BATMAN/GREEN ARROW/THE QUESTION: ARCADIA #1 / Script and Art by GABRIEL HARDMAN / Colors by ROMULO FAJARDO JR. / Letters by SIMON BOWLAND / Published by DC BLACK LABEL

One of the series that got me into comics was Mike Grell’s Green Arrow. A goodly selection of those comics from the dollar bin at my first comic shop introduced me to a darker side of the DC Universe. One where the heroes dealt with real world issues in a serious way. That side was deeply delved throughout the late 1980s and onward through various Batman books and Dennis O’Neil’s The Question. There were a few crossovers between these heroes, despite their having little in common beyond being detectives of a kind and having no superpowers.

Arcadia is a throwback to this era, spinning three very different stories. In the first, The Question investigates oddities that lead him to a human trafficking ring. In the second, Batman investigates reports of a mysterious company about to make floating cities a reality. In the third, Green Arrow is looking for direction following the end of his romance with Black Canary when he learns of corporate crimes being committed at Queen Industries. Their respective journeys leave them traveling in the same direction, toward a strange project called Arcadia.

Gabriel Hardman perfect emulates the visual and literary aesthetic of late 20th century DC Comics. Contrastingly, he also updates this moment in time for the modern day. Vic Sage makes reference to newspapers and local news media being dead, even as we see an Oliver Queen with no secret identity. This ironically gives the story a timeless quality, though fans of this era will be pleased at the effort to try and place Arcadia within the Post-Crisis timeline. They will also enjoy the grit of the artwork, which is perfectly finished by the dim color palette utilized by Romulo Fajardo Jr and the clean letters of Simon Bowland.

Batman/Green Arrow/The Question will undoubtedly please fans of Dark Age DC Comics. I’m not sure it will have much broader appeal than that. However, there is much here that will speak to true crime enthusiasts, despite it technically being a superhero comic.