I want a twenty year moratorium on having secret lost family? So teh Queen Arrow has a half sister, she's a bitch, the reasons aren't really compelling, but she's in the running to be the next sidekick. New sidekick means a trip to that bloody island. Dinah, she's aggressive with Ollie for the usual reasons, hangs out helps and then they save Seattle.

Verdict: Try it. It's pretty good, normal for the GA status quo.

I didn't think was that good. I was confused for most of this volume. I also am not a huge fan of Green Arrow I think. I don't know. I don't think I will be continuing on with the series.

Volume 2 of the reborn Green Arrow collects issues 6-11. In the first story, Ollie’s sister is trying to put her supervillainous stepfather behind her so she can deal with her villainous mother. We are treated to a silly backstory that involves chasing college kids with skull watches, and a present story in which she tries not to be killed by Japanese mobsters, or her mother. The lowlight of the story is the blade on a pendulum that slowly lowers toward Ollie Queen’s belly -- such an unoriginal way of killing someone that a villain should be ashamed. The villain is a dragon (of course he is, he’s Japanese), or maybe he just has dragon breath. In any event, Japanese = dragon is another mark of unoriginality. At least Godzilla didn’t show up.

In the next story, we’re in an episode of Lost as Green Arrow and Black Canary and John Diggle are stranded on an island with poppies and mechanical bears and an improbable green technology lab that doubles as a drug lab, funded by the Ninth Circle. Actually, I didn’t see any poppies amidst the ambiguous art, but Ollie says something about an “opium field,” which doesn’t exist, so there must have been poppies somewhere.

The next story takes place on an improbable train full of (presumably wealthy) people who are trying to make world peace (if there’s a buck in it). The villain attempts to kill them all (because who really wants peace anyway?). The ending is pretty preposterous, but so is the whole story.

Collectively, the volume tells some so-so action stories with mediocre dialog, apart from an extended sex scene between Green Arrow and Black Canary, which isn’t explicit but close enough to be, by far, the best part of the book, which might be why it merits the best art. As for the rest, fans of mindless action might enjoy it. The art is pretty good in some issues and really bad in others. 3 1/2 stars, 3 for mediocrity and a bonus half for the sex scene.

ARC from Netgalley.
This Volume covers two stories:

1) Emiko Queen, freshly rescued from the destruction of the Ninth Circle by her mother Shado, heads back to Japan to try to free their family from the hold of the Yakuza. She takes on Oyabun, leader of the Yakuza in one-on-one combat, not only defeating him, but killing him, and mending their family's broken honor.

2) Ollie, Dinah, and Diggle are stranded on an island with a secret. The Ninth Circle has a offshoot that produces drugs for them and transports them to the main land via an underwater Trans-Pacific Railway. Stopping the drugs and infiltrating the train, these 3 engage in a multi-issue spectacular fight in, on, and beside the underwater bullet train that was amazing! Volume ends with the train crashing on the surface and Arrow and Canary riding on a motorcycle off into the sunset. What a ride!

I'm surprised at how much I like Green Arrow Rebirth. So far it has been a fun and refreshing take on the characters, and I think I will continue to read it for now. Recommend!

This volume has three stories. One featuring Emiko and Shado taking on the Yakuza with flashbacks to a story with Emiko and Ollie. Another with Ollie, Dinah, and Digg on the island. And a story on an underwater transpacific train.

I don't think I'm ever going to love Ben Percy's writing. He has these action beats he's trying to hit and doesn't care about explaining how we get there even if it doesn't make any sense. It's like the Extreme Games version of writing. All flash and no substance. How did Emiko get a watch on Ollie's wrist without him noticing it? Out of the whole ocean, the ship that Ollie, Dinah, and Digg on just happened to be close to the uncharted island that Ollie was stranded on for 5 years. And then this island just happened to have a transpacific railroad passing below it.

Otto Schmidt's art is splendid. It's so dynamic and fluid. I love it.

Green Arrow, Volume 2: Island of Scars is a collection of books that don't run together and are instead more in the mode of a collection of individual tales and not all where Green Arrow is the main focus. In this volume is also an appearance by The Black Canary, not the kiddie pop version we are currently seeing wander in and out of Batgirl comics, but the real Canary. Here, she is not Barbara Gordon's singing sidekick, no here, she is a sensuous and deadly woman. This is the real Black Canary, a member of the Justice League, a superhero who is quite capable of handling herself and doesn't need saving. In fact, quite strong enough to be the one doing the saving.

