Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters by Mike GrellMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
After relocating to Seattle, Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance settle in and getting the feel of the land. When Dinah winds up hospitalized after tangling with drug dealers, Oliver crosses the line. But he's not the only one on that side of the line. Shado, a ninja archer, has her sights set on some of the same people...
Green Arrow has never been a favorite of mine but I've been a Mike Grell fan for a long time. I had some Amazon points to spare and took the plunge on this one about thirty years after the fact.
Along with Dennis O'Neil's run on The Question, Mike Grell's run on Green Arrow was a lynch pin of DC's mature readers' line of the late 1980s, a precursor to Vertigo. Also like The Question, it was way ahead of its time. Gone are the gimmick arrows of yesteryear. Mike Grell's Green Arrow shoots to kill. The inclusion of Shado was a nice touch, providing a nice counter point to Ollie's new methods after Black Canary is nearly killed.
One of the most interesting aspects of the story is that it's fueled by Oliver's mid-life crisis. Speedy, Oliver's former ward, has a kid, making Oliver something close to a grandfather, making him reconsider a lot of things.
Rather than making Green Arrow grim and gritty for the sake of being grim and gritty, The Longbow Hunters takes Green Arrow in a logical direction given he's a guy shooting crooks with a bow and arrow. Now that I've dipped my toes in this run, I'm going to have to see it through until the end. Four out of five stars.
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