Scan barcode
renatasnacks's review
1.0
UGHHH. I picked this up because I started watching the TV show Arrow and I thought I'd give the comics a try. This is vol one of the New 52 reboot so THEORETICALLY it should have been approachable to me, a first time Green Arrow comics reader, because that was like, the whole point of the New 52. But it was not. There was no explanation about who Oliver's support team is? I would have accepted a one panel text box. Where did they come from?? On the show, his Batcave friends are my favorite part.
Also, on the show, Oliver is like a rich playboy but I find him likeable? Here he's PRETTY GROSS and calls women "skanks" and "attention whores". Like... in the show we see him kind of like that BEFORE his Island adventure that turns him into a hero. Now he's already a heroic figure, why is he still gross.
Also let's not... talk about how the main villains here are a sexy lady robot and her lover who is made out of toxic waste....?
Anyway, I'm aware that this came out a year or so before the show premiered, but I don't care. I like the show, I don't like this, I won't be picking up any more Green Arrow comics unless I hear that it's significantly changed. (Although I have heard that Felicity is in the comics now so maybe I'll pick them back up when she comes in. Or maybe I'll just keep watching the show.)
These have been my thoughts about new 52 Green Arrow vs Arrow the TV show, good night.
Also, on the show, Oliver is like a rich playboy but I find him likeable? Here he's PRETTY GROSS and calls women "skanks" and "attention whores". Like... in the show we see him kind of like that BEFORE his Island adventure that turns him into a hero. Now he's already a heroic figure, why is he still gross.
Also let's not... talk about how the main villains here are a sexy lady robot and her lover who is made out of toxic waste....?
Anyway, I'm aware that this came out a year or so before the show premiered, but I don't care. I like the show, I don't like this, I won't be picking up any more Green Arrow comics unless I hear that it's significantly changed. (Although I have heard that Felicity is in the comics now so maybe I'll pick them back up when she comes in. Or maybe I'll just keep watching the show.)
These have been my thoughts about new 52 Green Arrow vs Arrow the TV show, good night.
theartolater's review
1.0
I typically hesitate to give out 1-star reviews to books unless they're abysmally bad, lack any real redeeming qualities, or have fatal-yet-avoidable flaws. Green Arrow, however, is so competently bad that I'm just not sure what went wrong at all, except it all did.
Is Green Arrow supposed to be an egotistical quippy anti-hero? If so, he's not really great at being any of them. If not, you'd never know what the point of this incarnation of him actually is. He's not all that heroic, there's no reason for him to be involved with what he's involved with, it's just...off. Every bit of it is off.
The one thing I can say is that I have basically no knowledge of the character beyond parts of recaps of the CW program, and I know that's not representative nor did I expect that sort of Green Arrow. I just expected something either fun or dark, like so much more of the New 52, and this was unfortunately either. My first solid pass.
Is Green Arrow supposed to be an egotistical quippy anti-hero? If so, he's not really great at being any of them. If not, you'd never know what the point of this incarnation of him actually is. He's not all that heroic, there's no reason for him to be involved with what he's involved with, it's just...off. Every bit of it is off.
The one thing I can say is that I have basically no knowledge of the character beyond parts of recaps of the CW program, and I know that's not representative nor did I expect that sort of Green Arrow. I just expected something either fun or dark, like so much more of the New 52, and this was unfortunately either. My first solid pass.
bluehairedlibrarian's review
3.0
First time reading Green Arrow and I'm not sure how to feel about it. Nothing hooked me to the story or did anything to convince me that Arrow was anyone other than a third rate Batman.
oneandonlywm3's review
3.0
I've mentioned that Green Arrow is my favorite character ever, so it's quite a shame that I've only read this one now. After reading though, all I can say is that this is the worst New 52 volume I've read as of right now.
I've read a few other Green Arrow comics and I'm a huge fan of the TV show, so I have a good background of him. This volume didn't do him justice, not even one bit. He was unlikable, and more so were the supporting characters. No one will ever beat Felicity. Back to Oliver. He was somewhat like Tony Stark. He was so full of himself, and he was way cocky that usual. This latest addition to the Green Arrow series is not that promising.
