"The World's Greatest Archer": Green Arrow Appreciation!

[The Whovian]

Hey everyone, I've never read Kevin Smith's GA run and was wondering if it's any good? On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate it?

[Sam]

Hey everyone, I've never read Kevin Smith's GA run and was wondering if it's any good? On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate it?

I'd give it a 9 or a 10. It is stooped in past DC Universe history though, especially during the first couple issues. So that may affect how much you like it.

[Assam]

Hey everyone, I've never read Kevin Smith's GA run and was wondering if it's any good? On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate it?

9/10 easily. Quiver in particular is delightfully insane and engulfed in DC lore. It's probably my favorite Oliver Queen story.

[Frontier]

Yeah, I thought Quiver was a great return to form of the classic Green Arrow .

[Jekyll]

Quiver is fantastic! Definitely recommend.

[Kaled]

I would give Quiver a 9/10. It was a great read. One of the promos for the Green Arrow/Flash TV series came from a comment made by the Flash in the 7th or 8th issue.

[Rakzo]

Kevin Smith's Quiver is pretty much the kind of revival the character of Oliver Queen needed to become relevant again and appropriately it did so by not focusing on the political aspects that have been plaguing his history for decades (in fact, in many instances it actually mocked it) but instead concentrating on his flawed and understandable human nature which was a breath of fresh air at the time.

I don't think is quite perfect though. The supernatural aspects were a bit out of place at times and I don't mean the stuff that was required to resurrect Ollie, I mean characters like Etrigan and Stanley and his Monster who felt awkward in this universe which is especially obvious since neither of them interacted again with Ollie until the series became full supernatural with Vol. 5 (except for Stanley and his Monster who didn't even get any relevant appearance after it). Not to mention that the whole "I became tortured after accidently killing a man" explanation for all of Ollie's mistakes up to that point was a pretty lazy and ridiculous justification. Oh, and Smith's following arc was, well, not so good (Onomatopeia is simply not a good fit for a Green Arrow villain no matter how much Smith pushed him).

That being said, Green Arrow Vol. 3 was pretty great all-around. Smith revived Ollie in a really good manner, Meltzer explored his personal flaws even further and turned him into one of the most complex heroes in the DCU and Winick created the best family dynamic that ever existed for the book. Sadly there has never been a title as consistent as Vol. 3 after it ended.

[Daniel22]

Kevin Smith's Quiver is pretty much the kind of revival the character of Oliver Queen needed to become relevant again and appropriately it did so by not focusing on the political aspects that have been plaguing his history for decades (in fact, in many instances it actually mocked it) but instead concentrating on his flawed and understandable human nature which was a breath of fresh air at the time.

I don't think is quite perfect though. The supernatural aspects were a bit out of place at times and I don't mean the stuff that was required to resurrect Ollie, I mean characters like Etrigan and Stanley and his Monster who felt awkward in this universe which is especially obvious since neither of them interacted again with Ollie until the series became full supernatural with Vol. 5 (except for Stanley and his Monster who didn't even get any relevant appearance after it). Not to mention that the whole "I became tortured after accidently killing a man" explanation for all of Ollie's mistakes up to that point was a pretty lazy and ridiculous justification. Oh, and Smith's following arc was, well, not so good (Onomatopeia is simply not a good fit for a Green Arrow villain no matter how much Smith pushed him).

That being said, Green Arrow Vol. 3 was pretty great all-around. Smith revived Ollie in a really good manner, Meltzer explored his personal flaws even further and turned him into one of the most complex heroes in the DCU and Winick created the best family dynamic that ever existed for the book. Sadly there has never been a title as consistent as Vol. 3 after it ended.

Man.. I so agree that vol 3 was great. That triple threat of Smith, Meltzer and Winick was really something. I was just thinking how I like Percy's run, but don't love it. But when I compare it to any of those three runs... it really falls short to me. I think a lot of me liking it is based off of how much I haven't liked most of the stuff from Winick to Lemire.

Percy is miles ahead of people like Krul and Nocenti but that's like saying something is better than a poke in the eye.

[The Whovian]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to try the first arc and see how I like it.

[Sam]

Preview for Green Arrow Annual #2

It's written by the Benson sisters who will be taking the title over in August. It's only a few pages, but it looks pretty decent. It leaves me a little more optimistic toward them taking over the book.

[Frontier]

It definitely reads like a Benson book (for good or ill depending on how you feel about them), but it seems solid enough.

[Raijin]

If Ollie riding down the street on a roulette wheel isn't badass, then i don't know what is.

[married guy]

Kevin Smith's Quiver is pretty much the kind of revival the character of Oliver Queen needed to become relevant again and appropriately it did so by not focusing on the political aspects that have been plaguing his history for decades (in fact, in many instances it actually mocked it) but instead concentrating on his flawed and understandable human nature which was a breath of fresh air at the time.

I don't think is quite perfect though. The supernatural aspects were a bit out of place at times and I don't mean the stuff that was required to resurrect Ollie, I mean characters like Etrigan and Stanley and his Monster who felt awkward in this universe which is especially obvious since neither of them interacted again with Ollie until the series became full supernatural with Vol. 5 (except for Stanley and his Monster who didn't even get any relevant appearance after it). Not to mention that the whole "I became tortured after accidently killing a man" explanation for all of Ollie's mistakes up to that point was a pretty lazy and ridiculous justification. Oh, and Smith's following arc was, well, not so good (Onomatopeia is simply not a good fit for a Green Arrow villain no matter how much Smith pushed him).

That being said, Green Arrow Vol. 3 was pretty great all-around. Smith revived Ollie in a really good manner, Meltzer explored his personal flaws even further and turned him into one of the most complex heroes in the DCU and Winick created the best family dynamic that ever existed for the book. Sadly there has never been a title as consistent as Vol. 3 after it ended.

I thought Judd Winick's run on Green Arrow was easily his best work for DC.
His run on Green Lantern was also pretty damn good, but I loved his take on Team Arrow. (Particularly his Connor Hawke)

[MajorHoy]

Between issue #77 (March 1942) and issue #103 (May-June 1945), Green Arrow (with Speedy!) earned their fair share of More Fun Comics cover appearances.





side note: The Green Arrow story in issue #77 was "Doom over Gayland", with Gayland being an amusement park. (I wonder if/what they'd rename it if they wanted to print that story these days?)

[MajorHoy]

from the first Green Arrow story (in More Fun Comics #73):



If you want to see the rest of it, . . . http://jeffoverturf.blogspot.com/201...een-arrow.html