Welcome to my first recap of Green Arrow. Few disclaimers, I have not read any Green Arrow comics prior to this issue. I did watch all one hundred and seventy episodes of Arrow the television show...so hopefully that gives me some Green Arrow cred. This collected volume contains Green Arrow: Rebirth #1 and Green Arrow issues #1-5.
Green Arrow: Rebirth #1: In Seattle, Oliver Queen was having dinner with a woman but she pretty quickly storms off. Seems Oliver Queen was not well matched with a 'Republican Senator's daughter.' Outside the restaurant we see a small child and his guitar playing mom begging for money. Oliver slips him a hundred, before walking away. A gust of wind blows the money out of the kid's hand and right into a sewer grate. (A sewer with some glowing eyes that only the reader sees.) The mom tells her son to stay, then goes to reach into the grate. Off page there is a scream.
Oliver is narrating, there are 17 missing persons, all women and children, all poor and mostly homeless. Most likely that number is much lower than the real number. While he is narrating we start with an overview of Seattle, we zoom in to see a dark figure pulling a kid through an alley. Oliver tells us about his two lives. One as the rich playboy in a penthouse and the other as the Green Arrow. On cue a green arrow hits a building next to our creepy hooded figure.
Green Arrow jumps in hitting the figure and grabbing the kid. The figure fights back, but stops the fighting saying, "I know you." She then reveals herself to be Black Canary. He apologizes and she teases him about all his new facial hair. Seems the two have only met once before. She is trying to help the boy find his mother.
Back at Oliver's apartment, he is giving the kid a bath and giving Canary the 3rd degree. She just happened to be in the city when she heard the kid crying and about someone taking his mother. Oliver asks the little guy who he thought took her. He ominously tells us the Underground Men did.
Oliver decided to clean up his beard. While he is doing that Canary tells him that other groups talk about him. Turns out Green Arrow is a sanctimonious jerk even in the hero circles. That he claims to be a Social Justice Warrior while living the rich life. He comes out asking what she thinks. She lets him have it, calling him a hypocrite and 'the man.' He was asking about his goatee. She is unimpressed on all accounts.
The kid lives in 'The Jungle.' Not a literal jungle but an impressive camp of tree houses in the greenbelt. Black Canary is giving Oliver a hard time about not knowing there is a huge homeless encampment in his backyard that he has never heard of. He is starting to get testy, but she doesn't relent, calling him out on trying to just use money to fix Seattle and how he failed his previous partner. (Speedy, aka, Arsenal from the Titans. More on him later.) She might have crossed the line, but isn't really wrong. He calls her out on living the rock star life. (See the New 52 Black Canary volumes for that chunk of her life.)
Green Arrow admits to having been a privileged d-bag, but he changed on 'The Island' (Not sure if the comics and the show align but he was trapped on an island for a while, probably the best thing to happen to him) and learned to survive and to care about others. Canary admits to maybe not knowing everything. He rants a bit about how much it costs to be a superhero and asks why the heck she even cares. She is still unimpressed, she cares because she was that kid, poor and living in foster care or on the streets. She would trade for some island any day.
The kid finds his father and Green Arrow tells him the mother is missing. Right as the kid says that it was them, the Underground Men, a bunch of real creepy vampire looking dudes arrive on the scene. They are grabbing all the people from the camp and dragging them off. Green Arrow and Black Canary are having none of that. Canary does her Canary Cry and Ollie is impressed. (I liked his word choice, she makes him feel, "gratefully defenseless.")
Canary is trying to shake down one of the creatures for information but he isn't talking. Green Arrow compliments her on her wail. She doesn't think her scream will get the creature to talk. Green Arrow gives a little speech about his absence of mercy for those who prey on the weak, all while pointing an arrow directly at the creature's junk. That seems to do the trick because it tells them about an auction and then points the way.
They head down into some kind of underground tunnel system. He asks her again what brought her to Seattle. She admits that she was just looking for a change because she was feeling lost. He tells her a story about where they are, the burnt out remains of the Seattle Underground. That the city rebuilt after the fire, getting a second chance. He got a second chance too, maybe this will be hers. She agrees to second chances. They see a trail of blood and begin to follow it. He knows about an underground mansion that was built in 1887 that also burned in the fire, but now its ballroom hosts the rich and powerful. (I am not sure how he knows all this. I guess because who else would be auctioning off people and maybe Ollie is just really into the history of Seattle.)
