Synopsis: Green Arrow's in the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, stalking a mountain lion for photographs. As he watches in horror, the great cat is mowed down by machine gun fire. Ollie follows the shooter to a heavily armed camp stocked with French- accented American Indians, American-accented Indians and a gruff Irishman. Ollie's discovered, and barely manages to escape capture. Meanwhile, Dinah Lance is puzzling over an order for funeral flowers Sherwood Florist recieved -- before the dearly departed turned up dead, as well as scalped. Oliver immediately connects the murder victim with the terrorist camp, since he was head of a logging company that clear-cut old growth forests. Since Native Americans are involved, they call in John Butcher, a Lakota Sioux that hadn't been seen since his eponymous min-series, yet conveniently attended the symphony with Dinah the week before. Back at the terrorist camp, it's very obvious that inter-tribal rivalries are threatening to break it up from within. The Irishman sends a zealot Lakota, Lester Cornfield (who thinks Green Arrow was a ninja) to patrol the western perimeter to keep him out of trouble. Cornfield is actually John Butcher, who doubles back to eavesdrop on the terrorists' plans. He hears that a large arms shipment is due, which the terrorists plan to use to create a separtist state -- and "Indian Nation." Butcher decides he must contact Green Arrow in order to stop it. He's found out and cornered on a rope bridge over a river gorge, goes mano-a-mano with a terrorist, and escapes to Seattle. He and Ollie then return to the woods and ambush the convoy.

Yeah, But Is It Good? Not really. Mike Grell derisively refers to this project as "The Butcher, the Baker and the Candlestick-Maker." One of the biggest disappointments to come along in a long time, issue one is simply impossible to follow. Events seem to tumble along, and there's not much coherence. Which is sad, because looking at my synopsis above, I can see there's a good core idea to be worked with. The miniseries was acknowledged as "troubled" in the Green Arrow lettercolumn, and a lot of that has to do with the way the work was divided. Instead of a straight collaboration, Grell and Baron worked tag-team: Baron handled issues 1, 3 and 5, while Grell penned 2, 4 and 6 (incidentally, their pay was divided according to the sales of their issues). Issue no. 1 sold like hotcakes, while the rest dropped off the face of the earth. With issue 1 being muddled and lacking direction, readers weren't willing to take the chance with their money in hopes things improved down the line. Grell and Baron worked to sharpen the focus in later issues, but the damage had already been done. It didn't help that the Question, one of the three title characters, didn't appear in any form this issue, nor that the cover was cluttered and murky. Shea Anton Pensa's art, normally angular and shrill, seems even moreso here, and that couldn't have helped sales, either.

Synopsis: Vic Sage arrives to work at KBEL, and his first story is the death of the Seattle lumber baron from the previous issue. In addition to being scalped, he was garrotted, IRA-style. The Question's curiosity is piqued. Meanwhile, the ambush has gotten messy. Green Arrow has apparently ambushed the shipment alone, and the IRA man eventually pulls out a stinger missile, which sends Oliver diving into a raging river to escape. In Hub City, Vic enlists the help of Tot (scientist Aristotle Rodor) to mine the Internet for information on the dead lumber exec. His company is traced back through several other companies, to the parent corporation based in Montreal. Vic packs for Canada. Elsewhere, a Mohawk by the name of Byron Running Deer returns to his Quebec hometown after being away for 10 years, meets some old acquaintences and gets into a brawl in a roadside diner.

Yeah, But Is It Good? Another ugly cover from Pensa -- if anything, this one's worse than that of issue 1. The issue is a little more coherent than the first, until the whole Byron Running Deer segment. Then you can't help but scratch your head and go "Huh?" Someone as obviously significant to the story as he should've been introduced in the first issue (along with the Question, I might add). It doesn't help that he's drawn to look a lot like Butcher, and since Butcher's apparently not with Ollie, it's natural to assume this is he, which confuses things even more. This series really, really should've been planned out better. Also, the locations are mind-boggling. Seattle. Hub City. Montreal. Geeze, they're all over the place. There's no geographic coherence, and as such, the plot's got to be seriously contorted to make everyone come together.

