Green Arrow

For the LNER steam locomotive, see LNER Class V2 4771 Green Arrow

Green Arrow (Oliver Jonas "Ollie" Queen) is a fictional character, published by DC Comics. Created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp, he first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 in 1941. His secret identity is Oliver Queen, billionaire and former mayor of fictional Star City;^[1] he is best known to his associates as Ollie.

Dressed like Robin Hood, Green Arrow is an archer, who invents trick arrows with various special functions, such as a glue arrow, a net arrow, explosive arrow, time bomb arrow, grappling arrow, fire extinguishing arrow, flash arrow, tear gas arrow, cryonic arrow, a boxing-glove arrow, and even a kryptonite arrow.

Throughout his first twenty-five years, Green Arrow was not a significant hero. In the late 1960s, however, writers chose to have him lose his fortune, giving him the then-unique role of streetwise crusader for the working class and the disadvantaged. In 1970, he was paired with the more law-and-order-oriented hero Green Lantern in a groundbreaking, socially conscious comic book series. Since then, he has been popular among comic book fans and most writers have taken an urban, gritty approach to the character.

Publication history

Beginnings, 1941–1968

Created in 1941 by writer/editor Mort Weisinger and artist George Papp, who remained with the series for almost twenty years, Green Arrow and Speedy first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 (cover-dated November 1941).

Green Arrow was also created as an archery-themed version of the earlier character Batman, as several similarities between the two characters can be spotted, especially in Green Arrow's earlier incarnation: Green Arrow had a teen-aged sidekick named Speedy just as Batman has Robin; Green Arrow and Batman were/are both billionaire playboys in their secret identities; Green Arrow had an Arrowcar and an Arrowplane similar to Batman's Batmobile and Batplane; Green Arrow had the Arrowcave while Batman had the Batcave; Green Arrow was summoned by the Arrow-signal, just as Batman is summoned to police headquarters by the Bat-signal; in the Golden Age stories, Green Arrow had a clown-like archfoe named Bull's-Eye who was a thinly-disguised version of Batman's archfoe, the Joker. Some of these similarities have been explained in-continuity as inspired by a meeting between Green Arrow and Batman in their early careers, after which Green Arrow looked toward Batman as an inspiration (which has been parodied in the story arc "Quiver" when Batman asks whether Ollie ever had "an original idea in his life").

Aside from the obvious allusions to Robin Hood, the Green Arrow character itself was inspired by a few different sources, including Edgar Wallace's novel The Green Archer (and the 1940 Columbia Pictures serial of the same name based on the novel), and Fawcett Publications' earlier archery-themed hero Golden Arrow. A Centaur Publications archer hero named simply Arrow preceded all of these characters. Green Arrow's Arrowcar was yellow in color and shaped reminiscent of the land speed record holder from 1929, the British Golden Arrow. The name Oliver Queen likely alluded to Ellery Queen, a popular fictional detective (and mystery writer) of the time.

Another Weisinger-created character called Aquaman also appeared for the first time in that issue, and these two back-up features continued to run concurrently in More Fun Comics until the mid-1940s, and then in Adventure Comics from 1946 until 1960. Green Arrow and Speedy also appeared in various issues of World's Finest Comics until issue #140 (1964). The Green Arrow and Speedy feature was one of five back-up features to be promoted in one of the earliest team-up books, Leading Comics.

Green Arrow was one of the few DC characters to keep going after the Golden Age of Comic Books. The longevity of the character was due to the influence of creator Mort Weisinger, who kept Green Arrow and Aquaman as back-up features to the headlining Superboy feature, first in More Fun Comics and then Adventure Comics. Aside from sharing Adventure Comics with him, #258 featured an encounter between a younger Oliver Queen and Superboy. The Green Arrow and Speedy feature had a relatively undistinguished publishing history, though the main exception in this period was a short run in 1958 by artist/writer Jack Kirby.

Neal Adams and Dennis O'Neil, 1969–1983

In 1969, artist Neal Adams decided to update the character's visual appearance by giving him a short, goatee-like beard and costume of his own design in Brave and the Bold #85. Inspired by Adams' redesign, writer Dennis O'Neil followed up on Green Arrow's new appearance by completely remaking the character's attitude in the pages of Justice League of America #79 (cover-dated November 1969), giving his personality a rougher edge like that of Marvel Comics' archery-themed hero Hawkeye. This revision was explained by having Oliver Queen lose his fortune and become an outspoken advocate of the underprivileged in society and the political left wing. For instance, he once saved a child's dog playing in a railyard, but instead of feeling satisfaction, he brooded on the larger problem of how the child had nowhere in the city to play safely.

