Review by Win Wiacek
Green Arrow is Oliver Queen, a cross between Batman and Robin Hood and he’s been a fixture of DC’s landscape – often for no discernable reason – more or less continually since his début in 1941.
Black Canary was among the first of relatively few female furies in the DC universe, débuting in 1947. She disappeared with most of the other super-doers at the end of the 1940s, a fate Green Arrow survived, to be revived in 1963. She’s been in a stormy romantic relationship with Green Arrow since the 1960s, and by 2008 someone at DC decided that had been long enough and the wedding invitations were sent out.
Judd Winick and Amanda Conner kick off the proceedings with a hilariously immature retelling of the path to wedlock. It involves spats, tender moments, hen-nights, stag-parties and a tremendous battle as a huge guard of dishonour comprising most of the villains in the DCU attack the assembled heroes when they’re distracted. Defeating the bad guys only adds to the fun of the day, after which the newlyweds head off to enjoy their wedding night. Then Green Arrow dies. Again!
This is the point where the collection swings into Winick’s ongoing series following the Wedding Special. Now limned by Cliff Chiang, Ollie Queen is only seen in flashbacks as the Black Widow Canary goes on a brutal crime-crushing rampage. ‘Here Comes the Bride’ finds her slowly going off the rails and only Ollie’s son Conner Hawke seems able to get through to her when friends like Green Lantern, Superman, Oracle and even Ollie’s old sidekicks Speedy and Red Arrow tell her to move on. Thankfully the ultra-rational Batman divines what really happened on the wedding night.
In ‘The Naked and the Not-Quite-So-Dead’ Dinah and Mia Dearden – the new Speedy – infiltrate the island home of the miscreants who have abducted and imprisoned Green Arrow where Ollie is already proving to be more trouble than he can possibly be worth. Conner is also on hand and whilst attempting to spring his wayward dad also falls captive to overwhelming forces.
‘Hit and Run, Run, Run!’ ramps up the tension as the heroes all escape but not before one of their number is gravely wounded by a new mystery assailant, and in ‘Dead Again: Please Play Where Daddy Can See You’ it’s Ollie’s turn to fall apart as his wounded young protégé fights for life.
The book concludes in the heart-warming ‘Child Support’ with another series of poignant flashbacks describing Green Arrow’s history and his extended family of sidekicks before Dinah leads Ollie back from the brink of utter despair. Drawn by André Coelho, the art matches Chiang’s superhero style.
Green Arrow and Black Canary are characters that epitomise the modern adventure hero’s best qualities, even if in many ways they are also the most traditional of champions. This is a cracking example of superheroes done right, more recently combined with sequel Family Business as Til Death Do They Part.