Synopsis: Butcher, going by the name of Amos Baker, starts tramping around tribal convention near Montreal trying to find out about a beadwork bracelet he snagged during his rope-bridge battle a couple issues back -- a beadwork bracelet that is tribe and family specific. Just so happens he runs into Byron Running Deer, who basically tells him to piss off. Butcher goes into a truck stop to talk with Jeannie Wind In Your Face, where he discovers there's some debate going on within the local tribe. A big developer, Arthur Youngblood, is trying to buy the land for a golf course, and a lot aren't happy about it, despite promises that sacred lands will remain undeveloped. Butcher finds out the bracelet stitch belongs to Mel Twopersons, and is leaving to visit the Twopersons' place when a drunk biker nearly runs him down. Vic Sage tackles Butcher, knocking him out of harm's way. Sage is looking for Butcher, but Butcher doesn't reveal who he is, sticking with the Amos Baker alias. The pair head to the Twopersons place, where they run into Byron again, who's visiting an old girlfriend. He get really pissed, takes a swing at Butcher, and the girl, Shelly, fires a shotgun to break them up. Shelly says Mel Twopersons hadn't been around in months, and Sage and Butcher leave. As soon as they do, the IRA terrorist and a Mohawk accomplice show up and take them prisoner. Back in town, Sage and Butcher are sitting in a bar, trying to plan their next move, when Green Arrow arrives. They go outside to talk, and Sage and Butcher have a sparring match. Sage wins. Ollie formally introduces them, and Sage is surprised to learn "Amos" is really Butcher. "I didn't know who you were," explains Butcher. Butcher's impressed by the fact Richard Dragon trained Sage, and grossed out by the Question's "no-face" mask. Ollie stays on the reservation while Sage and Butcher go to "interview" Arthur Youngblood, making up a story that Vic is doing a piece on Native American entrepreneurs for KBEL. They come across a clear-cut forest, where they neet Youngblood at a logging camp. Youngblood blames the murder of the lumber executive in book one (which started all of this, you'll remember) on eco-terrorists. Youngblood then brushes them off, and Butcher and Sage begin to suspect he had his own man knocked off. Driving back, a logging truck runs them off the road.

Yeah, But Is It Good? It's gotten too complex, too convoluted to keep track of. There are too many players here that don't seem to be involved in any meaningful way, distracting the reader from the plot. I'd completely forgotten about the murdered logging executive from book one, and I've read this series several times. There are a dozen different little subplot threads that don't hold together coherently. There's too much coincidence. How is it that Green Arrow just happened into the right bar at the right time on the right reservation in Quebec to meet Butcher and Sage? Why, for that matter, was Sage even looking for Butcher at all? They'd never net. Sage went up to Montreal on his own, and there's no indication he contacted Oliver in Seattle beforehand. Big screw-up there. Arthur Youngblood is obviously the major bad guy, but he only now being introduced, and the series is half over? Bad planning, even worse execution. Looking ahead, there's just too much deadwood here to make this a great story. Someone, somewhere, should've taken a chainsaw to the scripts and trimmed this six issue series down to maybe three or four, dumping some of these marginal supporting characters and subplots. And I hate to keep harping on it, but Pensa's art isn't helping things. John Butcher looks like every other Indian the way he draws him, red headband notwithstanding, and when Butcher claims to be Amos Baker, I just assumed it was yet another new supporting character being thrown at me.

