This week: Gabriel Hardman brings us the new Prestige Black Label series with Batman/Green Arrow/The Question: Arcadia #1. Plus, DC KO #2 and its collaborations have fists flying!
Note: The following review may contain spoilers. If you want a quick, spoiler-free buy/pass recommendation for the comic in question, check out the final verdict at the bottom of the article.
Batman/Green Arrow/The Question: Arcadia #1
Writer/Artist: Gabriel Hardman
Colorist: Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Author: Simon Bowland
When Batman/Green Arrow/The Question: Arcadia #1 was first announced by DC Comics in August, I immediately rushed to the slack channel I use to coordinate this column to give my esteemed co-authors a dib.
I mean, I was excited about this series from the beginning. There are three main reasons. The first is that I’m enjoying what Black Label’s publications have become in recent years, solidifying its position as the home of some of Black Label’s most complex (a la Vertigo ) and well-known stories about familiar superheroes. Some of my favorite recent DC comics have been published by Black Label, including Superman: Kryptonite Spectrum, Resurrection Man: Quantum Calman, Plastic Man No More, and The Boy Wonder.
Next, this book sees writer and artist Gabriel Hardman return to DC Comics after some time away. The latest comics for Hardman’s imprint are great, especially Green Lantern: Earth One.
Finally, while I don’t have an official top ten list of all-time favorite DC Comics (should I work on that? I should work on that), that list will likely include Mike Grell’s Green Arrow. Dennis O’Neill and Dennis Cowan’s The Question (and Greg Rucka and others’ work with the character as Rene Montoya). And there are a lot of Batman books. Yes, I like these characters.
It’s all my way of telling you that my expectations for this manga were high, and to my delight, this manga didn’t disappoint and pulled me in from the first page. I’ll explain why it works in a moment, but first I’ll outline the essential story. There’s a mysterious project called Arcadia that Green Arrow and The Question are jointly investigating. Things get even more complicated when you bring in Batman, who can potentially come into conflict with the other members.
Admittedly, this is a great elevator pitch and leaves a lot of room for nuance, which is the real part of the book. That being said, as an overall plot, this is a comic that feels both local and global, perhaps deliberately interested in connecting the ways in which high-stakes global decision-making by power brokers trickles down and leads to, or is caused by, our problems at the community level.
Think about the issues your three main characters are working on or care about most. The common interest of all of them is to stay in their cities of origin and make a difference. The Question addresses the decline of Midwestern hub cities, which currently lack structured local news (to combat this, he writes community newsletters) and are used as hubs for exploitative manufacturing industries due to a lack of government oversight.
Meanwhile, Batman plans to attend a climate change conference for billionaires in Belize, inspired by the passion of a young environmental activist. While there, we learn that Gotham City is below sea level (in addition to killer clowns and more) and is on the front lines of climate change. Another billionaire asks Bruce Wayne how he can still live in Gotham, and Wayne replies, “Gotham is my home.”
Finally, Oliver Queen returns to Star City anew, where he’s grappling with gentrification. He was also banned from his family’s company for a while, which he didn’t really care about until The Question revealed that the company was a big part of their investigation. I like this choice. Because Green Arrow as CEO is my least favorite interpretation of Green Arrow (which makes no sense at all!).
Overall, this book feels like an interesting refresher on the global power dynamics that are common in superhero comics, and the way they interact with media, manufacturing, and perhaps villains themselves. This book is not preachy, which is a credit, but it is based on real-world issues. It’s also a great choice, as the best stories featuring these characters (at least The Question and Green Arrow) feel more grounded and more realistic. In fact, there isn’t a single person with superpowers in Mike Grell’s character-defining Green Arrow run.
That’s the big thing, but on top of that, I also enjoyed the way this story was told. What really impressed me about Arcadia #1 is that it feels detailed, complex, and intelligent, while also delivering epic action set pieces. This is a comic that alternates between corporate espionage and Batman in a stealth suit hanging from a drone over a jungle.
Hardman’s art with Fajardo colors is also great, and all three characters get featured splash panels at some point here. Hardman also writes with plenty of humor, occasionally playing up the dynamics between GA and The Question for comic relief (“Have some coffee. Please call me back.”), and the book is loaded with clever, deliberate references, or at least one nice reference to Thomas More’s Utopia.
Finally, the unsung hero of this entire comic is Simon Bowland’s lettering. It’s not easy to juggle three letters with slightly different tones, but his lettering work does just that. He also supports the script’s humor from time to time (I’m thinking particularly of the caption that follows the aforementioned coffee line), and provides The Question’s diary-style captions with a font that highlights and accentuates them nicely.
What all of this boils down to here is not just a great debut issue, but one that fits these characters perfectly and gives them a tone that’s been difficult to get right in mainline superhero comics, especially for characters like The Question and Green Arrow whose names don’t appear very long, at least these days.
Verdict: Buy
Summary
I consider comics with superhero events to be aimed at children, so I try to read them in that context. And I think we’re getting closer to a video game adaptation of a big DC superhero event with DC KO. I felt like the setup in DC KO #1 was a bit overwhelming, but other than that I enjoyed DC KO #2 more. And certainly, the announcements about some upcoming crossovers also intrigued me and I started to understand better what this event is all about. DC KO #2 is brought to you by writer Scott Snyder (interludes written by Joshua Williamson), artist Javi Fernández (interludes drawn by Xermanico), colorist Alejandro Sánchez, and letterer Hassan Otsman Elaou. And what builds on that and drives the brash nature of this particular event even more strongly is what’s happening with Superman. Superman downplays the whole thing, placing the seemingly rehabilitated Superboy-Prime in an almost ambush bug-like role. I think this is great and gives the audience permission to lighten up about the event as well. This is an anti-Grimdark beat in a story about Darkseid, and it’s great. It also feels like a very natural extension of what’s happened in Superman’s run so far, and it’s always great when event tie-ins can accomplish that. This week’s Superman #32 comes from writer Joshua Williamson, artists Eddie Barrow and Ever Ferreira, colorist Alejandro Sanchez, and letterer Ariana Maher. Finally, do you read Flash? You should actually read “The Flash.” The magazine is featured in the second issue of the DC KO tie-in arc centered around Max Mercury, Impulse, and the Dark Legion (straight out of the Superman pages I mentioned earlier). The arc is written by the team of Mark Waid and Christopher Cantwell, with art by Vasko Georgiev, colors by Matt Harms, and letters by Buddy Beaudoin. It’s a long story, but I’ll just say this. I think the bare minimum way to read DC KO is to get the main book (of course) the Superman tie-in and then pick up The Flash for an extra good time.
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