About Heroes

Writer: Judd Winick

Artist: Cliff Chiang

 

Well, those of you who haven't read the GA/BC Wedding Special read no more.  You can't read the review for this issue without spoiling that...

 

Ok, now that those losers are gone, we can get to the book.  I like Judd Winick.  I like Judd Winick on Green Arrow, and thus I like Judd Winick on this book.  He writes strong characters, and if anyone needs to be written strongly it's Green Arrow and Black Canary.  After Dinah killed Ollie on their wedding night, she goes on a rampage, beating the tar out of criminals.  Connor Hawke, the other Green Arrow stops here from accidentally killing some criminal and takes her home.  Next we get a wonderfully structured comic montage of the various DCU heroes offering their condolances over Ollie's death.  The hook here is that Dinah believes that the Ollie who dies was not here Ollie.  Thing is, every scan, DNA test, and other medical exams all say it's the real deal.  Even Hal's Green Lantern ring says it's Ollie.  Dinah still doesn't believe it, and neither does Batman.  What follows next is gruesome, as Batman and Dr. Mid-Nite (who needs a better job than Superhero Mortician) perform an autopsy on Ollie's body, down to the cellular level.  They could've put Ollie in a yard mulcher for all the cutting they did off camera.  Essentially, it's not Ollie, and the one person who's been overused in the past 6 months after 52 ended is finally killed.  At least I hope so.  Anyway, the hook of the book so far is that Ollie is alive, and Dinah is out for blood looking for him.  I liked the last Green Arrow book, and I think I'll continue to pick up this new book because Judd Winick is still writing Green Arrow and it's a good yarn he's spinning so far.

 

Cliff Chiang is awesome on this book.  After reading his Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre 3 issue mini I was a fan of his art.  He draws a really clean line, and is confident in his art.  It's not over-rendered like Ed Benes or the new Joe Quesada.  I'd liken his style to Matt Wagner or Freddie E Williams II.  It's good clean art, and works for the book.  Chiang can do the action scenes, and the emotional scenes.  There are some funny moments in this book and Chiang's art is just cartoony enough to pull it off.  Also, Chiang kind of continues the Phil Hester and Scott McDaniel art-vibe that Green Arrow has had since he was brought back from the dead earlier in the decade.  I think it's this consistency in art over the course of the old book, and now the new one that makes this book work.  This could be issue 76 of the old series with a new artist than the entirely new book it is.  I'm looking forward to seeing who was behind Ollie's impersonation, Dinah kicking ass, and what Winick has in store for us after that.  I don't want to see Ollie and Dinah having constant marriage problems.  Let those start at issue 50, let them enjoy their newly-wed status and team-up and bond with the reader for a good long time.  B+