Who's This? The Battling Bowman.
The facts: Oliver Queen AKA Green Arrow was created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp in More Fun Comics #73 (September 1941), the same issue that debuts Aquaman. He’s basically an archery-focused Batman, with an Arrowcave, an Arrowmobile, and a young sidekick called Speedy. Unlike the more modern Arrow’s origin on a deserted island, it’s an interest in Native cultures that leads to his training in archery. The strip is a fair success, with GA often getting the cover during his run on More Fun. And as a member of the 7 Soldiers of Victory, he also stars in Leading Comics’ first 14 issues (through 1945). After 5 years of More Fun, his strip moves to Adventure Comics where he’ll stay until 1960, ending on stories drawn by Jack Kirby. But from 1942 to the late 60s, he’s ALSO often being featured in World’s Finest Comics. Between the two latter series, he’s one of the few DC superheroes to last through the interim era between the Golden and Silver Ages. We can probably thank Weisinger for keeping him around since he was editing those books at that point. Eventually, he's designated the Green Arrow of Earth-2 and more often colored with brown hair to distinguish him from his Earth-1 counterpart.
How you could have heard of him: Well, you've no doubt heard of the current model, but the spirit of this version lives on in the Brave and the Bold cartoon iteration, as a clean-shaven Green Arrow who acts as Batman's superhero rival.
Example story: More Fun Comics #78 (April 1942) "The Black Raider" by George Papp (no writing credit, but probably Mort Weisinger)
Though randomly selected out of G.A.'s Golden Age output, I do like that "The Black Raider" taps into the swashbuckling origins of the character. Yes, he's a Batman clone at this point, but he's also a Robin Hood clone, and pitting Robin Hood against pirates seems like a great confluence of genres Errol Flynn routinely starred in. The high seas aren't exactly the setting for the Arrowcar (it still shows up on the cover), but how about the electric-powered ArrowCRAFT?
Okay, I should catch us up. Captain Kilgore is a modern-day pirate using an old-fashioned ship right out of the 17th Century. He has young swabbie Johnny James in irons below decks for wanting to go home (he wasn't expecting all the murders - shoulda joined the circus, Johnny). Green Arrow and Speedy - with the wrong hair colors that would become the "Earth-2" standard - want to intervene where the harbor police has failed. The goodies and the baddies are about to intersect after Kilgore blows a hole in a tunnel and flood it, giving his divers access to an armored truck carrying half a million dollars. For Green Arrow, this is going to be like shooting torpedoes in a barrel. Okay, we're caught up. Wait, what's that catapult he's talking about?
Human arrow stuff, right there. Unfortunately for G.A., he's one man against a whole crew, and he ends up getting thrown overboard after being knocked unconscious. But it's a pretty near fight before we get there:
He always seems so PROPELLED. He unerringly throws money at the villains. He uses his bow string to disarm them... Now, obviously, Speedy is going to pull him out of the water, and they're off to a naval graveyard to see if Kilgore has a secret hideout there. Green Arrow hasn't learned his lesson though: He once again leaves an eager Speedy on the sidelines and goes in alone. He finds little Johnny James, but that sort of alerts the pirates to his presence, and...
They throw him overboard again, but aim to make his death stick this time by putting his feet in cement! How's he gonna get out of this one. Would you believe... with archery?
Do you know how strong you have to be to use a bow and arrow effectively UNDERWATER?! Never mind climb up a rope with concrete galoshes. So the pirates grab him AGAIN and Kilgore decides that, hey, how about we ransom the hero instead of plugging him the old-fashioned way? To whom, I don't know. He's under guard on one of the wrecks, but he can still signal Speedy. He just needs a makeshift bow and arrow
This is a big reason I love Green Arrow and Hawkeye. They never let the loss of their trademark weapon stop them. Soon, Speedy goes through the guard and then the cement (with a pick axe), and they head after Captain Kilgore as his pirates board a cargo ship. Some swashbuckling later, the pirates are on the run, but as revenge fire a torpedo at the vessel... with Johnny tied to it!
"Sooner or later, all crooks destroy themselves." If that's how you can live with your vigilante murder of Captain Kilgore and his crew, that's fine, Ollie. At least a trophy survived.
This was a lot of fun. Lots of action, a real swashbuckler vibe, and cool arrow tricks. That's all I really want from a Green Arrow story, and this was better than a lot of Golden Age stories. I can not only see why G.A. had as much success as he did in the era, but it makes him worthy of survival through the interim period.
Who's Next? The Emerald Archer.
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