Green Arrow Vol. 7: Kingdom (The New 52)

I'm really torn on how to rate this. I am not a comic book reader. I game to this particular stretch of Green Arrow comics (all the issues contained in this anthology were published as individual comic issues over a 6 month span) as a fan of the Arrow TV show on CW. Andrew Kresiberg and Ben Sokolowski wrote this and both work on Arrow. According to them, you didn't need to know anything about the Green Arrow comics to jump into this and enjoy. They were right. I had no problems jumping in and reading. I loved the concept of Green Arrow bringing their own DC Comic versions of Oliver Queen, John Diggle, and Felicity Smoak together in the comics as it had on the show. I also knew going in that these weren't going to be "the same" version of these characters as on the show. I'm good with all that.I guess for concept and the desire to bring two of the best elements of Arrow -- the "Original Team Arrow" trio and Oliver/Felicity -- to Green Arrow, I give this anthology 5 stars. Totally a brilliant move. I love how they re-imagined Felicity Smoak for this and I wanted to now a lot more about her when they ended the run. These three are content and focus I'd come back for in a heartbeat if DC Comics decided to bring them back.So why the three stars? Because Green Arrow didn't have a heck of a lot of Green Arrow in it. I was looking forward to seeing these three people become a team, see why they'd fit together and work better together than apart. I wanted to see them bond and tackle the mystery and baddie together. Instead, I got a lot of crossover heroes from other comics (Katana, Green Lantern, Bruce Wayne, and even Lex Luther make appearances). Whenever there was action, Oliver, Diggle, and Felicity didn't save the day. Some other hero showed up to do it for them. It felt like I was lured in with the promise of Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle and given everything in the kitchen sink BUT them. By the time this was done, I was frustrated. It probably didn't help that -- at the same time -- Marc Guggenheim was writing the Arrow Season 2.5 tie-in comics (with a very similar storyline about a crazy guy bent on taking over the city and ruling it and just killing it in those pages).But I love Oliver, Diggle, and Felicity so I really loved seeing them get the opportunity to show what they could do in this format. But the story and the focus. But.... ugh! See my dilemma? Such good potential but it was never fully utilized. I really wish DC Comics would give this concept another chance and really let the three characters take form in a story focused on *them.*Anyway, I'd still recommend this collection. It's fun. It's unique. And given that this may be the only time we ever see Oliver, Felicity and Diggle together under the Green Arrow title? Definitely worth the purchase.

Great had all the issues I needed, worth the purchase!

Green Arrow was one of the weaker New 52 titles in the first three trades, a series that hadn't figured out its hero. But Jeff Lemire, writing volumes four through six, and phenomenal artist Andrea Sorrentino were able to simplify the stories to tell the deeply emotional journey of a broken man who dreams of making something better. They pulled some of the successful elements of the TV show, and it worked.This trade collects the transition to writers Andrew Kreisberg and Ben Sokolowski with artist Daniel Sampere. It's not the dreamy meditation of Lemire's run, but it pulls in TV's fan favorite character Felicity Smoak to capture some of the zing of Arrow's supporting work family. It also guest stars some of DC's biggest names, like Batman, Green Lantern, and Katana. This collection has the feel of a team having fun with a classic character, enjoying how he fits into the larger publishing line while also pulling from what makes his TV adventures so successful.

Product came with a very visible bent on the spine.Good standalone story, with great art by Sampere.

Awesome! Love me some #OTA

It was smart for the Arrow writers to bring in characters from the TV show. Even though the comics came first, it makes sense to make it more familiar for fans of the show to draw in new readers. I liked the big bad in the book, King and this vast conspiracy he's created. My only issue with it they set all of this up and then they take him down in 2 issues. This would have been a good opportunity to set up a year long storyline.

The main problem with this series is that Andrew Kreisgberg and Ben Sokolowski had to accomplish far too much in too little time. In an effort to please everyone, they wind up pleasing no one.The problem was that - coming into this series - long-time Green Arrow fans were dissatisfied with the Jeff Lemire run. While Lemire is a great writer, his run ignored too much of the classic Green Arrow mythos and while his concept reworking The Outsiders into a series of warrior clans devoted to ancient weapons was an interesting one, it didn't seem like a good fit for Green Arrow. Oliver Queen - who is always at his best as an active character - was turned into a reactive character, who did nothing but exist as a sounding board for other characters to throw out exposition.With that in mind, Sokolowski and Kreisberg had three goals with this run.1. Bring Green Arrow back into the main-line DC Universe.2. Bring back more elements of the classic Green Arrow series.3. Make the book more like Arrow, so we can get the fans of the show to read this book.They try to accomplish all of this but the end result is a rather muddy narrative. There's a Green Lantern team up for no reason other than the old-school Green Arrow fans they're trying to win back love the old O'Neil/Adams GL/GA team-ups. Katana shows up primarily to show the Lemire fans they haven't forgotten her role in the last run. They bring in Felicity Smoak as an ally, despite Team Arrow already being bloated with two earlier hacker characters who are helping Oliver Queen out. Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne show up - mostly to say "See! Ollie IS part of everything going on in these other books!" They briefly bring back the New 52 version of Tommy Merlyn, who was introduced and forgotten back in Green Arrow #0 and has apparently become an assassin who also wants revenge on Green Arrow for scarring his face. And the main plot involves an evil billionaire expy for Malcolm Merlyn (John King), his search for a homeless girl, Mia Dearden, who it turns out is his estranged daughter who witnessed him killing his own wife. Oh, and Mia is HIV positive, apropos of nothing.Had they been given 12 issues instead of six or if they'd been allowed to focus on one plot at a time, this might have worked. It's unfortunate because the artwork for this issue - by the former creative team for Bagirl - is astounding. Unfortunately, that art gets lost in the complicated story and the mass of characters... almost all of whom were jettisoned when Ben Percy took over the book. If you're a fan of Arrow or the old Green Arrow comics, you'll probably enjoy parts of this book. But it's hard to say who the whole thing will appeal to.

The whole thing is a like a race to see how many cameos and Arrow characters they can fit in.

Great graphic novell! One of tehe best storys of the green arrow.

Great

My son loved it