In said underground ballroom, a bigger and creepier underground man is starting the auction. (In this universe they use Lexcoin instead of bitcoin, funny play there DC.) I think it is the mother from before up for bid, Creepy assures everyone that no one will come looking for her because she is no one. Big creep is interrupted by a little Creep warning him that GA and BC are coming, but it is too late. They are already there and start wrecking the place.
Big Creep goes to drop our missing mom down a hole in the ground calling her irrelevant, but Green Arrow is able to tell the creep that it is wrong and he saves the woman at the same time. He talks to the people on the screens that were bidding. Promising to hunt them down and take everything away from them until they know what it feels like to be no one.
Later, Black Canary and Green Arrow are chatting. She is impressed that he took them to his apartment without a second thought. He didn't think his identity was more important than helping the boy. He wasn't afraid of revealing who he was to her, even though he doesn't know her name. She tells him that it is Dinah Lance. They share a cute moment of introduction.
The Death and Life of Oliver Queen Part One: The End: At the Seattle docks Green Arrow is chatting with his tech guy, Henry. They are trying to track down the powers behind the auctioning off of the Seattle homeless. While they are talking via radio we see a dock worker abandon his post to let the underground men load up a boat shipping crate with people. Green Arrow and Black Canary are there to stop them. Black Canary is taking down some underground men, when Henry reports that many, many more are on the way.
Green Arrow brought in some reinforcements. It is his half-sister Emi. She is not happy about human trafficking and really wants to take these guys out. One of the creeps tries to leverage a kid, but she easily shoots the knife out of his hand. Green Arrow also makes a pretty impressive trick shot to take a guy down. He asks Emi how she did it, to set up a quick back story on her. She was raised by a super-villain and her mom was a ninja. He wants some credit too for being a badass, but she calls him a privileged know-it-all. Their sibling bickering is fun.
Meanwhile, Black Canary is busy too, taking down lots of baddies. Emi is very impressed. The shipping container they were going to load belongs to Queen Industries and Oliver is not happy about that. There are cops on the scene now and they are happy to help, but only for the right price. Canary's face says wtf. Green Arrow also tracks down the dock worker from before. The guy claims he is drowning in debt and his kid is sick. Green Arrow says he'll pay him double if he tells him first about any off the book deals. Again, Canary thinks he is crazy and that the dock worker should be in jail, not getting money. Ollie tries to justify it by claiming that he is enlisting help instead of adding to the overcrowding of prisons. He thinks he is encouraging goodness. Canary is doubtful and Emi thinks they need to get to a room.
Later, they have in fact got a room and a bed. They also have cute banter. In the kitchen Canary is singing for Emi and she loves it. Dinah admits that she is afraid to get close to people, for fear of hurting them or getting hurt herself. Emi takes the cue to tell her brother not to mess this up. He tells Emi, she is the only woman in his life while giving her a hug. She says she is the only one not on his payroll, maybe he should show her some love. He points out her school is really pricey. Her solution to that problem is to stop going to school.
Oliver and Dinah go for a ride on his motorcycle. They are talking about Emi, he has been raising her for a little over a year. He appreciates how hard Emi is on him too. He wants to show Dinah all the good he is trying to do. Money can't buy happiness but it did help him build shelters, hospitals, and parks. She doesn't doubt his intentions, but that all of his relationships are built on money. He tries to list other people, Henry, and his C.F.O./mentor Broderick, but she points out they both work for him. He hints at Roy, but that is a used to be. He asks about her, but they don't really know each other. He asks if it could be, but she thinks maybe space is a better idea. She walks away and the poor guy looks pretty sad.
Time for Oliver to figure out why his company's shipping container was being used in human trafficking. His secretary (receptionist? Assistant?) is surprised to see him. She is helpful and flirty (the usual). He then goes and talks to the C.F.O. The guy is wearing a tuxedo which seems odd, but is friendly enough. Oliver proceeds to tell this Broderick guy all the things that his company is doing that seem real shady. The guy is naturally patient and condescending. They are interrupted by a different receptionist telling Broderick there is something wrong with the Trans-Pacific Railway Project, another earthquake. He uses this news to blow off Oliver, but promises that Queen Industries is making the world a better place.
As soon as he is alone Broderick makes a phone call and the weather turns dark as he says, "It's time." Oliver walks into his apartment and is immediately shot with many arrows. In his office Broderick is petting his creepy pet spider and pulls out a key with a spiral on it. He unlocks a draw and pulls out a mask we saw before. He was one of the bidders at the auction. Oliver is still fighting, asking why. His attacker is Shado, aka, Emi's mother. At a big table a bunch of people in masks are having a meeting about how they hoped to not have to kill Oliver but sometimes you just gotta do it. Emi walks in on her mom trying to kill Oliver. Instead of helping though, Emi shoots him right in the back.