The plot was mediocre. The villains were not that interesting. The walking toxic garbage thing was a bit interesting, but Blood Rose just didn't do it for me. She was boring and didn't strike me as a major villain. Honestly I was hoping deep inside that Deathstroke would make an appearance, but sadly he didn't. The TV series showed a lot of interesting villains, so maybe this New 52 series can still make a good comeback.
The artwork was good, at least. I liked how the artist made Oliver look younger and removed the awful beard. His costume was an improvement of the others I've seen. He also used a variety of arrows so the artwork looked alive.
2.5/5 stars. Rounded up because Arrow will always be my favorite character. I'm really hoping volume 2 would be a huge improvement over this mediocre crap. I guess I'm not giving up on the series and the author just yet.
I've read a few other Green Arrow comics and I'm a huge fan of the TV show, so I have a good background of him. This volume didn't do him justice, not even one bit. He was unlikable, and more so were the supporting characters. No one will ever beat Felicity. Back to Oliver. He was somewhat like Tony Stark. He was so full of himself, and he was way cocky that usual. This latest addition to the Green Arrow series is not that promising.
The plot was mediocre. The villains were not that interesting. The walking toxic garbage thing was a bit interesting, but Blood Rose just didn't do it for me. She was boring and didn't strike me as a major villain. Honestly I was hoping deep inside that Deathstroke would make an appearance, but sadly he didn't. The TV series showed a lot of interesting villains, so maybe this New 52 series can still make a good comeback.
The artwork was good, at least. I liked how the artist made Oliver look younger and removed the awful beard. His costume was an improvement of the others I've seen. He also used a variety of arrows so the artwork looked alive.
2.5/5 stars. Rounded up because Arrow will always be my favorite character. I'm really hoping volume 2 would be a huge improvement over this mediocre crap. I guess I'm not giving up on the series and the author just yet.
birdmanseven's review
2.0
I've read comics from the 90s that were less 90s than this. I hate the new supporting cast. They don't add much and feel borrowed from other titles. The shades of Iron Man and Batman were particularly obvious.
We discussed this run, plus the Green Arrow's complicated history in a special episode of the All the Books Show: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/episode-233-green-arrow
We discussed this run, plus the Green Arrow's complicated history in a special episode of the All the Books Show: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/episode-233-green-arrow
brieahnj's review
3.0
This is the first New 52 Volume I've read. I have to say the dialogue was a little juvenile. I haven't really been able to emotionally invest in this new Green Arrow character. The Art is beautiful though.
dr_matthew_lloyd's review
1.0
Prior to beginning the New 52, there were two DC superheroes that I had read extensively: Supergirl and Green Arrow. The greatest storyline I have read in a long-running superhero comic is probably the One Year Later stories [b:Green Arrow, Vol. 8: Crawling from the Wreckage|559397|Green Arrow, Vol. 8 Crawling from the Wreckage|Judd Winick|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347710198s/559397.jpg|546567] and [b:Green Arrow, Vol. 9: Road to Jericho|1270628|Green Arrow, Vol. 9 Road to Jericho|Judd Winick|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348294292s/1270628.jpg|1259555], in which Oliver Queen has been elected mayor of Star City after another year on an island training to be better than he has ever been before . It's a great way of showing how much these superheroes can do out of costume as well as in. So it is clearly here that I was going to have the most difficulty enjoying the reboot. It is here that I was going to feel most the loss of history and character, the absence of supporting characters and situations which I had grown to love reading the earlier incarnation of the character. It was here that the really failure of a complete re-launch of the DCU was going to hit me hardest.