Synopsis: Sage and Butcher survive the car wreck, chase down the truck on the winding mountain road, have a tough battle with the two thugs in the truck, who end up (accidentally) dead. When they get back to the reservation, a little investigating reveals that only one member of the tribal council -- Byron Running Deer's father -- voted against Youngblood's development project. Dinah, back at Sherwood Florist, traced the funeral wreath (the one from the first issue, remember?) to a florist near the reservation, and Ollie checks it out, discovering that a white man placed the order. Unknown to Ollie, Byron Running Deer's mother works at the store, and after he leaves, she tells Byron that someone is trying to frame Indians for the murder (the dead exec closed the development deal with the tribe). His mother admits that it was she who sent the wreath, only to try to scare the exec into calling off the project. But since he turned up dead, things have gotten more complicated. Byron, who's had a chip on his shoulder and has been conteptuous of his heritage since he first showed up, is in league with the IRA man, apparently because he admires Youngblood, a Native American who's also a successful businessman. That night at a street dance, the IRA guy and another collaborating Mohawk start a brawl, which gives Byron a chance to make a fire-and-brimstone speech, which riles the spitfires in the crowd. With a cache of weapons from the IRA guy, they arm, and a standoff is made on a bridge into the reservation with Canadian Mounties.

Yeah, But Is It Good? The plot twists are merely confusing. Byron's character strikes me as very inconsistent in his actions and motives. And if the rest of the story is going to unfold outside of Montreal, then why the hell did we spend the whole first issue of this series stoming around a separatist camp in the Pacific Northwest? The book's finally got some direction, though. It's a pity they had to waste three issues before something substantive actually happened.

Synopsis: Vic Sage tries to make a deal with the Mountie captain to gain entrance to the reservation (which Byron is declairing a soverign nation) and fails. So Sage gets a skateboard ramp and a motorcycle and jumps the river into the reservation to interview Byron Running Deer (who's apparently is now contemptuous of Youngblood!? Okay, I give up trying to make sense of this guy's actions). Byron claims to Sage he's trying to force the Mohawk nation to enter the 20th century -- put the tourist trap behind and not sell themselves off for short-term gain. Sage reports to Ollie, saying that Byron's on some sort of timetable -- he got a look at the golf course construction site, and there were only a few token supplies there, which leads him to think the golf course project is a sham. Butcher investigates the site, and discovers lots of automatic weapons hidden in crates. Green Arrow sneaks infiltrates Arthur Youngblood's mansion/headquarters, using a trick arrow (grappling hook) to bypass the walls. There he discovers another huge cache of weapons, complete with rocket launchers. Youngblood's planning to ship them to Ireland, for the IRA. Ollie discovers blueprints for Youngblood's real plans for the reservation, and is then discovered himself.

Yeah, But Is It Good? The best issue yet. The bazillion disparate plot threads are finally clearing up, and it's a lot easier to follow. More enjoyable. I like this issue. Also, a revelation strikes: Pablo Marcos is brought in as inker, and the artwork is suddenly lovely. All this time I'd been thinking Shea Anton Pensa's pencilling skills were annoying me, when it was really his inking. He's a terrible inker, but I like his art here. Under Marcos' inks, the shrill, angular traits of Pensa's work is softened considerably, but it still retains his dramatic flair. It reminds me of some of the lovely Neil Adams work from early Green Lantern/Green Arrow issues. John Butcher's killing of a guard at the construction site was unnecessarily bloody and gruesome, though. Yuck. And Ollie used a trick arrow! Ollie used a trick arrow!