The Death and Life of Oliver Queen Part Two: Erasure: We start on a boat being driven by Shado. Her and Emi are leaving Seattle. Shado's sage advice is to only cry when it is raining and to let go of any sadness she might be feeling. Oliver is also in the boat, bleeding out I suppose. They leave a bunch of booze and drugs on the boat to make it look like Oliver was up to no good. Then they toss the body overboard, leaving him to the sharks. Shado and Emi get picked up by a very large boat. The very large scary boat is full of the scary creeps, Shado calls them the Burned.
Outside of Abu Dhabi, our pal Diggle is guarding some guy that paid him a lot of money to do so. He gets a message telling him that Oliver Queen is dead. Seems he has a beef with Oliver Queen. All of this is happening while there is a firefight with the people trying to protect the guy that paid him. The silly guy wanders off and is killed. He gets another message telling him to follow the money of the guy who paid him. That he can revenge Queen's death.
A news story is reporting the death of Oliver Queen. There is no body, but his boat was full of booze, drugs, and blood. Broderick further says that Queen was a bully who was stealing money from his father's company. (There is a mention of Wild Dog Militia, this will be important later I feel.) Dinah is watching and is pissed. She is blaming herself for getting close to him, (which is silly) but she is determined to avenge him and find Emi. Henry is playing video games, when he gets a ping from a homing beacon for Emiko Queen. He goes to check it out only to find the not quite dead body of Oliver Queen.
In the mind of Oliver Queen his life is flashing before him, kind of. He is also plummeting into hell as he thinks about Dinah, Shado, Emi, and Broderick. He keeps holding onto the memory of being with Dinah, until she starts speaking in Mandarin. He wakes up to realize he was kissing an old Mandarin lady. He freaks out for a minute until he gets his bearings. Henry tells him that his nainai saved him. Oliver thanks them, but he can't remember or understand what is happening.
Henry shows him the arrow head they pulled out of him that led him to his body. It is the only one Emi shot him with. Oliver is mostly healed, turns out he has been out for almost two weeks. He bolts and tries to head home. (He is wearing a t-shirt that says Sherwood and I love it.) His building is about to be destroyed. He tries to stop them, but they just blow it up. The development is funded by Queen Industries.
At the Seattle Police impound lot, Canary is looking over Oliver's boat. She finds a small footprint and deduces that Emi was on the boat too. She also finds a spiral that is the same as the one that was on the key of that Broderick guy. Her image scan turns up a lot of dead bodies with spiral eyes. All of them appear to have been powerful people who were assassinated. Guess the eyes are not spirals but coins that have spirals on them, a calling card of some kind. There does not seem to be any symbology references though. It might not be a spiral but in fact nine circles, like the nine circles of hell.
Oliver is making his way through the woods lamenting that it is all gone. No money, no home, and a destroyed reputation. Nothing left except for his secret tree base in the woods, a doomsday cellar. He calls Henry and asks him to watch Broderick. Henry basically tells him that he is pretty sure Oliver is a good guy, but that he can't work for free. Oliver all but begs, but Henry says no. The issue ends with Oliver admitting that he has lost everyone and everything including the name Oliver Queen. The only thing left is the Green Arrow.
The Death and Life of Oliver Queen Part Three: The Ninth Circle: Back in Seattle proper, Green Arrow is going to break into his company's tower. He doesn't know how his company is involved in the human trafficking, but he does know that an hour after talking to his C.F.O., his assistant was dead, and he was left for dead. (I think I missed that she was killed and he was framed for it, but that happened.) So he is pretty bummed that he doesn't have anything anymore and was framed for murder. He is trying to break in without hurting anyone. (Still uses a tranq arrow that gives nightmares...but keeping it chill.) He explains just how difficult the break in is as he continues to break in. In his mind he promises to give all the security people raises. He makes it to Broderick's office only to find it is full of the creepy creeps that are even more ugly than the Underground Men.
In the Cathedral of St. Lawrence, Rome, Italy, Diggle is looking sharp. The priest asks about confession but Diggle gets right down to business, pulling out a gun and demanding to meet someone. The priest calls what he's asking for suicide, but still tells him were to go. Down in what appears to be catacombs, a man with half his face burned asks what Diggle wants. The guy name we find out is Virgil. Diggle shows him one of the buttons with the spiral looking symbols. Virgil tells us it is the symbol for The Ninth Circle. They are the ones who burned his face.