On its own merits, The Midas Touch never rises above mediocre - some of the back-and-forth between Olly and his Oracles, Naiomi and Jax, manages to hit humour, but generally it falls flat; the action is static, the art pretty weak; the storylines are OK, except that whoever wrote the first one does not appear to have ever used the internet or be familiar with how people behave on there, while the second doesn't really go anywhere. It's language flips between the laughably outdated ("You're not villains. Hell, you're not even badasses. You're punks.") and the offensive ("Why can't you just get drunk and expose yourself like all the other attention whores?"). If Olly is going to have that kind of attitude towards women, it could have at least been more akin to his old womanizing ways rather than the patronizing, Manichaean, holier-than-thou Green Arrow with which we now appear to be lumped.
And here we are back with the comparisons. The new Green Arrow really hates criminals, their wealth, success, and the respect they garner. One wonders how anyone who believes that people think of criminals in that way would think that a comic book which openly criticises it on page 2 would ever have been a success. But Olly used to be the playful, left-wing superhero - commie Olly, at least in [b:Batman: The Dark Knight Returns|59960|Batman The Dark Knight Returns|Frank Miller|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327892039s/59960.jpg|1104159]. When he had history, he's made mistakes - true, they were nowhere near as big mistakes back when chucking Roy out didn't lead to Red Hood and the Outlaws, but they were still bad - and he was trying to rectify those and repair his relationships. He knew that people often did bad things because of social circumstances, rather than because they were just bad (unlike Batman). This Olly - and the writers behind him - seem intent to make him a bad-guy pummeling, criminal-hating, socially conservative moron. Perhaps they are going to take this somewhere, but what's on display here is not encouraging me to continue. Read the old Green Arrow stories, starting from [b:Green Arrow, Vol. 1: Quiver|13194|Green Arrow, Vol. 1 Quiver|Kevin Smith|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388531426s/13194.jpg|1731867] (but skip [b:Green Arrow, Vol. 7: Heading Into the Light|559380|Green Arrow, Vol. 7 Heading Into the Light|Judd Winick|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347448196s/559380.jpg|546550]). It's far, far, far better.
On its own merits, The Midas Touch never rises above mediocre - some of the back-and-forth between Olly and his Oracles, Naiomi and Jax, manages to hit humour, but generally it falls flat; the action is static, the art pretty weak; the storylines are OK, except that whoever wrote the first one does not appear to have ever used the internet or be familiar with how people behave on there, while the second doesn't really go anywhere. It's language flips between the laughably outdated ("You're not villains. Hell, you're not even badasses. You're punks.") and the offensive ("Why can't you just get drunk and expose yourself like all the other attention whores?"). If Olly is going to have that kind of attitude towards women, it could have at least been more akin to his old womanizing ways rather than the patronizing, Manichaean, holier-than-thou Green Arrow with which we now appear to be lumped.
And here we are back with the comparisons. The new Green Arrow really hates criminals, their wealth, success, and the respect they garner. One wonders how anyone who believes that people think of criminals in that way would think that a comic book which openly criticises it on page 2 would ever have been a success. But Olly used to be the playful, left-wing superhero - commie Olly, at least in [b:Batman: The Dark Knight Returns|59960|Batman The Dark Knight Returns|Frank Miller|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327892039s/59960.jpg|1104159]. When he had history, he's made mistakes - true, they were nowhere near as big mistakes back when chucking Roy out didn't lead to Red Hood and the Outlaws, but they were still bad - and he was trying to rectify those and repair his relationships. He knew that people often did bad things because of social circumstances, rather than because they were just bad (unlike Batman). This Olly - and the writers behind him - seem intent to make him a bad-guy pummeling, criminal-hating, socially conservative moron. Perhaps they are going to take this somewhere, but what's on display here is not encouraging me to continue. Read the old Green Arrow stories, starting from [b:Green Arrow, Vol. 1: Quiver|13194|Green Arrow, Vol. 1 Quiver|Kevin Smith|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388531426s/13194.jpg|1731867] (but skip [b:Green Arrow, Vol. 7: Heading Into the Light|559380|Green Arrow, Vol. 7 Heading Into the Light|Judd Winick|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347448196s/559380.jpg|546550]). It's far, far, far better.