Friday, March 29, 2019

Green Arrow #84 (1994) Review

"Strange Attractors" or "The one where Green Arrow kills a lot of dudes Rambo style"

Writer: Alan Grant
Artists: Jim Aparo, Gerry Fernandez, Buzz Setzer, John Costanza
Cover Price: $1.75
Release Date: February 1st, 1994

Review by Joey Casco of

Because we just got a puppy that we named Ollie after Green Arrow, how could I not make my next Retro Review a Green Arrow issue? So I looked for some GA from my favorite comic era, the 1990's, and came up with this one.

Green Arrow isn't really even on my Top 5 list of favorite heroes but I do have an enormous appreciation for the character. He's a street level crime fighter, social justice warrior, the black sheep of the Justice League, and always the bravest and most badass of everyone during big events like Zero Hour, Identity Crisis, No Justice, etc. I can already tell you that this blonde rat terrier will do his name proud.

Oliver Queen is talking to the police about a terrorist incident that occurred on his flight.  He was flying to Las Vegas reading Chaos Theory Made Simple when the plane was hijacked. So of course, Ollie fought back.

He takes a wine bottle to the eye...

... so he gets back up and kicks the guy in the nuts.

He's thwarted the terrorist's plans and all the passengers thank him and all the women are ogling over him, but damn. He just wants to go to Vegas and gamble. But his eye is pretty messed up.

It's here where the narration for the incident takes place. Ollie is getting his eye patched up, the lieutenant is giving him crap, and Ollie just moves on into Vegas because @#$% the police.

But then he's got a bunch of goons that look like they're straight out of early Batman comics watching after him.

His pursuers track him down to a diner, and he's since replaced his bandage with an eye patch.

Scolding hot coffee right in their face! And then he busts out his bow and shoots at the ropes holding a roulette table hanging from the ceiling so it drops right on them. GA is not messing around.

But he ends up being disarmed in the chaos while his attackers flee, and he heads to a hotel. The clerk seems to mysteriously already know who he is.

Thinking it's a setup, he does a tuck and roll into the room and searches it. He finds the insides of the television in the closet so he checks the inside of the television to find it's loaded with weapons. Guns, assault rifles, a missile launcher, and knives.

Then missiles start getting shot into the hotel room, causing massive explosions.

Ollie survives and takes cover as a strike team moves in to finish the job.

He starts taking them out one by one, but when the cops show up and are killed by the bad guys, Ollie gets out the big guns.

After thinking he killed them all, more keep coming in, so he tries to make his escape. He goes to open the door to the room and someone of infamy that just so happens to look a lot like Ollie right now comes walking right in...

The room was Slade Wilson's, AKA Deathstroke! NEXT: Chaos Theory!

Bits and Pieces

On the first read this looked like it was obviously trying to copy 90's action movies. An endless supply of firearms and infinite ammunition. I mean, yeah it was, but in the end it all made sense and thus was more enjoyable on the second read. Give Oliver Queen an eye-patch and he could be confused with Slade Wilson by a hotel clerk. Give Oliver Queen no choice but to use Slade Wilson's traveling armory while he's being attacked and this is what happens. Bitches gonna die. Why the initial team that was after him looked and talked like they were out of the 1940's is still pretty weird and I don't know why that choice was made, but seeing Ollie straight up murder an elite strike force later is worth that piece of weirdness. And I really want to see what happens between Green Arrow and Deathstroke in the next issue.


1 comment:

  1. Damn, Eyepatch Ollie is a 90's-Tastic Badass! That nut kick is worth the entire comic book, in my humble opinion. Thanks for a great retro review!