green arrow doom patrol black canary cover art dc comics

DC Comics Round-Up: Green Arrow (2023) #2 and Unstoppable Doom Patrol (2023) #3 Recap and Review

The Peacemaker menace continues! This week, I dive into Green Arrow and Doom Patrolā€™s newest issues. Oliver Queen canā€™t help but be who he is no matter what alien planet heā€™s on. Meanwhile, the new Doom Patrol struggles in their role as the peopleā€™s champions with space cops on their tails, shooting first and asking questions later.

Spoilers abound, so if you havenā€™t read yet, tread carefully.

green arrow doom patrol black canary cover art dc comics
Green Arrow and Unstoppable Doom Patrol cover art. Credit: DC Comics.

Green Arrow (2023) #2 Recap and Review:

The newest issue of Green Arrow (2023) had a little more focus on Oliver and what heā€™s been up to since he died or whatever. No matter where he ends up, Ollieā€™s going to fight crime and help kids (or what he thinks are kids) everywhere. He runs into trouble (Troublemaker, am I right?) and Lian Harper, recently transported to his location, saves his old ass. 

In the meantime, Roy Harper is PISSED and wants answers as to where his daughter and brother-cousin, Connor, are. Dinah aka Black Canary is equally pissed and they go off to confront Amanda Waller, but instead come across, you guessed it, PEACEMAKER, with Peacewrecker. This dude is everywhere now! (Iā€™ve notated his other comic appearances in past reviews.)

Clearly, there are forces at work trying to keep Oliver away from his family. Not only that, keeping the entire family apart, because we still donā€™t know where Connor disappeared to. By the end of the issue, Lian and Ollie get transported elsewhere. 

This issue was just as good as the first and wastes no time getting us deeper into the muck and mystery of it all. Itā€™s pretty obvious at this point that Amandaā€™s Dawn of DC plan includes Peacemaker being anywhere, everywhere, all at once, where the heroes are concerned. But what does this mean for the Queen-Lance-Harper-Hawke crew? Only time will tell!

Rating: 5/5 ā­ļøā­ļøā­ļøā­ļøā­ļø

FAR FROM HOME. Green Arrow is aliveā€¦but where the hell is he?! Thatā€™s what Roy Harper and Black Canary want to know, and their search takes them into the bowels of Belle Reve. But theyā€™d better hurryā€”the stranded Oliver Queen and another lost member of the Green Arrow family are both being hunted by a brand-new villain calledā€¦Troublemaker.

Written by: Joshua Williamson
Art by: Sean Izaakse
Colors by: Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Letters by: Troy Peteri
Cover by: Sean Izaakse
Price: $3.99

Unstoppable Doom Patrol (2023) #3 Recap and Review:

RIP to Rachel Pollack, the creator of DC Comicsā€™ first openly trans superhero, Coagula, a former member of Doom Patrol. Kate Godwin recently showed up in a memory in the last issue, a running theme in this new run of Doom Patrol. Dennis Culver’s overwhelming love and respect for the past iterations of the team shows throughout this series and pops up again in #3.

rachel pollack rip doom patrol
Tribute to Rachel Pollack, Doom Patrol writer. Credit: DC Comics.

While most of the team is fighting off Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man from turning the Earth into an Animal-Vegetable-Mineral world, Cliff and Larry are trying to keep newly rescued meta, Starbro, from the hands of local space cops, Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner. This is a great story that dives into the past with Larry addressing Cliffā€™s intolerance for peopleā€™s chosen names rearing its ugly head again. 

We didnā€™t get enough Rita or Jane/Chief, but I enjoyed seeing the Lanterns acting like dumb cops destroying public property in pursuit of someone who hasnā€™t done anything wrong yet. The plot is barely advanced in this issue with the exception of an update on where the Brainā€™s mashed head went from the first issue.

Rating: 5/5 ā­ļøā­ļøā­ļøā­ļøā­ļø

THE FAST AND THE NEBULOUS. The Green Lanterns are in hot pursuit of the Worldā€™s Strangest Superheroes! When a brand-new metahuman unwittingly becomes a galactic fugitive, Robotman and Negative Man embark on a cross-country road trip to save him! Cliff Steele may be the best driver in the DCU, but can he outrun its best GLs, Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner?! Find out in the story we had to call ā€œThe Fast and the Nebulousā€!

Written by: Dennis Culver
Art by: Chris Burnham
Colors by: Brian Reber
Letters by: Pat Brosseau 
Cover by: Chris Burnham and Brian Reber
Price: $4.99