Green Arrow: Rebirth #1 (2016)

Writer: Benjamin Percy
Art and Colors: Otto Schmidt

I’ve forgotten a lot of stuff over the years. Especially comics. While I recall the first few comics I ever read; to a varying degree, depending on how on I feel; I occasionally look through my cabinets of comics and think: “huh. When did I get this? I have no idea what’s happening in this book.” Fair enough… considering I’ve been flipping through pulp pages for over 45 years now. Yet I also forget things I DID regarding comics. For example, around 1995-2002, I was a gigantic Green Arrow fan. Back in the days of Connor Hawke, Eddie Fyers, and the resurrected Oliver Queen. For Halloween in 2001, I dressed up as Green Arrow. I carried around a compound bow, and even made a boomerang arrow and a boxing glove arrow. Of course, most folks would say: “hey, nice Robin Hood costume”, but there were a few closet geeks who acknowledged me as “Green Arrow”. I thought I was King Sh*t on Turd Island for one night.

While I obviously didn’t forget those memories entirely, they became foggy and seemed less important as time went on. Thus, I was not expecting them to come flooding back while I was in Dollar Tree (or “Dollar-twenty-five Tree”, hey-oh!), picking up solar-powered Easter Bunny lights (don’t ask). I ran into a free-standing cardboard display of….whoa… comics. The only comics in this rack were Wonder Woman: Rebirth #1 and Green Arrow: Rebirth #1. Both were only $1.25. I’ve been fairly disgusted with DC for the past 20 years or so, but I felt I owed it to 2001 Me to pick up a random Green Arrow comic for only 5 quarters (plus tax). Plus…it was a FIRST ISSUE!

The story opens in Seattle, which has been the de facto locale for Green Arrow, since about 1988. Well-to-do Oliver Queen is Green Arrow, for the record, and has just ended a disastrous date. The Blunt Hammer of Storytelling Subtlety immediately tell us that the date ended because she was CONSERVATIVE and he’s LIBERAL. Yet before we can have more social messaging delivered, there’s an unhoused lady and her son, who wander into the opening scene of Stephen King’s “IT”.

No Pennywise on hand, and we don’t see, exactly, what happened to mommy. However, before the kid can be scooped up or hit by a car, he’s nabbed by another creeper in a dark robe. Green Arrow then rushes into action and finds the robed figure is actually Black Canary…who strikes a pin-up pose to show off her fishnets and kerdonker-donk:

Green Arrow then takes both Canary and the kid back to his penthouse. Green Arrow isn’t concerned about revealing his Oliver Queen identity to two strangers; he’s just out to do the right thing and improve society. He has something of a moral complex, as Black Canary asks him: “how can you fight The Man, if you are The Man?” Yeah… really, he’s the Man. He’s bad. he’s so bad he should be in detention. He’s the Man.

Anyways, they reunite the kid with his daddy at a fairly well-organized homeless enclave called the Jungle, which resembles the Ewok Village. Or, maybe the background of a Hieronymus Bosch painting? Or, maybe the cover art for Celtic Frost’s “Into the Pandemonium” album? Okay, so it’s probably a call back to the whole “Robin Hood” aspect of Green Arrow and like the Merry Men’s encampment in Sherwood Forest.

Yet before everybody can join in for a rendition of “Yub Nub“, the creepy people who grabbed the mommy all appear and attack. Egads, it the Mole Man’s Moloids! Crossover!. Errr…. make that “the Underground People.”

Green Arrow and Black Canary jump into action. Canary uses her martial arts and Canary Cry/Sonic Scream, while Green Arrow seemingly skewers a few with conventional arrows. They question/threaten one Underground Man and get him to reveal where they’re coming from: beneath an old mansion in the subterranean portion of Seattle. Yeah, that’s a “real world” thing: an old part of Seattle was burned in the late 1800’s and they built right over it. Trust me, it sounds a lot cooler than it actually is.

The heroes arrive to find a live, online, human trafficking auction, run by a guy who looks like the Red Skull. They bust it up and seemingly end the operation, but not before spouting warnings to all the goobers who Zoom’ed in to the live auction.

The next morning, Black Canary reveals her real name to Green Arrow and they seem to be starting a relationship, since that’s TRADITION. While I’m obviously not 100% of what the purpose of “Rebirth” is/was, I don’t feel like a total putz when I call it “Rehash”. Let your characters run for 5-6 years, then do another reboot and work to get things back to the “traditional way they should be.” I’m not saying completely ignore the established pasts of characters and mix things up just to mix them up… but don’t spend all this time, effort, and hype just to get things back to square one. It’s the eternal Cosmic Treadmill that modern DC and Marvel comics seem to be doing.

But hey… this wasn’t just a FIRST ISSUE from 2016, it’s actually a republished 2024 edition. Wait…does this make it a Dollar Tree Retailer Exclusive Edition?! Joking aside, I can see how this is an ideal “jumping on point” for a new reader. The art and coloring has some definite stylization to it, not not enough that it becomes overbearing. Plot-wise, the whole thing with the Underground Men hints at a bigger conspiracy, including the mention of “LexCoin”. Yet…I’d be hesitant to go search for more current (2025) issues of “Green Arrow”, because I’m not sure it they’ve rebooted/relaunched or changed things, again.

Summary: Green Arrow and Black Canary meet. Fight Moloids. Talk socio-economic issues.
Cover Price: $1.25
Rating: 75 cents.