Pitch a Direction: Green Arrow

[Timothy Hunter]

It's one of these threads again. As everyone knows by now, the Green Arrow monthly title is ceasing to be in issue 50 next month.

Envision a new direction for the Emerald Archer. Who would write? Who would draw? What would be the new status quo? The lead hero does not have to be Oliver Queen per say, Roy Harper, Connor Hawke, etcetera could also play the role of Green Arrow. Go wild!

[LordUltimus]

Green Arrow and Black Canary get married only it's not ****.

[JackDaw]

Put him in a world of his own where his power set makes sense...medieval technology, low grade magic for some of his villains, greedy landowners and evil knights for other villains.

In other words...a variation on Warlord, and back to his inspiration (Robin Hood).

[Timothy Hunter]

Put him in a world of his own where his power set makes sense...medieval technology, low grade magic for some of his villains, greedy landowners and evil knights for other villains.

In other words...a variation on Warlord, and back to his inspiration (Robin Hood).

So would you send Green Arrow back in time? Or are you talking about an Elseworlds series?

[K. Jones]

I mean he's the West Coast Batman, right? America's a big place and there's always enough East Coast trouble between Gotham, spacemen invading Metropolis, Atlantis invading Maine, or even espionage and intrigue or Greek Gods striking in the Capitol District. Like ... Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman just don't have the time.

I really liked Ben Percy's run because it was holistically integrating a lot, in the Rebirth fashion, taking what it could from Golden Age, Silver Age, Denny, Grell, and then ... well, skipping over like 90% of more modern G.A. sources and going right to Lemire & Sorrentino and CW-Berlanti. And adding its own stuff, too. I thought it had its problems of course, but its own sense of style, too - and Otto Schmidt and Juan Ferreyra did really cool things. But that story ran a good course and we're talking about a new direction, so ... ignoring all the loose ends in the various volumes of G.A. over the years that I'd like to see patched for whatever reason ...

First I'd have some serious Mike Grell / Denys Cowan style art.

Second, while I love Canary, I'd leave her out. I mean maybe she'd turn up for an arc, something big enough that another JLA-er has to come help out, but generally Ollie would be on his own here and I'd want to avoid going full bore into the world of Kung-Fu practitioners and assassin leagues, so no like ... Richard Dragon or anything like that. And maybe no Metas. I'd certainly dig back into his publication history and probably try to pull a bunch of Gold and Silver Age villains, thematically appropriate, to dust off and make into new threats that make sense. I wouldn't keep things in Star City, but I would keep it on the West Coast, for sure. I feel like a Green Arrow / Green Lantern team-up is like the West Coast equivalent of Batman / Superman ... they're like the underappreciated, way more low-key Brave and Bold duo. And I'd want to get at least one more West Coaster out there so they'd have this weird unofficial "alt-Trinity", though I'm not sure who. You know, somebody female like Wonder Woman and maybe Magicky (not spacey or earthy) and who would have the right vibe with Ollie and Hal to be this weird trio, but also somebody top-tier JLA. Zatanna and Hawkgirl are the only ones sticking out though and I wouldn't want either of them to be the third. But maybe Vixen. Vixen would be cool as hell playing off those two. So yeah ... an arc with Canary ... and then an arc with Hal Jordan and Vixen taking on something that requires a space cop and an African animal goddess and an archer.

Conspiracies, or retconspiracies, or secret societies, are pretty played out these days so I'd actually probably actively avoid that and the series would have much more of a straighforward tone of Ollie being a hunter with a target. Conspiracies are brilliant for Batman because he's this Gothic Detective figure, but Ollie is a Robin Hood Huntsman ... it's more important to avoid conspiracies and have him being more of a street level Social Justice type guy using his vigilantism to bring down the corrupt and untouchable. Getting him into the outdoors, Pacific Northwest, maybe raiding some drug dealer or corrupt politician's mountain cabin, would be a great visual. Dealing with at least one corrupt law figure, one "assassin" who is literally on the political payroll, and taking on ... well, modern day "Lords and Ladies", and embarrassing them publicly in a courtly and noble way would be great. So you riff on the Robin Hood stuff by looking at the actual Robin Hood Folklore and applying it somewhat to Canonical Star City. But you also go full tilt on the huntsman/archer angle. Play up the notion that as an archer, he's all about attacks that are ranged - protecting his people before the enemy can strike. Preemptive strikes. Long shots. Getting behind the lines at people who would otherwise be protected. Carefully targeted approaches. And the notion that the word "sin" comes from missing your target. And loads of mouthpiece political viewpoints coming from allies and enemies.

