Needless to say, the first four issues of this story – entitled Dead Again – are some of the best comics you’ll see for a long time.
*History Lesson* - Black Canary and Green Arrow have long been an item, finally GA asked her to marry him. This happened at around the same time that DC implemented the Amazons Attack storyline, where the Amazons from Themyscira – Wonder Woman’s birthplace – attacked America.
So it isn’t a surprise to find the new series start off with some Dinah-Angst, as she deals with the loss of her husband by beating the holy living hell out of a various allotment of criminals. Of course, she knows that Ollie isn’t dead, but she can’t convince anyone else; until Batman steps up to the plate.
I won’t summarize the entire plot for you, needless to say, the Amazons captured Ollie – for what purpose w are still a little unsure, seeing as how the four parts have played out. The following three issues, consisting of two escapes from large angry Amazon women, a fatal/near-fatal shooting and some of the most powerful reading ever combine to give us a story no one will soon forget.
A few points to highlight, of course; first of all Judd Winick has shown himself to be a master storyteller through these four issues, and an ability to write Green Arrow unlike any for some time. This is proven in several scenes, my favorite consisting of a naked GA running through the forest being chased by a pair of Amazons, yelling defiantly “Catch me if you can, ya crazy broads!!”
Only pages later we are treated to a rant that would make Molly Wood jealous (for more info on that reference check out the Buzz Out Loud podcast from Cnet). Mia Dearden, aka, Speedy, let’s loose at the Amazonians referring to them as “kill-happy death mongers” and finishing with describing their island as a “Sapphic garden of lost professional volleyball players.”
The art is astonishing from page one; clean cut, vivid and beautiful in every sense of the term. Cliff Chiang is artistically genius from beginning to end, with colors from Trish Mullvihill and letters from Pat Brosseau rounding out the creative team.
These four issues are worth hunting for, or at the very least pre-ordering the TPB when it finally makes its way to us (presumably after one or two more issues are completed). However if you need another reason, than buy it for the anguish poured out on to the page by Ollie.
He knows that he has been a lousy father, and says so in ways that made me – the eldest son of a single mum – tear up at the honesty and truth to what he says. And even though I knew it was coming – I’m not one who does a good job blocking out the spoilers – Ollie tearing his lungs out in an almighty scream, calling Clarke, aka, Superman, to save his son, is a scene that will make even the toughest man shudder.
Issues 1-4 of the new Green Arrow and Black Canary line are some of the best I have read in a decade. As a collective story, I’m going all out again and giving them four and a half fists out of five. Make sure you get these, because what comes next is anybody’s guess. And let me tell you, the last page of issue four, will make you cry!