John Diggle is the owner and operator of a private security force, he doesn't like failing (his guy got killed a few weeks ago). He was able to track down Virgil by hacking into the dead guy's phone. While Diggle continues to explain that The Ninth Circle killed his friend (Oliver), we see Green Arrow fight with lots of creeps. Virgil tells us that The Ninth Circle is basically a giant bank for bad guys.
In Broderick's office, who should walk in but Broderick himself in his weird mask. He also knows that Oliver is Green Arrow. Green Arrow does that classic hero bit of asking, why. Why kill Wendy (the assistant) and why destroy his life. The answer is pretty clear, but we still get some bad guy monologue. He might be the C.F.O of Queen Industries, but his real job is being a board member of the big bad bank The Ninth Circle. Before anymore talking can happen, Shado busts in the window and shoots a bomb arrow. Green Arrow grabs a laptop and tells Broderick he is going to burn. He jumps out the window right as the bomb blows, Shado follows him.
Canary is at the docks roughing up the shady dock worker from before. He gives her sass, but she is not there to pay him like Green Arrow did, she will just beat him up if he doesn't give her some info. He doesn't know anything about The Ninth Circle, but the Underground Men have a deal with a barge captain. She informs him that he will be taking her to said barge.
The big scary boat is called the Inferno. A really ugly and burned guy is angry that Oliver Queen is still alive. Uglie's name is Dante (sigh) and he is very angrily yelling at Broderick. Then he demands to talk to Shado, but she is chasing Green Arrow. Dante thinks maybe Shado is in league with Green Arrow. Emi walks in telling him to never question her mother's loyalty. He makes a lame banker joke about someone needing to pay.
Green Arrow is running from Shado, jumping from roof to roof. He finally asks Shado, wft? She explains that she used to work for the Yakuza but they defaulted so now her blood oath is to The Ninth Circle. Also by the rules of inheritance it carries over to Emiko. Green Arrow tries to point out his father loved her, but love means nothing to her. He tries to get away again, but runs into some cops. They think he bombed Queen Industries and tell him that he can't bribe his way out of this mess. (Poor guy is having a rough night.)
Shado is reporting to Dante. Shockingly he is mad about Oliver Queen still being alive. Shado takes all the blame trying to protect Emi from this crazy dude. He is not feeling like giving Shado any more chances, but Emi saves the day by pointing out they don't need to worry about taking out Green Arrow. She zooms in on a screen, while telling us that Ollie doesn't care about money and they don't need to chase him. He will come to them because they have her. On the zoomed in screen we see Canary is on her way.
The Death and Life of Oliver Queen Part Four: Burn Your Bridges: Green Arrow is in a standoff with the Seattle PD. He tries to talk them down but in the end has to fight his way through them. He seems in the clear and still has the laptop. A speedy cop is about to get the drop on him, but instead gets punched in the face by Diggle. Diggle might have been there to avenge Oliver's death, but there sure is some animosity between these two.
On a barge heading for the Inferno, Canary is trying to get information from the captain, but he is useless. The things running the Inferno are the burned people we saw back in Broderick's office. Basically as soon as Canary is on the big ship Emi shoots an arrow at her. She figures out pretty quickly that Emi betrayed Oliver and she is pissed. Before Canary can do anything though, she is hit by a tranq arrow (hopefully not the kind that gives you nightmares). Dante is impressed.
Green Arrow doesn't want to fight with Diggle, but Diggle has not forgiven him. (I have no idea what Oliver did, but it seems to involve the death of a lady friend of Diggle's.) They fight, but only long enough for Diggle to put Green Arrow in his place. Then they are bros again, kind of.
Back on the Inferno, Dante is being creepy. Shado arrives and is very stressed about Emiko's wellbeing. We see that Dante is in fact making another one of his burnt people. Shado joins the party and is happy that Emi is okay. They are giving Canary a display of how 'The Burned' are created. He plans to do the same to her and to Oliver.
On a rooftop, Diggle and Oliver recap all the problems. Oliver is also trying to figure out Broderick's laptop but to no avail. So they go to the only guy that can help. Henry is not interested in helping, both because it is crazy dangerous and there is no money. Diggle gives him a pep talk and then offers to pay him. An hour later Henry is in and knows all the things about all the baddies, many names are dropped. More bad news, all of Ollie's money is now in the evil bank. Henry mentions the Trans-Pacific Railway, but is interrupted.
