YMMV / Green Arrow (2023)

• Audience-Alienating Premise: Once again, fans of Arsenal are feeling annoyed that this is a series which touted to be putting him in a direction more akin to what's considered his proper characterization after years of mishandling in the New 52 and Rebirth, mainly that he would finally be reunited with Lian. After DC stalled the arc where father and daughter would be brought back together (for three years), fans were relieved when the two finally reunited in the first issue, only to have them pulled apart yet again. Not at all helped that Roy and Lian barely contribute anything to the opening arc, with Roy's subplot seeing him end up in Amanda Waller's clutches, while the Titans: Beast World tie-in says Lian went back to Gotham City and isn't even helping Ollie and Connor find her dad. After so many years of DC editorial refusing to let Roy be a dad and stopping Lian from existing, fans have grown so exasperated that they're not interested in where the second arc goes with Roy or what Lian's still doing in Gotham as Cheshire Cat, they just want DC to cut the crap and let the Harpers be a family again.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • Fans of Roy and Lian Harper are less then pleased that, after father and daughter were kept from reuniting for years, they're once again torn apart to different ends of the world after spending barely five minutes together in the first issue. After so much promotion of this book being the reunion of the Arrow Family, it's more than a bit frustrating for fans of the Harpers that the universe is still conspiring to keep them broken up.
  • The repeated downplaying of Roy's role as Ollie's son is another cause of contention from DC fans, due to the company's ongoing refusal to acknowledge adopted and surrogate children in superhero families over biological inheritors such as Damian Wayne and Jon Kent. Ollie calls Roy "his best friend," while Connor is referred to as his "son." The tenth issue finally does have Ollie refer to Roy as his son, but it's noted that it happens under duress. Time will tell if it actually happens when they're not in danger.
  • Merlyn being the villain of the first arc. Not only is this a retread of Green Arrow (Rebirth)'s main plot, it would've made more narrative sense for his son, Tommy Merlyn to have been behind it all due to Oliver's actions directly causing his downfall.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Many Titans fans will say they've only been reading this series because it promised a reunion between Roy and Lian Harper after the latter's death 13 years prior. Said fans grew vocally annoyed when Williamson only let them be together for a couple of pages before tearing them apart again.
• Tear Jerker: The reveal that not only was Lian Harper alive the whole time, she also never lost her memories but was repeatedly prevented from ever reuniting with Roy due to the teleporting device implanted in her neck by Amanda Waller forcibly transporting her away from her dad whenever they got close. As horrible as that is, it also shows Lian saw Roy's descent into psychosis and drug addiction firsthand but couldn't do anything to stop it before she settled on watching him degrade himself as Red Hood's glorified Yes-Man from a distance.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The crux of the first arc is about the Arrow Family regrouping after they were torn apart, with the Big Bad Malcolm Merlyn revealing he deliberately sought out to destroy them. However, the focus character throughout all of this is Ollie, despite that objectively speaking it was Arsenal and Lian who suffered the most from the villain's machinations (and from their family's reaction towards what they were put through as it was happening). Not only does Lian barely contribute in defeating Merlyn at all, Roy is completely absent from the fight and thus doesn't find out how his life and Lian's life were destroyed because someone wanted to hurt Green Arrow.
  • The seventh issue tries to push the idea that Ollie is a loving Team Dad, when Roy fits that description far better and far earlier in his publication history than Ollie ever did.