The Peacemaker menace continues! This week, I dive into Green Arrow and Doom Patrol’s newest issues. Oliver Queen can’t help but be who he is no matter what alien planet he’s on. Meanwhile, the new Doom Patrol struggles in their role as the people’s champions with space cops on their tails, shooting first and asking questions later.
Spoilers abound, so if you haven’t read yet, tread carefully.
Green Arrow (2023) #2 Recap and Review:
The newest issue of Green Arrow (2023) had a little more focus on Oliver and what he’s been up to since he died or whatever. No matter where he ends up, Ollie’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! (I’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 don’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. It’s pretty obvious at this point that Amanda’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 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
FAR FROM HOME. Green Arrow is alive…but where the hell is he?! That’s what Roy Harper and Black Canary want to know, and their search takes them into the bowels of Belle Reve. But they’d better hurry—the stranded Oliver Queen and another lost member of the Green Arrow family are both being hunted by a brand-new villain called…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 Comics’ 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.
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 Cliff’s intolerance for people’s chosen names rearing its ugly head again.
We didn’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 hasn’t done anything wrong yet. The plot is barely advanced in this issue with the exception of an update on where the Brain’s mashed head went from the first issue.
Rating: 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
THE FAST AND THE NEBULOUS. The Green Lanterns are in hot pursuit of the World’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 “The Fast and the Nebulous”!
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