Green Arrow, Volume 7: Kingdom

Green Arrow (2011)

by Andrew Kreisberg (Writer), Ben Sokolowski, Daniel Sampere (Illustrator)

Welcome new series writers straight from the hit TV show Arrow!
Ollie is trying to put his life together after the grueling events of Broken, and finds himself back in Seattle on a mission from a mystery woman. Who is she--and what's next for Green Arrow?
But Green Arrow can hardly catch his breath, as he finds new allies and a new mission. What will Oliver do when must face off against the deadly assassin known as Merlyn?

Collecting: Green Arrow 35-40

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Comic Book, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Crime

144 pages, Paperback

First published November 17, 2015

Reviews

[Lost Planet Airman]

Lots of fan service as Arrowverse characters and Justice League members get some page time to save Seattle from hostile takeover. Problem is, Ollie always seems to have just the right trick arrow and just the right friend nearby to deus ex machina himself or his teammates out of danger.

[Quentin Wallace]

In this volume we basically get to see the Green Arrow comic continuity totally replaced by the TV Show continuity. While I like the TV show, I don't see the point of this. There's already an ARROW comic series based directly on the show, so why was this needed? We've already seen Diggle introduced, and in this volume we meet....Felicity Smoak. Now, make no mistake, I am a huge Felicity fan. I mean come on, Emily Bett Rickards? Me-ow. However, she's a TV character, not a comic character. I just don't like seeing the comic continuity replaced this way.

The art was decent but after the last two volumes I think this volume saw a huge drop in quality of the Green Arrow series. We did get to see some cool guest stars including Batman, Green Arrow, Lex Luthor (as a hero, go figure) and a few more, but overall I just could only get so into this volume due to all the changes.

If you're a fan of the tv show, this would be a great jumping on point. Unfortunately, if you're a fan of the comic, this could be a jumping off point. I'll keep reading for now, but I'm leery.

[Taddow]

This was a pretty good Green Arrow story, but (like another reviewer already pointed out) it took on much of the tone and characters of CW’s Arrow television show. With this comic being written by a writer from the show (which I enjoyed and it influenced a lot of my interest in Green Arrow), I don’t find it to be a surprise that they would want to keep with their story comfort zone, one which has been quite successful. The Oliver, Felicity and Diggle chemistry is present and some of the television’s go to drama tropes as well.

I liked the build up of the story but I have to admit that I was disappointed in the ending. Sure the message of support was nice and good for the story, but I think some of the heroes that joined were a little over kill for the opposition. I would have just stuck with Green Arrow-centric heroes.

[Cale]

This is a bit of a whiplash volume. Look, I like Arrow. And I'm a big fan of Felicity Smoak, but the method taken here to add her into the comic book world just does not go well. It isn't particularly true to the character from the TV series, and isn't fair to her in the comics. And the Mia/Speedy character is terrible (as is Queen's girlfriend), as is the villain, another "charitable works to cover up evil" business man. And the cameo appearances are all around stupid. The history between Green Arrow and Green Lantern hasn't been touched in the 52 era, so it makes no sense here. And Cheetah's presence (and the entire prison issue) are poorly done. Katana looks like she wandered in from Lemire's run and can't figure out what happened. And the allies that appear for the final issue are so underutilized as to be pointless.
There's some humor that works, and the art is good so long as you're not trying to connect it to the TV actors. But this volume really gets the worst of both worlds when it's trying to claim the best of them. I couldn't recommend this to fans of Green Arrow the comic or Arrow the TV show, as neither is done justice.

[James DeSantis]

Well it ain't no Jeff Lemire run that's for sure.

You've seen Arrow the TV show? Okay take that, more comedic moments from Oliver, and you get this Green Arrow run. Andrew Kreisberg was the showrunner of Arrow so it makes sense the feel of it is similar, yet not as...batmany? Even though Batman is here...twice.

Oliver begins to form a team, the one that he has at the start of the TV show. This kind of comes out of nowhere, and doesn't feel earned, and honestly it's the weakest part of the volume. The more exciting moments come from Oliver having fun being Green Arrow, teaming up with Lantern, and all the other heroes at the end. Things like that work real well, and are super fun, but when it tried to be like the TV show it was less than fun...it was boring.

