Green Arrow and Black Canary #22

This issue provides us with the conclusion of the "Peace and Quiet" storyline. As this story has unfolded I've found myself getting more and more into it. This comic is written by Andrew Kreisberg. Oh, and this is one of those "Second Feature" books DC has been touting. So, who is in the second feature you ask? It's none other than Green Arrow... Yep, that's right, the co-star of this comic is the Second Feature. Jeez, here I was hoping they'd use the Second Feature to spotlight Connor Hawke or Speedy, but no, DC decides to feature one of the title characters... Lame.

-The first feature in this comic dealt primarily with Black Canary and her origin. It also dealt with the origin of the villain responsible for stealing the hearing from Star City, Discord. The origin really wasn't much more than a look at Dinah's first meeting with Wildcat. Dinah discovered her Canary Cry, her mother called Ted, Ted tried to convince Dinah to become a hero, Dinah's mom didn't want her following in her footsteps, etc. Nothing really Earth-shattering.

-Discord came from money and decided to become a musician, against the wishes of his father. Things worked out for Discord(he became a member of the Star City Orchestra)until Dinah accidentally destroyed his hearing with an ill-timed Canary Cry. After losing his hearing, Discord created a device that gave him a degree of electronic hearing, however this "hearing" lacked any tone. With his music career destroyed, Discord did what any logical person would do, he decided to take revenge on the world and the person he blamed for his loss of hearing, Black Canary.

-After the explosion that ended the last issue, Discord and Dinah are knocked off the roof of the building they were fighting on, but Dinah manages to save the both of them from becoming street pizza.

-After landing, Discord tries to kill Dinah, but she defeats him with ease, knocking him out and leaving him for the cops. Dinah's feature ends with her realizing that it was due to her he lost his hearing and apparently his mind.

-Ollie's feature dealt with his relationship with his crazy stalker, Cupid. Now that sound has returned to Star City, Ollie decides to arrest Cupid, but needless to say she isn't exactly willing to go to prison.

-While Ollie is trying to arrest Cupid, they hear a cry of murderer and go to investigate. The two enter an apartment and find a woman bleeding all over the floor with a butcher knife jutting out of her chest. Ollie realizes there's nothing that can be done to help the woman(she's lost too much blood), so Cupid comforts the dying woman. The woman's boyfriend(who was in the next room)tells the two archers that his girlfriend was freaking out due to the loss of sound in Star City, so he had decided to stab her. Boy, what a nice guy...

-Cupid attacks the guy and gets ready to remove his brain Ancient Egyptian style and Ollie stands back and does nothing to stop her. Before Cupid can do any real damage to the murderer, the cops arrive and taser Cupid, knocking her out. The cops ask Ollie why he was standing back doing nothing, and he tells them(unconvincingly)that he was about to step in.

-Later, Ollie returns home and Dinah tells him she heard about what happened between Ollie, Cupid and the murderer. Dinah reads Ollie the riot act and tells him that he seriously needs to take a break from being Green Arrow because lately he's been making all the wrong moves... Yeah, that coming from the woman who caused Discord to lose his hearing and go crazy! This issue ends with Dinah taking Ollie's mask and throwing it on the floor and leaving him standing alone in thought.

I have to say, I really enjoyed this story. When Andrew took this series over, I gave him a load of grief, but it seems he's starting to hit his stride in this book. I could have done without the Black Canary origin stuff(it didn't really add anything to the story)but everything else was quite good. Discord's origin was well-done, even though the way he lost his hearing does still bug me a little bit. I still find it difficult to believe Dinah would use her Canary Cry in such a haphazard manner, but what's done is done.

I especially liked the Second Feature with Ollie and Cupid, mainly because of the way it left whether Ollie was going to step in and help the murderer up in the air. Although he claims he was going to step in and stop Cupid from killing the murderer, I'm not too sure. Remember, back in the 80's, Ollie tended to flat out kill bad guys with little remorse. Hell, in some of those older Green Arrow comics, Ollie acted like a blond Punisher! With Dinah realizing what she has caused to happen regarding Discord and Ollie teetering ever closer to the edge of sanity, the next few issues of this series should be pretty good. For a score, I'll give this book an 8 1/2 out of 10. Hopefully Andrew can keep up his recent streak of good issues.