I'm working on putting together a run of all the Green Arrow "solo" stories from the debut of the New Look in Brave and the Bold #85 through the end of the Grell run.

Ollie has had a long and interesting history as a solo character. He's one of the only heroes to remain in publication through the 50's. While most of his more popular and more famous contemporaries got cancelled or shelved, his backup series kept plugging away in one comic or another up until 1964. Atthat point he finally got cancelled, though the character continued to appear in Justice League of America.

Five years later, Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil reimagined the character, creating the classic Green Arrow we all know and love. The goatee, the costume and the crusading liberal attitude all came about in B&B #85. Then, in his next appearance, in Justice league of America #75, Ollie began his relationship with Black Canary.

After that point, the character began another odyssey of bouncing around from one title to another, maintaining a "solo" presence for the next 17 years before finally getting his own book. Over that period, Ollie's strip appeared in:

Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76-89
Flash #217-219
Action Comics #421-458 (rotating with Atom and Human Target)
Green Lantern/Green Arrow #90-122
World's Finest #244-282 (overlapping with above)
Detective Comics #521-567
Green Arrow LS #1-4 (takes place during above run)
Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters #1-3


The Green Arrow LS in 1983 was the first time Ollie got his own book, after over 40 years. His first ongoing solo series began in 1987, 46 years after his first appearance.

I've almost finished piecing together all of the above; just missing one issue of GL/GA and about 18 issues of Detective Comics. ONce I get them all, I will probably begin a read through with reviews.

I forgot to mention this run. I've only read the first issue so far but it was excellent.


I enjoyed the Mike W. Barr mini series as well.

Just read The Green Arrow by Jack Kirby TPB and thought it was pretty interesting. It collects eleven stories originally published in Adventure Comics #250-256 and World's Finest Comics #96-99. This was long before Green Arrow would receive a solo title.



The first story originally plotted by Bill Finger and heavily rewritten by Kirby "The Green Arrows of the World" introduces an international club of Green Arrows from different countries similar to the Batmen of All Nations which appeared a few years earlier. A convention of archers organized by our own Green Arrow is interrupted by an imposter who disguises himself as the archer of Britain as part of his plan to get close to and kill Green Arrow.

In the second story "The Case of the Super-Arrows" special trick arrows from 3000 years in the future are sent back through time to the Arrow Cave. Green Arrow uses them to stop Cougar Cain from escaping after a bank robbery but ends up accidentally being hypnotized after dropping the hypnotic arrow. This allows Cougar Cain to get away with the quiver of super-arrows which he uses to go on a bank robbing spree.

In "Five Clues to Danger" Oliver Queen's friend Professor Anderson is lost at sea and presumed dead. His will stated that Ollie was to receive five of his personal belongings. That night Ollie and Roy are awoken by burglars who they pursue as Green Arrow and Speedy. The thieves escape but Green Arrow discovers that they had stolen the Professor's personal belongings. The items turn out to be clues left by the Professor who has been kidnapped for his formula that can create perfect artificial diamonds.

When giant arrows falls from the sky in "Mystery of the Giant Arrows" Green Arrow and Speedy are called to the observatory where Professor Riggles has used his cosmic radar to discover the source of the giant arrows. They are pulled into space and another dimension where the giant children who have been shooting the arrows await.

The story continues in "Prisoners of Dimension Zero". Green Arrow and Speedy find themselves in another dimension on a planet of telepathic giants. They help their giant counterpart Xeen Arrow foil a bank robbery and he helps them get back to Earth. This alternate version of Green Arrow would appear a few months after the first appearance of The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh and years before Barry Allen would "discoverer" the multiverse in "Flash of Two Worlds!".

"The Menace of the Mechanical Octopus" starts with a giant, flying metal octopus robbing jewels from a skyscraper. Green Arrow and Speedy in the Arrow-Plane retrieve the jewels but the giant, metal octopus escapes. Later they are called to aid a mail train that is being attacked by the mechanical octopus but are captured and taken to an underwater base. They escape and defeat the metal octopus as it's attacking a liner ship carrying gold bullion.

In "The Green Arrow's Last Stand" Green Arrow and Speedy investigate the disappearance of Professor Hagen and two of his staff who went missing during a storm. They find the Professor and his missing staff have wrecked their car and rescue them in the Arrow-Plane. Upon landing the plane in a valley for repairs they are attacked by a lost tribe of Native Americans.

