Some thoughts about Green Arrow #3

Green Arrow is back at the worst time possible.

Oliver is trying to recuperate his company.from the Ninth Circle but they still have a secret weapon that is quite close him.

Cue Dr. Cox: "WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! YOU'RE WRONG!".

There are so many things that are going wrong with this issue that I honestly don't even know where to begin with so I'm going to start in order of appearances.

First of all, the narration (Big surprise). This is not the beginning of Rebirth yet Ben Percy believes that is necessary to retell everything that has been happening in the last few issues in a way that is so clunky and repetitive that is not even worth to pay attention so he just wasted the first three pages in pointless exposition.

Second, the characterization. Diggle went way too quickly from "I hate Oliver!" to "I have to avenge Oliver!", there's no consistence nor a proper transition between the changes of heart. Shado is not well-portrayed at all either since she's suddenly eeevvviiilll because the Ninth Circle owns her clan or something, is not necessary to mention that during Lemire's run her honor actually belonged to her family which obviously included Oliver and they also were friends, this change of character out of nowhere seems incredibly forced.

Third, the heavy-handedness. Subtle is a concept that Percy simply can't understand but is especially stupid once that Oliver realizes that the guy who was working for him, who was obviously evil, turns out to be evil (I think this also counts in bad characterization) but what really made me facepalm is that Ollie tells him: "You were wearing a mask all along" and just because Percy thinks that the idea is not clear enough he makes the guy wear a mask at the same time. Plus, he's also trying to force the idea that Ollie's money can't solve his problems, I should have seen it coming when Percy made the bad characterization of Fyff leaving him because he's broke but now Black Canary is also blatantly demonstrating it to make the argument as one-sided as predicted. YAY!

Finally, NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE AT ALL WHATSOVER! If it wasn't clear enough already Emiko also mentions that Dinah and her are the most precious things in Ollie's life. Emiko? Yeah, I can buy that she's one of Ollie's treasures but HE HAS ONLY MET DINAH FOR A FEW DAYS!

Juan Ferreyra's artwork on the other hand is pretty distinctive despite that his particular style is not my favorite. The storytelling is creative and the tone is appropriate.

But seriously, don't bother with this, that should be clear at this point.