GREEN ARROW # 26
© 2003 DC Comics

Mania Grade: B+
Issue: 26
Authors: Judd Winick, Phil Hester, Ande Parks
Publisher: DC
Price: $2.50

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GREEN ARROW # 26

Jefferson Pierce, formerly known as Black Lightning and now US Secretary of Education, has come to Star City to enlist Ollie's help. Pierce's niece Joanna is a lawyer trying to keep the Elevast Corporation from tearing down local housing to build a new complex, and her side has run out of money. But Ollie's problems may end up being more than financial ones, as a mysterious creature begins attacking the building site.

After a successful stint on GREEN LANTERN, Judd Winick's now writing for the other half of the Green Team, proving that as long as it's green, he can write it. This issue is proof of that. You've gotta love Winick's ability to hit the ground running - we're dropped into a complex storyline from the very first page, and the intricate plot doesn't let up until the final panel. There's also something way cool about any writer who can take an old character like Black Lightning and rehabilitate him into someone worth watching.

There is one problem with this issue, however, and it's a problem that also came up during the recent Green Lantern-Green Arrow team-up co-written by Winick and new GREEN LANTERN writer Ben Raab. Ollie as a character has a very distinctive voice, just as distinctive as that which Winick established for Kyle Raynor during that previous run. Problem is, there are a few moments in this issue, as there was in the team-up, in which the voices sound awfully similar. For example, Ollie makes a couple of pop culture references to Metallica and Martha Stewart that sound far more like Kyle-isms than Ollie-isms. (Speaking of isms, don't you just love neologisms?) Still, you have to wonder whether or not Kevin Smith would've done exactly the same thing were he still writing the book, and perhaps it's an acceptable variation. At any rate, it's further proof that Winick will be putting as distinctive a stamp on this title as he did on GREEN LANTERN.

And even though their absence was only a temporary one, I'm deliriously happy to see Phil Hester and Ande Parks back at the artistic helm. As welcome a change as Charlie Adlard's work was during the team-up issues, it's Hester and Parks' own distinctive style that defines this book, no matter who's writing it. When these guys eventually do move on for good, it's going to be weird seeing Ollie drawn some other way - until we come to think of that style as defining the book, of course. Until then, this issue promises a wild ride for the Emerald Archer - and for us.