As the trial of Oliver Queen draws closer, his half-sister Emi fights for her life after taking an arrow to the chest last issue. The latest issue of Green Arrow starts to bring everything together for the team.
Green Arrow 37
Written by Benjamin Percy
Art by Juan E. Ferrerya
Percy’s run on Green Arrow has been one of the best parts of the Rebirth era, so I’m a little sad to see that he’s starting to wrap up his arc before leaving the book after the next issue. I was skeptical about another “Oliver Queen loses everything” story – since every writer seems to put the character through the wringer lately – but his take on Green Arrow and his extended family has combined the best parts of the comics version of the character and his TV counterpart.
As the previous issue came to a close, Green Arrow and his team went toe-to-toe with his mother, Moira, and Malcolm Merlyn. The fight led to his sister taking an arrow. Here, we see the aftermath, as Green Arrow tries to escape the facility they’re in to save Emi. Black Canary, with some help from a returning Diggle, manage to escape while Moira battles to the death with Emi’s mother, Shado after the Ninth Circle – the criminal underground organization that’s been pulling the strings throughout the series – pulls its support from Moira.
Emi, of course, manages to pull through, while Diggle rejoins the team. The issue sets up the finale of Percy’s run, with Oliver preparing for his trial while all the heroes he’s encountered over the last year and a half follow the events taking place in Star City.
Oliver’s defense attorney also has a bit to do with this issue.
In what was the most intriguing part of the issue for me, Kate Spencer was called to the home of one of her witnesses and encounters a dirty cop trying to take the witness out. Spencer has other ideas, though. When Percy introduced Spencer into the series, it could have been a nod to the second season of Arrow, where Spencer was a recurring character (who was summarily killed off by Deathstroke), but I was hoping it would lead to the return of her alter-ego, Manhunter.
Who knows what the next creative team will do, but Spencer was a great character and the 2004 series written by Marc Andreyko was one of the best books of that era. Hopefully Manhunter can get a second chance in this Rebirth era. Another female-led series is never a bad thing. Maybe Percy can pick the character up now that he’s leaving Green Arrow?
We can only hope…