Overall decent read after a great run by Jeff. 3 out of 5.

[Simone]

Indubbiamente, Freccia Verde ha visto storie migliori. Non che questa sia pessima, anzi, però sul personaggio sono state scritte storie decisamente più accattivanti e coinvolgenti. Giusto per prenderne una a caso dalla sua libreria, basti pensare a "The Archer Quest" di Brad Meltzer e Phil Hester, soprattutto vista la geniale idea di base da cui è partita l'ispirazione di Meltzer per la storia.

Il "problema" - se lo si può definire tale- è che la storia ha poca (se non parecchio scarsa, diciamo) attinenza con il suo classico, smeraldino mythos fumettistico, in quanto "Kingdom" non ha nulla a che vedere con il classico Green Arrow. Certo, la sensazione di poca familiarità con il personaggio e il fatto che si stia leggendo "di un estraneo" è alimentato dal totale reboot dei New52, mossa editoriale che ha eliminato ogni elemento di fascino di GA. Però, anche se nascosti bene, qualche richiamino al passato pre-Nuovi52 di FV c'era nei volumi precedenti a questo: soprattutto nella gestione Jeff Lemire/Andrea Sorrentino (sempre siano lodati).

Qui, invece, la DC - forse non sapendo più come gestire il personaggio nei New52 - ha deciso di temporeggiare/giocare felice e si è semplicemente limitata ad invitare Kreisberg offrendogli il parco giochi con cui non può giocare nella serie tv Arrow ispirata all'arciere. E infatti, lo sceneggiatore non ha perso tempo a metterci tutti gli elementi con cui Arrow si regge in piedi (Felicity Smoak), più qualche supereroe che non può comparire nello show (Batman) e altri personaggi che non ci possono essere perché hanno una CGI troppo costosa (Lanterna Verde).

In soldoni, non sembra una storia di Freccia Verde perché in realtà "Kingdom" è l'episodio di Arrow che non si può fare per tutta una serie di motivi legati a costi e diritti. E Arrow, per quanto abbia fatto i suoi graditi numeroni, è spesso la cosa più lontana da Freccia Verde che esista.

[Shaun Stanley]

Green Arrow Vol. 7 Kingdom collects issues 35-40 of the DC Comics series written by Andrew Kreisberg and Ben Sokolowski with art by Daniel Sampere.

This volume of Green Arrow is written by two of the writers of the CW Arrow TV series and has the comic book debut of hacker Felicity Smoak. Green Arrow and Diggle must save a street kid, Mia Dearden, and protect Seattle from The King, a billionaire who takes over cities and rules them via proxies.

This volume brought in a lot elements from the Arrow show. Diggle was introduced during Lemire's run but plays a bigger part in this book. They turn Felicity's annoying factor up to 10 in the book. This book was action packed and entertaining, but all over the place with appearances by Lex Luthor, Batman and Bruce Wayne, Katana, Arsenal, Meryln, Green Lantern, and Cheetah. I believe the book would have been better paced if it was stretched out over 12 or so issues. The art was fine, I didn't think anything really stood out but unfortunately Green Arrow's stupid goggles are back.

[John Yelverton]

The new writing team is making this book series tremendously better. It's far from great yet, but it's tremendously better.

[Peter]

Fun read

[Krzysztof Grabowski]

Lemire dla Green Arrowa zrobił naprawdę wiele. Wyprowadził postać i serię z dołka jakim się znalazła i dał mi sporą radość, jaką i Wy możecie poznać kupując chociażby zbiorcze wydanie Green Arrow tomy 4-6 w Polsce wydane przez Egmont w serii DC Deluxe w ślicznej zielonkawej oprawie. To jedna z tych pozycji jakie bez siary mogę eksponować na półce. Jest profit, ale i negatywna strona. Oczekiwania.

Lemire pozostawił Kreisbergowi, który ma tam już jakieś doświadczenie z Zieloną Strzałą ( bodajże cross z Black Canary) potężną spuściznę. Nowo ukształtowana postać nadal ma sporo do zaoferowania i zamiast w tą stronę podążyć, autor skierował się bardziej w stronę telewizyjnego medium nastawionego na płytką akcję. Tak, ten tom ma naprawdę wiele wspólnego z telewizyjnym Arrow.

