No real reason for doing this, just felt like it. This thread will cover Green Arrow's appearances in modern animation, and I hope you all enjoy reading it! With a little luck, I might be able to finish this retrospective by the end of the year. Most if not all images featured in this thread will appear courtesy of The World's Finest. As a small side-note, also expect most if not all images featured in this thread to show Green Arrow only shooting his bow. As with my other DC retrospectives, check out my blog for Part 0 - a look back at Green Arrow's one and only animated appearance on the Super Friends cartoon.
Green Arrow was created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp, and made his debut in More Fun Comics #73 from November 1941 (co-incidentally the same issue that featured the first appearance of Aquaman, another character I started a retrospective about). The Emerald Archer whose real name is Oliver "Ollie" Queen was initially depicted as an archery-themed analogue of the always popular Batman character. He had no super-powers, was a multimillionaire and had a large array of gadgets he used to fight crime among the more notable similarities - and of course his sidekick Roy Harper (who had many different code-names throughout the years but is mostly referred to as Speedy). In the late 60s his personality changed more, with writers developing him into a left wing supporter and him losing most of his fortune, turning into a popular street-level vigilante. Throughout the years, he has been portrayed as a member of the Seven Soldiers of Victory and the much more popular Justice League. He has often teamed-up with Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), with their personalities and political views clashing leading to some interesting stories. His supporting cast usually includes his sidekicks - not only the aforementioned Speedy, but also Arsenal, Artemis, Arrowette or Red Arrow. And of course the love of his life, fellow super-hero Black Canary (Dinah Laurel Lance). This thread will mention any member of Green Arrow's supporting cast only when necessary - meaning I won't focus on any show where any of these characters appeared, but Green Arrow himself didn't.
His original comic book origin states he was forced to learn archery while marooned on a deserted island, an origin that hasn't really been depicted in any cartoon show, other than The Batman (I'll get to that in due time). There have been a couple of hints or allusions to it, though. He possesses amazing archery abilities (apparently supposed to be the finest archer within the DC Universe), as well as above average physical attributes and skills in hand to hand combat. Among his many trick arrows, we can find arrows that shoot gas, nets, explosives, etc. but also sillier weapons such as boxing gloves. Please note that I won't be offering a complete checklist for how many arrow of each type Green Arrow has used in each of his many animated appearances. While having both Green Arrow and Batman on the same team and in the same fight might often seem redundant, the former can still be portrayed as unique and be interesting and entertaining enough if used right.
I'm not that familiar with his rogues gallery outside of animation, but his main enemies throughout the years have been Count Vertigo (capable of disrupting his opponent's balance - and whom I actually considered a Batman villain thanks to being introduced to him by an episode of Batman: TAS), and his rival Merlyn, an archer pretty much his superior in every single way. Other less known villains, who have been animated include Brick, the Clock King (a similar situation to Count Vertigo) and Deathstroke the Terminator.
Green Arrow made his debut in modern day animation in 2004, with the premiere of Justice League Unlimited. The show premiered on the Cartoon Network in summer of 2004 and was a continuation of the Justice League animated series, the next logical step in the DCAU after Batman: TAS and Superman: TAS, with pretty much all series created by Bruce Timm and the same team of writers and directors. JLU had some pretty tight continuity between the episodes which made them seem like multiple part adventures, along the way revisiting and tying up stories which began in the previous animated shows. The League now had a lot of new members, as well as a lot of new enemies (mostly in the final season) all pulled from the DC Comics Universe no matter how well known or obscure they were. The highlight for this series was the Cadmus story-arc which was spread throughout most of the show's run. I found Green Arrow one of the better new recruits, and he proved to be pretty awesome overall. I thought he mixed well with the other characters and consider him one of the show's breakout characters.
Green Arrow (voiced by Kin Shriner) first appeared in the series premiere, titled "Initiation". From the beginning we see him in action, stopping a band of thugs from robbing a super-market. It's a cool showcase for Oliver's skills as well as array of trick arrows. His design looks cool (though to be honest I prefer him wearing a hood), it animates nicely and I thought his voice actor did a good job. It's revealed he was one of the few heroes who declined the Justice League's offer to join, and Green Lantern (John Stewart) was sent to check on him. Green Arrow is next brought to the new and improved JL Watchtower, where we see that many new heroes have been accepted into the ranks of the team, as well as some familiar older faces (Supergirl being the most notable one, I guess). Ollie's reasoning to not join the League was simple: he fights for "the little guy", and a group so big and so powerful as the JLU tends to forget about all that. He is forced to accompany Green Lantern, Captain Atom and Supergirl (on her first official mission as part of the team) in China, where the heroes try to stop a giant rampaging nuclear robot (based on Brimstone from the comics).
