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Oliver Queen
Oliver Queen

Oliver Queen

854 appearances Β· Golden Age Β· 1941–2026 Β· 32 key issues
Who is Oliver Queen?

Stranded alone on a deserted island after falling overboard from his family's yacht, wealthy playboy Oliver Queen survived by teaching himself to hunt with a handmade bow. Returning to civilization, he channeled those hard-won archery skills into a costumed crimefighting career as the Green Arrow.

Few characters in DC's vast history can claim roots as deep as Oliver Queen, who first drew his bow way back in 1941 β€” a Golden Age original conjured by the legendary Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily in the pages of More Fun Comics #73. Over an extraordinary span stretching across some 85 years, this emerald archer has proven himself one of the publisher's most enduring figures, racking up 749 catalog appearances and no fewer than 32 key issues that collectors prize. His world is populated by the absolute titans of the DC universe β€” he shares his adventures with the likes of Superman, Batman, Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, and Green Lantern β€” and his most prominent stages include Green Arrow, World's Finest Comics, and Justice League of America. If longevity, legacy, and the very best company in comics are your measures of a character worth knowing, Oliver Queen has been making that case since the Golden Age.

Identity

Real name. Oliver Jonas Queen

Powers. No superhuman powers; peerless archer and marksman with trick/specialty arrows, skilled hand-to-hand combatant, athlete, and tactician.

Teams & affiliations
Justice LeagueDaily Planet
β˜… First appearance
More Fun Comics #73
Nov 1941

Trivia

  • Green Arrow's earliest adventures leaned so heavily on Batman's formula that he came complete with an Arrowcar, a teen sidekick, a personal fortune, and an underground lair β€” a shameless blueprint lift that later writers would eventually tear down and rebuild from scratch.dccontinuityproject.com
  • The Green Lantern/Green Arrow run of the early 1970s transformed Oliver Queen from a wealthy crimefighter into a crusading liberal, using the title as a vehicle for tackling real-world politics in a way that reshaped the character's identity for decades.dccontinuityproject.com
  • The Green Lantern/Green Arrow run delivered one of mainstream superhero publishing's landmark moments when it revealed that Speedy, Oliver Queen's own sidekick, was addicted to heroin β€” a storyline still widely remembered as a defining turn in comics' willingness to confront hard social realities.dccontinuityproject.com
  • Oliver Queen was killed off in his own book during the 1990s and subsequently brought back, cementing his place as one of DC's most prominent examples of a major hero written out of continuity and later restored.dccontinuityproject.com
  • Mike Grell has written more of Oliver Queen's comics than any other writer in our catalog β€” 71 issues.

Top series

Covers through the years β€” 1941–2020

More Fun Comics #73 β˜… 1941
More Fun Comics #73
Funny Folks #23 1949
Funny Folks #23
Adventure Comics #210 β˜… 1955
Adventure Comics #210
Adventure Comics #269 β˜… 1960
Adventure Comics #269
Green Lantern #77 β˜… 1970
Green Lantern #77
Justice League of America #110 β˜… 1974
Justice League of America #110
DC Comics Presents #26 β˜… 1980
DC Comics Presents #26
Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #4 β˜… 1985
Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #4
Congorilla #3 β˜… 1993
Congorilla #3
Green Arrow #107 1996
Green Arrow #107
Teen Titans #21 β˜… 2005
Teen Titans #21
Countdown #6 β˜… 2008
Countdown #6
Batman #25 2014
Batman #25
The Flash #88 2020
The Flash #88

Appearances (1–150 of 854, oldest first)

More Fun Comics (1936)
Star Spangled Comics (1941)
#8
Action Comics (1938)
The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet (1949)
#2
Western Comics (1948)
#12
Funny Folks (1946)
#23
Real Screen Comics (1945)
#27
All-Star Comics (1940)
#50
A Date with Judy (1947)
#21
Batman (1940)
#63
The Hundred Comic Monthly (1956)
Mammoth Annual (1959)
#1
Superman (1959)
The Hundred Plus Comic (1959)
#50
Secret Origins (1961)
#1
The Brave and the Bold (1955)
The Flash (1959)
Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane (1958)
Tales of the Unexpected (1956)
#74
Gigantic Annual (1958)
#4
My Greatest Adventure (1955)
#83
Aquaman (1962)
#18
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen (1954)
#83
Tomahawk (1950)
#97
Showcase (1956)
#70
Paragon Illustrated (1969)
#2
Green Lantern (1960)
Super DC Giant (1970)
Groene Lantaarn Classics (1969)
DC 100-Page Super Spectacular (1971)
#6