Absolute Green Arrow #4 Review
Writer: Pornsak Pichetshote
Artist: Rafael Albuquerque
Colorist: Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer: Jeff Powell
Cover Artists: Rafael Albuquerque & Marcelo Maiolo
Variant Cover Artists: Gerald Parel, Kris Anka & Martin Simmonds
1:25 Variant Cover Artist: Tirso Cons
Editors: Sabrina Futch, Katie Kubert & Chris Conroy
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $4.99 US/Variant $5.99 US (Card Stock)
Release Date: August 19, 2026
So, you've become a millionaire? Congratulations! Welcome to the club! Its membership is swelling. Still, it's a place to start. Now, you can get to work on something impressive, like becoming a billionaire!
Hector Hammond stripped Dinah Lance's father of the health insurance he needed to fight his cancer. Then, the billionaire refused to give it back unless Dinah agreed to protect his friends while investigating their murders. But as the bodies of the club members rise, Dinah "Black Canary" Lance makes a disturbing discovery. Did the billionaires who hold people's lives in their hands unlock the secrets of life and death? And are their experiments responsible for the monster that is destroying them? Let’s grab our bows, leap into Absolute Green Arrow #4, and see!
Story
When Dinah found Roy Harper, she realized how frightened he was. Like her, Roy had been close to Oliver Queen, until life and circumstances separated them. But when he brought her to Hammond’s secret laboratory beneath the airport, Solomon Grundy attacked. And in the process, Dinah lost sight of Roy.
In Absolute Green Arrow #4, Dinah Lance has sacrificed her career to ensure her father receives the treatments he needs. She feels guilty that she cannot do more. Yet, there is a hole in her family that has nothing to do with her father’s cancer. It concerns her mother: how she hurt her father and put a wedge between him and his closest friends. As Dinah wards off Solomon Grundy’s attacks, she thinks of what her father taught her. Yet, her mother’s admonishments rise to the forefront as Dinah fights for her life.
As Pornsak Pichetshote blends action with drama, Dinah learns more about her former boyfriend. Oliver Queen belonged to an exclusive club of billionaires. Despite his success with Green Arrows Trading, Oliver allowed his peers to manipulate him. Unlike Roy Harper, Oliver Queen doesn’t seem to have realized the depths of their depravity. Yet as Dinah Lance seeks to make the billionaires pay for their crimes, escaping Hammond's secret laboratory proves more difficult than entering it in Absolute Green Arrow #4.
Art
Solomon Grundy is a hulking giant. Yet eyes cover his muscular body, just like the body Dinah discovered in Oliver Queen’s secret cave. The former police officer and MMA fighter demonstrates her agility as they battle. Yet instead of trading blows as she did with Mia Dearden, Dinah defends herself with her pistol. While she beholds slanted tables laden with Human experimentation, the Green Arrow Killer garrots another of Hector Hammond’s doubles. When Dinah reaches the room filled with boxes adorned with the Hammond Pharmaceuticals logo, she discovers that Hammond's lost hand wasn't an accident.
As Rafael Albuquerque fills Absolute Green Arrows #4 with pulse-pounding action and horrific discoveries, Marcelo Maiolo adorns Hector Hammond’s lair with a limited palette. Green clashes with yellow and orange as Dinah struggles for answers and survival. Green dominates the Green Arrow Killer’s attack and tinges a flashback. Blue makes a rare appearance, providing a brief respite of hope. Yet red links the experimenter with his subjects. It also signals danger. Still, the bodies that best meet the experimenter’s goals glow violet and indigo beneath yellow-orange light.
As Jeff Powell fills white balloons and boxes with black uppercase letters, words grow bold with intonation, shrink for lowered voices, and swell with raised voices. Dinah’s lowercase thoughts fill scraps of yellow. Green balloons convey dialogue in green-tinged recollections. Gunfire reverberates through the labyrinth, while a roar signals that Hector Hammond’s millions were well spent. Thanks to DC Comics for sharing this story with us.
Final Thoughts
After discovering a corpse covered with eyes that defied decomposition in Oliver Queen’s secret lair, Dinah Lance learned that Guillermo Garcia was a runaway. Now, as she stumbles through Hammond’s secret lair, Dinah discovers how and why someone turned Guillermo into a monster. Caught in a nightmare, Dinah struggles to find meaning behind the madness as the Green Arrow Killer pursues his agenda in Absolute Green Arrow #4.
Rating 9.6/10
To look inside see Absolute Green Arrow #4 Preview.
For what happened before that see Absolute Green Arrow #3 Review.
For what happened before that, see my preview of Absolute Green Arrow #2.
For how this series started, see my preview of Absolute Green Arrow #1.
For how Oliver Queen died, see my preview of Absolute Evil #1.
For more on the series, see Pornsak Pichetshote on Absolute Green Arrow.
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