Green Arrow Questions AKA I Was Wondering #7

Randy Jackson August 11, 2012 at 8:49pm

I dunno if this will help much, but I did a review on the old board of DC Showcase Presents: Green Arrow.

This particular showcase reprints stories from 1958-1969, most of them backups from the likes of World's Finest, Adventure Comics, and a handful of stories from The Brave and the Bold. Additionally, there's a reprint of Justice League Of America #4, featuring the induction of Green Arrow to the League.
Most of these stories are of the 6-8 page variety, and they tend to be very similar. Some criminal comes up with a gimmick to commit crimes, and Green Arrow and Speedy have to figure out how to defeat the gimmick. There's a number of stories with foes that are gimmick archers as well, including a monkey, a robot and two separate clown archers.

Because of the brevity of the stories, they feel kind of rushed for the most part, which is a shame. Some other things I noted was that unlike Batman and Robin, there weren't any solo stories featuring Green Arrow (in fact, there were more stories featuring Speedy on his own). Fisticuffs were rare, as the team relied heavily on their gimmick arrows (and seemingly bottomless quivers) to do their fighting for them. In fact, I think I saw them throw all of 3 punches in all the stories I read.

There are some stories of note here, notably Green Arrow's induction into the Justice League, his team-up with the Martian Manhunter (pretty good, all in all), the Miss Arrowette stories, and a couple of The Brave and the Bold team-ups with Batman.

There's not much in terms of character development here. Oliver Queen (he isn't referred to as Ollie in any of the stories--leastways not to my recollection) is pretty much generic hero number five. No pronounced liberal streak, just a guy trying to do the right thing, and Speedy is pretty much the same way. There's no pathos a la Batman and Robin here, just two people trying to do good things, and I certainly can't argue with that.

I wouldn't call this a great collection of stories, but it's not bad. For historical purposes it's interesting, but I wouldn't call it essential.

BTW, I'd heard that there was supposed to be some serious consideration behind the Green Arrow/Martian Manhunter team, so I was very surprised they only teamed up for one story. Were there other team-ups elsewhere?

Cap later responded:

Bienvenu's right; all the Kirby stories are included in this Showcase.
This was, in fact, the chronological stories of Green Arrow after his "Earth-1" shift. As has been discussed on this board before, the five DC heroes who were published continually from the '40s to the '60s -- Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow and Aquaman -- all had notable continuity breaks in the late '50s from which we fans demark the "shift" from Earth-2 to Earth-1. Green Arrow and Aquaman both had spankin' new origins in the late '50s, and both the GA and Sea King Showcases launch from those new origins.

And in Green Arrow's case, Kirby came over to DC (briefly) in the late '50s, and did some journeyman work on the Emerald Archer. Hence, they are included in this chronological iteration. Papp and Elias preceded him on Green Arrow, and they followed when he was gone.

As to Oliver Queen's (non)characterization, you're right on the money, Randy. As hard as it is for fans to believe now, for 28 years Green Arrow had no personality at all. He was, as you said, "Hero No. 5" from 1941 to 1969. He was originally conceived (by Mort Weisinger) as little more than a Batman knock-off with a Robin Hood gimmick, and that's all he was for years and years. The early Justice League of America stories, by Gardner Fox (1960-1968), had no characterization to speak of. All the heroes were of identical character, their dialogue virtually interchangeable, and their only distinguishing characteristics their costumes, hair color and super-powers (or gimmicks). Except for Wonder Woman, who was equally interchangeable except for being, you know, a girl.

That all changed in 1969, when Denny O'Neil (briefly) took over Justice League of America, and started throwing in some Marvel-style dissonance among the team members. His initial foray was to create a schism between the non-powered heroes ("little guys" he felt comfortable with) and the super-powered heroes (that he preferred not to write), and he used GA, who at that point wasn't being claimed by any other writer, as his spokesman. Over in Brave & Bold Neal Adams gave the Battling Bowman a new costume, and shortly thereafter, in both B&B and the new Green Lantern/Green Arrow, O'Neil combined the two to form Oliver Queen's new characterization. It was rather abrupt, but it had staying power.

As to the Green Arrow/Martian Manhunter "team," credit where it's due: Commander Benson saw this connection where others did not. He has found a couple of references and inferences in Justice League of America and Brave & Bold #50 (the GA/MM team-up) that implied the two were planned to be another World's Finest team (or, as I wrote in CBG, the World's Second-Finest team). They were uniquely suited to do so; Manhunter was a Superman knock-off, and Green Arrow was a Batman knock-off, so why couldn't they repeat the success of Superman and Batman in World's Finest? (Even if their colors did clash.) But, despite a couple of references in JLofA to the GA/MM "team," it didn't develop, which we must assume was due to lackluster sales of Brave & Bold #50.

