By: Pornsak Pichetshote (writer), Marco Castiello & Ig Guara (pencillers), Vincenzo Acunzo & Ruy José (inkers), Stefani Rennee (colorist)
The Story: A corporation for the people? Isn’t that like saying bacon for the vegans?
The Review: In my imagination, I like to see Batman hanging with the guys at a barbeque on Superman’s farm, munching on burgers made with 100 percent ground chuck from Smallville’s organic cattle ranch, and telling everyone (except the Flash—he’s run off to buy a refill for the keg, and taking his sweet time about it, too) how he’s going to use his civilian identity to really promote his agenda now. Then Green Arrow says, quite roguishly, “Welcome to the club.”
Really, when you think about it, Oliver Queen has never hesitated to further his crime-fighting goals with his corporate and political resources. So it makes a lot of sense that in the Flashpoint world, where Green Arrow merely refers to the super-powered missiles his company sells, Ollie ponders the idea of a corporation as superhero, though in such ethereally vague terms that you can’t tell how such a thing would ever work.
The idea actually originates with Ollie’s head of security, Roy Harper, who insists Green Arrow Industries can do more than simply reappropriate super-villain weapons for conventional military applications, some of which are rather ingenious: Trickster’s antigravity boots for flight, Folded Man’s suit to make the largest weapons portable. And then you have the Top’s atomic grenade tops “with the power of five nukes”, which just seems like overkill.
There are a few overkill moments in this issue, where Ollie’s cocky dialogue just gets a touch out of hand. Sometimes they come in eye-rolling jokes (“Gentlemen, and…uh, more gentlemen…”), but they really grate on your nerves when he gets into one of his self-righteous speeches that unfailingly reach gibberish proportions: “Because the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and in the right hands, money is a green arrow to the future.” Yeahbutwhu–?
Aside from that, Pichetshote really takes advantage of the whole altered reality thing to give us a very fun, slightly wussy (“Okay, okay. Don’t freak out!”) version of Ollie. It would’ve been a very cutesy kind of gag to reveal his sudden genius for archery, but he abandons the notion early on in favor of a whole arsenal of super-villain tech—which he uses with total incompetence. His shining hour comes when he accidentally sets the surrounding jungle on fire because he thinks he holds Pied Piper’s sonic blaster, but it turns out to be Heat Wave’s flame gun.
For all that, you come away from the issue feeling like Ollie’s the bad guy here, as our “villain’s” motivations for targeting Ollie come from both an idealistic and personal level, including an acidic revelation that immediately reveals the hypocrisy of his visions for nobility. It all turns quite tragic very fast, and in the end, the Ollie of Flashpoint abandons his heroic ambitions to go back to “some guy who makes missiles.”
Castiello offers serviceable, but flawed work (somehow making Roy look older than Ollie), all the more reason to be relieved Guara draws the majority of the issue. His lines have a very strong level of detail and depth (emphasized by José’s flattering inks) that really calls to mind what I like to call the Marvel standard of art: slick and colorful (tastefully done by Rennee), while keeping the action and drama on point.
Conclusion: An enjoyable, even thoughtful “What if?” look into the kind of man Ollie would be if never picked up a bow.
Grade: B
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – I kind of like how Ollie’s beachbum goatee disappears from time to time throughout the issue.
Grade
Conclusion