Green Arrow #17 Review

GREEN ARROW #17

by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino

To start out this review, let's just say Green Arrow #17 hit the bullseye. (Snare drum!)

Green Arrow #17 just goes to show how a simple creative team change can quickly turn a very bad book into one of the best comics in town. However, Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino aren't exactly "normal" creators. These two creators are responsible for two of my favorite books of 2012. Reading Green Arrow #17 is like watching an action movie. It's fun, fast and brutal. While Green Arrow #15 was advertised as the fall of Oliver Queen, it's this issue that really delivers the goods. From Ollie losing his company AND his only friends, this is not going an average Green Arrow story. I also like how Jeff Lemire has found a way to cross the high stakes/espionage tone of the first 17 (including #0) chapters of the series, with his own sort of street level "Kick-Ass" type feel. Also, the mystery Lemire has begun building is very interesting. Was Ollie destined to be a crime lord on "The Island"? 

Andrea Sorrentino's art is the icing on the cake. It gives the book a distinctive feel, that's nothing like his I, Vampire work. Instead, this feels like you're watching the last film in the Bourne series. Unlike the artists that drew past issues, Sorrentino goes for a shadowy and gritty style that compliments everything Lemire is trying to achieve.

Green Arrow #17 could be the start of the definitive Green Arrow story. Everything about it is great. I mean, EVERYTHING.

STORY: 5/5

+ This is not your grandpa's Green Arrow

+ Crosses high stakes espionage with Kick-Ass level crimefighting

+ Great character work

+ Intriguing mystery

ART: 5/5

+ Dark and gritty

+ Feels like a movie

VERDICT: 5/5