None of which casts any aspersion on Showcase Presents: Green Arrow. Whatever the reasons for GA's longevity (likely because Mort Weisinger, his creator, always found a back-up home for him in the books Weisinger edited), or lack of originality, or lack of personality, those little back-up tales were well-crafted and charming. It's hard to write a 6- or 8-page story, but that forced economy seemed to bring out the best in the writers. No, I don't find the bottomless quivers believable either, nor do I find it plausible that Oliver (not Ollie, not until O'Neil) and Roy kept surviving despite bringing bows and arrows to gunfights. But they were fun little stories, and I enjoyed Showcase Presents: Green Arrow. What's not to like?

Dandy Forsdyke August 12, 2012 at 8:04pm

I always thought of Flash and Green Lantern as having a 'World's Finest' buddy relationship. A mag with them as a team/duo would have been a good idea, they were fun together guest starring in each other's books. Gil Kane and Infantino taking turn on the art.

Philip Portelli August 14, 2012 at 5:22pm

Y'know the weird thing is that I never really considered Green Arrow that much of a Batman knockoff. Yeah there was the boy sidekick, being a millionaire, the Arrowcar, the Arrowcave, the Arrow Signal but the same could be said in various degrees about Doctor Mid-Nite, the Sandman and even Captain America. Green Arrow survived for a reason. He was included as one of the Seven Soldiers of Victory in the Golden Age and the JLA in the Silver for a reason.

That reason was that Mort Weisinger created him! But then again, why wouldn't Mort have wanted a Green Arrow series or at least have put him in Action.

Luke Blanchard August 22, 2012 at 12:00pm

The Golden Age Who's Whose has a page on Green Arrow that traces his evolution, arguing that the characterisation of GA as a Batman knock-off is unfair. I thought the page's author pushes the argument too far, as the Batman resemblance is there from the beginning (millionaire secret ID, ward who is also the hero's kid sidekick, themed car), but I take the writer's point that some of the resemblances were added as the strip developed.

The Commander's column on the Green Arrow/Manhunter team is here.

Randy Jackson August 22, 2012 at 12:18pm

Looking over this site, it appears that Batman and Green Arrow's similarities evolved at a similar rate. For instance, while I don't recall exactly when they started calling it a "bat-a-rang", I know it wasn't called that initially, and certainly there wasn't a "Batmobile" originally either. That being said, it seems to me as if the themed names started pretty quickly for both.

Luke Blanchard said:

The Golden Age Who's Whose has a page on Green Arrow that traces his evolution, arguing that the characterisation of GA as a Batman knock-off is unfair. I thought the page's author pushes the argument too far, as the Batman resemblance is there from the beginning (millionaire secret ID, ward who is also the hero's kid sidekick, themed car), but I take the writer's point that some of the resemblances were added as the strip developed.

The Commander's column on the Green Arrow/Manhunter team is here.

Luke Blanchard August 22, 2012 at 12:26pm

When the author writes that his "specialty Batarangs didn't appear until 1957" I take it he means ones with gimmicks, as Batman was using boomerangs/batarangs earlier. The "Batmobile" name was used before the car became a themed car with a bat-head design. Wikipedia's "Batmobile" page says Batman's car was first depicted with a "bat hood ornament" in Batman #5.

Philip Portelli August 22, 2012 at 3:45pm

The Batarang first appeared in Detective Comics #31 (S'39) though it was spelled "baterang" originally. Perhaps it was meant to be the equivalent of the Avenger's knife "Ike" as Batman used a gun as well in his first year.

The term Batmobile was first used in Detective # 48 (F'41) though Batman had his "roadster" since #30 (Au'39).

Besides what else would Green Arrow call his car, plane, cave and signal logically?

Kirk G August 22, 2012 at 5:27pm

Personally, I liked the story in LOTDK where Batman had to develop the batmobile to cope with daylight, since the costume didn't work as well during the day...but he needed someway to get home, get around, and appear terrorizing in the rear view mirror. What was that arc? "Vigilanti"? It featured the return of Dr. Hugo Strange. I always enjoyed that arc.

Philip Portelli said:

The Batarang first appeared in Detective Comics #31 (S'39) though it was spelled "baterang" originally. Perhaps it was meant to be the equivalent of the Avenger's knife "Ike" as Batman used a gun as well in his first year.

The term Batmobile was first used in Detective # 48 (F'41) though Batman had his "roadster" since #30 (Au'39).

Besides what else would Green Arrow call his car, plane, cave and signal logically?

Luke Blanchard August 22, 2012 at 6:08pm

Philip Portelli said:

Besides what else would Green Arrow call his car, plane, cave and signal logically?

The Bolter, the Ranger, the HQuiver, Notch Niche or Harold's Eyrie, and the Fletcher Fetcher?

Philip Portelli August 22, 2012 at 9:24pm

*SIGH* I said logically! ;-)

Luke Blanchard said:

Philip Portelli said:

Besides what else would Green Arrow call his car, plane, cave and signal logically?

The Bolter, the Ranger, the HQuiver, Notch Niche or Harold's Eyrie, and the Fletcher Fetcher?

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Green Arrow Questions AKA I Was Wondering #7

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