Shado rocked his world, but now it's time to come crashing back to Seattle as Green Arrow finds himself involved in the worst kinds of street crimes, one after the other. Doesn't an Emerald Archer ever get a day off?
This volume collects four two-part stories, each of which puts Ollie face to face with some of the worst humanity has to offer, including himself. The opening story starts off as a day in the life type story, before the second issue looks at each of the interactions from the first story under a microscope before we realise what's really going on. It's very cleverly done, and even when you think you've cracked it, you probably haven't. It accomplishes a lot in two issues.
The middle two unfortunately blur together a little, because they both have similar supporting casts - other vigilantes out for blood, even if it means they have to go through GA first. Their motivations are different, and the resolutions are too, but they feel far too similar. If these had been the first and four stories here, it'd have been a different story, but one after another doesn't do much to differentiate between them.
The final story, the titular Trial Of Oliver Queen, really cuts to the core of the character. I can see the shadows of where Ollie's heel turn in Cry For Justice came from here (and that'll be the last time I mention that bloody story), because it really makes him re-examine what being a vigilante is and how he operates. The dream sequences are super-freaky here too, and communicate Ollie's damaged mental state really well. Plus Hal Jordan shows up which is always nice.
This volume's more of a mixture than the first few, and is probably more of a 3 or 3.5 star rating, but the strength of the first and last stories let me bump it up a little.
Oh, one thing I'd mention about the trade itself - DC stick all the covers at the end rather than between issues, so it's actually difficult to work out where one issue ends and another begins at times until you fall over the creative team box. Grell isn't one for big flashy final page cliffhanger splashes, so it's easy to get caught up in the momentum of the story, but I prefer to be able to differentiate between my issues. Hopefully this isn't something they do going forward.