THE FLASH CROSSOVER CRISIS: GREEN ARROW'S PERFECT SHOT Misses the Mark if You Don't Watch the Arrowverse

I have not watched any episodes of Arrow or The Flash. However, I did recently read The Flash Crossover Crisis: Green Arrow’s Perfect Shot from Barry Lyga. It is based on the Arrowverse and if you’re a fan of the shows, you’ll like it a lot more than I did. Overall, I felt like the book was “meh.”

If you’ve never watched the shows, Lyga tries to clue you into things that have happened as they come up. This is usually very helpful like when characters are brought into the story. It talks about how Iris is Barry’s wife and Felicity is married to Oliver, etc. This is very useful. There were a couple of times where specific moments in the show (I assume they happened in the show anyway) are mentioned and then we’re given details on it. This wasn’t so helpful to me simply because these moments typically have nothing to do with the actual story. The moment is usually brought up in a passing moment, so we don’t need to hear about how the Flash defeated this villain or that villain in the past when it has nothing to do with the current story. There are moments like this that are important though, so it’s not all these moments.

I also felt like this book was trying to do too much. There are about three storylines in this book. I know that this is the first book in a crossover event but leaving 2/3 of the storylines unfinished left me feeling like nothing happened in the book. It’s not that the storylines are inherently bad either. They are all decent story ideas and two of them are very closely related. However, that third one sticks out like a sore thumb and feels a little forced. Maybe the way it resolves will prove me wrong.

Let’s focus on the positive. As I mentioned before, Lyga does do a good job of explaining important details that you wouldn’t know about if you hadn’t watched the shows or maybe you forgot. Also, it’s a quick read. If you’re a fan of the shows, I’m sure that the interactions between Team Arrow and Team Flash are a million times better. Without watching the shows, I enjoyed the chemistry of the characters and kept forgetting that they don’t always interact.

If you like the Arrowverse, Green Arrow’s Perfect Shot is probably a great read. If you haven’t seen the Arrowverse, it’s a bit more hit or miss. You can pick it up now at your favorite book stores.