Green Arrow: Rebirth #1
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Art and Color: Otto Schmidt
Letters: Nate Piekos
Published by: DC Comics
Available today
This issue made me breathe a huge sigh of relief and smile. Smiles all around. Green Arrow meets Black Canary, and all is just as it should be.
Benjamin Percy gives me a Green Arrow who is an arrogant but passionate bleeding heart liberal living on his own. He lives in Seattle, and tries to clean up his town both by being a philanthropic activist, and by donning a hood and mask and shooting arrows at the bad guy. I recognize this guy. He’s angry, but he’s not examining his own belly-button too much. There’s too much to do for that. Despite the fact that he narrates it and it’s his book, Black Canary figures prominently and she’s that compassionate, world-weary, tough as nails, yet still optimistic person that I met when I read the ’96 miniseries in early 2000. For the true fan of these characters, this is a relief and a joy to read.
Otto Schmidt’s artwork is the perfect accompaniment to this story. His Ollie goes through a change of facial hair, and his Dinah is the beautiful yet tough bird that we know and love. The action is fast but easy to follow, with several really excellent fight scenes and some kind of creepy-looking horror comic villains, but they totally work in this situation.
To say that I squee’d like a little girl might be overstating, but this was really good – well-written, quick-moving, and the banter….oh, the banter. I’m a happy, happy fan.
Thanks, DC!
So far I’ve read Rebirth #1, and the Superman, Batman, and Green Arrow kickoff issues. I kinda like things so far. I don’t know how they’re going to handle the villain who, according to Wally West, stole ten years during the Flashpoint storyline, but it’s interesting so far.
Isn’t the big villain Dr. Manhattan?
I read all of them – Rebirth, Superman, Batman, Green Lanterns and Green Arrow. It seems Dr. Manhattan is trying to fix something, perhaps something he did. I didn’t see him as truly evil in Watchmen. Focused, and assured of his correctness, but he wasn’t intentionally malicious.