If you were a dissapointed fan of the Green Arrow ‘not-a-reboot’ then please sit down. The new creative team doesn’t fix things. At all. But if you can get beyond that disappointment and the many problems of the art the new Green Arrow run has improved, just not enough to undo past mistakes.

Choosing to read this issue was an exercise in hope. I wanted this new arc to be better than the last run, this new creative team to really haul things back into line and try to give substance to a concept that’s been fairly trite so far. But things didn’t get off to a great start.

The art in this comic is distressing. The faces are distressed, the posing of characters is distressed, and your brain is distressed trying to comprehend perspective and other important things you need to understand what on earth is going on. It’s very busy, very convoluted and with the character duplication, fairly confusing. After several pages you get used to it but you never shake that feeling that you’re working really hard for this. The art is better than the fairly mundane, meh art in the last run but the ‘style’ of the new art is still a let down. Which in the end is a real shame because your attention is distracted from what really is a much better class of writing.

Nocenti knows how to structure a story. Within the pages of this issue we get a proper, well rounded set up for Ollie’s next adventure, one involving a unique rogue on the one hand and a crisis at home with Ollie’s ‘day job’. It’s simple, punchy and builds expectations for the next issue, at least where the rogues are concerned. And that’s a big step up from the previous run’s attempt to introduce a dozen bad guys, two sidekicks AND a somewhat brand new protagonist and status quo in its first issue.

But it’s the continuation of this brand new version of Ollie that reveals this series is hell bent on forgetting old Ollie ever existed. This isn’t so much a reinterpretation as it is a complete rewrite. THIS ISN’T OLIVER QUEEN. Which begs the question: if they were going to make so many changes to the character why didn’t they just rename and move on?

This Ollie’s main concern is having more fun. Having more fun and dealing with the fact that he has to work. He’s politically ignorant and focuses more on tech gadgets and girls than he does protecting his hometown or doing anything meaningful. This just isn’t the same person.

And his dialogue reinforces this. It’s not bad, it just isn’t Ollie. In fact it’s more James Bond than anything else, Ollie quipping in the face of his antagonists ‘evil plan’ monologue and gushing over the fancy new arrows. There’s nothing wrong with the writing, it’s just not Ollie.

And Skylark… Let’s talk about Skylark. They’re an interesting character, mostly because they set up plenty of questions for following issues including an intriguing ‘Borg rebelling from the collective’ thread and the mysterious father we haven’t met yet. But, like the art and Ollie’s voice, there’s something a little disconcerting about the triplets.

Finishing each others sentences wasn’t a problem for me. If they’re going to be all Borg then that’s probably the best way to show it. But for technological geniuses they act like… like hot, ditzy 18 year olds. Which leads us to the sex scene…

There was no horrific gore in this issue so in order to establish her credentials as a ‘not-a-reboot’ writer Nocenti gave us a sex scene. A sex scene with triplicates. This caused an eye roll as it once more reinforces a stereotype of both the reader and Ollie-the-‘DC Bond’ but in and of itself there was nothing wrong with it. Actually, for what it was, it was about as classy as DC can get at the moment (ie you weren’t forced to watch Ollie on the job etc).

But these characters really were written like girls, not women, girls who are quite happy sleeping with their sisters at the drop of a hat in order to worship their man. The whole scene felt like a fanservice setup that even Ollie mocks by saying he would have done it anyway, regardless of the paper thin justification. And it’s this knowing mockery that almost makes it a sarcastic quip from the author to the reader. In a new DC world order where sex is the new politics de jour this was an unusual inclusion that had me asking questions that weren’t really answered in any way. Beyond the fact that Ollie thinks with his groin.

And their reference to not being mutants was very Marvel. Just saying.

Personally I think Skylark has plenty of potential as a rogue and Nocenti seems to be much better with characterisation then the last guy. But a hero is defined by their enemies and so far Ollie’s enemies have all been bimbos or narcissists. Is this what we’re to expect for all future runs?

And what’s with Ollie revealing his secret identity? Those half-arsed goggles were discarded very quickly.

Overall this is a good setup issue for a story run, just not an Oliver Queen Green Arrow story. At the end of the day this Green Arrow should have a different first name to go with his different personality because that’s what you’re getting – a very different Oliver Queen. If you’re pining for old Ollie the start of this new arc will just make you angry. If you just want a decent spi-fi romp then you’ll be a lot happier. If your brain isn’t too distressed or you have a thing for hot, super-smart but ditzy triplicates.