With Ollie captured by the rebels and Hal Jordan back in the
states delivering more planes for the fictional dictatorship in Central Asia,
the Emerald Warriors have yet to officially meet. That all ends now with Green
Arrow learning that these godless savages aren’t really that evil and thus he
takes up his bow and arrow for them when the villages who’ve nursed him back to
health are massacred.
Meanwhile, the Green Lantern of sector 2814 is having a
crisis of conscience and asks the Guardians to guide him. In typical fashion,
they tell Jordan that whichever side he chooses to defend is okay with them,
just as long as he does something to keep the peace. So, being ex-military and
basically an intergalactic cop, Hal Jordan picks the side of the dictatorship!
Now when both sides meet its green versus green and the
winner may just be decided by the slip of a hand. But will that hand be
releasing a jade arrow or a forest green beam of energy?
I’m like this storyline pretty well. I think having Denny O’Neil
pen the story was the right choice. I still wish Neal Adams had done the art. I
can see how this conflict could’ve very well influenced Green Arrow to become a
sort of vigilante social worker while Hal Jordan always played the heavy,
poo-pooing radicalism and really being a sort of tool for the man.
What I do not like about this story is how this is all
playing out in ‘Vietnam’, though it’s not really the name of the country in
this book. See, Ollie’s storyline is playing out a little too much like Tony
Stark’s and how he came to be Iron Man. The only difference is that Oliver
Queen isn’t being held captive by the Communists and forced to make a suit of
armor.
Sometimes when one tries to create an origin story, they end
up copying another work and Queen’s journey from selfish playboy to man of the
downtrodden is just too close to old Chrome Dome over at the House of Ideas.
Worth Consuming
Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.
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