Review: Green Arrow Vol. 7- Kingdom
Quick Summary
Pros: Fans of the Arrow TV series may enjoy aspects of this book. The story is full of action.
Cons: The book is paced terribly and filled with random errors. The storyline lacks substance and feels completely pointless for the majority of the time. New characters are all characterized horribly. Influences from the Arrow TV show will feel intrusive for any longtime reader.
Overall: This collection is a mashup of poor pacing, bad characterization, and an overall lack of anything significantly interesting. There are a few fun moments of action and some nice fanservice for fans of the Arrow TV show, however these are heavily eclipsed by the book’s numerous flaws. This volume is disappointing on its own and especially disappointing after the previous volume’s success. The only people this book may appeal to is diehard fans of the Arrow TV show, yet even those fans will likely only find this book to be moderately entertaining.
Story
In our review of Green Arrow Vol. 6: Broken (found here), I complimented the book on ending in a way that provided a wonderful setup for the following volume. Instead of capitalizing on this, Green Arrow Vol. 7: Kingdom throws all of its potential out the window and tells a generic action story instead.
This is a book that is the definition of all flash and no substance. There are plenty of action sequences and tons of cameos from other DC heroes, yet none of them feel like they have any weight or meaning. The storyline is chaotically paced and filled with poor character development. This book is also written by two people with ties to the Arrow TV show, Andrew Kreisberg and Ben Sokolowskis, so the book takes heavy influence from that show. Fans of Arrow might like this, but everyone else will find the show elements to be intrusive and out of place in this version of Green Arrow’s life. Overall, this is a disappointing chapter in the Green Arrow series and is not a book I would recommend to anyone.
(spoilers start here)
The main storyline in Kingdom follows Green Arrow’s attempt to destroy a criminal network set up by supervillain John King. The only real positives to this story revolve around the flashy elements involving action or surprise guests. For example, when Green Lantern shows up it leads to some fun between the two heroes that is entertaining for a moment.
However, these flashy moments have so little substance that it is hard to become truly invested in them. Katanna, Green Arrow, Lex Luthor, Bruce Wayne, and Cheetah all make appearances in this book but abruptly leave before doing anything significant. The book’s finale is the epitome of this, as it brings in a host of Green Arrow’s allies simply to show them on a few pages together.
This parade of cameos is made even worse by the poor pacing of the entire drama. For example, a significant portion of the story is spent detailing how King has set up Green Arrow as a villain, yet this aspect of the story is almost never addressed again. Even the book’s conclusion falls victim to this problem, as the main villain is dealt with in just a few short pages. It makes an already poor book even harder to become interested in.
All of this, however, pales in comparison to the book’s biggest problem, the mismanagement of its characters. The book immediately introduces a cast of new heroes to lead the narratives drama. Yet none of them end up being written well.
Zehra starts out as Oliver’s girlfriend, yet is captured by King and tortured until she agrees to turn on Oliver. Instead of understanding her situation, Oliver treats her like a generic villain and breaks up with her. This is contrasted by Oliver’s incredibly forgiving attitude toward Felicity, who he views as a hero, despite the fact that they met because she accepted a job to kill him (she didn’t go through with it but was completely ready to do so before learning he was Green Arrow). In addition, her “quirky” ramblings become annoying rather quickly and will really only appeal to those who love her character from Arrow. Last but not least, Mia is introduced as a “chosen one” style character but ultimately plays an incredibly minor role in the overall story. This mishmash of characterization prevents readers from ever being able to truly connect with the book’s major players and thus is a big strain on the overall reading experience.
(spoilers end here)
Art
The artwork in this book is better than the writing but is still nothing to brag about. It ends up being a pretty generic superhero affair, with bright colors and solid action sequences designed to build excitement. Daniel Sampere does particularly well when drawing masked heroes or intense explosions. However, a number of small errors and odd looking panels distract from the otherwise average looking book. This are most noticeable when characters are drawn without masks, as faces tend to look a bit weird. Overall, this is a mediocre, not terrible, collection in regards to visuals.
Continuity
Green Arrow Vol. 7: Kingdom continues the story from Green Arrow Vol. 6: Broken (Review).
The story here continues in Green Arrow Vol. 8: The Nightbirds.
This volume also references and continues the stories from other comic books, detailed below:
- Oliver mentions the world being “invaded by Darkseid and taken over by the Crime Syndicate.”
- Darkseid invaded in Justice League Vol. 1: Origin (Review).
- The Crime Syndicate took over the world in Forever Evil (Review).
- Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor’s partnership started in Justice League Vol. 6: Injustice League (Review).
- Green Arrow mentions the fact that he is a member of the Justice League United. He joined this team in Justice League United Vol. 1: Justice League Canada (Review).