Review: Green Arrow Vol. 8- The End of the Road

Quick Summary

Pros: The “This is Not Normal” story arc is great on its own and is even better considering what Green Arrow has been dealing with recently. The volume’s artwork is mostly positive, especially in the “This is Not Normal” story arc.

Cons: The majority of the stories in this volume, outside of one, range from just average to lackluster.

Overall: This volume gathers together a few mediocre stories and one impressive one. The majority of the volume involves moderately engaging battles between Green Arrow and some threat. These are fun at times but none feel overly memorable. The collection’s most significant bright spot comes from a single story paired with some great artwork. In the end, this collection is for readers looking for good Green Arrow stories and who don’t mind wading through some lackluster ones to get to a good one.

Story

Green Arrow Vol. 8: The End of the Road, by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, is similar to its predecessor in that it is mostly average, aside from a few bright spots. The volume contains several stories that have some fun action and excitement but don’t really go beyond this. The best arc is an incredibly imaginative battle against a powerful enemy that also manages to fold in some great emotions. However, this one solid arc is only a small portion of an otherwise unremarkable collection.

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The first half of The End of the Road is pretty lackluster. The opening story starts out strong, putting Green Arrow in a delicate position in a country where he doesn’t understand the political climate. Unfortunately, this story sours quickly as it devolves into a generic tale about a superhero leading a crusade against bad guys. Then, the next story arc details a fight against Parasite. This story also starts with some promise, transporting an incredibly powerful supervillain is pretty tense, but ultimately ends up being uninteresting and does not deliver its moral message as powerfully as other Green Arrow comics.

Then, The End of the Road improves dramatically for the “This Is Not Normal” story arc. This arc is an imaginative battle between Green Arrow and a souped-up version of Count Vertigo. It is exciting on its own but the way it deals with the aftermath of Roy’s death adds in a level of depth and emotion that takes it to a whole new level.

Finally, The End of the Road brings the Green Arrow series to a close by addressing the box given to Green Arrow back in the Justice League: No Justice (Review) (Reading Order) event. Watching the government chase down Oliver and watching him risk everything in order to do what he knows is right makes for an entertaining story. However, having Black Canary side with the shady government organization and having her part ways with Oliver in the end felt like a weird choice, especially after all of the development that has taken place over this series. In the end, I enjoyed parts of this final chapter but left it feeling pretty mixed over whether it was actually a satisfying ending.

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Art

The majority of the artwork in End of the Road is average but the visuals in the final arc are great. Marcio Takara starts the volume with some creative work that looks nice on its own. However, the lighthearted style of the character depictions and the brighter colors contrast poorly with the serious tone of this story. Then, Matthew Clark takes over for a story about Parasite. This portion of the read features some energetic layouts and I really enjoyed the different ways in which Parasite was depicted.

Where End of the Road really steps things up though is in the final few chapters. Here, Javi Fernandez produces some seriously impressive work for the duration of the arc. Characters look great and are shown with a level of detail that allows some critical emotion to come through. In addition, the layouts are well done and respond appropriately to what is happening in the story. However, where this arc really shines is in the way it warps the Seattle cityscape to respond to a new villain’s reality-altering powers. All of these features together end this collection on a visual high note.

Continuity

Green Arrow Vol. 8: The End of the Road continues the story from Green Arrow Vol. 7: Citizen’s Arrest (Review).

The Green Arrow series ends with this volume.

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• Green Arrow #39 immediately mentions the events of Deathstroke Vol. 3 Annual #2, collected in Deathstroke Vol. 4: Family Business (Review).
• A number of references are made to when Brainiac kidnapped a majority of the world’s superhero population. This happened in Justice League: No Justice (Review) (Reading Order).
• A number of references are made to something that recently happened to Roy Harper (Reading Order) in the Heroes in Crisis event.