Andy Diggle is a writer that I am very wishy washy on. I’ve heard so much great things about him….and granted I havent read his most important series yet (Hellblazer, The Losers) but right now…I dont see where all the love is coming from. His Thunderbolts run is medicore at best, I flipped threw Dark Reign: Hawkeye and that was ‘whatever’, and his Batman Confidential arc was pretty lame. So let me read something that people actually love and maybe I’ll get to like him.

In a nutshell: I still find him a medicore writer, and I didnt care for this story. Now I love Green Arrow, I might not like the self titled comic he’s in; but other writers seem to do a wonderful job with the guy. Coming in to this I knew this was a Year One story, but I didnt think how drastic Queen changed from playboy to poltical nutjob of a superhero. This early Oliver Queen right from the start is unlikable. Again this is because Diggle had to change his philsophy to become the hero he is….But he’s so unlikable to me, I hated him no matter how much he changed. Character development is all over the place; Queen goes back and forth from unlikable to likeable; and the secondary characters are basic C-level villains you’d see in a Robocop film. Plus you tack on a simple and pathetic love angle. This story is just all over the place.

Thankfully what saves this story is the art by Jock. Now Jock does work with Diggle before on ‘The Losers’, so maybe when I get around reading that story I will fall in love with Jock all over again. Gorgeous use of pencils and he does bring personality to the unlikable Oliver Queen. Jock’s backgrounds are absolutely stunning and it literally looks like he took pictures of the jungle to get accurate pencils for this story. If anything else, you could flip threw this trade and feel ‘wow, good thing Diggle got a great artist on board.’

So Andy Diggle is now….if my math is right….0-4 in terms of me reading his work. It’s all about opinion and I know people love Diggle overall. But sadly with all the medicore stuff I read, I just cant see where this love is coming from. Maybe when Free Comic Book Day comes around I’ll pick up ‘The Losers’ or the first trade in his Hellblazer run. As it stands for now, Diggle is just another writer in the wave of mediocrity.