| The first quarter of a century of Green | | | | Beginning in the early 1970s, Green Arrow appeared |
| Arrow’s history was not kind to the character. | | | | regularly in the Green Lantern comic book in a story |
| Originally conceived in 1941, the Green Arrow was little | | | | called "Hard Traveling Heroes." As they |
| more than a Batman clone. Like Batman, Green | | | | encountered evil slumlords, oppressed Native |
| Arrow’s secret identity was a rich playboy with | | | | Americans, overpopulated planets, drugs, and |
| many expensive toys and a teenage ward. While | | | | "evil" feminists, the opposing politics of |
| Batman and Robin had a Batmobile, Bat Cave, Bat | | | | conservative Hal Jordan and liberal Oliver Queen were |
| Signal, Batplane, and Bat-Mite, Green Arrow and his | | | | the focal point of the book for 13 issues. The most |
| sidekick Speedy had an Arrow-Car, Arrow Cave, | | | | famous of the Green Lantern and Green Arrow |
| Arrow Signal, Arrowplane, and even an Arrow-mite of | | | | team-ups from the Hard Traveling Heroes days is the |
| their own. Basically, anything that Batman could | | | | "Snowbirds Don’t Fly" storyline, in |
| do…Green Arrow could copy. | | | | which it was revealed that, as a result of his mentor |
| By 1960, that began to change. Writer Denny | | | | going on a road trip with Green Lantern and never |
| O’Neil took away Oliver Queen’s fortune | | | | being home, Green Arrow’s ward Speedy |
| and Neal Adam’s gave him a scruffy goatee | | | | began doing drugs. Green Arrow reacted badly to this |
| look that never would have looked appropriate on | | | | news, smacking Speedy across the face and kicking |
| Bruce Wayne. The loss of his fortune saw Green | | | | him out. The kid was picked up by Green Lantern and |
| Arrow take an increasingly cynical view on the | | | | taken to the home of the heroine Black Canary, also |
| "fatcats" of society. Now that his social | | | | known as Dinah Lance. Though still in the early days of |
| status had changed, Green Arrow became an | | | | a relationship with Ollie, Dinah welcomed Speedy into |
| advocate of the less fortunate. With Green Arrow | | | | her home with open arms. Many future storylines |
| down on his luck, the stage was set for the storyline | | | | involving an adult Roy Harper would focus on the |
| that would have the most drastic effect in changing | | | | mother-son, big sister-little brother vibe between the |
| the direction of Green Arrow’s personality. | | | | two of them. |