Green Arrow Is DC’s Most Relevant 21st Century Superhero (So Why Are They Wasting Him?)

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Only very recently has the hard-hitting political element come back into Green Arrow stories, particularly with Chris Condon currently writing the character’s latest ongoing series. He’s been taking a lot of inspiration from various points in Oliver’s history. Condon has subtly reintroduced Oliver’s distrust of those in power and the relationship he has with the police of Star City. Once again, Oliver sees that no one else is looking out for the people in the rundown parts of the city, leading him to take up for the oppressed. With the most recent story arc ending with Oliver using his personal wealth to help the citizens in the Freshwater community, Oliver has set himself up to be a people’s billionaire, taking his heroic acts out of the costume as well. With this sort of development for Green Arrow being so fitting for his character as well as timely, why is it that DC isn’t doing more with the iconic hero? It comes down to a lot of factors.

Green Arrow became a shadow of himself

After years of not having a major series, Green Arrow returned in 2023 with Joshua Williamson at the helm. Williamson did an excellent job but was halted by the Absolute Power event. Oliver has a great role there as the surprise hero under the guise of being Amanda Waller’s new agent. Before that, however, his first twelve issues were about bringing his status quo back after the character being a minor player for years, since before Flashpoint. But then things were shaken up again, story-wise, and Oliver changed for plot reasons that wouldn’t pay off for months. While it ended up well, a lot of his allies turned on him as did fans, with the latter turning on not just of the character but his new series where he was his own antagonist.

After a strong return Oliver became everything he never wanted to be. Until the final hour of stopping Waller in Absolute Power, Oliver had been lost again. Williamson started off so strong with the book but ultimately had been set up due to Absolute Power and setting up a lot of other great books. This is no way saying he did a bad job but he had a lot of other projects to cover but it didn’t do Green Arrow any favors. After his departure from Green Arrow, Chris Condon of That Texas Blood and Ultimate Wolverine took the reigns.

Condon took what had been laid out before him and retooled the narrative to be a lot closer to the status quo of the 80’s while keeping the new elements within arms reach. With promises of more of his extended cast joining in on the next story arc we got a “Hard-Traveling Hero” Green Arrow again. With his left leaning ideologies to the center of the character again, Oliver felt the most like himself in a long time. The only major issue with the “Fresh Water Kills” story arc is that DC hasn’t pushed it as much as they should’ve. They pushed Williamson’s as the return to form, while it did do some of that, Condon’s felt more like that promise. As much as I’m a sucker for Green Arrow nostalgia, this felt like Oliver coming home, which in turn means the character is prime for stories that push the envelope and lean hard into what Green Arrow does best: take risks, question authority, and be the social justice-minded hero that we need.

Risky Green Arrow is the Best Green Arrow

DC seems to be a bit apprehensive to return Oliver to his somewhat radical, risky roots. Whether it’s to stop alienation of his not-so-left leaning audience or not, he keeps falling back to the “Green Batman” archetype. Oliver Queen has always been a social justice warrior and keeping him from that core is a misuse of the character. More than perhaps any other DC character, the Emerald Archer is deeply political, his stories turning both a mirror and a magnifying glass onto real-world issues and asking readers to really think. By not doing more of this, DC has been missing out on some fantastic opportunities.

Fortunately, with Condon’s take going back to the roots, it’s looking prominent for Green Arrow once again so it is possible that DC is starting to embrace the idea that their superhero landscape really does need their most radical hero. The Green Arrow everyone knows is seemingly back and hopefully for good. If “Fresh Water Kills” is anything to go by, I’d say the Emerald Archer has more glory on the way. His stories are certainly needed, now perhaps more than ever.

Do you think Green Arrow has been wasted lately? Let us know down in the comments.