Green Arrow: 80 Years of the Emerald Archer

DC's 80th Anniversary Celebration

by Dennis O'Neil, Neal Adams (Author/Illustrator), Mike Grell (Author/Illustrator)

Celebrate comics history with the 80th anniversary of More Fun Comics #74 and the debut of The Green Arrow!

Read iconic stories selected from eight decades of the Emerald Archer starring: Oliver Queen and Connor Hawke. With appearances from Green Lantern, Black Canary, Speedy, and more!

Includes newly restored versions of "The Rainbow Archer" and "The Green Arrow's Mystery Pupil" from issues of Adventure Comics! Plus commentary from former Green Arrow writers, artists, editors, and showrunners: Mike Gold, Mike Grell, Ann Nocenti, Greg Berlanti, and Marc Guggenheim!

Collects More Fun Comics #73, Adventure Comics #246 and #259, Green Lantern #85 and #86, Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters #1, Green Arrow #100-101 (1994), JLA #8-9, Green Arrow #1, #17, and #75 (2001), Green Arrow and Black Canary #4, Secret Origins #4 (2014), Arrow: Season 2.5 #1, and Green Arrow: Rebirth #1.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels Comics

416 pages, Hardcover

Published March 30, 2021

About the author

Dennis "Denny" O'Neil was a comic book writer and editor best known for his work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics from the 1960s through the 1990s, and Group Editor for the Batman family of titles until his retirement.

His best-known works include Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Batman with Neal Adams, The Shadow with Michael Kaluta and The Question with Denys Cowan. As an editor, he is principally known for editing the various Batman titles. From 2013 unti his death, he sat on the board of directors of the charity The Hero Initiative and served on its Disbursement Committee.

Reviews

[Lashaan Balasingam · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.

It is only in 1941 that the Green Arrow made his debut appearance in More Fun Comics issue #73, embracing a Robin Hood wardrobe to go off fighting crime. While it took many years, think a quarter of a century, before his character really took off, he was initially conceived as a bow-and-arrow iteration of Batman with similar background and personality. Over the following years, a left-wing and sometimes apolitical facet was incorporated into the heroes’ journey, giving him something a bit more unique and less akin to what can be seen from Bruce Wayne. While the Green Arrow is still often overshadowed by other heroes, the 2012 television series starring Stephen Amell as the Green Arrow gave the character a larger and growing fanbase up until its well-deserved end in 2020.

What is Green Arrow: 80 Years of the Emerald Archer about? This stunning 80th-anniversary collection presents iconic stories released within the past eight decades featuring the Green Arrow, whether it would be Oliver Queen or his successor Connor Hawke. These stories focus on exposing a myriad of the heroes’ top allies and enemies, their greatest (and very tricky) weaponry, and their creative crime-fighting skills. On top of various issues highlighting the Emerald Archer’s adventures, it also contains commentary from numerous Green Arrow writers, artists, editors, and showrunners (Mike Gold, Mike Grell, Ann Nocenti, Greg Berlanti, and Marc Guggenheim) who expose their own understanding and experience with this superhero.

The aforementioned resemblance to Batman, also reiterated and mocked in the commentary by the Arrow TV series co-creator Marc Guggenheim, is one of the reasons that often led me to emotionally distance myself from this character. Although his character’s identity did become more distinguishable in later years, especially since the New 52 era of DC Comics, there is rarely enough interesting material to get me to grow attached to his character and his stories. Nonetheless, his unique skill set makes for some entertaining action sequences and his circle of allies is a point of interest in itself (from his significant other the Black Canary to his best bud the Green Lantern). This collection does, unfortunately, show that even in his 80 years of crime-fighting, his stories aren’t necessarily the most memorable, especially when you go digging for Grant Morrison’s Elseworlds stories to include in there.

Although this collection is not meant to be the Holy Bible of the Green Arrow, it does allow readers, newcomers and long-time fans, to appreciate the visual evolution of the character throughout the years. Not only does his costume go through significant changes, meticulously and gradually embracing a much more combat efficient design, simultaneously aligning the concept art to that seen in the TV series, but it also shows, just like with most of the other superheroes, the transformation from the Golden to the Modern Age of comic books. Colouring also goes through a noticeable change, from flashy colours to grimmer tones, thus capturing the nature of the themes and moods that are explored in later story arcs. Exploring this evolution through this collection is probably one of the main reasons that justify its relevance.

Green Arrow: 80 Years of the Emerald Archer is a stunning and decent celebratory volume exploring another DC Comics superhero across eight decades of crime-fighting.

