GREEN ARROW

An Archer Superhero, dressed in a manner similar to Robin Hood, who fights crime with specialized trick arrows. Green Arrow was originally created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp, and first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 (November, 1941). Along with his sidekick Speedy, Green Arrow was essentially treated as a more light-hearted version of Batman. Idle millionaire Oliver Queen found himself stranded on a desert island, and taught himself archery to survive. Eventually, criminals came to the island. He used his archery skills to defeat them, and decided to keep fighting crime as a hobby. Shortly after beginning his career, Green Arrow met Roy Harper, an orphan who'd been raised by a Native American mentor on an isolated mesa. The boy was even faster with the bow than GA, and picked up the name "Speedy."

While never a major hit in The Golden Age of Comic Books, Green Arrow and Speedy sold decently, and were members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory, DC Comics' second superhero team. After World War II, the pair was moved to Adventure Comics along with Aquaman. As pet characters of editor Mort Weisinger, they were published continuously as backups to the Superboy feature all the way from 1946 to 1960. GA and Speedy then jumped to World's Finest until 1964. During this time period, Green Arrow changed very little, sticking to short, fun stories in which he used trick arrows to thwart criminals and save lives. Perhaps the best remembered stories are the short run in 1958 by Jack Kirby. Green Arrow also became a a member of the JLA during this period, whilst Speedy went and joined the Teen Titans.

In 1969, however, artist Neal Adams gave Ollie a new costume and his now-trademark forked beard. Inspired by this striking new look, writer Dennis O'Neil followed this up with a storyline in which Oliver Queen lost his money. A few nights on the street, dealing with the social services net from the bottom, radically altered Green Arrow's politics. From (at best) a "limousine liberal", Green Arrow became an outspoken champion of the poor and oppressed, advocating progressive social policies as a cross between Robin Hood and Abbie Hoffman. Also around this time, Green Arrow became romantically linked to Black Canary, at that time an immigrant from Earth-Two.

Green Arrow was then teamed up with Green Lantern Hal Jordan in a series of socially relevant stories in which the "by-the-book" Hal and "plays by his own rules" Ollie deal with issues like racism, political corruption, pollution and overpopulation. Speedy had not been seen adventuring with his mentor in some time and this was made a plot point when it was revealed that Green Arrow's neglect had caused Roy to turn to heroin. Roy later recovered from his addiction with help from Black Canary, becoming a federal agent for some time. He later adopted the superhero codename of Arsenal, rejoined the Titans (where he led the team for a time) and fathered a daughter, Lian, with the supervillain assassin Cheshire - making him one of the few single-father superheroes in comics history.