I'm 90% sure I got this as a freebie from my local comic shop, and I appreciate the gesture...I know I also recently got issues of Secret Service and Green Team that I haven't even brought myself to open; so this issue's climbing in the rankings already! From 2010, Justice League: Rise and Fall Special #1, "Green Arrow Unbound" Written by J.T. Krul, pencils by Diogenes Neves, Mike Mayhew, and Fabrizio Fiorentino; and inks by Mike Mayhew, Vicente Cifuentes, and Ruy Jose. 
The cover by Stanley Lau is kind of a spoiler, although I'm not sure Green Arrow murdered Prometheus this issue or a previous one. It's certainly hashed out here, along with GA's motives: the devastation of Star City, maiming his former sidekick Red Arrow, and killing his granddaughter Lian. (Well, "granddaughter," Roy wasn't Ollie's kid.) Ollie shoots Prometheus in the head and leaves the body to rot in the villain's extra-dimensional hideout. Which is easily accessible by the Shade, who takes Barry and Hal there. (Hal seems shocked, but Barry seems pissed.) Someone had been there, though: someone had stolen Prometheus's computerized helmet, then put the arrow back in his head! (Unless they cut the helmet off, which seems doubtful.)
Replacement heroes Wally and Dick take down D-lister Razer, while worrying about their friend Roy. They also wonder if they're better than Roy, or just luckier. (I'm gonna go with better, since Roy was probably shooting heroin into his arm stump after this issue...)
Meanwhile, GA and Black Canary have been tracking the Electrocutioner, who GA refers to as Prometheus's "triggerman." Canary has to forcibly stop Ollie from murdering him, then realizes Ollie isn't looking for Prometheus because he already knows what happened to him. Barry and Hal confront Ollie with the body, and Ollie points out Barry had broken the Reverse-Flash's neck. Pfft, like 26, 27 years ago. And he didn't lie about it. Well, Ollie may not so much have lied as not volunteered info; but that's for a lawyer to figure out. Ollie helps himself to Prometheus's cosmic key and teleports away, with Flash proclaiming the JLA needs to find him before he kills again! Geez, Barry, settle down. I think this was setting up Green Arrow's last series before the New 52 soft reboot, but I'm not sure Ollie would suffer any consequences for killing Prometheus.
Man this was just a rough period for these guys wasn't? If anything it was preview of what to expect for the reboot, as well as a continuation of the unnecessary gritification of the DC following Identity Crisis.
ReplyDeleteI think it was later revealed that the Prometheus Ollie thought he killed was a hired impostor, but then supposedly Ollie rectified that by killing the real deal? Idk, but I definitely agree with you that Barry overreacted to what Ollie did. I mean he's known Ollie for years, yet all of a sudden he's acting like he's a hardcore killer. Just bad, bad writing and direction.
As for Roy injecting smack directly into his stump....dead on since he relapsed bigger than hell into his former junkie status. Yet even more unimaginative mischaracterization....
Good God, this was a terrible terrible terrible series.
ReplyDeleteDid I mention terrible?