Bring Me Roy Harper – Green Arrow #49 Reviewed
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
Count Vertigo is tearing up Seattle in his search for Roy Harper, who stopped Vertigo during his first outing in the city. Riot is trying to save people’s lives, but Green Arrow and Black Canary must save her instead before turning their attention back to Vertigo. It seems that his powers are truly allowing him to shift and change the city, but Ollie remembers something Roy told him years back. This advice might just be the perspective Ollie needs to stop Vertigo and save Seattle.
Green Arrow #49 finds Ollie and Dinah dealing with more fallout from the loss of Arsenal in Heroes in Crisis. Count Vertigo has an axe to grind, but he doesn’t know that Roy was Arsenal. As such, he’d have no way of connecting the death of Arsenal to Roy.
Roy used to run with Vertigo, and that leads to one of the small twists this issue has. Werner may just have considered Roy a true friend, and that complicates things for Oliver.
The bulk of the issue is Ollie trying to figure out a way around Werner’s powers, and it does leave Black Canary feeling a little less relevant to this story despite her being ostensibly Green Arrow’s partner. That said, it is a personal journey for Ollie considering its connection to Roy, so it makes sense for this one to be more Ollie-centric.
It’s a fun issue for sure, and it even gets pretty emotional. Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly handle Ollie’s grief well.
Javier Fernandez’s artwork is very good too. He plays with the perception-warping powers of Count Vertigo well, and action and movement look especially good. There’s a gritty texture to many of the scenes too, and that definitely adds something to the visuals. John Kalisz’s color work is well-balanced and contrasted well too, and it ties the comic together excellently.
Green Arrow #49 concludes this return of Count Vertigo with a cathartic read which goes right to the heart of Oliver Queen. It’s a fun, emotional, and even sad isse, and it earns a recommendation. Check it out.
Green Arrow #49 come to us from writers Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, artist Javier Fernandez, color artist John Kalisz, letters by Andworld Design, cover artist Kevin Nowlan with Nathan Fairbairn, and variant cover artist Francis Manapul.