Oliver Queen, or Green Arrow, is one of the DC universe's premier street-level heroes. But when a power-hungry madman unleashes a lethal robotic drone army on Seattle, Green Arrow finds himself in over his head. In Green Arrow #42 by Benjamin Percy and Patrick Zircher, Green Arrow teams up with an unlikely canine ally, Arrow Dog, in his fight to save Seattle from the Panopticon.
As a crime wave grips Seattle, bodies are being found both on land and in water, many with wounds that seem impossible for the victims to have suffered. Witnesses report that people have literally fallen out of the sky, with some looking as if they had been mauled or eaten. Green Arrow begins to investigate the murders and learns that many of the locals have started calling the culprits behind the deaths the “nightbirds.” These mysterious creatures strike without warning in the blink of an eye with a strange sound filling the air as a warning. Green Arrow's investigation uncovers an alarming pattern in the murders: many are occurring in the district known as Pennytown, Seattle's largest slum.
Coinciding with the grisly murders are the developments happening within Queen Industries. An upstart tech mogul named Aaron Zimm is pitching his radical solution to crime in Seattle: robotic police drones called the Panopticon. Resembling a mix between a 1950's UFOs and Brainiac's skull ship, the Panopticon are floating robots with a mass of writhing tentacles. Members of the Seattle police are apprehensive about the Panopticon's ability to profile citizens on sight. Zimm dismisses their concerns, billing the Panopticon as the new wave of law enforcement.
As Green Arrow investigates Pennytown further he comes across an illegal dog-fighting ring. The leader of the ring is abducted by the Panopticon, leaving his prizefighter alone in the ring. A smaller dog attacks it, wounding it terribly. Green Arrow rescues the injured dog and brings it back to his half-sister Emiko's apartment. The dog, named George, grows attached to Green Arrow and joins him in his detective work as he hunts down the source of the Panopticon.
The trail of money and murder leads Green Arrow to an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Seattle. Venturing inside, the Emerald Archer comes face to face with Aaron Zimm piloting a massive Panopticon drone. His arrows useless against the machine, Green Arrow is captured and taken to Zimm's headquarters. Luckily, Emiko manages to find Zimm's headquarters via satellite imaging. She and George embark to save Green Arrow from Zimm's clutches.
Emiko and George are also attacked by Panopticon drones, but manage to survive their encounter. Emiko and George meet up with Green Arrow as he escapes Zimm's headquarters, the madman in hot pursuit. Using a special arrow equipped with the technology capable of overriding the Panopticon's programming, Green Arrow manages to defeat Zimm and end his fascist police force before any more people are killed.
“The Nightbirds,” while only being a 3-issue story arc, hearkens back to Mike Grell's grittier era of Green Arrow. There are no trick arrows, no wacky quips and wise-cracks: Green Arrow fights against a supremacist who hijacks a city's police department in order to further his own heinous agenda. It's a grim tale, but the additions of George lets a little bit more light into Green Arrow's town.
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