Review by Frank Plowright

About once a decade DC return to Green Arrow’s origin, and while Oliver Queen’s personality might change from reboot to reboot, the story is essentially the same. The rich playboy is stranded on a desert island and develops prodigious archery skills as a means of preserving his life. The 2022 version is written by young adult author Brendan Deneen, so naturally enough the version of Oliver Queen stranded on a remote island is just thirteen. He’s already a competent archer when the plane carrying him and his father crashes during turbulence after the return from a hunting trip.

Deneen’s complication is Queen senior’s business partner Sebastian, written as aggressive and unpleasant from the start, and his smug son Tyler, while Oliver’s father also survives the crash, but is injured and unable to move. Oliver is written as someone whose relationship with his father is uncomfortable, and he also dislikes the idea of killing for sport, while a bullish masculinity infests Sebastian and Tyler.

Adaptability under pressure as part of a coming of age story is Oliver’s arc here, and Bell Hosalla creates a thirteen year old who visually reflects their uncertainty, and provides a suitably forbidding environment for him to learn who he really is. The idea of wild pigs as the primary threat is novel, animals whose strength and ferocity are under-estimated by people who don’t live in their vicinity, and Hosalla gives them the necessary threat.

The overall point is that radiating masculinity is a hindrance rather than a help in dangerous situations, and some sensitivity and consideration provides the necessary balance. The young Oliver is likeable, but this alternative definition of heroism is supplied in extremely broad strokes, even for a younger audience. It’s also very rapidly read, so competent rather than memorable.