Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters #1-3

Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters #1-3

Originally released in 1987

Written by Mike Grell

Art by Mike Grell

Continuing with the idea of looking into superheroes that I haven't really focused on yet, I gave the mini-series "Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters" a try.  It wound up being grittier than I expected, feeling like it was heavily inspired by R-rated cop dramas.  An attempt at tracking down a serial killer drags Oliver Queen into a conspiracy to flood Central America with cocaine, masterminded by a group of military veterans who have grown very wealthy from their involvement.

Mike Grell handles both the writing and the art here, with the art having a sketch-like quality to it.  The story is a sort of back-to-basics tale - no trick arrows, no sidekicks, and while the Black Canary appears, she's doing her own investigation separate from Oliver's. (at least to start with)

Oliver reflects on getting older, and he and Dinah talk about the possibility of having kids (he wants them; she doesn't want to risk them being orphans given the lives that they both lead).  The series is fairly grounded - it takes place in Seattle, rather than one of DC's fictional cities, and not a single mention is made of any members of the Justice League, even Batman. (the only thing that comes up about the broader DC universe is that Roy Harper, Oliver's former sidekick and adopted son, has a kid of his own)

The two go off on their own separate missions.  Oliver manages to track down the serial killer, but before he can apprehend the Seattle Slasher (as the papers have been calling him - something of a modern day Jack the Ripper, a psychotic Vietnam veteran who targets prostitutes), the killer is murdered with an arrow.  The culprit is a woman who goes by Shado, who has a dragon tattoo on her arm and also uses a bow and arrow.  She proceeds to kill an older man in the same area before leaving - the older man was her target, but her conscience couldn't let the Seattle Slasher live.

Oliver investigates the older man's death, along with the deaths of several other older men in the area.  This ties into Dinah's investigation - Dinah has been investigating the drug trade in the area, and all of the victims (aside from the Seattle Slasher, who's unrelated), including the leader of the drug trade, funded their lifestyles with millions of dollars that they stole from a Yakuza member, who was Shado's father.

It's different from what I'm used to for Green Arrow, though admittedly I haven't seen much that has him in it. (Justice League Unlimited, the issue of Green Lantern where John Stewart made his debut, and the first episode of Arrow, though by my understanding, the last one isn't an accurate representation of the character)  There's not as much of a focus on social issues, though Oliver is still concerned about the perspective of the little guys, the people that society tends to overlook.

Rather, Oliver's big issue here is the idea of killing.  He's staunchly against it, but it's stated that he did kill someone at some point in the past, and here, he uses lethal force when Dinah is captured, tortured extensively, and (by the time that Oliver shows up) is about to be murdered.  The series doesn't really address how Oliver reconciles this, though it makes him more willing to overlook Shado's own killings as a result.

It's not exactly an uplifting feel-good story that I'd go back to on a regular basis, but it's a well-written comic, and it's interesting to see what the creators can get away with for Green Arrow that they might not be able to with someone like Batman.  The downside to not having read or seen much that features Green Arrow is that I'm not sure if his behaviour here (particularly with the concept of death) is out-of-character or not; it felt a little questionable to me, but I'd have to read more comics that focus on him to make an informed judgment.