Comic Review: Green Arrow (2016-) #49

Green Arrow (2016-) #49

DC Comics

Writers: Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing

Artist: Javier Fernandez

This issue sees a showdown between the more-powerful-than-ever Count Vertigo and Green Arrow. It’s a highly emotional issue, as Ollie’s recent tragedy of losing Roy (in Tom King’s Heroes In Crisis) is brought into full focus as Count Vertigo demands Roy personally confront him. It’s a dramatic encounter between Ollie and Vertigo, with reality-warping and hard-hitting moments. As an essentially single extended sequence, it’s well-written and manages to be more interesting than a simple hero vs villain punch-up.

The characterisation on display here is the best part of the writing, with Ollie and Vertigo both going through their own personal intense moments in reaction to the loss of Roy. The grief felt by not just Ollie, but Vertigo too is palpable. Ollie is clearly torn-up and struggling to work at the best of his ability due to the reminder of Roy, but also manages to harness his mourning by remembering how Roy would approach the situation. Vertigo, meanwhile, is given some fun insane villain dialogue, followed by an actually very humanizing portrayal of the character that makes him much less one note, and far more sympathetic. The dialogue between Ollie and Vertigo as they talk about Roy is written with genuine emotion in the voices of the characters.

Javier Fernandez’ art is brilliant, and is this issue’s greatest strength. With the action centred around mind-bending abilities, this issue was always going to be reliant on the art to convey the effects of Count Vertigo’s abilities, and Fernandez does a great job. Every page is packed with excellently rendered twisted buildings and trippy visuals, the scope of Vertigo’s full power clearly illustrated by the world turning upside down, or the bright green lights and shadows playing around him. There is one especially great moment where Kelly, Lanzing and Fernandez have fun with altered perspective that feels like it could have been taken straight from something like Inception. There are a couple of slightly off facial expressions, but for the most part Fernandez captures the drama of the major moments of the issue, expertly portraying the character’s feelings, not just through face, but through body language too.