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Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: J.T. Krul
Artist(s): Diogenes Neves, Mike Mayhew, & Fabrizio Fiorentino
Cover: Stanley “Art Germ” Lau

Spoilers!

“Green Arrow: Unbound”: The fallout from the events of Justice League: Cry for Justice continues here and focuses on Green Arrow’s dark descent.  His city is destroyed, his closest loved ones have been brutally beaten, and his granddaughter murdered by the devices of Prometheus.  As we get to see in Cry for Justice #7, Ollie gets his payback by assassinating Prometheus, but the rest of the Justice League is ignorant to this and Ollie continues to leave them in the dark about it.  So after brief recaps and conversations that fill in time gaps or events that we’ve seen before this issue, Green Arrow and Black Canary leave STAR Labs (where Red Arrow is recuperating) to help with the chaos and go after the super powered criminals that got away in Star City.

As the various team members split up and scour the numerous cities targeted by Prometheus, Flash (Barry Allen) and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) seek out Shade.  Mainly because Barry isn’t convinced that his helping the Justice League against Prometheus wasn’t some means to an end for his own benefit.  However, Shade is waiting for them, and Flash attacks Shade unprovoked, but he ends up taking both of them to Prometheus’s secret hide out where he shows them their colleague’s handy work.  The body of Prometheus is lying there, however he is missing one of his most powerful weapons: his helmet.

While in Star City, Black Canary is trying to stop Green Arrow from killing the Electrocutioner, and while trying to stop him, she puts the pieces together that he’s already killed Prometheus, just as Flash and Green Lantern show up with the body.  They argue morals and past deeds and what they really stand for as heroes, but then Green Arrow snatches the teleportation key that is around the neck of the dead Prometheus, says that he’s not finished yet, and vanishes.

All I’ve been hearing about this series is that people complain about how “dark” it is, and even I’ve stated that I think the Cry For Justice series could have been shorter and effectively driven Ollie over the edge with a better overall story.  I don’t have a problem with the tone of the story though, nor with what’s happened to Roy or Ollie, if it’s going to enhance the story and make for a great series fans will enjoy.  J.T. Krul is doing a good job with Ollie’s story so far, but I want more than just a series of revenge killings and Ollie being a pissed off vigilante as this goes on.  It’s something we’ve seen Ollie do before, though the catalyst wasn’t this severe, but I do think that actual fans of Green Arrow deserve a little more.

The book is done by a series of artists, and I was hoping none of them were the ones from Justice League: Cry For Justice #7. I really couldn’t bear another beating to my eyes so soon after reading that issue.  Mayhew’s style is hit or miss with me, mainly when he does a close up and tries to illustrate the characters’ eyes behind their mask, and they just come off looking creepy instead of realistic.  I found myself liking the other two artists’ work a bit more, especially starting with the Green Lantern and Flash segment of the book.  As the covers go, Stanley “Art Germ” Lau is a beast (that’s a good thing), and I preferred his cover to Mayhew’s variant which seemed, well, boring.

I will admit that I am not the most avid Green Arrow fan, and at times I’ve considered him a waste of creativity.  I gave this title a shot only because J.T. Krul was writing, and I liked his work on the Soulfire series, so why not.  There was more to like about this issue than not, so I’m just hoping that we are done with all the flash backs and recapping so we can move on to new territory and progress the story.

Oh, and I think Shade swiped the helmet, too.  Let’s see what happens with that!

Infinite Speech
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