Kevin Smith is one of my favorite filmmakers, and so I’ve read some of the comics he’s written just because I saw his name attached to them. Over time, I think he’s really proved himself to be a pretty capable comic book writer, as I’ve liked anything I’ve read by him. So, I decided to give his run on Green Arrow a try. This book collects the fifteen issues of Green Arrow that he wrote, including his 10-part “Quiver” storyline, and the other five issues that followed.

While it does rely on you having a bit of a background knowledge of the DC universe to fully appreciate some of its material, this is a self-contained storyline. The basic gist is that Oliver Queen (aka Green Arrow) has been dead for about 10 years now, and then suddenly returns. All of his loved ones think this is really strange, of course, and start questioning how he’s alive. The real kicker, though, is that Oliver doesn’t remember dying, so he doesn’t know what everyone’s talking about. In fact, his memories don’t extend past a certain point in time, and so his grip on his relationships with everybody is a lot different than reality. And so, the mystery about what happened to Oliver Queen and how he’s alive begins to unfold.

It’s honestly a really compelling book. It was enough of an interesting concept to make me want to keep reading. I haven’t had much history with the Green Arrow character outside of enjoying the first few seasons of the Arrow show, so it was nice to get a story worth reading about one of the less popular DC characters. Kevin Smith’s writing can sometimes be bloated, but he crafted an enjoyable storyline here. Also, Phil Hester’s artwork is a bit out of the ordinary, but it’s really cool to look at in my opinion. This isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea, and I didn’t enjoy it as much as two of Smith’s other works, Daredevil: Guardian Devil and Batman: Cacophony, but it’s a fun story that’s worth reading.

3.5/5