I will admit that I was less that complementary about some aspects of Cry For Justice (see my review of the final issue for an example), but the series really seems to have grabbed people’s attention.  No matter what people think about the quality of the series, they all seem to agree that the denouement had a certain emotional satisfaction to it. It was a big shock ending to a big storyline. The repercussions of that ending are only now being played out. It all begins with a month-long four-part crossover/banner that runs across this  JLA: Rise and Fall Special, the launch of the “The Fall of Green Arrow” and “The Rise of Arsenal” storylines and then the next full issue of JLA.

The issue opens with a recap of the events of Cry For Justice as told from the point-of-view of Green Arrow’(Oliver Queen, see the preview pages from the Source above). Ollie is focused on the hunt for one of Prometheus’s foot soldiers – a villain called the Electrocuitoneer – the one who actually placed the device the almost destroyed Star City. He intends to deal with the Electrocuitoneer in the same manner as he dealt with Prometheus, but he tries his best to hide that from Black Canary. In Central City, the Flash (Wally West) and Batman (Dick Grayson) round up the Razer, another of Prometheus’s foot soldiers, and compare their own fortunes to Roy Harper’s disability.

Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and the other Flash (Barry Allen) contact the Shade to see if he knows anything more about Prometheus’s whereabouts. The Shade willingly leads them to Prometheus’ Crooked House where they discover Prometheus’s body with a green arrow stuck in it. Meanwhile Green Arrow and Black Canary have cornered the Electrocutioneer, but Canary is horrified when she has to stop Arrow murdering him. Everything comes out as Hal and Barry arrive to confront Ollie with Prometheus’s body. Green Arrow isn’t the least bit remorseful about killing Prometheus and he uses Prometheus’s Cosmic Key to teleport away before they can imprison him.

Green Arrow started out as little more than a clone of Batman (Arrowcave, Arrowcar, etc), but he has been reinvented twice. His fans tend to prefer one or other of the those two reinventions. The first 1970s reinvention came to a head in Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams “Hard-Travelling Heroes” story-arc in Green Lantern/Green Arrow. This is the Ollie with a social voice and a quasi-liberal attitude. The second reinvention was in the late-1980s by Mike Grell who turned Ollie into a Seattle based night-time hunter. He has killed in both incarnations, but it was an exceptional event in the first and more of a natural consequence of the second. The current Green Arrow revival started with Kevin Smith’s Green Arrow series which firmly embraced the full range of the characters history.

I’ve quite liked J.T. Krul’s writing on The Titans when he was dealing with run-up to and spin-off from Cry For Justice. This issue carries the Harper/Prometheus story forward from there and continues this trend of swinging Ollie back towards the Mike Grell Seattle hunter days. The Green Arrow: Year One series by Andy Diggle and Jock had been the most recognisable landmark in this progression, but its now been superseded by Cry For Justice. We’ll probably end up with a new solo Green Arrow title at the end of all this, but there is quite a way before the character is ready for that.

Krul does a good job trying to reconcile the various facets of Arrow’s personality. Without a focus or when left alone he’s a fairly liberal, if grouchy, superhero who collects the normal paraphernalia of the business without much regard as to why he wants or needs it (sidekick, secret identity, extended team, etc). However, give him a cause, a crusade, and the blinkers go on. He hunkers down, even his philosophy seems to harden, and becomes a nearly feral stalker. What does seems strange for me is how distant Green Arrow and Black Canary have become. It’s almost as if its been forgotten (by them more than anybody else) that they’re now meant to be a husband and wife and not just another crime fighting duo. I guess Canary fell in love with the superhero Arrow and not the stalker.

If anything this issue created more questions that it answered. Green Arrow has no guilt over Prometheus’ murder – and on this I’m with Barry, it was murder. He’s made the full switch into stalker mode and that means this arc can only get darker. Just a very minor point, and it may be nothing, but Prometheus’ Cosmic Key is a soul stealer. It’s meant to kill any user other than Prometheus. Logical deduction would be that if Green Arrow is using it then he must be Prometheus, just as Prometheus was disguised as Freddy Freeman during most of Cry For Justice. The detail about the missing Helmet, and we must remember the equally missing Ira Quimby, also hints at more story to come.

The art in this issue isn’t as jarring as it was in the final few issues of Cry, but I still wish that DC would use a single art team on a single book. Most of the time it isn’t so bad, the oddest part if the way the decor of Prometheus’ house changes between the first and later part of the book. I’m also not sure I like the first section so much, but I love the full page splash of Batman K.O.ing Razer.  I thought this was going to happen, but the differences between Barry and Wally’s costumes just haven’t sunk in for me yet. I keep seeing Barry and think he’s Wally.

While I generally liked this portrayal of Green Arrow I was more than a little bit more perplexed by the Shade’s antics. He helped Green Arrow kill Prometheus and then helped Green Lantern discover the body. He’s either just being deliberately causing trouble or he’s got his own agenda going on here. He’s one of the those characters that can easily sound odd, or slightly wrong, when not written by their definitive writer. Krul does an okay job, but the “you mortals” line sounded a bit stiff.

I think the biggest success of Justice League: Rise and Fall Special is that it has made me, as a reader, reconnect with Green Arrow. By getting to hear his internal monologue again, more of his reasoning, it instantly added a depth that had been missing in Cry For Justice.