Review: Green Arrow Vol. 5- Hard Travelin’ Hero
Quick Summary
Pros: The book contains several fun adventures, all of which center around a team-up between Green Arrow and another hero. The volume’s artwork looks great.
Cons: The adventures in this book are short but still try to deliver grandiose, emotional moments, many of which fall flat.
Overall: This volume is a brief but intense change of tone for the series. It mostly moves away from larger narratives to focus on several team-ups between Green Arrow and the members of the Justice League. These team-ups are enjoyable and offer unique ways to view the Emerald Archer, but only one is really able to hit the emotional highs it attempts to hit. In the end, this is for Green Arrow fans who want to see him participate in several moderately fun team-ups.
Story
After the climatic events of the previous volume, Green Arrow Vol. 5: Hard Travelin’ Hero, by Benjamin Percy, downshifts and takes some time to focus on smaller and more individualized encounters. Each of this book’s chapters is essentially a team-up between Green Arrow and a member of the Justice League, while a Black Canary/Red Arrow story plays out in the background. Each of these encounters has its moments and simply seeing the different team-ups is fun. However, the rapid-fire nature of each storyline takes away from their appeal, as none have the necessary length to build up to the emotional climax they clearly desire. All in all, this collection offers some entertaining team-ups but doesn’t provide the enthralling narratives seen in previous collections.
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As mentioned above, Hard Travelin’ Hero is essentially a collection of team-ups between Green Arrow and a member of the Justice League. As each team-up focuses on a different member, each team-up offers a new perspective through which to view Ollie and his recent actions. It is interesting to contrast Batman’s hesitant approval of Green Arrow against Green Lantern’s genuine joy that his friend is making some positive changes. Plus, each encounter offers some fun and individualized action as well, with Flash’s speed-focused chapter feeling distinct from Hal’s space-focused chapter.
However, each encounter also tries to hammer home some emotional message that, unfortunately, does not come across well. These are relatively short team-ups but almost all of them end with Ollie either giving a big speech about his beliefs or reaffirming his dedication to doing what is right. The grandiose nature of each declaration does not suit the brevity of these chapters. The exception here is the final chapter, which has the Justice League offer Green Arrow a position on the team. The payoff in this final chapter feels earned and perfectly hits as an emotional moment.
In addition to detailing individual encounters, Hard Travelin’ Hero also slightly pushes forward the comic’s main narrative. It has Black Canary and Red Arrow find the woman Oliver is on trial for murdering, something that should have a big impact on the next volume. After the low key nature of this collection, I’m excited to return to a pulse-pounding battle against the Ninth Circle in the next one.
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Art
Hard Travelin’ Hero contains plenty of great artwork that wonderfully complements all of the stories being told. Stephen Byrne and Jamal Campbell’s work on the opening chapters is bright and beautiful. It makes the encounters feel energetic and lively, while also giving a somewhat optimistic view of events. Then, Juan Ferreyra takes over and the tone shifts a bit. The artwork is still beautiful but the visuals are darker and more moody, which fits perfectly in stories featuring Lex Luthor and Gotham City. Finally, Otto Schmidt takes over for the final chapters. Schmidt’s work throughout this series has been absolutely stunning and these chapters are no different. Plus, the final chapter contains some work on the Justice League and Green Arrow that is simply perfect and beautifully captures the emotions present at this story’s end. Together, these artists create a fantastic-looking collection and make this book a better read.
Continuity
Green Arrow Vol. 5: Hard Travelin’ Hero continues the story from Green Arrow Vol. 4: The Rise of Star City (Review).
The main Green Arrow story continues in Green Arrow Vol. 6: Trial of Two Cities (Review). However, Green Arrow’s trip to Gotham, alluded to at the conclusion of this collection, is detailed across the “Gotham Resistance” story arc from Dark Nights: Metal: The Resistance (Review) (Reading Order).
This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:
- Lex Luthor’s (Reading Order) status as a hero was established over the course of Justice League Vol. 6: Injustice League (Review).
- Green Lantern’s (Reading Order) reference to Green Arrow taking a soul-searching trip across the country is a reference to the famous Green Lantern/Green Arrow: Hard Travelin’ Heroes arc by Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams.