Oliver Queen was a famous historian, who sought in 1941 to rebuild his vast collection of Native American relics that had burned to ashes. In the process, he took up his bow for the first time to fight criminals. Deciding to continue with his actions, noting the heroism of then emerging hero Batman, Queen became the master archer known as the Green Arrow.
History
Origin
Oliver Queen was born into a loving family in the western United States during or after the events of World War I. Living with Native Americans on a reservation[6], a young Oliver began a lifetime study of their tribal lifestyle, and even developed a proficiency in archery. Queen then spent his life becoming an expert on the culture and lore of American Indians. This resulted in him amassing a large collection of artifacts and relics of Native American origin. He would lend these out to various museums, which gained him a large personal fortune.
However, it would be in the initial loss of his treasure that would cause Queen to become Green Arrow. One night, he clumsily prevented a robbery attempt of his collection of artifacts, causing a fire that burned everything to the ground.
Queen was then inspired by one of his friends to start again by exploring supposed Indian remains at Lost Mesa, which is made to be a "hidden gold mine" of artifacts. After piloting his own plane to this so-called Lost Mesa, Queen was ambushed by the criminals from the earlier museum robbery, seeking to regain their losses. They then forced Queen, alongside the earlier-trapped Roy Harper, into a cave. The two both armed themselves with bow and arrow and discovered a rear exit out of the cave. On the way out though, they stumbled onto a hidden gold mine. They recaptured Queen's fortune, and the basis for their later costumed careers. It was during this fight with the Indian artifact stealing criminals, Harper quickly weaves back and forth from the cave causing one of the criminals to comment "Boy, that kid is really speedy!" and later another one of the gang warns off his cohorts with the statement "Watch out for the big guy! He shoots a mean green arrow!" These names would obviously be adapted by Queen and Harper in their costumed identities.
After successfully fending off the criminal (who are accidentally crushed to death by a massive Indian idol top falling onto them which Queen comments as just punishment for them killing Harper's Indian man-servant Quoag) Queen takes the now family lost Harper home with him as his new ward. Neither Queen nor Harper would not find out that he had surviving family until much later, namely his uncle, police officer James "Jim" Harper who was the World War II hero known as the Guardian.
Green Arrow and Speedy became founding members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory and were inducted into the U.S. Government sponsored All-Star Squadron as were all so-called "mystery men" operating in the United States following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
1950s onward
After World War II and the disbanding of the All-Star Squadron, Queen and Harper remained active both as a partnership and as members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory despite the legal banning of most of the masked heroes of Earth-Two by the United States' House of Un-American Activities Commission (H.U.A.C.). Though many of Queens's and Harper's costumed battles were not as elaborate as the few remaining active costumed heroes of Earth-Two, Queen and and his now adult partner continued on in their costumed identities until Queen and Harper and the other Seven Soldier members were all kidnapped and dispersed throughout time by the Nebula Man, then known as the Iron Hand.[7]
With the defeat of Nebula Man (Iron Hand), Queen and the other Seven Soldier members were then returned to the mid-1970s. While Queen had aged well as an active combatant -- who was now considered the inspiration for Robin Hood who he had temporarily replaced for a time while he was in 12th century England -- there was no doubt that Queen was now an older man in a world that had caught up to his trick arrows and non-lethal combat techniques. Most of the Seven Soldiers, including Queen, decided to retire from active combat upon being brought back to the late 20th century. Queen appears not to have donned his costume again until he attended the Crimson Avenger's funeral.
Later Life and Death
Despite being now physically middle-aged (and technically in his sixties) Queen rose up to fight against the Anti-Monitor at the battle at the "Dawn of Time" and survived the reformat and elimination that several other duplicate heroes did not.
Seeing that the Anti-Monitor was releasing his murderous Shadow Demons to randomly attack and kill people on the resulting single Earth, Queen once again rose up as Green Arrow. But despite Queen's best efforts, Queen's age and his time away from active duty proved to be his downfall as he was no longer swift enough to avoid the Anti-Monitor's Shadow Demons' attacks and was killed in that first battle on New Earth.[8]
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
- Archery: Oliver Queen had a far beyond average concentration and eye-hand coordination which accounted for his almost perfect archery skill and marksmanship in many weapon usages.
- Aviation
- Disguise: Oliver Queen's skills were good enough he could impersonate his enemies and fool his enemies' allies.[1]
- Driving
- Equestrianism[9]
- Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic)
- Historiography
- Investigation
- Peak Human Speed\Reflexes
Paraphernalia
Transportation
- Arrowplane/Arrow Car/Arrowcar: The same car had multiple names.[11][12][13]
- Arrowmobile
- Arrowcopter
- Arrowplane: Oliver Queen's jet[14]
Weapons
- Bow
- Trick Arrows: A wide variety of gadget-equipped arrows
Notes
- This version of Green Arrow, including all history and corresponding appearances, was erased from existence following the collapse of the original Multiverse in the 1985–86 Crisis on Infinite Earths event and later restored following the rebirth of the infinite Multiverse during the Dark Crisis of 2022-2023. Even though other versions of the character may have appeared, this information does not apply to those versions.
- As recounted in More Fun Comics #89 The Birth of the Battling Bowmen unlike most of the later origins of the Green Arrow, the original Golden Age origin of Oliver Queen was written as being interested and focused on Native Americans as the source of his heroic inspiration and archery usage. The warrior Indian was noted to be the basis of his original archery and climbing training which took place on a western USA cowboy mesa. Roy Harper, in both the Golden Age and later incarnations, maintained Harper's original focus on being of Native American background and influence, though with far fewer stereotypes like Harper's original Native American man-servant Quoag.[15]
- The original Indian basis would be changed as co-creator Weisinger later stated the Green Arrow character was indeed meant to be a play on Robin Hood despite the original origin of More Fun #89 as recounted in later revisions of Green Arrow's origin in Secret Origins of the DC Superheroes (1976) by his declaration of "My Green Arrow was a streamlined Robin Hood—a law-abiding Robin Hood. Then I added props—the Arrowmobile, for one, and I got into the business of creating new kinds of arrows."
Trivia
- Queen was occasionally depicted with brown hair in his very earliest appearances, and Roy Thomas attempted to reinstate this in the early eighties in order to differentiate him from his Earth-One counterpart. However, Queen was a blonde again by the time of his death in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
- In earlier appearances, Oliver Queen and Roy Harper were shown making a trophy collection from their adventures.[11]
Recommended Reading
- Adventure Comics (first featured in issue #103)
- Leading Comics (first featured in issue #1)
- More Fun Comics (first featured in issue #73)
- World's Finest (first featured in issue #7)
Related
- 323 Appearances of Oliver Queen (Earth-Two)
- 22 Images featuring Oliver Queen (Earth-Two)
- 19 Quotations by or about Oliver Queen (Earth-Two)
- Character Gallery: Oliver Queen (Earth-Two)
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 More Fun Comics #106
- ↑ World's Finest #46
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Adventure Comics #133
- ↑ Adventure Comics #137
- ↑ Adventure Comics #146
- ↑ World's Finest #82
- ↑ Justice League of America #100–102
- ↑ Crisis on Infinite Earths #12
- ↑ Adventure Comics #157
- ↑ Adventure Comics #165
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 More Fun Comics #73
- ↑ More Fun Comics #101
- ↑ More Fun Comics #99
- ↑ Adventure Comics #118
- ↑ More Fun Comics #89
Team Arrow member This character is or was a member of the Green Arrow family of vigilante super-heroes, who fight crime using archery and martial arts. They are a loose connection brought together through family bonds and shared experiences. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Team Arrow members." |
Seven Soldiers of Victory member This character is or was a member of the Seven Soldiers of Victory, or the Seven Soldiers in any of its various incarnations, created during World War II and later, it returned to battle time-traveling, dimension-spanning mysteries and monsters. |
All-Star Squadron member This character is or was a member of the All-Star Squadron in any of its various incarnations. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "All-Star Squadron members" category. |