In the early 1970s, he became a co-feature with Green Lantern (aka Hal Jordan) in the latter's series in an acclaimed, but short-lived series of stories by O'Neil and Adams that dealt with various social and political issues in which Green Arrow spoke for radical change while Green Lantern was an establishment liberal figure, wanting to work within existing institutions of government and law. Where Oliver Queen advocated direct action, Hal Jordan wanted to work within the system; where Oliver advocated social change, Jordan was more concerned about dealing with criminals. Each would find their beliefs challenged by the other. Oliver convinced Jordan to see beyond his strict obedience to the Green Lantern Corps, to help those who were neglected or discriminated against. As O'Neil explained: "He would be a hot-tempered anarchist to contrast with the cerebral, sedate model citizen who was the Green Lantern."^[2] The duo embarked on a quest to find America, witnessing the corruption, racism, pollution, and overpopulation confronting the nation. Writer Denny O'Neil even took on current events, such as the Manson Family cult murders, in issues #78-79 ("A Kind of Loving") where Black Canary falls briefly under the spell of a false prophet who advocates violence.

It was during this period that the most famous Green Arrow story appeared, in Green Lantern vol. 2, #85-86, when it was revealed that Green Arrow's ward Speedy was addicted to heroin.^[1] In his zeal to save America, Oliver Queen had failed in his personal responsibility to Speedy — who would overcome his addiction with the help of Black Canary, Green Arrow's then love interest. This story prompted a congratulatory letter from the mayor of New York, John Lindsay. Unfortunately, the series did not match commercial expectations, perhaps because of its mature topics, and Neal Adams had trouble with deadlines, causing issue #88 to be an unscheduled reprint issue; the series was cancelled with issue #89 (April-May 1972).

The duo were moved to the back-up feature in The Flash, issues #217 through #219. The socially-relevant themes would continue, as the story opens with Ollie killing a criminal (albeit accidentally). Ollie shed himself of the remaining trappings of his super-heroic life (including crashing the Arrowplane into a mountain) and withdrew to an ashram monastery. He would find no peace there, and returned to the outside world at the request of Hal and Dinah. This storyline would prove very important to the character in the 1990s. After this three-part story, Green Lantern continued as a solo back-up in The Flash, while Green Arrow's solo stories began appearing in Action Comics.

In 1976, the Green Lantern title was re-launched starring both Hal Jordan and Ollie Queen, and the Green Arrow/Green Lantern partnership returned to more traditional superhero storylines. Denny O'Neill resumed writing the characters, while Adams-influenced artist Mike Grell drew the feature. After the title moved to solo Green Lantern stories, solo Green Arrow stories began appearing in the World's Finest title. The solo stories were frequently written by Elliot S! Maggin.

In his solo series, Oliver Queen would land a job as a newspaper columnist, which allowed him to articulate his political beliefs in a more public field. In World's Finest #255 (1979), Queen ran for Mayor of Star City and lost in a close vote. Although there was reason to believe that the election had been fixed against him, Black Canary chose for him not to contest the results legally, effectively ceding the race to his opponent.

In May through August 1983, Green Arrow appeared for the first time in his own comic book (Green Arrow vol. 1), a four issue limited series of murder and betrayal that established potential for a full series. It was in this miniseries that Green Arrow would gain a running rivalry with the super villain Count Vertigo.

Longbow Hunters/Mike Grell Ongoing

In 1987, DC Comics launched the character into a new ongoing title as part of their mature audience comic line. Written and illustrated by Mike Grell, the revamp was launched with the controversial Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters mini-series. In this three-issue prestige format limited series, a routine adventure against a group of drug runners led to tragedy as Black Canary was captured and brutally tortured. In response, Green Arrow murders his girlfriend's attackers. The mini-series would also introduce the enigmatic female Japanese archer, Shado, whose family suffered in a World War II internment camp.

