Review: Green Arrow: Heading into the Light trade paperback (DC Comics)

Given the thick previous Green Arrow trade, New Blood, which contained two major storylines and a few single-story issues, as well as an extra-sized fiftieth issue, Heading Into the Light is a smaller, more focused trade. Nearly all of it surrounds Green Arrow and Black Lightning hunting Dr. Light, fresh from Teen Titans: The Future is Now, trying to catch him before Light kills Arrow's son Connor Hawke and his sidekick Mia, the new Speedy. At exactly what point Green Arrow became Dr. Light's primary target in gaining revenge for having been mind-wiped by the Justice League is uncertain — Arrow, we'll recall, voted against mind-wiping Light, and I'd imagine Light's anger would be much more correctly directed at Hawkman or, say, Zatanna — and it does make the whole story feel a little wobbly, more like a "Hey kids, an Identity Crisis tie-in!" vehicle to pitch Green Arrow against Dr. Light than anything else (for more nitpicks, see J. Caleb Mozzocco's review of this trade at Every Day is Like Wednesday).

That said, however, the one-storyline aspect of this trade does give it the feel of a Green Arrow graphic novel, and there are some especially good moments sprinkled throughout: Black Lightning's role, an appearance by Dr. Light II, the story climaxing with Green Arrow in an archery contest, and one of the best One Year Later cliffhangers of the bunch. Some of the villain silliness from the last trade is gone, too, and even Tom Fowler's art seems less exaggerated — all in all, this trade is a nice improvement from the last, and makes me quite eager to follow Green Arrow's adventures into One Year Later, especially given recent hype.