On a flight to Tokyo in "The War That Never Ended!" their plane goes down and their life-raft strands them on Tongi Island. There Ollie and Roy are attacked by a group of WWII Japanese soldiers and Green Arrow is captured. He learns that they lost communication with Japan 13 years earlier and tries to convince them that WWII is over. Coincidentally a fleet of U.S. Navy ships arrive and Major Tayako insists that Green Arrow help them destroy the fleet or die. Speedy returns and attacks while Green Arrow is able to send an S.O.S. to the Navy ships who force Major Tayako to surrender.

In "The Unmasked Archers!" a newspaper article exposes Ollie and Roy as Green Arrow and Speedy. They meet with the police Commissioner and unmask themselves but he doesn't believe them thinking it a joke. They return home and discover that the newspaper was left as a gag. He gets a call about a train robbery from the Commissioner and decides to keep up the joke while still stopping the robbers. He uses a clever misplaced shot to net the robbers as Speedy using a balloon arrow in the shape of the Arrow-Plane convinces the police that the real Green Arrow had stopped the crooks.

A TV newscast about an expedition to a remote island alerts Ollie that they may discover his secret identity unless he can get there first in "Green Arrow's First Case". A flashback reveals how after being stranded on the island Ollie honed his archery skills and invents his first trick arrows to hunt for food. He left a record on a cave wall that if discovered would reveal his identity as Green Arrow. When a ship shows up to the island Ollie swims out to it thinking himself rescued. He discovers the ship has been taken over by mutineers and defeats them using his trick arrows. In the present Green Arrow is able to trick the expedition into thinking the island is radioactive protecting his secret identity. I'm not sure if this was his first origin story but I found it interesting that he used grease over his eyes to disguise himself similar to season one of CW's Arrow.



In the final story "Crimes Under Glass" Green Arrow and Speedy go up against a gang of criminals who uses trick lenses during their robberies.

I'm a big fan of the Mike Grell series...but Grell is one of those creators who can pretty much do no wrong for me.

I know that I gave that Kirby Green Arrow book to my son Nathan when he was a fairly new reader and wanted comics to read. He devoured that thing and still can quote passages from it.

Origins, I've had a few
A few, too numerous to mention.

Totally with you.  I've basically never enjoyed solo Green Arrow except the Year One mini, I think Grell's stuff is. well, not unreadable but it can reach out and touch unreadable without walking more than three steps - I've been trying to work through some of the post-Adams Green Lantern/Green Arrow stuff but that just feels like work. It's been a while since I read the Kirby trade and maybe I'd like it more now that I've read more stuff from the same time period - But, man, even THAT didn't do anything for me.  

I did read some of the current incarnation of Green Arrow and the art was beautiful, at least!  (The story was generic modern ho-hum DC in the "undo everything the last writer did" mode.)  

Green Arrow was one of the first guest heroes on the Superfriends show...



making an appearance during the first season, but when they expanded the cast, he was not among the heroes they added, when DC chose instead to make up 3 characters (well 2 1/2 as Black Vulcan was pretty much a Black Lightning stand in or vice versa) that expanded the demographic appeal more to add to the team. 

I did really like the way they did Ollie on JL Unlimited though. 

I recently read the Kirby Arrow collection. I had spotted Kirby Green Arrow when reading through an Overstreet guide in high school and had always wanted to check those out. When I got it, it was not quite what I had envisioned in high school. It was enjoyable, but for me it read better in small doses as there was a certain sameness to the stories that made it a slog to read a bunch at once. I enjoyed the first couple a lot, but a few more and I had to put it down. When I came back a few days later and picked it up again I enjoyed the first few, but quickly found myself slogging again. I read the last few one at a time, one a day and each was more enjoyable than when I had tried to read it in bunches. 

I was a big fan of the Longbow Hunters when it came out (it was what made me a Grell fan), and the ensuing ongoing. I am in the process of reacquiring some of those issues currently as well, as they were among those I purged in the move to Ohio. 

Overall, I really like the character, but the stories have been a mixed bag over the years. 

I do love the look of the character though (he made my 12 Days list this past year). I too had the Super Powers figure, but I also had...



I think it was the second in the Ollie line up (who knows maybe they made a Mego style for each origin Ollie had...
-M