Review of Green Arrow #2

In the last issue, everything was going wrong for Oliver Queen. The CFO of his company turned out to be the head of the Underground Men and was using the resources of his company to auction off the homeless people in Seattle, he was attacked by Shado once Cyrus figured out that Oliver was suspicious, and to make matters worse Emiko joined in with her mother to take down Green Arrow. This issue picks up where that debacle left off.

Issue: Green Arrow #2

Name: Erasure
Published: 2016 by DC Comics

Blurb:

Creators:

Writer: Benajmin Percy
Artist: Otto Schmidt
Letterer: Nate Piekos

Characters:

The Good: Green Arrow, Black Canary, John Diggle, Henry Fyff
The Bad: Emi, Shado, Cyrus Broderick, The Ninth Circle, The Burned
The Undecided: Mr. Kanoot

My Reading:

So with everything that went on last issue, things still seem to get worse for Ollie. Pincushioned with arrows, Emiko and Shado take Queen out on his boat and dump him. They painted a pretty good scene to imply that he was out partying, doing drugs and drinking and must have fallen overboard to be eaten by sharks. The truth is he somehow washed up on an island and triggered an emergency beacon…hmmm…it seems that either Ollie grabbed Emi’s distress beacon before he was thrown overboard or perhaps Emi doesn’t really want to see Ollie dead.

In any case, as we see Shado and Emi being taken aboard a huge Ninth Circle vessel with their new masters – The Burned, Henry shows up and rescues Ollie. Nursing him back to health will take a while so we see other scenes where John Diggle, who’s some kind of mercenary or security guard, is alerted to the death of Queen. He’s so distracted by the news that he let’s his charge get killed by someone who looks a lot like The Burned.

Two weeks later, Ollie is healed up and ready to head back to Seattle, but things aren’t so welcoming. He’s been disgraced, thought dead, and Cyrus Broderick has basically taken over Queen Industries. To add insult to injury when he tries to go back to his home they blow it up…no, not just his home, but the entire skyscraper. It seems Broderick really wants Ollie gone and forgotten.

Dinah doesn’t believe any of it though. She starts digging around Ollie’s boat and notices some strange symbols that lead her to start looking into the nine circles of hell. She’s close to figuring things out but Ollie’s starting to feel like he’s all on his own and the only thing he can rely upon is Green Arrow.

What did I learn:

• Somehow the Ninth Circle and the Underground Men are connected.

My Thoughts:

This is definitely a developing story as the once high and mighty Oliver Queen has fallen. This issue is more about Oliver than Green Arrow and in the end it certainly feels like Oliver Queen has really died leaving Green Arrow in his place. We’ll see more in future issues, I’m sure, but it feels that way from this issue. Particularly since the only person that still believes in Ollie is Dinah and she still doesn’t know he’s alive.

With Emiko and Shado working with the Ninth Circle things look pretty bleak for Green Arrow. They’re both pretty formidable and particularly Emi is a friend – how is Ollie gonna stop this criminal organization without hurting the people he loves? Perhaps this Diggle guy they threw into the story for some reason holds a key. I’m not sure how he fits in but apparently he knows Ollie but isn’t necissarily an ally.

The art is the same goodness that Schmidt brought to the previous few issues and I like the depiction of the Burned just as much as the Underground Men.

I suppose the one thing I would drop the rating for this issue for is that it seems like I’ve heard this story before. The whole idea kinda seems like Green Arrow’s origin story and while that’s not a bad thing I’m just hoping it goes beyond that and gets more unique in the upcoming issues.

My Rating: B-

This comic can be found on Comixology or at your local comic book shop.

Daily Ramble 263.1 | Comics – DC Rebirth – Green Arrow #2