There's plenty of action to be found in this episode; as well as some semi-dramatic moments - for example Captain Atom's "sacrifice" which seems permanent but in the end it's revealed he'll be alright. Green Arrow gets some good scenes here (his reaction when he realizes Captain Atom is full of nuclear energy, his bond with Supergirl which will develop more along the way, etc), and is the one who ultimately saves the day, using his archery skills to shoot a carbon rod into the robot's chest in order to shut it down. In the end, he agrees to remain with the League for a while, after a little talk with Batman (who mentions that they need him around to "keep them honest"), and after seeing Black Canary for the first time. Apparently, that was enough for him. Can't blame him, though.
He next appears in "Fearful Symmetry", a Supergirl-centric episode which continues story-lines started back in the days of Superman: TAS, and pretty much begins the whole Cadmus story-arc. Supergirl was cloned, and she keeps having visions of what her evil clone (based on Power Girl from the comics) is doing - murdering people connected to the original experiment. Ollie agrees to help Kara investigate all this, and along the way they also team-up with the Question, the "conspiracy nut" determined to prove there's more to this case than meets the eye. I liked how Green Arrow basically acted as a big brother to Kara, and their friendship would continue to be spotlighted occasionally on the show. The episode is pretty awesome overall; it fits in nicely within the greater scheme of the Cadmus story-arc but also works pretty well as a stand-alone story as well.
Green Arrow is next seen alongside many of the other Leaguers fighting off the nano-robotic bugs army created by the Dark Heart in Nevada. Just as the episode above, events from this story would be revisited later to finish the Cadmus saga. The story is pretty interesting, and the action scenes are all good; with the large number of heroes present and all the stuff going on, it would have been impossible to give everyone a fair amount of screen-time, and thus Green Arrow is only seen for a couple of scenes. The episode is mostly an introduction for the Atom (the Ray Palmer version), and also features the first appearance and use of the Justice League Watchtower's Binary Fusion Generator, which will also play an important role in later stories. All in all, Green Arrow was given a good introduction. He wasn't seen that often in these first 13 episodes, but when he did appear I thought he was used well enough. He'd play larger roles in the next batch of episodes though, and his relationship with Black Canary will develop nicely as well.
Next: Green Arrow on the 2nd season of Justice League Unlimited!
Mod Note: Check out the Hawkeye Retrospective on the Marvel Animation Forum!
Green Arrow was created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp, and made his debut in More Fun Comics #73 from November 1941 (co-incidentally the same issue that featured the first appearance of Aquaman, another character I started a retrospective about). The Emerald Archer whose real name is Oliver "Ollie" Queen was initially depicted as an archery-themed analogue of the always popular Batman character. He had no super-powers, was a multimillionaire and had a large array of gadgets he used to fight crime among the more notable similarities - and of course his sidekick Roy Harper (who had many different code-names throughout the years but is mostly referred to as Speedy). In the late 60s his personality changed more, with writers developing him into a left wing supporter and him losing most of his fortune, turning into a popular street-level vigilante. Throughout the years, he has been portrayed as a member of the Seven Soldiers of Victory and the much more popular Justice League. He has often teamed-up with Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), with their personalities and political views clashing leading to some interesting stories. His supporting cast usually includes his sidekicks - not only the aforementioned Speedy, but also Arsenal, Artemis, Arrowette or Red Arrow. And of course the love of his life, fellow super-hero Black Canary (Dinah Laurel Lance). This thread will mention any member of Green Arrow's supporting cast only when necessary - meaning I won't focus on any show where any of these characters appeared, but Green Arrow himself didn't.
His original comic book origin states he was forced to learn archery while marooned on a deserted island, an origin that hasn't really been depicted in any cartoon show, other than The Batman (I'll get to that in due time). There have been a couple of hints or allusions to it, though. He possesses amazing archery abilities (apparently supposed to be the finest archer within the DC Universe), as well as above average physical attributes and skills in hand to hand combat. Among his many trick arrows, we can find arrows that shoot gas, nets, explosives, etc. but also sillier weapons such as boxing gloves. Please note that I won't be offering a complete checklist for how many arrow of each type Green Arrow has used in each of his many animated appearances. While having both Green Arrow and Batman on the same team and in the same fight might often seem redundant, the former can still be portrayed as unique and be interesting and entertaining enough if used right.
