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[ SCREAMING FOR A SALE ] |
TO QUOTE the, uh, Bible: “And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had
a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to
conquer.”
THE REVIEW:
Those Ninth Circle cats sure do like
their religious references, don’t they?
Our hero is, for the most part, nicely placed in the background during parts one and two of the current Rise of Star City story-arc, while we primarily follow
the long-arc villains around as they set their plots in motion. How could Broderick gather up two of
the world’s greatest assassins, a corrupt, bug-eating politician,
and a local gangster with a penchant for villain team-ups, and not name
them after the four horsemen?
Obviously, he could have employed more henchpersons, but there are only
five points to his little subterranean altar, and you know he’s not giving up
his point.
Oh, right. Altar.
Fifth seal. I see what you did
there. Nice!!!!
I’ve been gushing over Percy’s run a
lot lately. Even with the magical
retcons of Rebirth, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the longer arc. It hasn’t quite surpassed Lemire’s
run in my eyes yet, but they’re neck-and-neck in comprehensive
awesomeness. That said, I feel it
necessary to not get too deep into The Rise of Star City story without
airing the concern I’ve had since it was teased several issues back, even
though it’s looking like I might be totally unfounded.
To wit, the title obviously references the
once-upon-a-time home of Green Arrow, Star City . Unlike his pre-Flashpoint (actually,
pre-Zero Hour) counterpart who moved from Star City to Seattle,
the Oliver Queen of current continuity seems to have always been a child of
Seattle. Now, I was a bit concerned that
the path of this story might be to transform the vaguely-real-world-esque
Seattle in to the classic comic book locale of Star City; maybe leveling some
landmarks we’ve been seeing (like the Space Needle and Fremont Troll),
or collapsing the entire downtown area within the lay line star pattern. But it’s already been established that Star
City exists elsewhere in the post-Flashpoint (and post-Rebirth)
continuity; first in Green
Arrow 0, when Ollie bailed Roy out of Star City PD’s lockup,
which may or may not still be not-yet-solidified reality, but also in the
definitely post-Rebirth Fall
and Rise
of Captain Atom book, which is where Nathaniel/Vincent/Cameron’s
PI finds Genji and his aunt living (This book also puts Star City
within an hour’s drive of Winslow Air Force Base in Arizona, far
from any of its prior locations on the map).
So, hopefully my fears of yet more sloppy continuity are irrelevant as
it appears that the Ninth Circle’s Star City is far more mythological than
literal.
Focusing on all the things these issues did
well, though, and there’s a hell of a lot of stuff to mention.
For starters, Ferreyra’s art, is, as always, horrific and
beautiful. From The Burned to the
terror of innocents to saucy assassins to a city of chaos burning in the
pouring rain, he brings the terror and confusion of these opening two issues and
clearly defines this story as anything but a gallant hero swooping in to save
the day. Sure, we get some classic hero
shots for Oliver, Dinah, and Emiko, but the real artistic
star of these issues is the destruction of the aforementioned four
horsemen. Plus let's not forget about Broderick’s Ninth Circle
mask -- Ferreyra really needs to sell
that splash page as a poster without the dialog boxes and bubbles.
The story is all set-up, so, yeah, perhaps
as a single issue (or pair thereof) there’s not much to offer the audience. But as a set up for the arc of The Rise of
Star City, it’s a series of super-strength punches to the foundation of a
skyscraper. We get the epic opening
gambit of Broderick’s moves to destroy Seattle, Team Arrow (sans one John
Diggle) scrambling to try and respond, and we also get full-on disclosure of
the plan to both Oliver and the audience.
Heck, we even get a name for the Ewok Village
headquarters in the Rainier Wilderness before... uhhh... it ceased to be
a practical location for Green Arrow’s headquarters. Well, we got a name once, and it was a delovely throwback to Mike
Grell’s Longbow Hunters that first moved Green Arrow from Star City
to Seattle. But then it was back to
bland ol’ “Green Arrow HQ.” Sad trombone
is sad.

THE MUSIC:
Clearly, the theme for these two issues is
to strike up Seattle with a shock event... or seventeen. Until we know specifically what those shock events are a distraction for, these issues are best paired with the apparent
mission of The Ninth Circle: to Seek and Destroy, just like the
boys from Metallica like to proclaim.
THE
COMPARISON:
It sure is annoying when you have a bug
swarming around your face. Or, as an analogy for 'bug in your face', an assassin or two committing an isolated crime
or two in your city! To extend this
analogy to these two comics, the Ninth Circle’s assaults on the city of Seattle
are essentially a swarm of locusts attacking all at once, causing
extensive damage to crops, or, if you will, the people, infrastructure, and
government of Seattle.
(Yes, Green Arrow may have run in to a literal swarm of locusts back before Rebirth in issue 45, but I’m pretty sure those were moths.)
(Yes, Green Arrow may have run in to a literal swarm of locusts back before Rebirth in issue 45, but I’m pretty sure those were moths.)
THE
CONCLUSION:
Now, let’s not worry that perhaps these
issues are basically villainous setups with no plot or character development, even
though Oliver does make a very interesting discovery about his father (dude was
busy) which leads him to an indignant hissy-fit and some more shift-ups to the
membership of the team. But still, there’s
certainly more and better story to come.
It’s officially got another two issues left to go, but a quick peek at
the solicits beyond this arc show that Percy’s pattern of spinning one arc in
to the next is not going to let up with the “oversized anniversary issue.”
And for those of you who were paying attention, you may have noticed that it’s not just any League of Assassins master of poisons that got chosen as the white horse of pestilence, but one with a history with a certain someone that Henry might have called for help. Is your hat sense tingling? Mine is.
*** Just reading and writing and rambling in the back of the Joker's old Ho-Home-On-Wheels... Keath.
And for those of you who were paying attention, you may have noticed that it’s not just any League of Assassins master of poisons that got chosen as the white horse of pestilence, but one with a history with a certain someone that Henry might have called for help. Is your hat sense tingling? Mine is.
*** Just reading and writing and rambling in the back of the Joker's old Ho-Home-On-Wheels... Keath.
GREEN ARROW #21 & #22
Reviewed by David Andrews
on
May 23, 2017
Rating:

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