Green Arrows of the World Appreciation Thread

[MajorHoy]

This is one of those concepts that was used as one-shot (yes, slight pun intended!) story back in the late 1950s (in Adventure Comics #250 (July 1958) to be exact) that really has some potential if DC ever wanted to revive it.

As pointed out elsewhere (like in the Babblings About DC Comics blog site), the story pretty much is the same as the earlier "The Batmen of All Nations" that appeared in Detective Comics #215 (January 1955), except this time it's with Green Arrow and his archer counterparts from around the globe.



Unfortunately, unlike the story "The Batmen of All Nations", as far as I'm aware DC has never done any further follow-up to this story.

And it's not as if DC hasn't had other stories where Green Arrow has met other archer counterparts. The site "DC Multiverse" had a few entries that showed some similar ideas in past Green Arrow and Speedy adventures: https://earth-one-earth-two.blogspot...%20the%20World

[MajorHoy]

As to who those other "Green Arrows of the World" were,



some were named, and others had no other identification than the country they were from.
(And, yes, just like in "The Batmen of All Nations", criminals did capture and impersonate one of the international archers.)

As for the other bowmen used in this story, there were:

* Ace Archer of Scotland Yard / Bowman of Britain
* Bowman of the Bush
* Phantom (of France)

as well as Green Arrows from Japan (Ace Archer of Japan?), Mexico, Polynesia, Switzerland, as well as at least two other unnamed countries of origin?

If only a writer like Grant Morrison wanted to use this concept and expand it further!

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I feel like the Arrow Clan introduced in the Lemire/Sorrentino run would be a good way to modernize and reintroduce them.

[MajorHoy]

I feel like the Arrow Clan introduced in the Lemire/Sorrentino run would be a good way to modernize and reintroduce them.

I hadn't bothered to read the Lemire & Sorrentino "Outsiders War" arc and was wondering how many actual archers that could have been the equivalent of the Green Arrows of the World were involved. (I know they had things like the Arrow Clan, the Sword Clan, the Spear Clan, the Axe Clan, and the Clan of the Cave Bear . . . )

[Frontier]

Green Arrow inc.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I hadn't bothered to read the Lemire & Sorrentino "Outsiders War" arc and was wondering how many actual archers that could have been the equivalent of the Green Arrows of the World were involved. (I know they had things like the Arrow Clan, the Sword Clan, the Spear Clan, the Axe Clan, and the Clan of the Cave Bear . . . )

the arrow clan wasn't given specific looks or focus outside a few characters connected to Oliver. I was just talking about their introduction in a potential future story.

[MajorHoy]

One of the earlier Green Arrow stories that the DC Multiverse - Earth-One Earth-Two blog contrasted with "The Green Arrows of the World" was "The Red, White and Blue Arrow" from Adventure Comics #133 (October 1948).



In that story, Green Arrow and Speedy are climbing a ladder of arrows Green Arrow had shot into the side of a building . . .


. . . except one arrow didn't hold properly, so Speedy wound up falling.
Roy then wonders if that and some other issues that came up that night were more than bad luck, and if maybe Oliver was no longer able to carry on as Green Arrow.



So Green Arrow has Speedy audition three other men to replace Oliver, giving the three the identities of "Red Arrow", "White Arrow", and "Blue Arrow" during their try-out periods.

(To be continued . . . )

[Lightning Rider]

I love the concept, would love to see a modern reworking with some real cultural and thematic significance imbued into their identities.

[jetengine]

I love the concept, would love to see a modern reworking with some real cultural and thematic significance imbued into their identities.

To tie into Green Arrows Liberal mindset maybe make the Blue Arrow hyper conservative, Red Arrow a literal Communist and White Arrow a White Supremacist ?

They can all be reactionary to Ollie. Red thinks Ollie isnt going far enough. Blue wants to show that Peacenik what a REAL American can do. White misconstrues Queen and thinks he's one of them and decides to **** on his identity when he shuts down a White Supremacy rally ?

[Timothy Hunter]

To tie into Green Arrows Liberal mindset maybe make the Blue Arrow hyper conservative, Red Arrow a literal Communist and White Arrow a White Supremacist ?

They can all be reactionary to Ollie. Red thinks Ollie isnt going far enough. Blue wants to show that Peacenik what a REAL American can do. White misconstrues Queen and thinks he's one of them and decides to **** on his identity when he shuts down a White Supremacy rally ?

That's genius. Bravo.

[MajorHoy]

To tie into Green Arrows Liberal mindset maybe make the Blue Arrow hyper conservative, Red Arrow a literal Communist and White Arrow a White Supremacist ?

They can all be reactionary to Ollie. Red thinks Ollie isnt going far enough. Blue wants to show that Peacenik what a REAL American can do. White misconstrues Queen and thinks he's one of them and decides to **** on his identity when he shuts down a White Supremacy rally ?

Well, that may be a tad extreme.
After all, I'm assuming they chose those colors because of . . . something familiar to many people in the U.S. (especially back in the 1940s, only a few years after WWII)?

Also, for how that original story wrapped up, . . .



Turns out it was Ollie who was the Red, White, and Blue Arrows all along!

[Lightning Rider]

To tie into Green Arrows Liberal mindset maybe make the Blue Arrow hyper conservative, Red Arrow a literal Communist and White Arrow a White Supremacist ?

They can all be reactionary to Ollie. Red thinks Ollie isnt going far enough. Blue wants to show that Peacenik what a REAL American can do. White misconstrues Queen and thinks he's one of them and decides to **** on his identity when he shuts down a White Supremacy rally ?

That could work for those particular identities (though I've just seen the twist ending myself above), but for the global Green Arrows I was thinking more each one taking on a different anti-systemic crusade depending on their cultural context. So all of them similar to Ollie in spirit but with a different flavor.

[MajorHoy]

Another early Green Arrow story that the DC Multiverse - Earth-One Earth-Two blog compared to "The Green Arrows of the World" was "The Secret of the Masked Archers" from Adventure Comics #157 (October 1950).

It's a time-travel tale (of sorts), but at least it involves another country (France during the 15th Century).





(To be continued . . . )

[Güicho]

They are L-R
Unnamed Arab archer- unnamed Swiss archer - unnamed Spanish archer (suggested El Trovador as he shoots with a Spanish Guitar) - unnamed Indian archer (suggested the Emerald Bowman) - Green Arrow - Speedy - Phantom of France - Ace Archer of Japan - unnamed Mexican archer (suggested La Flecha Verde) - Bowman of the Bush.

Not shown around table are also Bowman of Britain and an unnamed Polynesian archer.

[MajorHoy]

A little more from "The Secret of the Masked Archers" from Adventure Comics #157 (October 1950), where Ollie and Roy seem to have found themselves a few centuries in the past:




And while Ollie andRoy have figured out the real identities of the "Masked Archers", the bad guys also think they know who they are!

(To be continued . . . )