Green Arrow #11 Review

Ann Nocenti actually makes me kinda like her as she gives our Emerald Archer his first real character development since the reboot.

Green Arrow #11

I’ve been saying it for months now, “We need character development.” Well, either someone was listening or simply felt the same way, because this month finally toned down the action and gave us a primarily character driven issue.

The Dark Archers are a couple of thieving self proclaimed “Robin Hoods” who make the mistake of robbing a charity event, naturally angering our hero who seeks them out and discovers that while one of them is a genuine good guy, the other seems to have ulterior motivations for her actions. But after this run in, and particularly how two kids view him and what side of the confrontation he was on, Oliver begins to rethink his actions as of late. Its here that we begin to see glimpses of the Ollie we all know and love, a man for the people who stands against corporate capitalism because of how it effects the people who aren’t in the 1 percent… and the 99 percent actually plays a role here, as the Occupy Movement is mentioned a number of times as we see Oliver seemingly trying to decide what to do with his life as his company begins to crumble from his partner’s bad business practices and near corporate takeover involving a Chinese businessman. Of course, this businessman has other things in mind, and wishes to meet with our hero, which leads us to the cliff hanger, where Ollie’s arrogance and brash decisions get him in a nice little tight spot.

I’m completely stunned here, because of the three sets of writers we’ve had on the title since the reboot, Nocenti has easily been the one I’m most vocal against, mainly due to her first issue, and by extension her first three part story. Then we had last month’s throw away of a good concept, and honestly I just concluded that Nocenti wasn’t a particularly good writer, at least not for my tastes. But now? It seems like not only can she write the development we need, but she can actually bring us back the character we knew and cared for pre-reboot. He’s not here yet, but this issue is the first stepping stone that could turn this new Emerald Archer around to discover the core of the character that had developed over the decades before, and that makes me very impressed with Nocenti, perhaps more so than she deserves, since I had written her off as just another horrible reboot writer after her first three issues, but still. Here’s hoping she keeps it up, because I’m finally actually excited for next month’s issue of Green Arrow, and that’s a feeling I’ve been sorely missing this past year.

As for the art… well, I won’t lie, when I saw Harvey Tolibao’s name on the cover I got a little depressed. Why did they bring this guy back? I feel bad attacking someone’s talent, but this guy has to be the single worst Green Arrow artist I’ve ever seen, and this issue actually angered me a bit because apparently, he actually can draw a good Green Arrow, but instead makes him look like a girl in almost every panel. What I mean by this is that he has been giving us this really sissy looking Ollie, but all of the sudden he manages to make the male Dark Archer look cool, and even a lot like a pre-reboot Ollie, goatee and everything. This is ludicrous! If you can draw a good Green Arrow, do it! I’ve been really disappointed in this guy’s artwork, and now I discover that he can actually do a decent job? Talk about a slap in the face. Now if he would only stop making Ollie look like a girl, I could come to tolerate him. Ultimately, I’m quite disappointed that Steve Kurth and Wayne Faucher didn’t stick around after the great job they did on last month’s one shot, but such is life.

All in all, this is the first issue of the rebooted series that I can honestly say shows promise for the future, and as I said, I’m finally looking forward to next month’s issue, and that’s a great feeling to have back. If you’re an Arrow fan who dropped the title, now is the time to recover. I think we can all afford to be cautiously optimistic at this point.

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Tags: Ann Nocenti DC Comics New 52 Reviews Green Arrow Harvey Tolibao