Poor Green Arrow

 

Last year's launch of DC Comics' so-called New 52 hit Green Arrow hard. What we have now is an entirely new Oliver Queen, bearing no resemblance to the goatee-brandishing version that endured over 40 years since being introduced by Bob Haney and Neal Adams in 1969's The Brave and the Bold #85. That is the Oliver Queen that I know and this stranger traipsing around these days in the Green Arrow comic book every month has given me no compelling reason to become acquainted.

There have been changes to Green Arrow on television sets also. G.A. had been a likeable supporting cast member on Smallville for its last couple of seasons, but that show ended a year or two ago. 

I certainly didn't foresee it but they gave Green Arrow his own series this year. If you haven't watched it yet, you should give it a try. It's not perfect, but it does have a style of its own and they're putting a sincere effort into it. At first I was surprised that it didn't feature the same actor from Smallville but this is yet another new spin on the character and the producers were correct to start fresh.

Comics writer Marc Guggenheim was the hand behind the well done final run of Justice Society stories before that group was wiped out by the New 52, and he is a writer and executive producer on this new Arrow show. He included a fun little in-joke in the third episode when it was revealed that the flophouse where Deadshot was rooming was located at 1700 Broadway; 1700 Broadway is the real-life address of the offices of DC Comics!