Long before, I mean a long time before Oliver queen made his way to the big screens to tell the story of the Green arrow, his first appearance was in a 1941 comic book (More Fun Comics #73 to be more specific). Up until the CW TV show aired in recent years there were a lot of people who had never actually heard of the Green Arrow – so let’s just say the show drew people in.
As any avid Arrow fan will know, Oliver’s backstory sees him being stranded on an uninhabited island (as far as he knows) with Robert Queen (his father) being killed shortly after the Queen’s boat is rendered useless.
Being captured and tortured while on the island led Oliver to return to his home city and become the masked vigilante – The Green arrow.
His backstory is further delved into through The Outsiders War storyline where he returns to the island and finds shelter in the place he was tortured in all those years ago. He encounters the masked man who tortured him to discover it was actually his father under the mask.
Robert Queen actually planned for Oliver to return to the island to claim his birth right as the Green Arrow, and lead the secret crime-fighting group The Outsiders.
Because of the fact that he had a bit of a crush on how Batman had been portrayed, the creator of the Green Arrow Morton Weisinger actually placed Oliver Queen in a similar light – a billionaire who would effectively have tricks and toys that mirrored those of Batman. The vision was for the character to have his on Arrowmobile (similar to that of the Batmobile), as well as a belt filled with arrows which rivalled Batman’s utility belt. The belt would include different types of Arrows such as electric, exploding, grappling etc.
Ok so there’s no real evidence to support that Oliver Queen actually falls within the Meta-Human umbrella, but the fact that he can fire 39 arrows in less than a minute, as well as not only being able to shoot a moving target but to hit one the size of a pin head definitely accounts for something.
Ollie’s signature phrase is that he never misses a target, I mean even the Justice League had to question him as to whether he was actually a Meta-Human with his capabilities – well that’s saying something. For now this remains a myth but who knows what will emerge as we delve deeper into the Green Arrow’s history.
In an awesome storyline portrayed in Adventure Comic #258, back when Oliver was a little younger, his next door neighbour had determination to put a bow and arrow in the capable hands of Ollie. It just so happened that this young boy eventually went on to become Superboy.
I guess you might say it’s down to Superboy for the Green Arrow’s, well, love of arrows!
