User blog comment:Hatebunny/Green Arrow Vol 2 81/@comment-4128095-20111213151550

The twenty Post-Grell issues of Green Arrow are very awkward. You can tell they didn't really know what to do with him. You couldn't just make him light-hearted and quippy after everything that happened since LBH, but they didn't want to keep him the way he was.The silver lining is that the inadequate transition led to the creation of Connor Hawke, a great addition to Green Arrow's world. When Kevin Smith began writing Ollie for Vol 3, he took point to mention the Ollie didn't like who he had become at the end of his life. Death had provided him with peace and perspective that he was able to take with him when he came back, and that allowed Smith/Meltzer/Winick to write the Ollie of the 2000's that had been able to benefit from the personal growth of the Grell run, carry some of those ideas into his new relationships with Connor and Mia and his renewed relationships with Roy and Dinah, and tell new stories set in the common DCU. It's funny you wrote the article you wrote, because when I think of Ollie's story in my mind, I think of the Grell run, the he died, then Vol 3 started. I forget about Crossroads/Where Angels Fear to Tread unless I'm staring right at them. Although I will say, Crossroads provided some pretty cool covers.