New writer Andrew Kreisberg picks up the reins of Green Arrow and Black Canary with this issue. Kreisberg doesn’t really have a track record when it comes to comics, but this book needed new blood. Judd Winnick lost me long ago with the last page of the GA/BC wedding special and his subsequent treatment of Conner Hawk didn’t help. If nothing else, Kreisberg’s arrival keeps this comic on my pull list for at least a few more months.
Anyhow, the lead-off story is … not bad. Despite the banner claiming that a “new era begins,” the story certainly doesn’t mark a radical new direction for the either Green Arrow or Black Canary, and the story isn’t exactly a nail-biter. What we do get is a perfectly accessible jumping-on point that summarizes the title’s status quo: Green Arrow’s origin, Ollie and Dinah’s marriage, and the quick off-stage shuffle of two supporting characters (more on that later). Not that I’m totally complaining. GA/BC needed a little deck-clearing, and both the writing and art quite competently achieve that.
However, I wonder if it’s enough. GA/BC isn’t exactly DC’s best selling title and, to survive in today’s market, second tier characters need to work overtime to hook (and keep) readers. This issue’s cover certainly doesn’t help. Instead of an iconic image heralding the new creative team and story arc, we get Green Arrow almost hidden under the logo and Black Canary shunted into a corner. You would have though DC would have done a little more to make this issue stand-out on the shelf and attract new readers.
The other big weakness is the book’s villain Dregz. Dregz is so generic that even the heroes regard him as a plot device. Kreisberg has been interviewed saying he hopes to create a better rogues gallery for Green Arrow. So I figure Dregz’s (sic?) banal powers, name and personality is intentional. However, Dregz is so uninteresting that his presence undermines any real tension in the plot and leaves the story less than it could have been. (Frankly, Kreisberg could have brought back Brick from Winnick’s run if he wanted to make a point about uninteresting villains).
I was also sorry to see Conner and Speedy shunted to the sidelines. Team Arrow clicked for me as a non-traditional super-hero family. Ollie certainly has his faults – absent father/mentor to Conner and Roy and cheating on Dinah – but these faults seems a little more human than say the dark angst between Batman and his protégés. And I enjoyed seeing similarly powered heroes – the archers – crime-fighting together. However, I’ll give Kreisberg the benefit of the doubt that he’ll use the extra page space to better develop GA and BC. This issue was heavily slanted toward Green Arrow, so here’s hoping Black Canary gets equal time in the very near future.
Overall, I’m optimistic about this title. I’m at least willing to stick around for a few more issues to see where Kreisberg is headed.
Story: 3 - Good
Art: 4 - Very Good