Under Grell, Green Arrow would abandon the use of his trademark gadget arrows and relocate from Star City to Seattle, Washington. As the series was part of DC Comics' mature audience line, it took on a more gritty, violent, and urban tone, with Green Arrow often using deadly force against his enemies. Grell wrote the series for the first 80 issues, downplaying the super-hero aspects of the characters and isolating Green Arrow from the rest of the DC Universe. Green Arrow abandoned his mask, and Black Canary lost her sonic scream power. While crossover specials were conceived to allow other writers (most notably Denny O'Neil, who wrote Batman and the mature audience comic The Question) to use Green Arrow, Grell deliberately downplayed all super-hero ties to Green Arrow, to the extent of having longtime Green Arrow friend Hal Jordan only appear in civilian form and the name 'Green Arrow' being used in the series ^[3] .

In place of the super-hero community, Grell created his own supporting cast. In addition to Shado, Grell introduced Seattle police Lieutenant Jim Cameron, who was disgusted with Green Arrow's vigilante actions (including killing criminals); renegade CIA agent Greg Osborne, who began to monitor Queen's activities; and mercenary Eddie Fyers, initially introduced as Queen's adversary, but later to become a companion of necessity when Green Arrow was forced to leave Seattle after false accusations of aiding terrorists. Grell's run ended with Green Arrow #80, shortly after Dinah dumped Oliver.

During this period, the writer also redefined the character's origin in the four-part 1992 limited series, Green Arrow: The Wonder Year. Grell portrayed Oliver Queen as a thrill-seeker who inherits his family business at a very young age. Changed by his sojourn on the island, Ollie decided to take up crime fighting as a means of rebelling against his responsibilities. During his first adventure in Star City, Oliver Queen meets an old flame, Brianna Stone, a former college radical who warns him if he continued to carry his bow, he would one day have to use it for real. Grell's limited series also established Queen's attraction toward dangerous women.

Post Grell

Once Grell left the series, DC almost immediately began restoring Green Arrow to the mainstream DC Universe. His ongoing series (mostly written by Kelley Puckett and drawn by artist Jim Aparo) was removed from the "Mature Audience" line (which had evolved into "Vertigo"), and Green Arrow began appearing in various super-hero titles as a guest, most notably Green Lantern #47, which had Oliver aiding Green Lantern in rescuing his longtime girlfriend Carol Ferris and her family from one of Hal's enemies and the 1994 DC Comics mini-series "Zero Hour." where at a pivotal moment Queen is forced to shoot his old friend. Now tightly integrated in the DC universe, the character Connor Hawke was introduced and revealed as Oliver Queen's son.

In Green Arrow vol. 2, #100-101, Queen would infiltrate a group of eco-terrorists known as the Eden Corps and sacrifice his life in order to prevent the group from detonating a bomb that would destroy the city of Metropolis.[1] This allowed the writers to shake up the status quo by making Connor Hawke a replacement Green Arrow. The series, now written by Chuck Dixon, would continue, with Hawke as the main focus until issue #137, when the series was cancelled.

Kevin Smith, Phil Hester, and Ande Parks, Brad Meltzer 2000–2004

In 2000, Oliver Queen is revived in a new series, Green Arrow (vol. 3), written by Kevin Smith and illustrated by Phil Hester and Ande Parks. Picking up the thread from "The Final Night", Smith reveals that Hal's resurrection of Oliver was a flawed one, in that Hal opted to resurrect Oliver in a form that had no memory of the events of "The Longbow Hunters" mini-series or of the subsequent events that followed up until his death. His resurrection is used by the grandfather of Stanley Dover in an attempt to gain power over Stanley's monster. At the climax of the story, Queen's soul returns from heaven (his earthly duplicate not possessing one) and helps his son Connor Hawke fight a mass of demons. Dover is defeated and actually consumed by the Beast, who then leaves of his own accord. Queen also finds himself independently wealthy again, as Dover had transferred all his financial assets to Queen in anticipation of taking over his body. He also picked up a new sidekick, Mia Dearden, who would become the new Speedy under Oliver's tutoring.^[4]

After the resurrection storyline, Smith wrote a second and shorter arc involving a super-powered serial killer named Onomatopoeia that sought to claim Connor Hawke as his latest victim. Smith then left the title, with Brad Meltzer taking over as writer. Meltzer went on to write the mini-series "Identity Crisis", which heavily featured Green Arrow as one of the story's main characters.

