Review: Green Arrow #34

by Sean Blumenshine
0 comment

[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers.]

Writer: Benjamin Percy

Artist: Stephen Byrne

 

Summary

Clock King hacks Star City’s smart technology and wreaks havoc while Oliver deals with his mother’s return.

 

Positives

The cover by Jamal Campbell is cool. I like Merlyn’s design and the background is gorgeous.

The interior art by Stephen Byrne is great. He’s one of my favorite artists so I always love when he shows up on this book. The characters all look great. Byrne also does some really interesting panel layouts throughout the issue.

I enjoyed getting more Queen family history. Benjamin Percy is building on Jeff Lemire’s work in a cool way. In Lemire’s run, we got this cool story about Robert’s affair with Shado and his obsession with the Outsiders. In this issue, Percy shows us a little bit of Moira’s side of that. And that was cool.

There’s some really cool action. Thanks to the art and how well Percy writes Dinah, these moments are the highlight of the issue. There’s an inventive situation with a train that I liked a lot; it gives Percy a chance to show that Dinah is pretty smart.

We finally find out what happened between Merlyn and Diggle which was nice. Again, Percy is building on Lemire’s work which is great. I liked the payoff for this.

 

Negatives

During the previously mentioned train sequence, Dinah makes a couple of puns which is fine. But she isn’t talking to anyone; Oliver has already left by this point. She’s just talking to the audience. Dinah even breaks the fourth at one point; it’s weird.

 

Verdict

This is a great issue. Byrne’s art is gorgeous with great action, panel layouts and character moments. Percy accomplishes a lot in this issue but it never feels rushed. There’s a lot of story here and it works. As a fan of Lemire’s run, I appreciate how much Percy is using it to move his story forward. I highly recommend reading this issue.

 

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