Still rolling along marvelously...

"I was dead. I came back to life."

For a superhero, DC or Marvel, death is far from a permenant condition. It is simply another thing to be overcome in the long challenge to save the world or the universe or the hometown.

When Green Arrow died a few years ago, I don't think anybody rellay expected his death to be permenant, and a few years later when Kevin Smith penned Oliver Queen's return to life, I started grabbing the trade paperbacks and following the journey. I've been amazingly impressed with the artwork and the writing that has become a trademark of the newest incarnation of the series, and this volume might be the finest one yet.

In this volume, Green Arrow journeys around the country - and to the watchtower on the moon - to collect some of his momentos that he left behind when he did die. Turns out that he'd entrusted this collection to a friend/foe who didn't quite do a full enough job of things, so Queen finds himself in a wistful, reflective collecting mode. It's one of the more emotional, mature comic books that I've seen DC put out in a long while. Right in the middle of a typically action-packed run of stories, Brad Metzler pulls out a marvelous tale of a hero coming to grips with his mortality, knowing that he did die and that he likely will die again, and that he probably won't be coming back a second time. Metzler has GA look at what is important to him and making sure that his relationships with those people aren't lost to him.

If you're a fan of superhero comics, this is a series that you should be following regularly.