Some thoughts about Green Arrow Annual #1

Is this real?

Christmas is getting closer and Oliver Queen is finally getting all he wants, or at least that's what he believes.

Seriously, is this for real?

Let's talk about the premise itself to see what's wrong with it. Like most writers, Ben Percy implements this Annual to create an one-and-done story focusing on Count Vertigo and his mind-controlling abilities. The first flaw is the obvious since Percy still refuses to address Jeff Lemire's Count Vertigo and instead decides to write about the more simplistic version that he created which is barely anything beyond an one-dimensional rich douche which tries to reflect Ollie on a personal level but again, he doesn't have an actual personality for himself.

Second problem is that Percy still tries to make the conflict between Ollie and Diggle as an actual serious deal. Again, Ollie slept with Diggle's fiancee AFTER they broke off which again, is a pretty stupid reason to create drama, hell, they even mention in this same Annual that "is not as bad" so I don't understand the point of this supposed fight. It would be more appropriate if Percy would have gone the whole way with Ollie making Diggle's fiancee cheat on him, yes, it would have been bad but would have made the entire thing more believable (and it would have been in character for Ollie).

But you know what bothers me the most about this? That it pretty much devalues the heavyhanded theme that this book has been going for since the beginning. The ultra liberal take on Green Arrow starts to lose its meaning when two men start fighting for a woman's property despite that one of them ended their relationship! Are you kidding me? Like, ARE YOU F*CKING KIDDING ME?!

Oh, and there's also the fact that Emiko had a scene where she almost starts kissing Nightwing. First of all, Emiko might be older than how she originally appeared but she's still a pretty young teenager so makes the whole scene rather awkward. I thought that the thing that happened between her and Damian was off but this is much, MUCH worse.

Eleonora Carlini's artwork is pretty decent though with expressive characters and an energetic style.

Other than that, God, this was gross as a whole.