Green Arrow, Volume 4: Straight Shooter

Green Arrow (2001) (Collected Editions)

by Judd Winick, Phil Hester (Illustrator), Ande Parks (Illustrator)

Following a much-acclaimed revision of this classic series by director-turned-comics writer Kevin Smith (Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), Green Arrow continues to hit its mark! When the Elevast corporation attempts to tear down cheap housing in favour of expensive condos, Oliver Queen - the Green Arrow - sides with the poor trying to keep their homes. But when Elevast workers start dying, tensions begin to rise and Queen must stop the killer before a fireball of violence burns the whole city down! Green Arrow is undergoing a massive rise in popularity, and with this latest addition to his quiver its not hard to see why!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Science Fiction

Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

Judd Winick is an American cartoonist, comic book writer, screenwriter, and former reality television personality known for his diverse contributions to storytelling across multiple media. He first entered the public eye in 1994 as a cast member on The Real World: San Francisco, where he formed a close friendship with AIDS educator Pedro Zamora, an experience that deeply influenced his later work. Winick memorialized their bond in Pedro and Me, a critically acclaimed autobiographical graphic novel that earned several literary awards and became a staple in school curricula.

Winick's career in comics took off with The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius and continued with major runs at DC Comics, including Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Batman. His stories often explored socially relevant themes, such as HIV, homophobia, and identity. He was recognized for introducing gay characters and tackling difficult subjects with empathy and clarity. His work on Batman notably included resurrecting the character Jason Todd as the Red Hood, a storyline later adapted into the animated film Batman: Under the Red Hood, for which Winick wrote the screenplay.

Beyond comics, he created The Life and Times of Juniper Lee for Cartoon Network and served as head writer for Hulu's The Awesomes. In 2015, he launched the Hilo series, an all-ages sci-fi adventure inspired by his own children. The bestselling series has been widely praised and is expected to reach its eleventh volume in 2025.

Winick lives in San Francisco with his wife, Pam Ling, also a Real World alum, and their two children. He continues to create heartfelt and imaginative stories for audiences of all ages.

Reviews

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is Judd Winick's first try at Green Arrow after taking over for Brad. It stumbles a bit on plot, but interesting character growth helps.

So these creatures begin to pop up in Star City. Conner and Oliver decide to take it upon themselves to fix up the streets. When a group of filthy rich assholes hire an assassin to clean up their mess it crosses paths with Oliver. So have these creatures roaming the streets and the mystery behind that, the assassin coming after Oliver and company, Oliver falling for a new girl while being with Dinah, and yeah, a nice jumbled mess.

Good: Love the ending. It builds to a bitter sweet moment and a lot of characters going to be stuck in new situations. The moments with Oliver and his family, son or daughter-like character, are always good. Realistic family dynamic that makes it interesting. The fights are pretty great and some really brutal moments.

Bad: The main plot feels lost. The whole plot line with the monsters and what they really are is kind of bland. I thought the art could sometimes be a bit messy.

Overall another fun volume but the weakest so far in this run. A 3 out of 5. Maybe 3.5. But I'll settle on 3.

[John Elbe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had forgotten why I had originally dropped the Green Arrow monthly title after this storyarc was first published back in the day. After this reread, I remember why. This was bad back then and aged even worse now. Terrible characterization of the entire Green Arrow family. The disrespectful treatment of female characters and uncomfortable choices makes me wonder how an editor ok'd this. I had planned to read the remaining volumes I had passed on originally, but it's time for me to stop now and skip over the remainder of Winnicks run again for good this time.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot better than I expected. The strength of this volume wasn't really the main plot, but more the personal interactions between the characters. Ollie proves to be just as flawed as ever, if not moreso. There's also some serious behind the scenes drama as well as a few guest appearances. Overall a strong volume, even if it does give you mixed feelings about Green Arrow's character.

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great volume of this series!

To keep it brief, Phil Hester and Ande Parks have been consistently good with the artwork and, despite having three different authors so far, this story has been pretty cohesive. A ton of authors on the same run usually looks like a red flag to me, but Kevin Smith had a great first two volumes, followed by Brad Meltzer's phenomenal third volume. Judd Winick is keeping up fairly well with them, fortunately. The dialogue and plot were pretty good and Superman makes an appearance! And Ollie cheats on Dinah (BOOOOOOO!). And they kill a likable minor character (the one that Ollie cheated with) . But I still really enjoyed this and I'm thankful that Judd Winick, who continued this series to the end, can handle my favorite superhero.

[Arianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A large part of the plot of this book revolves around this new villain, Drakon, who is all over the place. I literally have no idea what they were going for with him. He's a no-nonsense type of assassin who has been interested in killing since he was a child and he is greatly skilled. But he's also goofy and incompetent and at no point is it possible to perceive him as a threat to anyone.

