Things seem to be looking up for Ollie – which is good, ‘cuz you kinda need a break after returning from the dead. Both his biological son Connor and his ward Mia are living with him. Connor and Ollie make a great team, but Mia is looking to make the duo a trio. Ollie even has a date with Dinah, the first since he’s been gone. She doesn’t see it that way, though. Small setback, but no big deal, right? Then Connor is attacked by a villain who’s been taking out new heroes and speaks only to say words that are also noises. Okay, maybe things aren’t going so great after all…

This volume was a little shorter than the last one, but it’s so fast-paced you might not even notice. Ollie is still finding his feet after getting back, but he really hit the ground running! Multiple threads going on at once pull the story along nicely. The identity of this villain wasn’t resolved here, but I’m sure it will be resolved in a later volume. Most interesting to me is the question of whether Mia will become part of Team Arrow or not ;D

Hester’s art is still appealing to me, because of the clean lines and blocked-in shading. However, in this volume I found that a lot of facial expressions looked the same even when expressing different emotions. Something about the way he draws eyebrows leaves everyone looking a little too serious or angry. There was also a sequence where Dinah fights naked which I found tasteless. I was a little shocked after there was nothing similar in the last volume, and I do hope it’s the last. Tentatively looking forward to the next volume.

– Kathleen

Smith, Kevin, Phil Hester, and Ande Parks. Green Arrow (Revival, Vol. 2): Sounds of Violence. 2003.