Damn - I was hoping for Erica Durance.

I googled him (Princess was really impressed that he would approach one of the trainers at our gym), didn’t realize he was as famous as he is. Shows how much I keep up with TV culture. And I even have cable...

- Laurie Smith

Ooo ah, it looks as if Laurie is going to be training Justin Hartley, who plays the role of Green Arrow on Smallville! Now, I have to admit to not being an enthusiastic follower of the tale of Clark Kent's developmental years, although I do think that out of the various actors to tackle the role of Kal-El, Tom Welling is probably the closest to what I thought Superman might actually look like.

However, I have watched the show enough that I was one up on Laurie in recognizing the actor to whom she was referring. I suspect that I'm actually two up, since I'm somewhat willing to bet that she's never heard of Green Arrow, either. Not a big surprise if that's the case - GA is certainly one of the lesser-known characters in the DC Comics pantheon when compared to Superman, Wonder Woman or Batman.

The funny thing is that Green Arrow's lineage is almost as long as Batman's. Two years after the Caped Crusader made his debut in 1939, the world was introduced to archery wizard Oliver Jonas Queen, a.k.a. Green Arrow, another millionaire playboy/crimefighter whose early adventures bore a remarkable resemblance to those of Bruce Wayne. Apparently there was only so much demand for independently wealthy vigilantes, and Green Arrow and his array of trick bowshafts limped along in a lame-duck/backup feature/supporting role for almost 30 years.

In 1969 Green Arrow was unexpectedly re-invented as the social conscience of DC, and explored a variety of storylines dealing with issues such as poverty, racism, and political corruption. I say "unexpectedly" because for the most part, comic book characters have existed at a slight remove from the ebb and flow of everyday events. The original precedent was set by Superman, who conspicuously failed to fly to Europe and defeat Hitler during WWII.

This unusual approach to the character led to the production of what some consider to be one of the most ground-breaking storylines in the history of comics: the two-issue 1972 story dealing with the discovery that Speedy, Arrow's teenage sidekick, was addicted to heroin*. At the time, artist Neal Adams and writer Dennis O'Neill didn't think they'd even be allowed to run the issues, since any stories dealing with drugs were strictly forbidden under the Comics Code Authority, let alone stories that showed one of the heroes shooting up on smack.

Surprisingly, the CCA approved the comics, marking the first signs that the guidelines introduced in the 50's might not be as iron-clad as everyone believed them to be. The story received a substantial amount of media attention, and John Lindsay, then mayor of New York, sent DC Comics a letter of commendation.

Shortly thereafter, the title was cancelled, and Green Arrow returned to a supporting role in the DC universe. The shared Green Lantern/Green Arrow title was revived again in 1976, but GA proved less popular than GL, and the Emerald Archer was shifted off to supporting stories again.

Since then, Green Arrow has been through a constant revolving door cycle of redefinition and cancellation. In the past few years, the character has fallen prey to the same sort of look-he's-dead-look-he's-alive-look-it-wasn't-really-him silliness that I mentioned in my last post, to the point where I couldn't definitively determine whether the current comic book Green Arrow was both a) Oliver Queen and b) alive.

And the television version? Well, as I said, I really haven't followed Smallville in a consistent fashion, but from what I have seen, the television Green Arrow occupies much more of a leadership role than the comic book one. In Smallville, he's the formative influence behind the creation of the Justice League, and acts as a constant goad for Clark to accept his destiny as a hero. The writers have echoed the famous 70s storyline by having Oliver himself suffer from problems with addiction, and currently he controls Lex Luthor's financial empire. However, even with all of these elements, I somehow find the character to be lacking a certain degree of depth.

But let's look at this rationally - the part of Green Arrow/Oliver Queen is after all a supporting one, and as such may not offer Mr. Hartley all of the acting opportunities that the leading role would give him. And it could be worse. After all, he did an unsuccessful pilot for an Aquaman spinoff before getting the role of Green Arrow, and if you thought Green Arrow was an obscure character...

- Sid

*Okay, everyone who thought, "Hey, wouldn't it be funnier for a guy named Speedy to be hooked on amphetamines?" can go sit in the corner for a few minutes.