Absolute Green Arrow #5 is out now: a Dark Knight Returns tribute

Absolute Green Arrow #5 is out now in comic shops and on digital comics platforms, and in this issue Pornsak Pichetshote and Rafael Albuquerque slip in a direct nod to Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, and Lynn Varley’s The Dark Knight Returns that longtime DC readers will catch right away.

In Absolute Green Arrow #5, Pichetshote and Albuquerque echo that famous 1986 panel by having Malcolm Merlyn, after losing a hand, pull a bowstring with his teeth, mirroring Oliver Queen’s one-armed shot during Batman’s climactic fight with Superman in The Dark Knight Returns.

Here, the image does a different job, since Malcolm Merlyn uses it to free Tom Hallaway, aka The Spider, and kicks up enough chaos around Hammond and Solomon Grundy for Dinah Lance and Roy Harper to escape.

The callback does more than wink at old readers. In Absolute Green Arrow #5, Solomon Grundy leaves Malcolm Merlyn badly injured, but Malcolm Merlyn’s sacrifice changes the shape of the conflict and helps crack open the cabal at the center of the story, while the ending reveals another Green Arrow behind Dinah Lance, hints at two killers, and leaves the identity unresolved, with Roy Harper incapacitated and Mia Dearden only a possible fit.

If you follow Green Arrow or DC history, Absolute Green Arrow #5 is worth picking up, especially with DC already building toward The Dark Knight Returns’ 40th anniversary in 2026.

You can get Absolute Green Arrow #5 now in comic shops and on digital comics platforms.