To make Drakon seem like a big deal they have him kill some character. They try everything to get you to care about this woman - she's an accomplished lawyer, a family member of another hero, and she ends up sleeping with Oliver. Her death feels gratuitous and like she was only there so Oliver could cheat on Dinah. Overall the book is too sparse, it makes it hard to care about the multiple stories that are meant to be intersecting when so little attention is given to any of them.

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Green Arrow: Straight Shooter collects issues 26-31 of the series written by Judd Winick with art by Phil Hester.

A series of monster attacks focusing on construction areas lead to Green Arrow investigating what just is going on and who might be behind it which leads to one of the world's best assassin's targeting the Emerald Archer.

Olliver Queen continues to be a hero for those who don't have a voice. While still entertaining, it is a fairly forgettable story. It had the extremely hard task of following up the back-to-back great arcs by Kevin Smith and Brad Meltzer. The art teams continues on this book for a consistent feel.

[Danny Roe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this edition. The writing and artwork are excellent and the story is fast paced and had plenty of action. The villain is a perfect match for Queen, and the ending leaves it open for the next edition. Can't wait!

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Judd Winick takes over the writing reigns on Green Arrow and does a decent job. The storyline was decent and a bit shocking. We get the tired cliché of the evil corporation but this went a slightly different direction. Oliver is the perfect foil for such an antagonist. I wished the monsters were different. They could have been manifested a million different ways and they came across too similar too Grundy, who Oliver just faced off with. The dialogue was text book Winick, slightly juvenile, but it worked. The art by Phil Hester was very good but his depiction of newly introduced Darkon was odd. Its mentioned multiple, multiple times that he's very short but there was only one panel where its shown he's slightly shorter than Connor. Overall, the book is good and shows a solid beginning to this run.

[Nate]

Judd Winick writes a straightforward Green Arrow story for his first arc on the title. Ollie goes up against an evil corporation, mutated monsters, and an assassin, all the while dealing with his rocky relationships with Connor and Mia. The plot is forgettable but Winick has a solid handle on Ollie’s character, giving him pathos throughout (the “old family man Ollie” lends itself nicely to emotion). Winick has some big shoes to fill coming after Kevin Smith and Brad Meltzer, to say nothing of Mike Grell’s run. By the looks of these first six issues, I’d say he’ll do a respectable job. Now to track down the rest of the trades because my library has none of them.

[Amna · Rating 1 out of 5]

There's a difference between a flawed hero and an unlikable one. Ollie seems to consistently fall under the latter category. Connor and Mia, on the other hand, are pretty cool characters. Connor gets a really cool moment against Drakon.

This contains the arc where Ollie cheats on Dinah with a younger woman... again. Serial cheater Ollie is the worst. I do appreciate Connor and Mia both giving him hell for it, especially Connor for calling him out on his behavior.

[Mysticreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seeing some of these reviews, i was like oh okay it must be bad, but ollie is NOT badly characterised here. The fact he cheats is sad to see as I love dinah and ollie but winnick writes it to show he is the guy who fucks up and evidently gets someone innocent killed.

The villain is also pretty cool and the monster stuff whilst sort of generic is still fitting and well done.

Good stuff!

[Rod · Rating 5 out of 5]

A surprise guest appearance, deals with race, class, immigration issues, and Oliver's relationships with Black Canary and Conor Hawke. Love it!

[Paul bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good solid green arrow story.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ollie is becoming one of my favorite DC characters. It makes me sad that he is so very different on Arrow. It'll be hard for them to introduce anyone else in the role.

Ollie uses his fortune to help tenants fight a corrupt corporation with a board of fat white men. It's a fun story with a few twists here and there.

The art is awesome. I really love this team. It's nice that the art stayed the same for the new writer.

[DeAnna Knippling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent and a fun time, slightly ironic, interesting but not amazing.

Ollie's back from the dead and back on the job, which he proceeds to do without really carrying back a lot of lessons from the dead...puts his job over his family, drags in noncombatants without regard to fallout...this is probably going somewhere in which karma payback features prominently.

[Victor Orozco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice story. An adventure for Oliver Queen in his return to life, this time involving the niece of an old friend as Oliver continues to succeed in various aspects of his life but also screw-up terribly.

Resurrected and still capable of heroism, but immature and complacent in the feelings of others. One of the many reasons I've never really liked Green Arrow.

C

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good story with Green Arrow defending the working class from multinational companies, assassins and monsters. I has a really personal edge to it, and unfortuantly Ollie is back to his old tricks.

[Charity Tinnin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked seeing Oliver save Star City with both his personas and his ability to respect/be friends with someone on the opposite end of the spectrum in Jefferson Pierce (We could all take notes). But man, Oliver, with the sefl-destructive tendencies .... Grow up. Get therapy. Do better.

[Nicolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The issue in which Ollie lets us down! I think this book stumbles a bit with the author transition, but still a good time.

We discussed this run, plus the Green Arrow's complicated history in a special episode of the All the Books Show: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/ep...

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

An OK story with nice art and great character development.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aiiiiieeee stuff happens or something

[Dony Grayman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quinta saga de Green Arrow publicada por Norma Editorial.