Green Arrow: Year One
Written by Andy Diggle
Illustrated by Jock
Review by Stephanie Cooke
This is the first Green Arrow story that I’ve taken the time to read. Appropriately enough, it’s the origin story of Oliver Queen becoming the Green Arrow. The story of how Queen came to be a crime-fighting vigilante is a bit Batmanesque, seeing as he’s a rich playboy who hones in on a skill to use to take out evildoers. But nonetheless, I really enjoyed the approach that Diggle took to convey Queen’s motives. It’s funny since Green Arrow is one of my favorite characters and yet up until reading Year One, I knew essentially nothing about him. This is the perfect way to get someone unfamiliar with Green Arrow started with other GA graphic novels.
Year One was definitely an interesting tale of survival and destiny. I enjoyed Queen’s character, the story build-up and the direction it went in. I would definitely recommend Year One for any fan or even for a new reader.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW?
You really don’t need any background into Green Arrow to enjoy this graphic novel. It’s an original story of how Green Arrow came to be, so this is actually a great spot for new readers to start off.
VERDICT
I really enjoyed both the story and the illustrations for this graphic novel. As a fan of Green Arrow, I somehow had never heard Oliver Queen’s origin story before and reading it from Andy Diggle’s perspective was excellent. Definitely worth picking up.
