Overall- Story time! And since this issue didn't exactly thrill me, the story is going to be a bit short. The crazy woman who has been stalking Ollie busts Merlyn out of lockup by sending a truck careening into the police station Merlyn was being held at. After arriving at Merlyn's cell, she drugs him and takes him away. From there, she proceeds to get a hair cut and dyes her hair red... I'm not sure what the significance of that is but OK, why not? Ollie and Dinah show up at the police station and do what they can to put out the fires, keep the criminals from escaping and basically reestablishing order.
Ollie gets pissed when he discovers that Merlyn has escaped and dedicates the rest of the day to roughing up punks on the street as he searches for information on Merlyn's whereabouts. Dinah has to prevent Ollie from going too far with one of the punks and Ollie proceeds to get pissed at her and storms off. We end this issue with Merlyn waking up to discover the woman who rescued him from the prison has tied him to a chair. She then shows Merlyn some files with the names Count Vertigo and Slingshot before telling Merlyn that she was collecting gifts for Green Arrow.
The "Origins and Omens" portion of this comic showed us a glimpse of Dinah as a teenager unleashing her Canary Cry on a friend of her's which renders him deaf for the rest of his life... Well, OK, I'm not sure what the hell that was all about. The few future glimpses Scar shows us aren't very interesting, with the exception of Ollie unmasked, in his Green Arrow attire, in handcuffs.
Boy, I'm really missing Judd Winick here... I'm sorry, but Andrew Kreisberg has yet to grab my attention with any of the issues he's written for this series thus far. Granted, he's still relatively new to GA/BC, but it's getting to the point where I'm starting to dread reading this comic every month. This stalker woman storyline is just not doing anything for me. This whole issue was actually kind of ridiculous as a matter of fact. I get that this IS a comic book, but come on, how the hell does this stalker woman escape the burning prison while carrying a drugged Merlyn?
Of course, Dinah was her regular idiotic self here, referring to Green Arrow as Ollie while Green Arrow was beating up some street trash, as well as the "O&O" story, where she destroys some kid's hearing. I take it that Andrew really, REALLY hates Dinah... Since he's been writing this comic, Dinah has acted like a total amateur. You'd never know that the Black Canary in this book and the Black Canary from the Birds of Prey/JLA are the same person. I've never seen Dinah written as poorly as she is written here. It sure looks like Andrew wants to turn this comic into a solo book featuring only Green Arrow, and honestly, I'd rather he just writes Dinah out of this series as opposed to treating her like some kind of moron.
For a score, I'll give this comic a 5 out of 10. I really miss the way Judd would include so many other members of the Arrow family in GA/BC when he was the writer. I miss Speedy and Connor, and what ever happened to Ollie's son with Shado? Wasn't he aged towards the end of Judd's time on this series? Maybe I'm the only one who remembers that...
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Believe it or not, I'm kind of liking the whole, crazy/obsessed Cupid storyline. I agree that the pacing of the book has been awkward. I'm holding onto hope that Kreisberg finds a groove soon and provides some interesting plot twists. I'm not giving up on this one just yet.
ReplyDeleteI'd never think of giving up this book no matter how bad it gets. Once I start to collect a comic, I stick with it through the thick and thin. I'm loyal to a book(sometimes to a fault)as evident by the fact that I'm still collecting New Avengers, which actually hurts to read nowadays!
ReplyDeleteBack to GA/BC though, I really feel that eventually Andrew is going to turn this comic into a Green Arrow solo series. I think the catalyst will wind up being the stalker woman, who will drive a wedge into Ollie and Dinah's relationship.
And I really miss the whole "Team Arrow"/family aspect that Judd Winick had going on in this comic. Ollie has a very strong supporting cast, and I wouldn't mind seeing them pop up from time to time... Especially Connor.
Plus, wasn't Ollie's son with Shado left in Ollie's custody right before Andrew took over the writing of this series? I kind of wonder what ever became of him. Maybe it was explained and I just forgot, but I don't remember what his fate was. If you happen to remember what happened to that kid, Yedna, I'd really appreciate it, because I'm drawing a total blank. Anyway, thanks for the comments!