After the first wave of fairly mediocre BN tie-ins, I’ve avoided most of the others unless they’ve spilled into books I was already reading like Secret Six. However, I made an exception for this issue. I have been a very vocal critic of Andrew Kriesberg’s run on Green Arrow and Black Canary since the very first issue. And at long last, that run has come to an end.
JT Krul takes over as the new writer on this issue. So the big question is: How’d he do? Well, in my mind, there’s no doubt Krul is a vast improvement over Kreisberg. For the first time in a long time, the characters feel somewhat familiar again. And I really enjoyed seeing the full Arrow family together again.
Unfortunately, Krul has a lot of masters to serve in this issue. Obviously, he’s got to squeeze in an obligatory BN tie-in without advancing any of the plot threads of the main title. So there is no real forward momentum here. Instead, we get a lot of internal monologue as Ollie brings us up to speed on all of the cast while his Black Lantern self tries to kill them.
Krul also has to deal with messes left by previous GA writers. Most notably, he has to address Connor Hawke’s transformation at the end of Judd Winnick’s run. Even so, Krul did a good job of making new Connor feel like he was still the same guy I was used to reading about. And apparently he’s learned how to shoot a bow and arrow again.
The art by Diogenes Neves was really strong. He managed both the action scenes and the character moments very well. And the misty tone fit the dreamlike quality of a possessed hero’s internal struggle.
In spite of having to clean up after previous writers and mix in a tie-in, Krul’s run is off to a promising start. I’m happy to report I’ll be checking out the next few issues of Green Arrow again.
[...] the middle of the Blackest Night morass, Krul began his run on Green Arrow. In his very first issue, it seemed to me like he had his hands tied by not being allowed to advance the plot at all lest he [...]