Dante pops up on the screen. He wants to trade the laptop for Canary's life. Emi promises she will silence Canary if Oliver doesn't show up. She ends the call and Oliver is upset, he knocks over a water bottle onto the laptop. Not to worry though, they don't need it (it was never really about the laptop anyway), Henry knows where the Inferno is. Diggle and Ollie hop on a boat and rush to find the giant float bank of doom.
The Death and Life of Oliver Queen Part Five: The Inferno: We flash between Dante threatening Canary with fire, while explaining all the benefits of fire and Diggle and Green Arrow coming up on the Inferno. Dante explains that they buy the homeless from the Underground Men, so that they can program them and turn them into the burned. (Guess it takes a lot of crew to man the giant ship.)
The board members are also arriving at that moment, including, of course, Broderick. Green Arrow and Diggle are also working their way through the ship. Diggle borrows an outfit from one of the board members. While he is infiltrating that meeting, Green Arrow should set up some bombs, to make the boat a literal inferno. Oliver says hard pass, he wants his money back (to do good of course). Diggle tells him to suck it up, they might not have a choice.
The Trans-Pacific Railway comes up again, something about smuggling, but that is tabled in favor of talking about war and peace in the Middle East. Diggle joins the meeting. Broderick is going on about how war is good for business and Oliver is pissed that he didn't realize what a dick that guy is. Oliver is setting the bombs and finds a huge vault full of a lot of money and many treasures. He is torn, he thinks the money is how he will keep the mission of Green Arrow alive.
Shado is giving Emi a kind of confusing speech. She tells her that she is death and darkness, and that Emi is life and light. Also, that she needs to do what her mom says or else. We see Emi whisper something to Canary. Canary in turn headbutts Emi and is now free from her bonds. Shado asks what she said to her. Emi admits that it was that they are on the same side. Emi tells her mother she is sorry, right as Canary screams.
Everyone hears the Canary Cry, Ollie smiles and Diggle starts punching board members. Emi is glad to see Oliver, but it takes him a minute, she did you know shoot him in the back with an arrow. She explains that she had to, that she put the homing beacon on him so Henry would find him and she is the one who contacted Diggle. She is also the one who made it so easy to locate the Inferno. She helped to facilitate all the people helping him. She admits that the whole time she was living with him, she was reporting to her mother and the Ninth Circle. Maybe that is unforgivable, but in the end she chose him.
Right at that moment, Canary comes and asks what is taking so long. When Oliver and Dinah see each other, they both smile and head towards each other. She slaps him and calls him an idiot. She is pissed that he didn't tell her he was alive. He points out that he was in a coma and that he was also under the impression she didn't care about him. She did walk away after all. She says that is just what she does, but it is up to him to not let go. Then they get to kiss and say their sorrys.
Diggle shows up and says it is time to go. Dante tells Shado the only way she can redeem herself is to kill her daughter (dude needs to chill). Canary screams, causing Dante to fall into what I think is oil or some other kind of flammable substance. Emi gets grabbed by her mom, who tranqs her and starts to run off. Oliver is not having it, but there is a lot of chaos happening and they are surrounded by the Burned with no way out. This leaves Green Arrow no choice but to blow up the ship. Shado gets Emi onto a helicopter and flies off leaving Broderick on the helipad.
Dinah and Diggle get on one of the boats that brought in a board member. Oliver doesn't want to leave without Emi, in that moment of hesitation, the Inferno falling apart separates him from everyone else and he falls into the ocean. On the final page we see that Oliver has washed up on a small island. When he wakes up the only thing he can say is, "Not again."
Well, we learned a lot of things in this volume. There is a lot of chemistry between Oliver and Dinah. Diggle has a lot of beef with Oliver but still has his back. Emi and her mom have a real complicated relationship. Emi does in fact love her brother. I think Oliver learned that money does not solve all of life's problems. The idea of a mega evil bank does not feel that far outside of the realm of real life and that is scary. I think the Underground men and the Burned, are a bit outside of that realm though, so that is nice. I am not sure I love Green Arrow just yet, but I am here to give all of DC a chance so I do plan to read more and see if it will grow on me.
My favorite line from this issue goes to the man in green himself, because he is not wrong. Dude is ugly.
Next Week: Green Lanterns Vol. 1: Rage Planet
Last Week: Superman Vol. 1: Son of Superman
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I took the Seattle underground tour years ago so it is really cool to see it mentioned in a comic.
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