Bo ponownie mamy tu Diggle'a, ale i na arenę wkracza Felicity Smoak. I jak w serialu miała zawiłości sercowe z Oliverem, tak tutaj też mamy na to sygnały. Mimo, tego że Oliver spotyka się z jedną taką Mia. Tyle, że każda z tych postaci choć ma jakąś motywację to jest płytka jak fabuła. Oliver rzucający dziewczynę tylko dlatego, że poddała się woli tego złego wskutek tortur - no mój mistrz normalnie. Większym dupkiem być nie można.

Taki zwrot fanom produkcji telewizyjnej może się spodobać, ale i tak tytuł stoi w rozkroku między tym co stare a tym co telewizyjne, a prowadzi to do kilku absurdalnych sytuacji. Rzeszy gościnnych występów bez jakiegokolwiek sensu. Mamy tu Katanę, która jest wrzucona tu tylko na doczepkę. Równie dobrze mogło by jej tu nie być. Z jakiejś przyczyny wpada tutaj Hal Jordan, który wcześniej nie miał żadnych dobrych relacji z Arrow'em poza wspólną kulturą pracy. Tutaj wskakuje w dogodnym momencie, widząc co się dzieje z odległości galaktyki (ta...), choć sam potem mówi coś w stylu: "Dalej już nie pomogę, bo i tak mnie tu nie powinno być"? Serio?

Luthor i Wayne są tu też na doczepkę, choć końcowo gdy Ollie zbiera drużynę by walczyć z siłami wroga, obaj członkowie Ligi Sprawiedliwości biorą w tym udział i daje to jakiś ubaw. Śladowy, ale zawsze. Brak tu konsekwencji w działaniu, za to jest tu wrzucane wszystko co zdoła zmieścić się w kociołku. Daje to w wielu przypadkach efekt wyskakiwania królika z kapelusza. Przeciwnik...

Zwyrodniały polityk o nazwisku King (stąd to, ta dam, Kingdom), który ma zamiar przejąć władzę w Seattle oraz wyniszczyć całkowicie Green Arrowa/Ollie'go, bo wie o jego tajnej tożsamości. Mało tego. Napuszcza na niego miasto, co jest chyba najsłabiej wykonanym motywem jaki widziałem w tym roku. Ciekawym, ale kończącym się... po stronie? Dodatkowo jego siepacze podążają za jego córką, która podobno wie coś o mrocznej przeszłości ojca. Tak naprawdę gó$%o wie, ale widziała śmierć matki i ukradła pewien pendrive. Sam przeciwnik jest za to bardzo standardowym złolem. Rozczarowanie spłynęło na moją twarz niczym kurtyna w teatrze... Czemu?

Tom ma plusy, bo akcja jest ładnie ukazana i czyta się go w miarę szybko, ale fabularnie jest to regres, w stosunku do tego co wcześniej wypracowano. Całość wygląda też nieźle. Sampere jest dobrym rzemieślnikiem i efekty walki mogą się tutaj nawet podobać. Nie polecam tego Green Arrowa. Tym bardziej, że nie miałem większych oczekiwań, a dostałem jeszcze mniej...

[Ryan]

Volume 7's Kingdom is a soft reboot from Lemire's own reboot of the New 52 series. This one now follows similarly to the TV show, Arrow, given that the author here is also a screenwriter for the show. Oliver Queen is busying himself with the Queen Foundation, ensuring his time with the clan battles is over for good. Fyffe and Naomi are now gone, leaving Diggle to assist Oliver during his nights as Green Arrow. One little venture leads him to meet Felicity Smokes, a notable hacker for hire, who decides to work with Green Arrow to help track down a new enemy who had hired her to kill him. In the process, they rescued a runaway girl, Mia, who may be connected to the mystery enemy and Oliver learns that Seattle is in the process of turning against him.