Synopsis: Ollie escapes the hired guns sent after him, but gets shot in the leg. (Incidentally, the giant log saw from the cover of last issue makes its appearance in the battle here). Oliver drives a stolen truck back to the reservation with Youngblood's troops in pursuit, crashes the Mounties' roadblock and rams the Mohawks' barricade on the bridge. Ollie, joined by Vic Sage and John Butcher, warns Byron that he's been set up. The Mounties abruptly leave, and the Mohawks foolishly celebrate, thinking they've won. Youngblood's behind it. Oliver shows them the plans -- not for a golf course tucked away on a corner of tribal land, but a 15,000 acre housing development that covers the entire reservation. By provoking a firefight with whites, with plenty of TV cameras around to film it, Youngblood knows pressure will mount for the Province government to shut down the reservation and disperse the residents, allowing Youngblood to develop the site as he pleases. And, naturally, a crew of IRA hitmen are on their way to start such a fight. The only way out is to keep the Mohawks out of the fight, so Byron agrees to take his people and the newscrews back to the back to the council hall for in-depth interviews, leaving Green Arrow, the Question and the Butcher to handle the IRA. The IRA guys don't stand a chance. Byron successfully gives his interviews, spilling the beans that Youngblood secretly sent him in to stir things up with guns supplied via the IRA so he could ultimately take control of the reservation. Watching the news report from his office, Youngblood removes a pistol from his desk drawer and shoots himself.

Yeah, But Is It Good? Yeah, it's pretty good. It's a pity that the final two issues were better than the first four combined. Byron Running Deer's connection with Youngblood still isn't that clear, or else I'm just dense. And a whole bunch of subplots are just left dangling -- the biggest of which, to my mind, is what about that separatist camp out in the Pacific Northwest? That had nothing to do with anything, and isn't mentioned again. The art's good, and the action sequences are entertaining. Vic Sage blows up a bulldozer with a bazooka, ha ha!

Synopsis: Barry Allen, the Flash, is a little stressed out that Central City's mayor has a new "crackdown on crime" program that seems to be effective, but the mayor's also using that success to knock the Flash. Iris asks why Barry doesn't hang out with Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) anymore and Barry says there's no reason... but there is, because now Hal is hanging out with Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) during their famous "Easy Rider" tour of America. The two drive into town, and a surveillance camera alerts the police that Ollie hasn't renewed the license tags on his truck. They get pulled over, an ugly fight ensues, and Ollie and Hal end up in the lockup. Barry springs his fellow Justice Leaguers, and at a nearby coffeeshop argue over the choice of living in a police state in exchange for no crime. They head to City Hall in costume, and head off a riot that's about to break out between fed-up townsfolk and the police (Ollie cheers on the townsfolk). They confront the mayor about his strong-arm tactics, bu he only blose smoke at them -- literally. During their talk, however, Green Lantern snagged a file with his ring containing information of a project "Rehab." The heroes are appalled at what they read. They head to a secret bunker referred to in the files, and after Ollie opens it with his safecracker arrow (I kid you not) they discover Mirror Master and Captain Cold imprisoned there, about to undergo lobotomies. The police special forces attack and Flash goes down. Green Arrow yells at Green Lantern to go help the Flash, because "--He's your best friend!" Instead, as Green Arrow frees Captain Cold and Mirror Master, Hal goes and captures the mayor and the fight quickly ends after that. When the dust settles, Mirror Master and Captain Cold take off, and Green Arrow stops the Flash from chasing them -- "I sprung 'em -- I figure it's my job to put 'em back in the jug." And he does, too. With the mayor going to trial and the police department undergoing restructuring, Flash invites Green Lantern and Green Arrow to stay for a while. Green Arrow declines, saying he's got a better offer, and Black Canary, looking hot as ever, drives up on her motorcycle. The two head off to Midway City, Ollie smug in the knowledge that he repaired the rift that'd developed between Hal and Barry because of him.

Yeah, But Is It Good? I'm convinced that Mark Waid can do no wrong while writing Green Arrow. This issue is a great throwback to the great Justice League and Green Lantern/Green Arrow stories of the early 70s. Even the structure of the book echoes that, with the front page being a big splash that forshadows the climactic showdown in an over-the-top way. In this case, it's Green Arrow freeing Captain Cold and Mirror Master while announcing that "The revolution is here" as Green Lantern and Flash look on in horror. Lotsa theatrics. The art is very nice, and it's fun to see Ollie as the trouble-making, abrasive loudmouth who turns out to be right all along. Oliver Queen has got to have the best snap instincts in the entire DC Universe.