As a kid I missed out on comic books. I don’t know if it’s because the culture had changed and most us were watching our superheroes in cartoons or because my parents didn’t think it was proper reading material. But that didn’t stop me from liking super heroes. It just limited the ones I knew about. The first super hero I was interested in was Batman. And frankly, he’s still one I like to read about from time to time. I didn’t like Superman or Spiderman, however; just not my cup of tea. I did like X-men, but that’s mostly because of the movies. When the terrible Green Lantern movie came out, I thought I’d get into him, but school started and I got distracted. Then the show Arrow premiered and I encountered a new super hero to obsess over. I’d never heard of Green Arrow before and I liked the story and the self-made hero motif. Which is pretty close to Batman. But what I liked about Green Arrow is he’s pretty much a modern Robin Hood which, incidentally, is one of my favorite childhood films. So it seemed like a match made in heaven.
Being the literati that I am I decided that I wanted to read the comics/graphic novels from the Green Arrow oevre. So I did a wiki search and made my chronological list. I’m OCD like that. No jumping in in the middle of a series. Luckily, my friends over at DC had the same idea. They’ve revamped their universe and have tried to restart many of the story lines that our parents and grandparents grew up on. So that’s where we get to Green Arrow: Year One. This is the a new origin story that’s helped readers like me get into the hero.
Having watched the show I knew about Oliver Queen and his playboy origins. So I was worried that this origin story graphic novel was going to be a copy of the show. I was wrong. It was just close enough that I didn’t feel it was too different from the show or vice versa, but it gave a unique spin on the story that was creative and intriguing.
So if you’re in the mood to read something in a day and be entertained with a good story and great illustrations, then I recommend this graphic novel. Well done and a great way to launch a franchise. It’s certainly hooked me.
