Green Arrow Vol. 6: Broken (The New 52) Paperback – May 5, 2015

Before writing this review I took the time to read the other reviews before mine, and there was a lot of mixed feelings about this final volume with Lemire and Sorrentino. I would give this a 4.5, but because I cant, I'm giving it 5 because I dont think it deserves a 4. The only thing I did not like is the first issue added on to the volume (not Lemire's work). It is an origin issue and its simply unnecesary. Instead of this I would have liked one more issue to extend the conclusion of the Lemire/Sorrentino run because I did find it a little bit short (only 3 issues in this volume were actually part of their GA series). However, that does not take away from the amazing conclusion that the team give us. The art is amazing, the story is amazing, and the chemistry that these two creators have is simply amazing. Even the last issue of this volume (Futures End #1) is amazing and it made me want to get Futures End now.

This volume borders between passable and good and the sad thing is it's mostly due to its length. We get an origin story which we really don't need since we already had it in Vol. 5 and then we get a 3 issue story arc that is pretty "eh" to say the least. It introduces several D-list villains which get so little screen time that they never feel like a threat and relies on the villain "Dragon" as its final centerpiece fight. However, the fight, although well built up, is over in no time and Dragon falls short of what he promised he'd be. The last issue included in the volume is really good but goes nowhere since it's part of a bigger event.The saving grace of the volume would be Emiko, who's cheekiness and eagerness to fight is a great contrast to a troubled Oliver. Naomi and Fyf are great support characters and make the newly introduced Diggle seem really lackluster. This saddens me, knowing that they'll get cut by the next writing team. To summarize, I'd say this volume shows a team of Lemire and Sorrentino which is not as good as the one we had seen before, thus giving us a very unsatisfactory conclusion. However, seeing them work together one last time on the Emerald Archer is worth the money.

Great story and Art!

Love all the Green Arrow stuff....good issue.

CONTENT: It's a compelling read, filled with humor, action, and emotion. The art is fantastic- where Sorrentino's work on I, Vampire was wildly dreamy like a mad venom, the art here is sharper like a high tech trick arrow.VALUE: It's really, really short. If you haven't already started reading Lemire and Sorrentino's run on Green Arrow, I'd recommend you wait til the collected hardcover comes out.

I'm not really sure where to begin, but I'll do my best to summarize this awesome bookThe events of The Kill Machine and Outsider's war concluded together in the last volume, with Ollie finally dealing with Komodo, Vertigo and the Outsiders(who are really interesting, given their obsessions with their respective weapons). This volume wraps just about most things up with Ollie taking in his half sister Emiko to the team, and the story mostly revolves around wrapping up a thread that had been building up from the VERY LAST page of The Kill Machine.Ollie gets paired up with his half-sister Emiko. She attaches herself to him almost immediately. You'd think she'd be reconnecting with her long lost mother, but she chose Oliver. Why? Because he was the only one that was ever honest with her. Shado, Robert Queen, Komodo, All liars, except for OllieWhile Ollie had been taking care of the Outsiders, Seattle had been left for the taking for the bad guys, namely a guy named Richard Dragon(never heard of him before but he was making moves in The Kill Machine and Outsider's war). He's a pretty vicious guy who seems well reserved, and packs a mean punch. Diggle takes more of an active role in this volume like he did in the last one, and it feels organic. I never got the point of adding a former soldier to Ollie's team in the books but their friendship/camaraderie feels organic, and he's the one who tried to take on Dragon in Ollie's absence. It initially feels like Dragon is too tough for them to take down, cause Lemire builds him up to be pretty formidable. An issue/problem Lemire tends to give ollie, is that he's a great marksman/archer, but struggles with hand to hand combatants. Which is why it feels like a cop-out when Ollie almosts one-shots DragonIt wraps up with a time skip, which was a bit jarring at first but ends satisfyingly. The Lemire run is definitely up there with Grell's and Andy Diggle's work in terms of quality. Its not Arrow, but it does borrow some cues and inspiration from it. Its not the boxing glove arrows GA from JLU but Ollie is a much better ****-talker here. He set up a lot of great stuff with Shado, Emiko, the Outsiders, Magus, etc. Real shame that Kreisberg and Percy never acknowledge Lemire's solid foundation

The book is ultimately short, but what you do get is of good quality both in writing and art, as with the rest of Jeff Lemire & Andrea Sorrentino's work on their run on Green Arrow. The story is not actually as short as this comic itself as this is merely the conclusion to a subplot that was running within the earlier issues. The weakest point in this book is definitely the futures end issue at the end of the book which seems very forced and shortsighted, which it is as it was likely forced upon Jeff Lemire by DC comics in preparation of the Futures End event that was coming up. Ultimately thought this is not a huge issue and is really should in no way impede you from reading this book, especially if you have already read the issues leading up to this.

If you are worried whether or not this series would go out without a bang, don't be. Its a great ending and places Jeff Lemire's run on GA as one of the best in The New 52. Truly, every aspect of a comic book is utilized perfectly, but I wish the series had a few more issues to really get deeper with this story line. All in all, it is great story and I don't know how Lemire continues to write such extraordinary comics while working on so many projects simultaneously. 5 out of 5 stars without a doubt.