Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters

Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters
Mike Grell
ISBN: 978-0930289386

Green Arrow was one of the first characters I latched onto after being reintroduced to DC Comics. I read Kingdom Come, and in there, he's portrayed dressing like Robin Hood (Sean Connery's Robing Hood from Robin and Marion to be exact). And I love all things Robin Hood, so, he became someone that I wanted to know more about. I was recommended The Longbow Hunters by my comic book guy (every one should have a comic book guy, btw.)

To Sum: By day - Oliver Queen, a man who's getting older and feeling it. He and his love - Dinah Lance - move to Seattle to open a florist shop, but are surprised by the violence and drugs they encounter. By night/undercover - Oliver Queen is Green Arrow, a costumed hero with the ability to shoot a bow and arrow very accurately, and fast. Dinah Lance is Black Canary - a regular woman who uses detective skills and a solid martial arts background to take on the bad guys.

This story is way better than the summary. It was the start of Green Arrow comic being used to tackle grittier real life issues. Hate crimes, drugs and drug use, and more were tackled in the pages of Green Arrow. Green Arrow really focused on trying to help the "little guy". It's a superhero comic that's grounded in reality - no superpowers between the two of them (which is why Black canary doesn't have her sonic scream.)

This story has two prongs. Ollie/Green Arrow dealing with someone who is taking out big whigs using a bow and arrows, and Dinah going undercover to track drug shipments. The two story lines eventually converge.

Things to watch out for: This is a story about two grown ups, doing things grown ups do, as well as fight crime with realistic consequences (you got shot with an arrow and you bleed, sort of consequences). Ollie also tends to do things tastefully naked.

However, the one page that people may find disturbing is where Dinah Lance is being tortured by a sadistic man. Many people assume that she was also raped at that point, but the author has often commented on the fact that, no, she was just brutally tortured. (And isn't that enough?) While I'm usually not a fan of "female gets kidnapped and the hero swoops in to save her", it works here. What Dinah was doing, she was doing alone, and somehow was found out. Ollie doesn't just swoop in and save her and everything is alright - no, he has a moment of blind rage. This is the Ollie that most of us who are fans of Green Arrow know.

There's also things that come up from the past as to why the big whigs are being hunted, which ties into a string of "modern" prostitutes that are being killed.

I will say, that I find the artwork amazing. While the story line is not for children, it's a good one for adults. Ollie questioning his age, which is something few heroes ever do.

Where to shelve: Oh, adults. This started off as being part of DC's "Mature Line", which eventually became Vertigo. And this definitely falls into the mature side of things.

Other reviews:

http://www.noflyingnotights.com/greenarrow.html#greenarrowlh (It's second to last)
http://www.comicsbulletin.com/reviews/97379109637884.htm
http://www.comicbookbin.com/greenarrowlongbowhunters000.html