Review: Green Arrow Volume 2 - Triple Threat

On a routine patrol, Green Arrow is ambushed by the mercenaries known as Skylark. Impressed by their gadgets, he agrees to venture to Alaska with them in order to learn the secrets to their technology. Meanwhile, with Q-Core in dire straits, Oliver’s business rival Emerson launches a plan to gain full control of the company.

Green Arrow Volume 2: Triple Threat collects Green Arrow #7-13, written by Ann Nocenti and illustrated by Harvey Tolibao.

After the underwhelming New 52 launch of Green Arrow with the team of Krul, Giffen and Jurgens, DC Comics passed the book over to veteran Marvel editor Ann Nocenti. This move proved to be less than intelligent, as it resulted in a garbled, incoherent mess. Nocenti’s opening arc is hard to follow and a little too gratuitous. She depicts Green Arrow as an impulsive individual who is at the very mercy of his own testosterone. We’re given more than one nauseating sex scene, which do absolutely nothing to further the plot. It’s as if Nocenti is suggesting that our titular hero is really nothing more than a man child in green leather. This is exemplified through his actions with other characters. He’s rude, disrespectful and can’t see past his own agenda. It makes it impossible to care about him and actually want him to succeed. Yes, Green Arrow’s always been a bit of a pig and he can be stubborn, but never quite to the extent where he just seems like a bored yuppie man child.

Beyond her misinterpretation of the titular character, Nocenti’s dialogue proves to be quite strange. I had the exact same problem with her tenure on Catwoman. The dialogue is often vaguely poetic, as it often lacks context and narrative structure. In other words, half of what comes out of the characters’ mouths makes little to no sense in context with the scene. This makes it especially difficult to follow the story. By the time you get through the first couple of issues, you’re likely to be flipping to the back to see how many pages you’ve got left to read. Yes, it’s that bad.

To make matters worse, Tolibao’s art matches Nocenti’s writing style in the worst possible way. It’s messy and you practically have to squint in order to make sense of the details. None of the characters are particularly attractive and they’re all vaguely childlike, which makes the aforementioned sex scenes that much more grotesque.

It’s really easy to hate on Nocenti’s run on Green Arrow. It’s inconsistent and has far too many eye roll worthy moments. What’s even more maddening is that under the care of a more judicious creative team, the stories present here could have been fairly interesting. The first arc plays on Shakespeare’s seminal King Lear, presenting the narrative of a crazed patriarch whose poisonous relationship with his daughters leads to the destruction of his domain. The second plays with the concepts of reality, by exploring an imagined industry where humans are enhanced with cybernetic parts in order to escape the negative aspects of being human. Lastly, Green Arrow ventures to China to reclaim his company and fight against a tyrannical businessman. All of these have tremendous potential. Sadly, Nocenti squanders it all with senseless dialogue and some rather unfortunate (and hopefully unintentional) racist moments.

If you’re a fan of Green Arrow and of good storytelling, Triple Threat is not for you. It’s a collection perhaps to be read for completion sake, rather than enjoyment. The writing is tedious and the art just doesn’t work for a mainstream superhero comic. If you’re expecting memorable villains and soapy melodrama you can sink your teeth into a la CW’s Arrow, you’re not going to find it here.

RATING: D