Green Arrow/Black Canary: For Better or for Worse

Green Arrow (1988) (Single Issues) #75, 101

by Dennis O'Neil, Alan Moore, Brad Meltzer

While adjusting to being back among the living, Green Arrow tries to heal his relationship with Black Canary.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Fiction, Superheroes, Comic Book, Short Stories

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Dennis "Denny" O'Neil was a comic book writer and editor best known for his work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics from the 1960s through the 1990s, and Group Editor for the Batman family of titles until his retirement.

His best-known works include Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Batman with Neal Adams, The Shadow with Michael Kaluta and The Question with Denys Cowan. As an editor, he is principally known for editing the various Batman titles. From 2013 unti his death, he sat on the board of directors of the charity The Hero Initiative and served on its Disbursement Committee.

Reviews

[H. Givens · Rating 1 out of 5]

The early stuff was bad and the later stuff was nigh-incomprehensible because it's just a few pages at a time, with summaries of the multi-volume events in between. They also didn't include anything resembling a growing relationship, we hardly see the two of them interact at all between their first teamup and then being in love.

[Olivia Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strangely curated, with much more of a focus on Ollie than Dinah, but hey, that's how comics go. Thoroughly enjoyable and a very good reference for most of the important parts of their relationship despite missing their marriage and subsequent divorce. Still, it was very interesting seeing both Ollie and Dinah progress both as characters and as believable people who love each other and still can't exactly work it out. It's heartbreaking and fascinating, and a must-read for any Arrow fan who tries to tell me that Dinah Lance is not important to Oliver Queen's development and story. (Also Stephanie Brown's in it for a bit and that means the world to me.)

[Just a Girl Fighting Censorship · Rating 3 out of 5]

My biggest issue with this collection was that it was inconsistent. It started out with entire comic book issues and was then reduced to tiny tidbits tired together with the editor's notes. I don't understand why they did this. I wish they would have either done all full issues or all snapshots. Also i felt like it got super depressing and I they should have picked more interesting snapshots!

[Rosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a great way to get all the background on the Green Arrow/Black Canary relationship.

[Maurice Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories explore the length and breadth of the Green Arrow-Black Canary relationship. It's been in place for as long as I've been reading comic books (I started as a child in the mid seventies), and has taken several twists and turns.

I enjoyed seeing stories from the 70's all the way up to now, showing how, in spite of a lot of challenges, they're still together.

[Graham Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

So cute 😍 even if Ollie is a bit of a (insert bad word here) sometimes. I loved seeing the changes in art and story telling through the years as well. Made it quite interesting.
This was the relationship the TV show 'Arrow' should have shown not the Olicity fan crap they shoved down our throats.

[Desire Manara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hay que revisar librerías a ver si este tomo es de los que ahora se consiguen a buen precio tras el cierre de ECC.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

DC Comics collects a series of Green Arrow/Black Canary stories from across the years for this unique volume - just in time for the characters' nuptials. A classic team-up from multiple Earths is the opening salvo, as the League must battle their own twisted dopplegangers. The emergence of the Canary's sonic powers is the high point here, amid the Silver-Age tomfoolery of the plotline. Arrow's grandstanding misogyny and Canary's furious feminism meet in a plot on Canary's life, and then rear their heads when Zatanna comes to town. A classic issue from the short-lived Joker series features the criminal madman smitten with a certain florist, leading to a battle between the archer and the clown. The Green Lantern/Green Arrow story puts John Stewart back in the Corps, while Oliver Queen must assassinate the President to save Dinah Lance from being torn apart. Be aware - Ollie shaves his famous goatee for this 1980s tale! The grim offering from Detective Comics pits a nameless archer against costumed heroes as reality begin encroaching on comics. Green Arrow: Longbow Hunters makes a surprising appearance here, featuring Queen and Lance discussing their future parental possibilities and marking a change in the collection. The remaining tales - exploring Ollie's death, resurrection, and reconnection - are shortened vignettes interspersed with anecdotes about the relationship updates between the titular characters. While this does detract from the overall volume itself, the scope and breadth of the collection is far better than worse.

[Fred Schmidt · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first few issues in the collection are from the Silver age. The stories were pretty cheesy with corny dialogue. From what I've read of Silver age comics it seems the idea was that every issue should be a stand-alone story and be completely wrapped up by the end, so it ends up being rushed through, and these issues reflected that. BUT these issues were of the art style that I really enjoy, the artwork that to me -IS- comics.

As the collection goes on the stories get more deep and interesting with more time dedicated toward character development. The Green Lantern / Green Arrow segment, a story arc over two issues, were a good balance of interesting story and the classic comics art style.

The later issues in the book were much more concerned about the ongoing story, an arc that covered so many issues that they wouldn't all fit in the book so some of it had to be summed up with some text between sections. I enjoyed the story, but unfortunately the artwork did not appeal to me at all. It seemed really cartoony with computerized color gradients.

Overall I enjoyed the book, it's just too bad very little of it hit the sweet spot of artwork I enjoyed with good story.

[Korynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really a quite good collection of stories about Green Arrow and Black Canary's relationship through the years. I was expecting the typical slapdash collection of thrown together stories that contradict each other and feature the two characters together if minimally. Instead DC took the time to edit this volume by picking from the works available the stories (or events) that best follow how the relationship grew between the characters, including betrayals. (note that Green Arrow has had countless infidelities and even a love child, whereas Canary has, what? Doctor Mid-Nite? After she thought Green Arrow was dead.) There is also some quite nice narration to fill the gaps inbetween so as to create a linear timeline. I really appreciate this.

[Janna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art spans 34 years and several lines of DC comics. The style ranges from cheesey to broody, and it's a wonderful summary of the relationship GA and BC built, sundered, rebuilt... I enjoyed the information tucked between comics to fill in gaps. It's a weird gap between Marianne's kiss and Dinah leaving (from cap to hood...) and I haven't read that chunk so it felt odd. I don't think I would have felt as weird if I hadn't noticed the costume difference. It's.A HUGE gap between her leaving and his death, but understandable: Dinah wasn't there and this book is about them. All in all I think it was a great summary with great pieces chosen to show just how messed up those two are.

[Frank Taranto · Rating 2 out of 5]

While Green Arrow has always been one of my favorite DC minor characters, there really wasn't much to this book.
It was an explorarion of GA's and Black Canary's relationship over time, which was alright, but no real sense of anyhting going on.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An honest collection of Green Arrow and Black Canary comics. Mostly, one winds up seriously disliking Ollie and believing that Dinah could do a heck of a lot better. And yet, she loves him, and one can understand that just fine, too.

[Sara G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very nice collection of Green Arrow and Black Canary's relationship. It took me a while to read because the different stories don't necessarily flow that well together, but that's nobody's fault - it's bound to happen with like 40 years of different artists and writers working on these characters.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An awesome gift by my Honey. Alan Moore does a great contribution to this anthology as well as Kevin Smith.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Todo indica que no leí la totalidad de capítulos contenidos en este tomo y que tampoco coincide tanto con el tomo en inglés, así que queda todo eso por corroborar para la próxima.

[Ubalstecha]

Nice to look back at key stories from the history of Canary and Arrow's off again, on again romance.

[Thurston · Rating 3 out of 5]

hard to stitch together 40 years of various authors interpretations.
nonetheless a nice read

[Kevin Borchardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good history of the on again/off again couple through the last 3-4 decades. Has a few heartbreaking moments along the way

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting tidbits on their relationship