humor quickly transitions to seriousness when Ollie encounters Count Vertigo. The Count isn’t the only character making his first New 52 appearance, Shado (who we will get into later) and Clock King show up as well.
Lets just take a bit to talk about the art. Man is it good.
Holy Art…
Andrea Sorrentino gives life to the series. No doubt this book would be nothing without Lemire, we all know he is a great writer, but Sorrentino’s art just shines in this book. I mean, just look at that splash page! Damn. He makes great use of greens and reds as well as making certain parts of a panel black and white to great effect. Another stand out panel is when Count Vertigo arrives for the first time. Its almost like a sort of force or energy coming off of Vertigo. Just take a look.
The Ripple of Vertigo tears apart the panel itself!
Having parts of the panel come apart like that is a perfect way to illustrate Count Vertigo’s power. Sorrentino even makes the exposition of the book interesting with excellent facial expressions and gestures.
Much like Scott Snyder, Everything that can be said about Jeff Lemire has been said. He is an excellent writer and understands pretty much every character he writes. In this issue especially, he shows how Ollie is a formidable opponent by taking on a multitude of enemies just using his arrows. This is something we don’t see much from Ollie in other books he shows up in, Jeff Lemire has shown in the issues he has written so far how fierce Ollie can be. I like where Lemire is taking Ollie, since he took over with issue 17 the story and overall direction has vastly improved.
Something else good to leave you with is this shocking revelation about Shado and Emiko. It Looks like Green Arrow has an archer sister! RAD.
DUN DUN DUN!
THE BAD
I’m sorry. I really tried to find something bad about this issue that wasn’t nitpicking. I couldn’t. Lemire and Sorrentino really get Green Arrow and what his book should be about. So that leads us to…
THE VERDICT:
(5/5)
Green Arrow #22 is another impressive issue in a continually great series. Count Vertigo is a truly interesting villain, and it will be cool to see how Shado and Emiko will play into Ollie’s life after what occurred. Let’s hope Lemire and Sorrentino will be on this book for a long time, and can’t think of many others who could write Green Arrow like Lemire, or have the distinct art style of Sorrentino. I wouldn’t say Issue 22 is a bad jumping on point, but if you could get 17-21 first you would be much more informed.
Why didn’t i think of map arrows?