This volume also tells the tales of the Green Arrow's new apprentice, Emiko Queen. Ollie's half sister, this teenage girl has the fighting skills of a ninja and the angst of anyone who is ready to battle but finds herself constantly held in check. A collaboration between Emiko Queen and Damian Wayne would be a fun and bloody comic.

I have never really been a Green Arrow fan and have never seen a single episode of the television show. I have always seen him as more of a throwaway character. A supporting cast member to the relationship between Batman and Superman. But there are glimpses of a true superhero here. One whose idealogy conflicts with his actions. Ollie, unlike Bruce Wayne, is as much a part of his Superhero persona in and out of the costume. The emergence of new characters that are as different from him as could be is a true risk, as it has the Green Arrow questioning himself.

I enjoyed this collection and think I'm very likely to start following this comic line as we are seeing actual growth in the character which is rare in one that has been around for so long.

Island of Scars is a bit of a scattershot volume. Emiko Queen and her mother end up in Japan where Emiko works on freeing her mother from debt. Meanwhile, Oliver, Black Canary, and Diggles end up on an Aleutian Island facing mechanical animals, indigenous population with multiple factions, drug trade, and a train stop on the transcontinental undersea route from Shanghai to Seattle. Once they manage to get off the island, the trio is faced by politicians and a murderous assassin out to kill any chance for peace. Piece of cake? Right!?

I've read a few Green Arrow books, and figured I would enjoy this rebirth.But the art for this was kinda hard to like.. Is He supposed to be a bow-wielding super spy?? Cuz if not...that's what it read like.

This shows how far downhill that DC and the Green Arrow have gone, that I gave up on this dross, but with a feeling that it was still a lot better than Book 1. With multiple stories we have a mediocre thing hardly concerning Ollie at all, rather his girl protégé; another bloody island and silly stuff with a robot bear of all things; and a ride on a train under the Pacific with killers successfully getting Ollie blamed for murder by, apparently, turning the lights out. Go figure. Actually, this wasn't so horrendous as you might think, it was just the fact it was a netgalley proof and it was all spread across double-page designs I was seeing in halves that made me dump it. But still, even if there is improvement over what came before, there just has to be a lot better GA stories out there.

'Green Arrow, Volume 2: Island of Scars' is three stories, with two told in flashback. This is ok, except if you haven't read the previous volume, the shift to the present will be a bit confusing.

In the last volume, Oliver Queen lost everything and is stranded on an island again, but the book starts with a story about his half-sister Emiko that also has a flashback embedded in it. Emiko and her mother are in Tokyo and Emiko is trying to get her mother out of the debt she owes to crime boss Oyabun. In a flashback to happier days with Green Arrow (you know, when he had money and a place to live in Seattle), she recalls a case involving The Clock King. For some reason The Clock King can see the future of everyone but Emiko, and that ends up saving Green Arrow. Finally we get to the present and Ollie is stranded, but he's not alone: Black Canary and John Diggle are stranded with him.

This collects issues 6-11 of the latest series. I like Emiko, but I feel like her story should be better developed or she's just going to feel like so many other teenage sidekicks. I think there could be more to this character, but I'm not feeling it yet. The second half of the book is better with Ollie, Dinah and John figuring out how to stay alive and get off the island.

The art in this book was really good. I love the W. Scott Forbes covers on the early issues. They are very striking. Stephen Byrne's work on the Emiko/Ollie issues are good. Otto Schmidt's work on the island issues is really good. Juan Ferreyra inks the last issue well too.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from DC Entertainment and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank ou for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

I'm just going to say it. I love this series. I have read Green Arrow on and off for a long time even before Arrow started on the CW. I am so fortunate to be selected to read and review these books by NetGalley and DC Comics because this is a series I don;t want to miss. Oliver Queen is back and I love the return to the classic hero I knew in Rebirth.

So of course this book picks up right after Vol 1 ends. Oliver and company had destroyed the floating island thing of the ninth and Oliver is yet again stranded on an island. However this time it is a little less deserted. Black Canary and Diggle are both on the island as well, they just have to find each other. Let it be no surprise that Black Canary finds Oliver first so we get a little romance in the book, which I actually enjoy. I love the relationship between these two and I actually own the wedding issue when they got married before New 52 shook things up.

While on the island and looking for Diggle Oliver and Canary stumble on to a huge opium field. Well this seems like no good can come from this and Diggle is still missing. Now they either have to find a way to destroy the field or find and stop what ever this is being used for. There is plenty of action to be had in this book and I flew right through it.

As I mentioned I do really like the relationship between Oliver and Canary. It is just the right amount of romance for an action packed comic that I always look forward to moments between these characters. It also helps round out this suspenseful plot. I highly recommend this book and I can't wait for volume 3. This book easily gets my 5 out of 5 star approval and I am so glad this series seems to get better with each volume. Her is hoping this trend continues.

