- Written by Benjamin Percy
- Art by Otto Schmidt
- Cover by W. Scott Forbes
“EMERALD OUTLAW” part two! Snow falls on Seattle as its mayoral race heats up with a rash of murders that implicate a deadly archer. As a city wonders what’s become of its Emerald Archer, Green Arrow and Black Canary race to rule out their prime suspect: Emiko Queen.
Pickup your copy of ‘Green Arrow’ #13 at Comixology now!
After straying off in to the weird and wonderful for its previous arc ‘Green Arrow’ is back to what it does best: complex character mystery. The all out action of ‘Murder on the Empire Express’ was a good narrative breather but ‘Green Arrow’ is much more enjoyable when it puts its lead character in the crosshairs and gives us a good old fashioned whodunnit.
Whether its purposeful or not ‘Green Arrow’ comics are now being mirrored in the ‘Arrow’ universe on TV. Take Prometheus (presumably) out of the equation and both incarnations of the character are fighting against an enemy who wants to frame the Emerald Archer for crimes he hasn’t committed.
Sadly the TV series (for the time being) is lacking in Black Canary action where the comics is brimming with it. The pairing of Dinah and Ollie is what really makes this book stand out. I feel like I’ve said this in every ‘Green Arrow’ review recently but it’s great to have the two back together.
Benjamin Percy is an incredibly strong character writer, his action sequences are good but I find that when he focusses on them the series begins to struggle. This issue dials back the action and turns up the exposition and feels much more like a typical, modern ‘Green Arrow’ comic.
It’s now a rarity to see Oliver Queen outside of the Green Arrow costume. This Rebirth run has already stripped him of so many of the aspects of his life outside of his vigilantism that it’s in danger of losing the character altogether.
Otto Schmidt is back behind the pencils however so I am a happy boy. Not that ‘Murder on the Empire Express’ didn’t look good in its own way. I just feel that ‘Green Arrow’ looks its best with Schmidt in control.
This issue is the series looking its level best again. Characters are edgy, locations are intriguing no the fine detail just makes these stories so easily reread able because there’s so much to see. Even if this was the single worst story ever written in comics if it was drawn by Otto Schmidt it would still be readable.
Verdict
‘Green Arrow’ #13 is a step in the right direction after an arc which forgot a little of what makes the character great.
