Comicked Books

Oliver was as much involved in Amanda Waller's Absolute Justice scheme as Dreamer was, did NOT die in an effort to stop Waller like Dreamer did, and was immediately forgiven by everyone while characters still talk about Dreamer like this. There's literally a line in Justice League Intergalactic where Dreamer says she's no more of a war criminal that Oliver is (which is part of the reason I think the writers know exactly what they're doing and I credit them for that).

What it comes down to is Maines and Axelrod (and Chris Condon to a lesser extent) caring about conflict between characters and understanding the political implications behind Oliver's actions and being willing to let those play out in the story. Ollie's privilege exists in a meta sense as well - Joshua Williamson doesn't seem to get or care about how horrible what Ollie did was, even if it was for the greater good. His books tend to be apolitical and inoffensive to the point of being nothing, which is his privilege as a white guy. Maines is a trans woman and seems to understand that all stories are political, and it reflects in her writing. Same with Axelrod.

Ollie and Nia both view the nation of Gamorra as worthy collateral damage, two white characters willing to let brown people suffer for their own interests. Nia realizes this is wrong, but Ollie never does. It never comes up in Green Arrow, and his betrayal is treated as a betrayal to the league, with no broader consequences. Compare this to Secret Six, it's clear that Maines understands the optics of the situation, and allows the complexity of Nia's decision to exist in the story (Jay is portrayed as right to hate Nia and want to burn America to the ground, but Nia isn't written unsympathetically either). Nia knows she did wrong, Ollie doesn't. That is, until Maines and Axelrod write him, and he becomes Nia's strongest soldier, and it definitely reads to me as stemming from guilt, at least partially.

If Nicole Maines got her hands on Green Arrow for an entire run, she would definitely reckon with this properly. She's one of the few writers at the big two who seems to be willing to have conversations like this in her books at all.

Ikuhara's Episode Commentary: 29: "Azure Paler Than the Sky"

The boy who does nothing but transfer schools.

The boy who was supposed to be gone, came back.

He has always appeared at the same specific time. Frankly, I don’t like him. He’s always… he always prods mercilessly at the exact places I don’t want prodded.

One day, I’d noticed that I’d changed. I’d always hated myself so passionately, but somewhere along the line, that suffering had vanished. Was that his doing? Even if it was, though, I still hate him. And somewhere along the line, he’s left again. People say he changed schools.

At a hospital, I dropped by to visit a sick friend. I overheard the nurses talking. It sounded like one their patients had died. Apparently at a certain specific time, he always used to slip away from the hospital and go someplace. Where?

He told the nurses, “I go to visit someone dear to me.” And he left a request with him family: “If I die, please don’t tell anyone.”

…It couldn’t be. It couldn’t. I mean, he transferred schools. I’m sure I’m just overthinking this. I’ll be waiting for him, my dear him, to transfer back here.

second, adoring that she and Yara are quckly forming a friendship. Makes me realize we've never had a Batgirl/Wonder Girl friendship before, or even significant teamup really, which is kind of an actual crime?

third, like Vic's summary of Steph here, on point, and some people might complain about this, but I personally LOVE the idea that Oracle trained Steph in hacking. I mean, she'd do that for her proteges, of course she would. I dunno if the comics have SHOWED it, if they haven't I wish they had, but I love the idea.

I also really liked the character work for Vic in this issue. I'm sure everyone's going to complain about boo-yah, but that's a drop in the bucket compared to him getting attention that isn't angsting about being a cyborg, and there was some really interesting stuff there.

I liked that him merging back with his machine self wasn't even a regret for him