Tash's Pick of the Week; Green Arrow #17

Written By Jeff Lemire
Art By Andrea Sorrentino

The Kill Machine Part 1

Talk about a new direction. Jeff Lemire takes over writing chores with this book and because how mind blowingly epic it was i had to make it my pick of the week. Now i have never picked up Green Arrow as a monthly book. But from his work on Sweet Tooth and Superboy i knew this book had the potential to be great.

It's got a really cool jumping on point. When the solicts come out every company that wants you to buy a book will say this issue is a new jumping on point. Most of the time (95%) it's not a very good starting point. Green Arrow has had his company taken out from underneath him. His dad's best friend loses the company then he gets killed by a new villain named Komodo. Komodo is like a evil version of Green Arrow. No really, he has a bow and arrow just like Ollie. This would have been cooler if he was call Dark Arrow.

Komodo(Dark Arrow) goes about killing everybody that had a hand helping kill everybody that was apart of the book before Lemire took over a writer. It's like wiping the slate clean for his run. So all his friends are dead, he's broke and on the run from the cops and his evil double Komodo.

For some reason I've always enjoyed when the hero has his back up against the wall. Well the ending has Green Arrow and Komodo fighting and before GA gets killed some dude named Magus makes the save for Green Arrow. What's cool is that this Magus dude totally has no eyes. Giant X's cover them. But in a cool and totally not a dead cartoon type way. The art is done by Andrea Sorrentino, and it's very good. Not very clean but gritty. But not in a 1990's grim way.The best why I can describe this is being almost like a very young Michael Lark when he was working on Gotham Central. A very fun book to read even of you have never picked up a Green Arrow comic before. Lord knows i haven't.

-Tash Moore