Meltzer's single storyline for Green Arrow featured Oliver and former sidekick Roy Harper reuniting and going on a cross-country road trip to pick up old possessions of Oliver's, most notably a spare Green Lantern power ring entrusted to him by Hal Jordan many years earlier. The story also revealed that Oliver knew all along that Connor Hawke was his son and was even present at his birth, but that Oliver ultimately abandoned Connor and his mother due to his fear of becoming a father. Meltzer's storyline would continue into the mini-series Green Lantern: Rebirth, which featured Oliver's attempts to use the ring.

During this time, the character also appeared in a number of other titles such as the Justice League and Justice League Elite. This series is notable for showing a brief affair with Dawn, the wife of the team's magical expert Manitou Raven.

Judd Winick, 2004-2008

Judd Winick would take over as Green Arrow writer and make many changes. Mia Dearden, the new Speedy, was revealed to be HIV positive, and attempts were made to expand Green Arrow's Rogues Gallery with Merlyn the archer, Constantine Drakon, and Danny Brickwell (the Brick) joining existing Green Arrow villains such as the illusion-casting Count Vertigo and the enigmatic Onomatopoeia (himself a relatively recent addition).

In 2006 Andy Diggle and Jock's Green Arrow: Year One^[5] presented the most recent official version of his origin. Using concepts from previous iterations, Oliver Queen is a rich, thrill-seeking activist who learns, after being attacked and thrown overboard, of a smuggling operation on the island he washes up on. Upon witnessing the inhabitants' slave-like living conditions, he begins to take down the smugglers' operation. He eventually returns to civilization changed by his experiences on the island. In the final part of the story, Queen claims that a mutiny or a group of pot dealers could be used as a cover story for his action, referencing the original Green Arrow origin story, as well as Mike Grell's version.

That year also saw the title (along with other DC comics titles) jump "One Year Later" after the events in Infinite Crisis,. Oliver Queen, having amassed a large personal fortune, is the newly elected mayor of Star City. He now continues his fight for justice both on the streets and within the political system. He also has a new costume, which appears to be a combination of the classic Neal Adams costume and the Mike Grell Longbow Hunters costume. In flashbacks, it is revealed that Queen survived a near-fatal attack during the events of Infinite Crisis, and used his recuperation time to retrain.

52

During Week 24, the new Firestorm calls up Ollie to ask him to join the new JLA. Ollie thinks it is a joke and wonders where Martian Manhunter is. Ollie is running for Mayor.^[6]

He works with several expert instructors including a sensei known as Natas, who also trained Deathstroke. The current Green Arrow (Vol. 3) series ended with issue #75 in June 2007, concluding with the character, having resigned as mayor after a scandal, proposing to Dinah (Black Canary).

After the end of the ongoing series, DC Comics published a 4 part bi-monthly Black Canary miniseries in which Green Arrow teams up with Black Canary to help get Sin into school and a new life. This series concluded with Black Canary accepting his proposal. This resulted in DC Comics publishing three interconnected specials revolving around the Green Arrow/Black Canary wedding that tied into that month's Countdown stories. These were The Black Canary Wedding Planner, JLA Wedding Special, and The Green Arrow/Black Canary Wedding Special. The wedding special worked as a lead-in for a new Green Arrow & Black Canary series. At the conclusion of the wedding special, Black Canary is forced to kill Green Arrow after he appears to go mad and attacks her.

Picking up on those events, the new series quickly revealed that Green Arrow was alive (the dead Green Arrow being an imposter) and being held hostage by "Athena". This storyline lead directly into the second arc that followed the kidnap and rescue of Connor Hawke from a mysterious foe.

Other versions

Many alternative versions of the character have appeared in DC Comics publications. The original version of the character became established as the Earth-Two version of Green Arrow who was a member of the Seven Soldiers of Victory and All-Star Squadron in the 1940s along with his sidekick Speedy. Aside from their origin, having been trained on a mesa top together, their history nearly parallels the history of the Earth-One version up until the point when Green Arrow and Speedy, along with their teammates, were thrown into various periods of time during a battle with the Nebula Man. He was killed died during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. A retcon was made, in Crisis on Infinite Earths, that the Earth-Two Green Arrow had brown hair, as opposed to Earth-One's Green Arrow having blonde. Similarly, the Earth-Two Speedy has blonde hair as opposed to Earth-One's Speedy having red.

