The Green Arrow character has always been closely associated with Robin Hood, but in the latest issue, writer Benjamin Percy may have taken the similarities a bit too far.
Green Arrow 12
Written by Benjamin Percy
Art by Otto Schmidt
I’ve generally been enjoying Percy’s Rebirth run on Green Arrow, which required a serious course correction from the disaster that is the New 52, but I have had some reservations. The idea of Oliver Queen as an outlaw is an established part of his character, but we’re at the point where losing his fortune and his company is getting to be overdone.
It feels like Percy’s Rebirth run on Green Arrow has been moving the set pieces around to introduce concepts that are introduced here. The “killing” of the Oliver Queen name and having his company taken over – thus losing his fortune – has been central to the mythos as well. And Percy had his chance to rehash all of it over the previous six months. And now, his former corporate colleagues are going forward with a plan to turn the city of Seattle against Green Arrow. Hey, a guy in green who plays with a bow and arrow who’s an outlaw.
Yeah, Percy is laying on the Robin Hood mythology pretty thick now. Black Canary is his Maid Marion and Diggle his Little John. I assume his tech guy Henry Fyff is the stand-in for Friar Tuck. OK, the characters on the team can be considered subtle, sure.
Hey… Sgt. Notting…? OK, that’s a little less subtle. The sarge here comes back later in the issue, assaulting a random hippie during a traffic stop, causing Robin Hood, I mean, Green Arrow to drop in and stop him. I assume he’ll back in future issues to become a thorn in Oliver’s side.
That should do it, though, right? How much more obvious can you get with the Robin Hood references? It’s not like the band of Merry Men would move their base of operations to a tree fort in the forest, right?
SON OF A…
On the positive side, Otto Schmidt’s artwork is gorgeous. But the artwork may not be enough to get over the constant “Oliver is an Outlaw” struggle that Percy seems to be high on. This story is called “Emerald Outlaw” (wasn’t that a Green Lantern story already?), so the concept will at least continue through this arc, but I really do hope we move past that sometime soon.