Looking for Green Arrow discussion. What's good? What's not?

I'm just getting back into comics and somehow ended up digging Green Arrow even though I never read it before. I'm in the middle of Mike Grell's run in volume 2 (1988-1998) and have enjoyed it so far.

I pre-ordered the new TPBs of the Longbow Hunters and Green Arrow / Green Lantern.

Haven't decided if I'll bother with the new TV show or not.

The 80s miniseries (4 issues) is well worth picking up, as is his backup run in Detective Comics. But Mike Grells GA run is the definite Gold standard.

The current artist on Green Arrow (Tolibao) is crap! What's Mike Grell doing nowadays?

Yeah i think you already made a list of the best.

Didn't Kevin Smith do a GA run? I recall people liking it way-back-when. I never read too much on the character, but I recall a debate many years ago at who was better in hand-to-hand fighting between Arrow and Batman. It might have been in Wizard comics... and I think Arrow won it. That always bumped up his worth in the back of my mind.

I think Smith's first arc is called "Quiver" though I don't remember much about it except he introduced the new Speedy.

How the heck did Wizard say Ollie would've beaten Bruce? Ever since Morrison's JLA run, Bats has been almost unbeatable.

Ah, the hippie Batman.

That's crazy to me. Maybe they were talking about Ollie's son (who took the mantle for a while when Ollie was dead)? He was described as a talented martial artist:

Also, I meant to say that some of my favorite Green Arrow stories have been from Justice League Unlimited and some of the DC animated movies... he plays a pretty key role in several episodes, and I really like his characterization.

i think youve got most of the classics covered. for more recent stuff, i really recommend the following four:

year one, by diggle and jock, is a great origin
http://www.amazon.com/Green-Arrow-Ye...ds=green+arrow

the kevin smith run as was mentioned earlier is pretty fun. quiver is part one
http://www.amazon.com/Green-Arrow-Qu...ds=green+arrow

sounds of violence is part two
http://www.amazon.com/Green-Arrow-So...5558393&sr=8-7

this was followed up by brad meltzer! check out the archers quest
http://www.amazon.com/Green-Arrow-Ar...+arrow+meltzer

after this judd winick took over and that was pretty hit or miss (although i liked the idea of ollie becoming mayor).

i hate the new 52 green arrow. i hate that he is young, is not a liberal \ environmentalist \ etc, is not green lanterns best friend, is not with black canary, and so on. ive checked it out under both its creative teams in the last year. they got rid of everything unique and interesting with the character.

hope you try some of these and hope you enjoy them!

Apparently they've added the Huntress as a love interest to the new Green Arrow TV show. That's the thing about television, steal a character from Batman's family for Green Arrow simply because her name sounds vaguely related.

I don't really have an opinion about it either way, but maybe they'll introduce the Birds of Prey into the show via Huntress, and get to Ollie/Dinah that way.

Yeah, that's really odd considering they already have a ready-made female character with a history with GA, and an easily adaptable-to-TV costume. Unless they want a love triangle later on or something. I mean, it is still the CW, right?

The new Arrow comic book.

http://mikegrell.com/news/?p=450

They should of just added Shado. Unknown to the general public but a lot more interesting than Huntress.

I just finished the Mike Grell run of Green Arrow v2. Strong overall; some arcs were better than others. Anything with Shado or Eddie Fyers was very good. The artwork also had its ups and downs. I preferred the art from the beginning of the run over the end.

Currently I'm reading The Longbow Hunters TPB and then probably The Wonder Year mini. Then I might put G.A. down for a while as I have a ton of other stuff I want to read. I was going to continue v2 - there are 50 or 60 issues after Grell's run ended - but peeking ahead didn't leave me with much enthusiasm.

So how are you going through the backlog? Character by character?

I recently read all three Geoff John's Flash omnibus's (well, still working on the third one). Unlike team books or something like Invincible, I find that I get kind of burnt out marathoning a single character for a long period of time.

I usually just pick a TPB and go with that. There are so many collected volumes available out there that I just pick something that looks good.