The character appears in Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and the sequel Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Despite missing an arm (implied to be because of Superman), Queen still proves to be an effective archer (he grasps the nocks of his arrows in his teeth.) The death scene in Green Arrow #100-101 pays tribute to Miller's story, where Oliver Queen resurfaces as a hard-bitten old revolutionary missing one arm. Never on the best of terms with Queen, Superman intends to rescue Green Arrow by removing his arm, but Queen refuses to let him, thus bringing about his apparent death. An older, balding Green Arrow would appear in Mark Waid and Alex Ross' futuristic vision Kingdom Come, where Oliver Queen has joined forces with Batman to oppose Superman's army.

Green Arrow appears in League of Justice, a The Lord of the Rings-inspired fantasy where the character is renamed "Longbow Greenarrow", a mysterious wizard resembling Gandalf, JLA: Age of Wonder shows Green Arrow as a defender of the poor and an enemy of oppression.

In Batman: Holy Terror, Oliver Queen is mentioned at the beginning to have been executed having been found guilty of supporting underground Jewish "pornographers" and he has a cameo as Bruce Wayne's society friend In Dean Motter's Batman: Nine Lives. Green Arrow has also appeared in the Justice League Unlimited spin-off comic book. Oliver Queen also appears in Mike Mignola’s Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham, where he is portrayed as a latter day Templar equipped with magic arrows dipped in the blood of Saint Sebastian. He is killed in issue two by Poison Ivy.

DC's weekly series 52, the publisher established a new 52-Earth Multiverse. On Earth-3, an evil equivalent of the Green Arrow is a member of the supervillain co-op called the Crime Society of America. In Tangent Comics (Earth-9) Green Arrow is a type of soda, with the slogan: Hits the Spot. On Earth-15, Roy Harper has replaced Ollie as the Green Arrow.^[7] The Kingdom Come (Earth-22) and Dark Knight Returns (Earth-31) stories and their variations of Ollie were later amalgamated into the 52-Earth Multiverse. In the gender reversed world of Earth-11, Ollie is now Olivia Queen, and that world's version of Black Canary closely resembles him in appearance.^[8]

Green Arrow and Warlord

Oliver bears a striking resemblance to Mike Grell's Warlord, Travis Morgan. According to an interview with Grell and editor Mike Gold, this began as a joke when someone suggested to Grell that he could only draw one type of character. Grell incorporated the joke into his run on Green Arrow, when Travis Morgan shows up in Seattle in issue #27. After being attacked on sight by half the Seattle underworld population (all of whom mistake him for Green Arrow), Morgan shows up at Queen's house and lands him on his ear, declaring, "Whatever you've been doing to piss these people off... cut it out!!" Finally appearing on-panel together, Grell illustrates that while there is an uncanny resemblance, Travis Morgan is significantly taller than Oliver Queen, and seemingly several years older. In Aquaman vol. 3, #75, Aquaman accidentally passes through a dimensional portal that leads to Skartaris, the world of Warlord. When he meets Travis Morgan, he mistakes him for Oliver back from the dead (This was after Oliver had been killed by a terrorist's bomb, and before he was resurrected by Hal Jordan).^[1] During Kevin Smith's Green Arrow run, during the Quiver story arc, Deadman pokes fun at the resemblance as well.

In other media

Main article: Green Arrow in other media

Trade paperbacks and hardcover collections

The team-up run of Green Lantern & Green Arrow from the early 1970s has been collected on numerous times: as two trade paperbacks in 1992-1993, then as a hardcover slipcase collection in 2000, and again as two trade paperbacks in 2004, but with the 2004 edition of the second volume reprinting a never-before-reprinted back-up solo story starring Green Lantern from The Flash (Vol. 1) #226 (and not collected in any of the previous Green Lantern/Green Arrow collections).

The trade paperback edition of The Archer's Quest (#16-21) was released as Volume 4 in the series after Straight Shooter (#26-31) was released as Volume 3. The hardcover editions of Quiver, The Sounds of Violence, and The Archer's Quest were never numbered.

Footnotes

External links

• Index of the Earth-One adventures of GA
• Green Arrow at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
• Green Arrow's secret origin on dccomics.com
• http://www.GreenArrowBlackCanary.com Green Arrow/Black Canary fan forum
• The Green Arrow on the DC Animated Universe Wiki, an external wiki