[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers.]
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artists: Eleonora Carlini & Arif Prianto
Summary
Roy Harper tries to defend Native Americans protesting the building of a pipeline on their land while remembering how he first met Oliver Queen.
Positives
The cover by Juan Ferreyra is pretty cool. I like the contrast between the older and younger versions of the characters. I also like the sunlight almost creating the image of the younger versions. It looks great.
The interior art is by Eleonora Carlini with colors by Arif Prianto. It all looks great as well. Carlini does a good job of contrasting the younger and older versions of the characters while they still look like the same person. The coloring looks really nice as well.
I like getting some history between Ollie and Roy. Jeff Lemire hinted at it and it was dealt with a little in Red Hood and the Outlaws but that’s pretty much it. This feels like it matches what we knew before and even if it doesn’t, I like what we get for the most part. I love that Ollie can barely stay awake while playing video games because I am the same way.
I like the political subject that Benjamin Percy is taking on with this issue. The Dakota Access pipeline is obviously an important issue but I like that Percy isn’t dealing with that specific place. He makes one up to serve as a stand in for the Dakota pipeline which I think is the right choice. I am excited to see what he does with this in the upcoming issues.
Green Arrow rides in on a horse in order to help Arsenal and it’s amazing.
Negatives
I honestly do not care about Roy Harper — especially the New 52/Rebirth version of him. I just find him to be an obnoxious asshole. This issue is certainly trying to make him more sympathetic and he is a lot more tolerable than usual in recent years. It’s hard for me to be invested in this character right now.
Roy becoming Speedy so fast is a bit of a problem for me. He finds out Oliver is Green Arrow the night they first meet. That seems insanely fast; why does Ollie trust him so quickly to be his partner? Maybe the idea is that it was too fast and that’s a part of why their partnership failed which would be interesting. It still bothered me, though.
Verdict
This is a solid issue. I like the politics involved and it was cool to fill in some more of Ollie’s history. The art looks really great as well. I had a bit of a hard time reading an issue that is mostly focused on Roy Harper but that’s my sensibilities affecting my view of the story.