I'm not that familiar with his rogues gallery outside of animation, but his main enemies throughout the years have been Count Vertigo (capable of disrupting his opponent's balance - and whom I actually considered a Batman villain thanks to being introduced to him by an episode of Batman: TAS), and his rival Merlyn, an archer pretty much his superior in every single way. Other less known villains, who have been animated include Brick, the Clock King (a similar situation to Count Vertigo) and Deathstroke the Terminator.
Green Arrow made his debut in modern day animation in 2004, with the premiere of Justice League Unlimited. The show premiered on the Cartoon Network in summer of 2004 and was a continuation of the Justice League animated series, the next logical step in the DCAU after Batman: TAS and Superman: TAS, with pretty much all series created by Bruce Timm and the same team of writers and directors. JLU had some pretty tight continuity between the episodes which made them seem like multiple part adventures, along the way revisiting and tying up stories which began in the previous animated shows. The League now had a lot of new members, as well as a lot of new enemies (mostly in the final season) all pulled from the DC Comics Universe no matter how well known or obscure they were. The highlight for this series was the Cadmus story-arc which was spread throughout most of the show's run. I found Green Arrow one of the better new recruits, and he proved to be pretty awesome overall. I thought he mixed well with the other characters and consider him one of the show's breakout characters.
Green Arrow (voiced by Kin Shriner) first appeared in the series premiere, titled "Initiation". From the beginning we see him in action, stopping a band of thugs from robbing a super-market. It's a cool showcase for Oliver's skills as well as array of trick arrows. His design looks cool (though to be honest I prefer him wearing a hood), it animates nicely and I thought his voice actor did a good job. It's revealed he was one of the few heroes who declined the Justice League's offer to join, and Green Lantern (John Stewart) was sent to check on him. Green Arrow is next brought to the new and improved JL Watchtower, where we see that many new heroes have been accepted into the ranks of the team, as well as some familiar older faces (Supergirl being the most notable one, I guess). Ollie's reasoning to not join the League was simple: he fights for "the little guy", and a group so big and so powerful as the JLU tends to forget about all that. He is forced to accompany Green Lantern, Captain Atom and Supergirl (on her first official mission as part of the team) in China, where the heroes try to stop a giant rampaging nuclear robot (based on Brimstone from the comics).
There's plenty of action to be found in this episode; as well as some semi-dramatic moments - for example Captain Atom's "sacrifice" which seems permanent but in the end it's revealed he'll be alright. Green Arrow gets some good scenes here (his reaction when he realizes Captain Atom is full of nuclear energy, his bond with Supergirl which will develop more along the way, etc), and is the one who ultimately saves the day, using his archery skills to shoot a carbon rod into the robot's chest in order to shut it down. In the end, he agrees to remain with the League for a while, after a little talk with Batman (who mentions that they need him around to "keep them honest"), and after seeing Black Canary for the first time. Apparently, that was enough for him. Can't blame him, though.
He next appears in "Fearful Symmetry", a Supergirl-centric episode which continues story-lines started back in the days of Superman: TAS, and pretty much begins the whole Cadmus story-arc. Supergirl was cloned, and she keeps having visions of what her evil clone (based on Power Girl from the comics) is doing - murdering people connected to the original experiment. Ollie agrees to help Kara investigate all this, and along the way they also team-up with the Question, the "conspiracy nut" determined to prove there's more to this case than meets the eye. I liked how Green Arrow basically acted as a big brother to Kara, and their friendship would continue to be spotlighted occasionally on the show. The episode is pretty awesome overall; it fits in nicely within the greater scheme of the Cadmus story-arc but also works pretty well as a stand-alone story as well.
Green Arrow is next seen alongside many of the other Leaguers fighting off the nano-robotic bugs army created by the Dark Heart in Nevada. Just as the episode above, events from this story would be revisited later to finish the Cadmus saga. The story is pretty interesting, and the action scenes are all good; with the large number of heroes present and all the stuff going on, it would have been impossible to give everyone a fair amount of screen-time, and thus Green Arrow is only seen for a couple of scenes. The episode is mostly an introduction for the Atom (the Ray Palmer version), and also features the first appearance and use of the Justice League Watchtower's Binary Fusion Generator, which will also play an important role in later stories. All in all, Green Arrow was given a good introduction. He wasn't seen that often in these first 13 episodes, but when he did appear I thought he was used well enough. He'd play larger roles in the next batch of episodes though, and his relationship with Black Canary will develop nicely as well.
Next: Green Arrow on the 2nd season of Justice League Unlimited!
Mod Note: Check out the Hawkeye Retrospective on the Marvel Animation Forum!
I'd posted this back in 2016, over ten years ago!