So this reboot of a reboot is one that changes the tone and game of the Green Arrow series. Once again, notable characters from the previous volumes are now off the radar and new supporting characters are introduced to take their place. At the same time, the grittier tones of Lemire's run are dropped, so the atmosphere is kind of going back to how the first three volumes in the early runs were like, sort of. However, this one still has an overarching story arc about executive corruptions and call-backs to the early volumes of Green Arrow, with the new archer Merlyn likely being an acquaintance of Arrow back in his pre-superhero days. Diggle remains the same as before, while Felicity adds some nice quirkiness to the story, but characters like Mia and Zehra are not as fleshed out as they are meant to be. Likely to make up for some of these soft changes, this volumes includes a lot of guest appearances of Batman, Luthor, Speedy, Cupid, Emiko and Hal Jordan in the process. Which is cool, since, so far, Green Arrow hasn't had a team-up since Volume 3's Harrow with Hawkguy. However, some of the said characters like Speedy & Cupid, who presumably quit before the first story of Green Arrow have not much development during their short appearances here.

However, I have been enjoying the New 52 series and will finish the series to the end. It is a new change, not one that I expected, but it is still pleasant to see the next phase of the Green Arrow saga.

[Victor Orozco]

Not bad, but then again, this didn't feel like the Green Arrow comic book, but more like a comic book adaptation of the CW series Arrow. Because that's what this felt like.

Set after the events of Forever Evil, Green Arrow has been doing his job protecting his city after the massive events of the Outsiders War. In this case, he's no longer working with his friends Henry and Naomi, but still working with John Diggle and recruiting a woman caught in his path against a powerful political figure named Felicity Smoak. Felicity is supersmart, essentially realizing her boss, John King, who's making a name for himself by protecting the city against the ravages of the Crime Syndicate. But he wants to be the undisputed 'king' of the city, so he tries to kill the man who stands in his way, the vigilante known as the Green Arrow.

Like I said, this wasn't bad. If anything, this collection is what would happen if Arrow were allowed to have the budget to include better comic book guests. Not bad, but just not great.

[Peter]

Following up Jeff Lemire's run on Green Arrow was always going to be a tough job, but Andrew Kreisberg and Ben Sokolowski have done a decent job. It's nowhere near the same level as the last three volumes, but it's definitely on more level footing than the first three volumes of the New 52 Green Arrow. Drawing inspiration from the Arrow TV series both works and doesn't work in equal measures in Kingdom. The narrative is fun, albeit rushed. As usual, Felicity steals the show and is as awkward as ever. She has her moments though. I'd happily give up the TV elements to go back to the complex storytelling and art in Lemire's run, but I am glad things didn't go back to the dreary levels of the start of this series.

[Sean]

After the amazing Jeff Lemire run comes an incredible clunker written by some TV guys that don't really seem to know how to write comics or care for anything that just happened. They used almost nothing from the amazing run they followed and tell the most generic, plot hole filled, lame story imaginable. The antagonist is a rich guy who will never be seen again because he was so bland. The authors throw tons of Arrow guests in because they like their show. That's it. That's all. The art was not an issue here, just the writing. Overall, an actual embarrassment that DC let this story fly.

[Paweł]

W ramach powrotu zielonego strzelca do łask scenarzyści postanowili poratować się gotowcem i przepisali komiks na grunt serialu Arrow. Pojawiają się najważniejsze postaci w ich telewizyjnym imidżu, szybko muszą nauczyć się współpracy i pokonać na prędce przedstawionego złoczyńcę. Pojawiają się inni przedstawiciele Ligi, ale nie odgrywają żadnej większej roli - Lex Luthor nawet się nie odzywa. To wszystko nie sprawi że lichy komiks stanie się hitem, bo ani historia ani postacie nie są na tyle interesujące żeby mnie zaciekawić i zaangażować.

[J]

Having the show runner for Arrow pen this arc was a huge mistake. The things that make Arrow a pleasure to watch are not easily translated to the comics. The chemistry between the actors, etc. This rather tired story of yet another evil billionnaire is boring fast, and the introduction of Felicity into the DCCU is annoying and just awful. Like this entire collection. Not even the art can save this pile of shit.

[Will Cooper]

Not terrible, but doesn't live up to it's potential from the start. King looks like a philanthropist but is secretly controlling most of the city, whichever city he takes over. So this should be VERY hard to overcome. But Green Arrow (and crew later) don't take too many hits cleaning up his takeover.

