Who wants an epilogue to Green Arrow’s Absolute Power adventure, tying things up in a bow?
It begins with Green Arrow hunting down Waller’s henchpeople, Peacemaker and Peacewrecker.
Then he visits the newly imprisoned Amanda Waller.
Popping up to the new JLA Satellite. Ollie tells the core members that in pretending to betray them to Waller, he did what he had to do, and if they don’t like it, tough.
Mind, not everyone is forgiving.
Before leaving the Watchtower, our hero gathers the Legion of Random Sidekicks.
It’s all very nicely drawn by Amancay Nahuelpan, coloured by Romulo Fajardo Jr and lettered by Troy Peteri, but I’m not sure we needed any of this, unless we say that just this once DC are being nice to people who didn’t read a crossover. The only fresh information is that a) Ollie is going to spend some time in his office, something which could have been given us by the new writer – Joshua Williamson leaves the book with this issue (though he does have a Green Arrow Annual coming).
And b) The Leaguers forgive Ollie for doing something that put himself at massive personal risk and saved all their skins. It’s not a great surprise, and it’s something that could have been done in the upcoming Justice League Unlimited book, or a story by the new Green Arrow creative team.
Wouldn’t you know it, as well as ‘Trial by Justice’ we do get a short story by new writer Chris Condon and artist Montos, which sees Ollie return to Star City and quickly find that he’s been tailed.
With Batman gone, he tries on a new costume left by lady love Black Canary. And it is hideous.
Bad enough he’s impeded his peripheral vision for years with a hood, now he’s going to have a cape getting in the way as he nocks his arrow. And it’s a tad late to try hiding that the Battling Bowman has a beard. All of Star City knows. There’s even an implied joke about it in the story’s first panel.
While Ollie is trying out his oh-so-stylish new look, a businessman is having a bad night.
‘A change of scene’ is an intriguing eight-pager, efficiently written by Condon, beautifully drawn by Montos, coloured by Adriano Lucas and lettered by Hassan Otsmae-Elhaou. But I don’t think it was meant to be in this issue – the final panel tells us the story is ‘to be continued in the pages of Green Arrow’. Maybe a dedicated Absolute Power epilogue comic that never came to be?
Mind, the superb cover by Taurin Clarke is a DC All-In special, indicating a ‘jumping-on point’, so maybe at some point this was intended to go with the new guys’ first full issue.
Or was it – Ollie’s wearing his most recent costume, not the new burlesque number.
I’m so confused about this comic which, I now notice, has a legacy number of #350 on the cover. Happy Birthday Green Arrow – now go and get changed.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
You’re right that costume’s fugly but I won’t suffer. You know I’d never buy any comic starring the hypocritical philanderer. If your reviews weren’t uniformly enjoyable, I wouldn’t even read reviews of GA comics. I skip any others. (Not that I notice the blogosphere being any more interested in Ollie than I am)
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His book must have been selling, it went from a six-issue mini to a 12-issue maxi and is still going.
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having not connected with Absolute Power on any level this is a hard book to find interesting. I appreciate your review though. That costume doesn’t make sense. Maybe Dinah is trying to get Ollie killed so she doesn’t have to break up with him!
-Matthew Lloyd
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I like that idea! Ollie donning a stupid outfit just because someone made it for him is very age. And those were usually booby trapped.
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How does a cape and a quiver on his back works? This really stretches the suspension of disbelief.
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Too right!
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I’m fascinated that we ever need another scene where Batman tells a character he doesn’t trust them because isn’t that like 90% of all crossover scenes with him nowadays. We just assume it as a given. You’d think the greatest strategist in the world would appreciate a ploy like that and not get all emotional and passive-aggressive about it!
Stu
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Also, that he might see what a total hypocrite he is.
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I’m curious about the new direction for Ollie, given that Chris Condon’s performance on That Texas Blood and The Enfield Gang Massacre has put him on my writers-to-watch list. If DC is looking to get Ollie back to something more like the Grell/Hannigan era, Condon is a great choice. I just wish his run started in the issue it’s intended to start at. It kind of feels like a betrayal of the “All In” promise of jumping-on points. And besides this goodbye, Williamson also has a GA Annual coming up! The guy just can’t let go. (And let’s face it, Williamson probably sells for DC better than the new team will, so they might as well make some money while he’s around.)
And yeah, I’m not sure how the quiver squares with the cloak either, but somehow Legolas managed it.
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I don’t know Chris Condon at all – did he have a recent run on Iron Man? Maybe that’s another Chris.
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I think that might be Chris Cantwell, who’s writing Plastic Man No More for DC. (Also a fun book that makes me want to check out more of his work, too!)
Other than some stories for the new EC anthologies, I’m not sure what else Condon has done. This might be his first Big Two work.
But That Texas Blood is a great Texas noir — all stories happening in the same county at different points in one law officer’s career. (We first see him as a sheriff closing in on retirement; the next story goes back to the early days of his career. Then we get another story somewhere in between.) The Enfield Gang Massacre is a prequel of sorts to That Texas Blood, depicting one of the (bloody) founding incidents of the county, back in the 1800s. It’s all really good stuff, tense crime and western, with just a hint of horror mixed in. It’s drawn by Jacob Phillips, Sean Phillip’s son, who’s also been coloring the Brubaker/Phillips graphic novels for the past several years.
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Oh yes, that’s the Chris. Many thanks for the background info, I’ve definitely not come across Chris Condon. The crime western isn’t a genre I’m attracted to, but let’s see what he does here.
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