For me, J.T. Krul started out strongly with his series of Green Arrow one-shots leading up to the Rise and Fall of Arsenal.  But with that miniseries, he’s been missing the mark for me.  I’m glad to report that with this first issue, I was wrong to be worried because Krul has crafted a fantastic opening to a series that will hopefully pay off.  While some may complain the issue was a bit wordy, I found the issue to be packed to the gills with character, story, and intrigue.  Ollie is in an awesome place right now as he’s lost a little bit of his self-righteous prickish-ness to be a regular ol’ prick.  It’s nice to see him as a more humbled and focused character.  The intrigue that surrounds the story, including a surprising death, is excellently conveyed, and I really am curious about the events that will come to take place in Star City in the coming months.  The art is very solid in this issue, although I find the inking to be a bit thick for my tastes.  That said, this story has some solid visuals, and Neves did a nice job of placing the action and drama in a way that allowed the text to breathe.  It was definitely a solid effort.  This issue did what any great first issue should do:  it set the table for the banquet of story.  I’m totally in.