[Mr. Green arrow]

One of my favorite g.a new 52 comics, partly because it is heavily based off the show Arrow. It has john diggle, felicity smoak, and has cameos from Batman, Lex Luthor, Bruce Wayne, Katana, Cupid, and smorgasbord of others. I just enjoy this story. It's like a one off story, and that makes it more enjoyable for me. I seriously enjoyed it.

[Sam]

After watching season four of Arrow I didn't think Felicity Smoak could be any more annoying. This book showed me just how wrong I was.

[Edward Davies]

Yay! Felicity Smoak! Yay! Still, the new creative team isn't quite as good as the last one.

[superhero fan]

Not the most memorable comic

[Jesse A]

Starts out pretty bad but ends up ok-ish.

[Andrés Fernández]

Fan service

[Will Robinson Jr.]

Okay maybe this volume of Green Arrow was not as great as the now legendary Jeff Lemire run but it was still pretty entertaining. So DC Comics decides to take a safe route with the new team of writers being the writers of the hit TV series "Arrow". Can you say "Money Grab"?
But I never judge a book by its cover . I adjusted to the new artwork okay. Basically the Green Arrow is joined by Diggle and the DC Comics introduction of Felicity Smoak in taking down a pseudo philanthropist who is obsessed with using his wealth and influence to takeover Seattle. John King in true mastermind fashion has collected data on almost everyone in the city and even knows the identity of the Green Arrow as Oliver Queen. There are some great action scenes especially the battle with Merlyn the rival archer. I felt that some of the story moved a little to quickly at times but other than that the book is standard superhero fair. But this is not a bad thing. After such an emotionally and life changing story arc it is always good to bring new readers in with an easily accessible story arc. My last complaint is something that I can not control because comics are a business. But did we really have to make this series resemble its TV counterpart there was already a TV series comic book. But nevertheless it was worth the read.

[Beelzefuzz]

This is the 7th Green Arrow collection. 1-3 were so much hot garbage, but then the series was rescued with actual ideas and writing. Every interesting thing/person developed in books 4-6 was in some way quickly exiled or disavowed at the start of book 7, so that we could watch the pilot episodes of the Arrow TV show play out in comic book form.
It took awhile, but I was able to put that annoyance aside and try to enjoy it as an arm of the TV show, since that is all I was getting in the Green Arrow world, but lord almighty this is so poorly written. This feels like DC's attempt at a kids comic with some violence thrown in to make it adult. The writing is so juvenile that it is offensive in places. Just reread books 4-6 or read something before New 52 ever happened to Ollie and hope Rebirth is semi-decent.

[Alex]

This was good. I actually enjoyed this arc more than almost anything done by Lemire, who I feel used too much expository dialogue. This was fast, fun, and interesting, but it had issues with letting readers really understand why King is such a big deal. We see him doing a couple of despicable things and talking about his mission, but he could have done with a backstory to really drive his mission home.

As is, this is a solid start for the new creative team. I hope future arcs give scenes and characters some more exposure and room to breathe.

[Max Z]

"My name is Felicia-chan and I'm here to kill you, nya! Also I'm the bestest hacker and I do all my work-related talks in World of Warcraft! Nice to meet you, nya!"

Fanbois doing fanservice. With too many silly jokes and banter, this book does a screeching 180 on everything before that. They could've just simply do a 6-issue limited run. Leaving that aside, how is the bad guy conflict resolved? Simple, by calling Batman, Lex Luthor and a couple more characters just to fill the page. Job done, cameos cameoed, see ya on TV, suckers.

[Thomas Maluck]

Green Arrow (whose kevlar armor has been acknowledged to be less than ideal in terms of coverage) and Felicity (genius but otherwise ordinary lady) are walking down a hallway in a tall building. Felicity trips a wire that triggers a large explosion. Arrow and Felicity are shown falling from the building apart from one another, then she's shown holding onto him as he grappling-arrows them back up to safety with nary a scratch.

[Chad]

It was smart for the Arrow writers to bring in characters from the TV show. Even though the comics came first, it makes sense to make it more familiar for fans of the show to draw in new readers. I liked the big bad in the book, King and this vast conspiracy he's created. My only issue with it they set all of this up and then they take him down in 2 issues. This would have been a good opportunity to set up a year long storyline.

[Joseph Kirchner]

this almost ruined the green arrow comic completely thankfully Ben Percy picked up after this and saved the series.