Yours truly,

Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: https://bookidote.com/

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love collections like this—hallmark issues; a timeline of comics changing through the ages; and editorials about, not just the titular character, but also the comic industry. Many of these issues were ones I’d previously read, but they were all excellent reads, so they were enjoyable to revisit. I actually picked this up for my library’s Bring Your Own Book Club. The theme was “political,” and I’m not really a “political” person, so I went with this collection because… well, GA has been know to tackle political issues. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how often this book fit the theme perfectly: Proof positive that comics can be far more than onomatopoeia-filled action stories.

[Simone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diciamo che, tutto sommato, il mio parere non si discosta molto dal precedente volume celebrativo per i 75 anni di Freccia Verde (qui la recensione al riguardo = https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...)

Tuttavia, trovo questa edizione per gli 80 di gran lunga superiore per i seguenti motivi che mancano a quella per i 75:

- Una sezione editoriale decisamente molto più curata, completa di introduzione davvero pomposa e celebrativa, ma anche di interviste e testimonianze inserite come "interludio" tra alcune storie, dove gli autori che hanno fatto la storia di Green Arrow raccontano un po' della loro esperienza e del legame col personaggio. C'è addirittura una testimonianza di "Oliver Queen stesso";

- L'inserimento di JLA #8-9, storia della Justice League della gestione di Grant Morrison dove il figlio di Oliver Queen (Connor Hawke, diventato FV dopo la morte del padre su Green Arrow #100-1001) la fa da padrona, dimostrando contemporaneamente perché è il suo degno successore ma anche perché è un personaggio completamente diverso dal genitore (a cui non si è mai voluto abbastanza bene). Il fatto che queste storie siano dentro una raccolta del genere, è riconoscere l'importanza del ruolo di Connor;

- Ben DUE storie tratte dalla gestione di Judd Winick. Dio mio, sia ringraziato ogni pantheon divino esistente al mondo. Finalmente citato negli autori che hanno fatto la storia del personaggio (anche perché, senza lui e Mike Grell, ciaone ad "Arrow"). Non so davvero come descrivere ed esprimere la mia emozione al riguardo;

Brava DC. Quando ti ricordi che non pubblichi solo Batman e Superman, sai davvero come dimostrare la tua gratitudine per gli altri personaggi con stile.



Post-Credit Review Scene:
Oh, e anche in questa raccolta, non riusciamo a godere di qualche straccio di tavola dalle miniserie in quattro parti di Mike W. Barr e Trevor Von Eeden del 1983. Però dai, già tanto che si siano ricordati di Winick. Un passo alla volta. Magari per gli 85 ce la facciamo.

[Tony Laplume · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent survey of how Green Arrow transformed from a generic superhero into one of the most interesting, because of his stature, superheroes in comics (and TV!). It was particularly interesting for me, and really did work as an overview, as I’d never pursued his comics adventures in too much depth before. I had to catch up with Kevin Smith’s comics well after the hype, and until this had never read any of Mike Grell’s famous Longbow Hunters (a sort of in-continuity Dark Knight Returns, as it turns out), much less seen how Oliver Queen died. Sort of wish there had been an excerpt from Jeff Lemire’s excellent run instead of the origin recap (much less the Diggle/Jock version that inspired the name of a supporting character in Arrow).

[Elisabeth Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

My goodness, this dude has come a far cry from his original appearance in those detective comics. I dare say, the Ollie of the past would be rather shocked (insert image of Green Arrow gasping) about the newest of the new. I love the TV show, but TV Oliver in comics? Nahhhh... Give me the blond dude with a goatee and Hal by his side any day.
And just for the record, Superman with long hair just... does not work. Like, at all.

[Wren Worthington · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty mixed bag. I'm not a massive green arrow fan so I went in near enough blind and it's certainly sparked some interest in characters like connor and roy who I didn't know much abt beforehand. Unfortunately ollie and dinah remain uninteresting to me, I think I'll just have to read ga comics solely for the sidekicks 🤷

[Al McCarty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could have used more Golden/Silver Age stories.

[Heather Robinson (GFB) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely collection of stories over the years.

[Jason Prugar · Rating 4 out of 5]

All of the essential stories celebrating my favorite comic character. Has some great insight with seminal writers of GA.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid collection of Green Arrow comics of Green Arrow from over the last eighty years.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first 75-85% of the book is the most interesting to me. The biggest disappointment is that the 1983 miniseries by Mike W. Barr, Trevor Von Eeden, and Dick Giordano isn't represented. Tell you what, DC, why don't you reprint that story as a deluxe edition to make up for not including a chapter as part of this collection?