Batman has plans in plans in plans, but I think Ollie should be more goal oriented. Specific goals - he sees a target and he aims for it. And is a little narrow-visioned in that way, like if he's gunning for one corrupt criminal or something, he's not always seeing the bigger picture.

[K. Jones]

Oh man I realize also that it would be impossible for me not to want to write a story that's effectively "The Archery Contest". Perfect excuse to line up like every archer character in canonical history.

[Lightning Rider]

I'd just put him in rotating contexts. He works well in the woods, as a throwback to his island days, so I'd put him on a long hunt for Deathstroke or someone similar. A pensive slow-burning thriller where there's more thinking and doing than talking. I'd set up an extended run in either Seattle or Star City that doesn't involve a secret society, but instead sees him enlist a growing supporting cast of reformed criminals, victims, orphans, etc. so that he can live up to his Robin Hood theme without being so explicit and oratory about it. I'd still have him travel to other countries as well.

Everything I described has already been done, so it wouldn't exactly be a fresh take, but he just needs a good take on what he's already built on.

[Rakzo]

Heavily inspired by Jeff Lemire's run, high in adventure and self-discovery, expanding the world in ways that pay a huge homage to the past but most importantly, looking into the future to offer something different while at the same time demonstrating how incredibly complex and human Oliver Queen can be.

[Adekis]

I'd make the origin from the Cave Carson backup official, and then I'd just spin the character off of that, make Ollie a little bit more of a mystic to go with his hipster vibes, with a sidekick (...Roy? Mia? Artemis? Maybe give him one of Batman's freaking plethora of kids? I don't know.) who doesn't really take his mysticism seriously. But then many of his foes are major league spacey, like "this could have been a Kirby book from the '70s" kind of spacey.

[iron chimp]

On the dark side of the moon with detective chimp. Cancelled after 2 issues.

[Kaijudo]

I say lean into the more Silver Age, swashbuckling angle. Ollie should be a fun action-adventure hero, with villains to match the vibe (no serial killer types, unless that serial killer has the similar broad Silver Age pastiche going on). Look at some of the goofier elements of his early days and revitalize them for modern times, like the Arrowcar, the Arrowcave, etc. Pair him with Black Canary and make it more of a superhero version of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Add in Arrow's penchant for social issues and give him a corporate entity to rail against, his own personal Lex Luthor or Simon Stagg, and alternate those stories with broader adventure stories that might take Ollie out of Star City (which he'd be living in again, as a fictional city can be made to reflect the tone of the book more than putting him someplace like Seattle could).

Ollie is dour on ARROW because they can't do Batman. The comics have a Batman so there's no need to replicate him in Green Arrow comics.

[Jackalope89]

I want Ollie, Dinah, and maybe Emiko to head to a chili cook-off. Even if its a oneshot, GIVE IT TO ME, or else...

YOU HAVE FAILED THIS CITY!

[jetengine]

So Ollie is on the east coast right ?

So lets make him cool.

DC doesn't have a Tony Stark kind of figure. This cool, suave ladies man "lets hop in my porsche, drink cocktails and spend 10k on watches" kind of character. Now Bruce pretends to be that but he's not and frankly writers these days tend to loathe actually doing much of anything with Bruce that doesn't involve him immediately changing to Batman.

Now thats not to say we ignore Ollies Liberal ideals and Social Justice focus. Just that simply sticking with only that has been done so many times.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

At some point Ollie will run for local office (he'll probably lose at the last minute but yeah he will run.)

[Timothy Hunter]

At some point Ollie will run for local office (he'll probably lose at the last minute but yeah he will run.)

That hypothetical actually did occur during One Year Later, with Queen getting elected no less. However the storyline didn't quite amount to much.

It would be interesting to see him run for president.