Green Arrow Longbow Hunters Omnibus Review

 

Don't mind the oddly placed copy of Child's Play. It Was a busy day.

    Once again I find myself nearing the end of a month with one post to go and little forethought about a topic. Hell, this one might not even be finished in time. Seeing as we are making our way into March, a month themed around green including the beginning of spring and hopeful outdoor adventures how’s about we talk some Green Arrow? Yes, I’m stretching for relevancy, bare with me.

    It’s probably obvious from this blogs history that I’m more of a Marvel guy. That’s the superhero universe where I prefer to spend the majority of time with most of my favorite characters, writers, and titles yet I’d often like to dabble more in the DC front. Sadly I can place the blame squarely on them for keeping me away since they seemingly have a mission to never reprint their massive backlog of quality comics. Warlord? Maybe 20 issues in an out-out-print paperback. The DeMatteis runs of Dr. Fate and The Spectre? Not a chance. Arak: Son of Thunder? The same. To top it off the company has a tendency to botch reprints with missing issues, printing errors, or just canceling after a volume or two. So on the rare occasion that DC puts out something truly interesting, and manages to not screw it up, I do my damnedest to dive on in. This was the case with the first (and I swear to holy hell there better be a vol 2) omnibus for Mike Grell’s Green Arrow.

    I’d heard a lot about Grell’s work over the years which came about during the late 1980s wave of gritty comics. Some folks praise it with flowery language that generally adds up to nothing of meaning. Others compare his work to Frank Miller which I can tell you is wholly inaccurate as I didn’t regret my own literacy after reading Grell’s prose. There are others who treat this era as if violent crime minded comics as something to be embarrassed of. The truth is obviously far more complex than any of those short pitches with the actual product being a fascinating read complete with a few odd wrinkles.

    What makes this era of Green Arrow stand out is the nearly complete and total removal of fantasy/sci-fi comic tropes, a concept that seems downright mad for a character known for palling around with a space cop. Oliver Queen, who never actually uses his hero moniker within these pages, moves to Seattle and takes on the likes of Drug Dealers, sex traffickers, the yakuza, street gangs, and serial killers. Later on he spends some time abroad taking on the likes of the IRA and African poachers. Real crime was the order of the day complete with plenty of sex and violence. Even on the occasions when another superhero pops in they leave the magical stuff behind. For instance when Hal Jordan pops by to help Oliver through a bad patch he’s just a guy named Hal with a love for the color green.

    Still’ I suppose in this time of trigger warnings and the like it should be noted that this can be a very grim and gruesome book. There’s gang violence, child killers, graphic animal deaths, torture, even a damn crucifixion. Plus the title earned something of a reputation for violence against women. If we’re being honest though I’ve seen far more farcical books treat women with far less respect and these ladies at least manage to bring down scores of villains. That sort of complete and messy view permanents many of the stories with pure 1980s morality. Consider for instance how a storytelling about Oliver protecting the gay community from gang violence also has him toss out a quick gay joke. It was a time when stories centered on the notion that doing good didn’t always mean you did good things or thought happy thoughts.

    We’ve established then that this point in Green Arrow history was very violent and grim but is it any good? More so is it good enough to dedicated a fairly beefy asking price towards? Mostly yes. This volume contains the three-issue Longbow Hunters mini-series followed by the first fifty issues of the character’s proper ongoing series. Of that I’d say somewhere between around eighty percent is solid and entertaining stuff. The rest can suffer from one of two issues. Some stories, much like this article, feel like something that came about because the writer simply couldn’t come up with anything else for the month. Others, like the aforementioned poacher story, fall into the problem of reading like an impassioned editorial rather than a proper narrative. On those occasions characters end up communicating with soundbites and factoids that are way too on the nose. When things are running smoothly however this is a fun action story with strong characters and some fabulously colorful artwork.

    Another element that helps the book is how some of the weaker aspects play out in such a way that is either entertaining or at least consistent with the tone of the book. There’s the cliché of magical natives, both American and African, which always makes for a good eye-roll but doesn’t feel all that weird since Oliver is an environmentally-minded yuppie. The over-the-top criminals sometimes push the believablity of these more realistic stories but that just makes it more fun when they inevitably take an arrow to the neck. One of my favorite bits is Oliver’s tendency to kick his TV when overwhelmed with righteous indignation. Guy must be real popular at Radio Shack.

    As for the work on this omnibus I was fairly impressed. The paper stock isn’t up to the level of my dear Marvel books but it’s still decent and makes for a hefty eight-pound tome. In a surprisingly rare bit of forethought DC actually included page numbers so the contents guide remains useful. There’s the occasional odd hiccup like the cover of one issue missing it’s number or things like that but when the important stuff like binding and colors are all done right it’s tough to complain.

    Currently there’s been no word on a follow-up Omni despite plenty of content to cover. There’s at least thirty more main title issues and three mini-series from Grell, some of which has never been printed in collected format. If DC wants more of us Marvel types reaching across the aisle they’d do well to print up more items like this rather than reprinting the same damn Batman books. Whelp; looks like the clock is running out on February so I’d best get this posted. Hope it’s been of some value to somebody out there. I’ll be back soon enough with something a bit meatier.