Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Green Arrow & Black Canary Wedding Special
DC Comics
Judd Winick & Amanda Conner

The wedding we've all been waiting for! Ok, so we all know someone dies or gets kidnapped at this shindig so who is it? Based on November solicitations I'd say Black Canary is safe. Hmmmm….

This issue gives us some history about Green Arrow and Black Canary. It's nice. It's sweet. Then they argue only to realize they are hot for each other and begin rolling around on the floor. Green Arrow? No way, really? The first ten pages or so gives all we need to know about Ollie and Dinah and why they are made for each other. It's classic and it's written as you would expect the modern versions of these characters to interact with each other.

We then move to many DC character's reactions to the wedding invitation(Bruce's is priceless), including a long exchange between Superman and Wonder Woman. While I have no idea what or who Wonder Woman's character really is (and apparently neither does anyone else), Superman's feelings he expresses are great and true to what you'd expect from Big Blue.

Enter the villains. Now this confused me a bit because in the Wedding Planner the previous week, Luthor already rounded up all the villains for a concentrated and organized assault. Was Deathstroke not already a part of that gang? Apparently he was there and rather than calling in their help to raid the wedding he calls in some other thugs who sure felt like C-list villains to me.

Anyway we get some missing scenes from the Wedding Planner issue about the bachelor and bachelorette parties that were good and then we get the wedding. Said villains crash the party after the big guns (Supes, Wonder Woman and the four lanterns - Hal, Guy, John and Alan) leave the area for a nuke threat.

A nice Brew-Ha-Ha ensues during which Canary chases after her wedding ring as if she were Gollum. Yes, that's right, during the fight. It was out of place in my book, but I guess the issue is supposed to be light-hearted, right?

Apparently not. Shortly after the C-list villains are rounded up (not Deathstroke), thanks to a late arriving Batman, the Arrow family has a nice bedroom moment together as husband and wife and……

****Spoiler Alert****

Ollie gets psycho-eyes and tries to stab Canary before she puts an Arrow through his neck. Ah sweet wedding bliss. How nice.

Confused? I sure was.

This issue just wasn't up my alley.

First of all, when compared to the Wedding Planner it stunk. We get garbage-time villains pushed on us after an awesome main-event set-up from the Wedding Planner that apparently will only spill over into the JLA book. Secondly, we go from serious to comedy way too much. I mean in the middle of a fight with deadly foes do you expect me to believe Canary will bail out of the fight to find her ring? Lastly, Ollie goes nuts and tries to kill Canary. I understand it leads us to the next mystery and series and all that, but at this expense? Didn't we just have the Ollie re-birth? We going to go through that again?

Ugh. Was I disappointed. It's the norm at DC these days to have a hidden gem like the Wedding Planner and mainstream clunker like this Wedding Special.

I did like the artwork though. It fit the style of not knowing if it's a serious or comedic moment. When faced with that dilemma how can I fault her?

In all I would advise to pass on this issue. Ollie's dead. There are no answers. No one cool killed him. He didn’t die a hero's death. He died in his underwear. How uneventful.

1 out of 5 Geek-Goggles


Green Arrow Black Canary Wedding Special #1