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A review by ericbuscemi
Green Arrow, Volume 1: The Midas Touch by Keith Giffen, George Pérez, Ignacio Calero, J.T. Krul, Dan Jurgens, Ray McCarthy
2.0
I was introduced to the Green Arrow by the CW show Arrow, a show I look forward to watching each week -- something I wish I could also say about Marvel superhero show S.H.I.E.L.D., but I digress. So when I saw this New 52 comic on sale for Cyber Monday, I jumped at the chance... to waste my money. What a let down.
The comic opens -- and mind you, this is the first issue of a rebooted DC line, so it is really the series opening -- with little to no introduction of Oliver or his supporting cast. In the first arc, he fights against a gang of D-list supervillains who party hard and upload their criminal exploits to social media. For some unexplained reason, they really want to record themselves murdering the Green Arrow. This is supposed to be a subtle dig at the current state of modern society and social media, but comes off more heavy-handed than a bad after-school special. More importantly, this stock batch of villains are all incredibly lame, so there is no tension in thinking they might actually come close to succeeding in their voyeuristic goal.
This subpar villain problem is somewhat resolved in the second half of this book, when Midas and Blood Rose are introduced. The Green Arrow is not any better developed here -- his signature snarky quips come off more juvenile and immature than funny -- but at least his antagonists are deserving of attention. Despite some improvement with these worthier adversaries -- which saved this from getting a one star rating from me -- there was not nearly enough between these pages to get me to continue reading this series. Not by a long shot.
The comic opens -- and mind you, this is the first issue of a rebooted DC line, so it is really the series opening -- with little to no introduction of Oliver or his supporting cast. In the first arc, he fights against a gang of D-list supervillains who party hard and upload their criminal exploits to social media. For some unexplained reason, they really want to record themselves murdering the Green Arrow. This is supposed to be a subtle dig at the current state of modern society and social media, but comes off more heavy-handed than a bad after-school special. More importantly, this stock batch of villains are all incredibly lame, so there is no tension in thinking they might actually come close to succeeding in their voyeuristic goal.
This subpar villain problem is somewhat resolved in the second half of this book, when Midas and Blood Rose are introduced. The Green Arrow is not any better developed here -- his signature snarky quips come off more juvenile and immature than funny -- but at least his antagonists are deserving of attention. Despite some improvement with these worthier adversaries -- which saved this from getting a one star rating from me -- there was not nearly enough between these pages to get me to continue reading this series. Not by a long shot.