What makes Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's run on Green Arrow the best the character ever had?

My friends, you know I love comics , you know I love superheroes, but do you know who my favorite superhero of all time is? The answer is none other than Green Arrow.

An unusual choice I know, most people would probably pick some of the most recognizable characters but there's something that has always attracted me about Oliver Queen's personality.

I never particularly cared about the aspects that made him popular on the first place like his liberal views and hotheaded attitude, it was more about how he, among all the other DC heroes, represented a real man. The man who is flawed, the man who makes mistakes, the man who doesn't excels at anything truly impressive (Except at being an archer) but still always tries to be something more.

That kind of  hero is really difficult to portray and is especially difficult to making him likable but after so many decades of stories Green Arrow has become one of the most prominent heroes from the DCU.

Now, Green Arrow has been written by several different talented writers that have left their mark on the respective eras they have worked on: Dennis O' Neil cemented his left-wing persona on the wake of the Bronze Age for the 70's. Later, Mike Grell would completely alter his world by pushing him into a much more realistic, grim and gritty direction for the 80's and a huge part of the 90's. Then after spending a time in heaven, he resurrected (He's a superhero, it happens) and starred in my favorite incarnation of the character written by Kevin Smith, Brad Meltzer and Judd Winick since the early 2000's and a great part of its first decade. Finally, he appeared on a highly underrated series written by J.T. Krul focused in a supernatural theme before the New 52.

So you may be wondering what makes the current run so special. For starters, I have to talk about the beginning of the current volume which was written initially by J.T. Krul who did a pretty mediocre job compared to his previous work on the character and then he was replaced by Ann Nocenti who started fine but her run became quite dull halfway. It seemed like the New 52 series had no hope after so many failed attempts.

But then from nowhere, hope arrived. Jeff Lemire who has been writing the successful DC series Animal Man along with other fan favorites like Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. was asked to handle the book despite he had never shown any interest towards the character and was teamed with Andrea Sorrentino, a really talented artist who had become pretty popular after his work on I, Vampire. I was really excited about the promise of this new creative team when it was first announced and, based on the poor performance of previous authors, I thought it would be at least an improvement.

I sincerely wasn't expecting what possibly is the most epic and groundbreaking Green Arrow work ever.

Huge words I know but hear me out:

Starting with issue 17, their first official issue, they rocked Oliver Queen's world by destroying most of his previous status quo (Including a couple of supporting characters) and throwing him into a world of mystery, mysticism and war. The attacks are being handled by a dark archer named Komodo who has a connection to Oliver's past and also has the keys for his future.

Evoking classic grim and gritty trends from the late 80's and early 90's, especifically from titles like O' Neil's The Question and Grell's Green Arrow, Lemire introduces us to a world where no other GA fan has ever entered before. Trying to hide the true nature of the story, the author initially focused on a classic noir theme that while excellently executed it was something that was present before in Grell's run from which Lemire admits that he has taken inspiration but this couldn't be further from the truth.

Once that the first storyarc consisting of five issues concludes you realize that Green Arrow's universe won't ever be the same by revealing secrets about what being the world's greatest archer actually means and it's not something easy to achieve, not to mention that it's not the only weapon that he should be concerned about.


There are six different clans: The Arrow Clan, The Sword Clan, The Shield Clan, The Fist Clan, The Spear Clan and another one long forgotten that will most certanly be revealed while the story progress. All this mysteries will lead Ollie to face terrible adversaries to try to protect the world from The Outsiders, an exclusive elite of warrior that especializes in several of the different weapons from each clan.

We have never seen this kind of worldbuilding in the franchise, there have been little hints of it like in Grell's run concerning Shado, the Yakuza and the different assassins clans but never to this extreme, for the most part Green Arrow has always been about entertaining street level adventures sometimes mixed with classic superheroics but that was the limit of its scope. Now by thinking outside the box, Lemire has created a complete new mythology which expands the possibility of new stories for the future.

Now, you may note that this premise is pretty similar to the one created by Geoff Johns in Green Lantern concerning the Rainbow Corps (Yellow Lanterns, Red Lanterns, Blue Lanterns, etc.) but Lemire's concept is automatically a much deeper one since each clan has a different culture, different types of weapons and different combat styles instead of simply being aliens with different power rings.

Let's talk for example about the second arc that consisted merely of two issues which not only reintroduces a popular character from Grell's run but also recreates classic rogues like Count Vertigo and the Clock King in unique ways, but those actually are not the biggest surprises that will be delivered in this story.

One of the highlights of Lemire's works are the villains and that's pretty apparent here when he dedicates an issue to explore the origins of Count Vertigo, one of the oldest GA enemies and one that Lemire manages to make both complex and threatening by revealing his troubled childhood and his terrible relationship with his mother and country.

Once that Lemire makes you invested on the antagonist he automatically returns to Ollie for the ultimate battle between them for the sake of Seattle while also introducing new threats in the form of one of DC's most famous martial artists, all this contained in a single issue that works perfectly as a stand-alone issue and part of the ongoing story.

Now, I suppose you can start seeing how everything flows and connects satisfactorily right? That's one of the most positive aspects of the writing here, the plannification. This is something that I always hear that authors want to achieve (Most recently, Ales Kot in Suicide Squad) but can't quite pull it off, Lemire is able to make a few little arcs and one-and-done issues work as their own and as chapters of the overarching plot, even when the book becomes a tie-in to other events like Zero Year, the author is able to make it fit as part of the whole direction. It's something truly magnificent to behold.

See what I mean when I say that Lemire is not really taking inspiration from just Grell's work? If anything, he's taking inspiration from the whole history of the character, making it fit into the new status quo and expand it to boot. He took ideas from the different eras of the character, from the Silver Age by reinventing the Clock King, the Bronze Age by injecting a social conscience to the protagonist, the 80's and its noir style, etc.

Hell, he's even presenting characters from the Arrow TV show, I'm seriously expecting others like Constantine Drakon, Brick and Mia Dearden soon.


However, Lemire is just half of the equation for the success of this book, the other half belongs to Andrea Sorrentino who is probably one of the most creative and bold artists currently.

Just look at the amount of detail and beauty from these images, Sorrentino is one of the best storytellers in the industry and is able to depict the story in a way that I frankly couldn't see any other penciller able to match.

Segments like the Shados arc are completely beautiful and inventive while the huge battle between Green Arrow and Count Vertigo feels pretty climactic, the work is simply flawless.

The most interesting aspect however, is that the best is apparently about to come based on how this creative team plans to put their own spin on the Outsiders franchise I frankly can't wait for it.

I truly hope that you people are as excited as I am for this series since it's honestly the best title that DC is publishing and deserves more attention than what is getting.

Come on jump in, if you don't you will be missing a lot.