I requested Green Arrow Volume 2 before reading Volume 1 otherwise I wouldn’t have requested it - that first book is DIRE! But I’m glad of my impetuousness (for once!) as Island of Scars turned out to be miles better than the first volume and not a bad comic considering Rebirth’s overall quality!

The book is divided up into three stories which get progressively better as they go along. Unfortunately, the first, featuring Ollie’s half-sister Emi, is definitely the worst. She’s a cheap Damian Wayne knockoff who’s fighting some clown called Clock King and a Yakuza boss who can transform into a dragon!

Clock King’s energy-inducing watches were so stupid - it’s never explained how they work, how they’re “wound up” when the wearer is running low on energy. And Emi giving Ollie her watch was even dumber - he’s wearing a t-shirt, ie. has bare arms, and he doesn’t notice her putting a watch on his wrist?? Is he suddenly blind?! Anyway, terrible story for a character who’s yet to convince me of her worth.

The second story picks up where the first book ended with Ollie washed up on an island - Green Arrow and islands, eh? It’s not a great story either. Ollie, Black Canary and Diggle get caught up with more bland Ninth Circle shenanigans: island people are growing poppies for heroin and let’s throw in a robot bear because why not? But Otto Schmidt’s artwork and bright colours made a nice change from Stephen Byrne’s previously too-dark art in the Emi story.

The third story is easily the best. Ollie, Dinah and Diggle are on the Trans-Pacific Railway, a bullet train that runs on the Pacific Ocean floor - what a great idea, nothing could go wrong there…! The train is full of diplomats and an assassin is targeting one trying to bring peace to North Africa and the Middle East - it’s up to Green Arrow and co. to find and stop the assassin! It’s a very fun, exciting and fast-moving story well-complemented by Juan Ferreyra’s excellent artwork.

Green Arrow, Volume 2: Island of Scars isn’t a great book but there’s at least one decent story here and some fantastic artwork from most of the art team. It’s not going to make anyone who wasn’t already one a Green Arrow fan but, if you’re going to pick a series, there are worse Rebirth titles to read than this. Almost makes me want to revisit Rebirth titles whose first volumes disappointed me to see if they also pick up in the second - almost!

Writer Benjamin Percy emphasizes the Green Arrow/Black Canary relationship in Green Arrow Vol. 2: Island of Scars; Percy also strongly features John Diggle and introduces a blast from Green Arrow's past.

***I received a copy of this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.***

The second volume of Green Arrow collects issues #6-11. The Ninth Circle has been taken down and we ended Volume 1 with finding out Ollie is once again stranded on a deserted island. This volume read as a series of transition issues as we actually get 3 different storylines, that aren’t necessarily connected.

We start with a brief storyline featuring Emiko as she fights to free her mother from her handlers control. There is also a little flashback of when Emiko first started living with Ollie. It’s an okay storyline and it offers some good insight, but I was eager to get to the island with Ollie.

The Emiko storyline read better on second pass (I read these issues individually before I got the trade), but it was the weakest part of the volume. Emiko is a character I’m just not that interested in. She’s growing on me, but after the cliffhanger of the first volume, I thought it was an odd choice to jump into a different storyline completely.

The second storyline involved Black Canary tracking Ollie down on the island. It’s actually a pretty cute romantic interlude from the action as they romp around the island. Of course until they discover a field of poppies for opium. And they get right back to the action.

After a series of fights, they make it onto the transatlantic railway where they end up witnessing a diplomatic murder… And then are blamed for it. Pretty standard stuff.

I actually really enjoyed the romantic break, I’m a sucker for that in my comics and I really enjoy that. I love Black Canary and Ollie’s relationship and their back and forth is just so perfect. I’m always happy to see that between them.

Overall I really did enjoy this volume. Green Arrow is becoming an easy to read comic for me. It doesn’t disappoint me, but it’s very much business as usual. I definitely recommend giving it a chance and reading it.

Lots of Emiko at the beginning of this one. She's trying to save her Mom from the Ninth Circle, and she also gets very involved with (and gets Ollie involved too) the Clock King. And, I thought that this version of the Clock King was super interesting take on the character.

Then we get more with Dinah, Ollie, and Diggle. They're on a transcontinental underwater train. And they're trying their best to try and save not just the train, but world peace too.

I thought that the Black Canary/Green Arrow stuff especially hit all the right notes. Not trying to make them too lovey dovey, or too standoffish towards each other either. Perfect balance.

I got this ARC through Netgalley on behalf of DC Entertainment.