Some thoughts about Green Arrow Annual #1

Green Arrow will need to stop a threat that is way out of his hands.

Oliver and Emiko are having problems in their lives and they decide that they need to focus their attention on a current disease that has been spreading over the city.

I'm not kidding here, it just took me the first few pages of this issue to know I was going to hate it.

Early in the story, Oliver sleeps with a girl and she leaves him by saying:

"Ollie, let's face it. You're rich, you're hot, you're white, you're male. You're not real. You're not someone anyone can relate to".

There are not enough facepalms in the world to express how I feel about this.

We all know how Ben Percy works at this point. He tries to inject social issues in the story in the most blunt way possible without having any sense of style or subtleness in the execution while at the same time presenting them in an incredibly one-sided way.

But that, that's not what I hate the most about this.

What I hate the most about this is that this guy is saying that I can't relate to my favorite character!

What are you saying Percy? That I can't relate to Oliver Queen because I'm not rich nor white?

That's what you're saying really?

You know what? You might actually be right! I CAN'T relate to THIS Oliver Queen.

Not because of the reasons you're making people believe. No, is because YOU are writing him wrong!

Oliver Queen would have NEVER stayed quiet after hearing such bullsh*t. He would have never put a face pretty much saying "Oh no, my tiny little world has been penetrated!". He would have responded in some way, he would have confronted her and he might have been wrong about some things, but at least he would have ACTED!

I think you have done it Percy, I think you're actually writing a worse Oliver Queen than Andrew Frikking Kreisberg. That's an incredible accomplishment.

(I should add that I'm not a fan of how needy Ollie is here either).

And guess what? The rest of the issue doesn't really develope such statement in any way. The characters just keep talking about how privileged Ollie is without expanding nor progressing such idea. Percy just wanted to say that and called it a day (which pretty much sums up how he has been handling such subjects in this run).

The rest of the issue is actually not so bad. The characterization for Emiko is pretty good and her relationship with Ollie is enjoyable. The story had potential but it's still about the author's obsession with telling a story about how people discriminate each other by introducing one-note villains who lack any kind of depth whatsoever and, as usual, they end-up being defeated pretty unsatisfactorily.

The art handled by Szymon Kudranski is beautiful. His storytelling and style are really on point aside from some awkward faces for the characters.

Yes, I downright hated this and I think it makes it one of the worst series from this year for me.