Comics Are Stupid: When Is An Arrow Not An Arrow?
I’m currently quite ill, so have some comic-related rambling.
To distil Green Arrow into a few words is fairly simple: he’s a wisecracking socialist Batman. Like Batman, Oliver Queen is a very rich man who moonlights as a crime-fighter in a daft costume. Like Batman, he uses his public wealth to fund good causes while beating up criminals on the side. Unlike Batman, however, he’s a veritable blabbermouth – he could give Spider-Man a run for his money with his barrages of quips and one-liners. He is fundamentally a bit of a silly character, though he’s had plenty of dark storylines over the years. He’s also very anti-establishment, which makes a nice contrast to Bruce Wayne; in his earlier material especially he goes off on political rants every other page. (For a long time Green Arrow’s comics were a hotspot of ‘let’s tackle social issue X this month’, notably with the storyline where his sidekick Speedy is a drug addict. Probably should have picked a more subtle name.)
Aquaman’s face says it all. But ‘five-fathom fascist’ is a cracking insult, let’s be honest. Green Arrow #4 (2001)While the Emerald Archer has been a fixture of many of the Justice League and other team-up books I’ve read over the years, I’ve only actually read one solo series of his, because it was the only one that was in the library when I was growing up. (The same library in which I first encountered the Justice League in a random 2004 TPB.) It was a collection from 2001, containing the Quiver and Sounds of Violence arcs. The former deals with Green Arrow’s resurrection – like almost every superhero, he died heroically and then came back to life, dealt with some amnesia along the way. It’s a fine arc. But it was Sounds of Violence that stuck with me, for one specific reason. It’s this page.
Green Arrow #12 (2002)Yes. That is Green Arrow, interrupted while out to dinner, shooting kebab skewers out of a harp. And…
Green Arrow #12 (2002)…nailing it, because of course he does.
The fundamental problem with Green Arrow – and to a slightly lesser extent the more serious Hawkeye – is that they run around with lethal weapons and don’t like killing people. (In the comics, at least: the Arrow TV series went more murder-happy, and the MCU Hawkeye has no problem with killing, which works a lot better in my opinion.) Hawkeye has become more and more ‘serious’ over the years, as far as I can tell, despite the odd trick arrow. Green Arrow went through a similar journey; initially he killed nobody, then he killed someone by accident, then he was forced to kill someone… (Different interpretations, of course, vary.) In Quiver/Sounds of Violence he comes very close to killing on several occasions, and he’s generally forgoing the trick arrows in favour of simply crippling criminals by shooting them in the hands or legs. You know, not painful at all.
And sometimes he just openly admits that he’d like to murder you. Green Arrow #3 (2001)Green Arrow gets angry. Batman does too, of course; he beats his villains to within an inch of their lives on occasion, held back by his iron will and his self-imposed no-kill rule. But Green Arrow doesn’t have that restraint. Green Arrow tries not to kill you, but he’ll really hurt you in the process. And if he gets too angry… well, he’s a man with a bow and arrow, and he’s a very good shot.
I think that’s why I like the Quiver/Sounds of Violence arc so much. Because it starts off with classic Green Arrow, boxing-glove arrows and political rants and plenty of pow/biff/wham action. Then it gets serious. Green Arrow is back, and he’s angry, and people are going to get hurt until his city gets better.
But even an angry Green Arrow is still an arrogant, mouthy show-off, and we can’t help but love him for it. And while he might have put down the boxing gloves, he still can’t resist a little unconventional weaponry from time to time. Or a good quip, even in the face of death.
The guy killed a lot of children. It’s fair. Green Arrow #10 (2002)It should go without saying, but all of the images above are the copyright of DC Comics.
