Green Arrow, Inc.

Category: Green Arrow
Last article published: 17 April 2020
This is the 43rd post under this label

It's a well-known fact that Green Arrow was originally designed to be just like the popular Batman, just with trick arrows instead of a utility belt. Or at least, the happy camper, daylight Batman we got once Robin made the scene. And so Green Arrow had an Arrow Cave and an Arrowmobile and loads of money. He had a colorful sidekick in Speedy. And though things changed when he got a beard and a social conscience, you can look at the modern Arrow TV show and see Batman written all over it, right down to having been trained by Ra's al Ghul just like Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins. And then there's Batman, Incorporated.

Though Batman, Inc. was a series written by Grant Morrison in the last 10 years, it is based on an older idea - the Club of Heroes from Detective Comics #215 (Jan. 1955) featuring the Batman analogs of various countries (AKA "The Batmen of All Nations"), including the Gaucho of Argentina, the Legionary of Italy, and the Musketeer of France. So it's not too surprising to find a Green Arrow story in Adventure Comics #250 (July 1956, note the later date) called "The Green Arrows of the World".
The Bowman of Britain, the Bowman of the Bush, Ace Archer, the Phantom of France, Verde Flecha, the Archer of Arabia, the Archer of the Alps, Troubador, Emerald Archer, and the Green Bowman! They were apparently inspired by GA to take their archery skills to the streets to fight crime, and Oli holds a convention for them.

Story by Batman writer Bill Finger, so... is he recycling ideas? Well, Finger WOULD use Batman's Club of Heroes (and give them that name) in World's Finest Comics a year later (#89), but in terms of who had the idea, that original story in Detective was signed Edmond Hamilton!

But I don't think there was any doubt in Finger's mind Green Arrow was a knock-off of his most famous co-creation.

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