Oliver "Ollie" Queen is the Green Arrow, a vigilante who uses a bow and arrow to fight crime at a street level, while espousing socially liberal values. As the young heir to a billion dollar corporate dynasty at Queen Industries, Oliver Queen was a wild socialite. His behavior so shamed his father Robert that he was relegated to clerical work on an oil rig in the Pacific. Naturally, Oliver turned the rig into a hub for his parties. At one such party, a helicopter meant to be carrying a famous rock star was commandeered by oil-thieving terrorists, who soon took over the rig.
Against the warnings of his friend Tommy Merlyn, Oliver recklessly faced the terrorist leader armed with only a bow and arrow, courtesy of his father's to this point fruitless training. The terrorists were armed with a detonator to a battery of explosives, including some which they had strapped to Oliver's girlfriend Leena. Oliver managed to shoot the detonator out of the terrorist's hand, but it bounced and activated, blowing up half the rig, and killing Leena. Fortunately for Oliver, his life was saved by Tommy - but his friend had taken the brunt of the blast, and was very badly burnt. After this, Oliver washed up on the shore of a deserted island, and was forced to survive with only his bow and arrow for a year.
During the Zero Year, Oliver came back from the island and learned about the Gotham blackout, and the fact that his mother Moira Queen went there to help. Realizing that his mother could be in danger, Oliver insisted on going straight to Gotham to find her. She was being targeted by Killer Moth, who was stopped with the combined efforts of Batman and the Green Arrow.
One month after becoming the Green Arrow, Oliver became injured one night, bleeding out and in need of assistance. He payed a visit to his company's head of security, John Diggle. After Diggle patched Oliver up, Oliver asked him to join him in his crusade to protect the city. Oliver trusted Diggle due to him not revealing his identity to anyone or telling anyone he was back, and the fact that Diggle was willing to protect Oliver's mother's life with his own. Diggle joined Oliver's crusade and the two operated as a team to protect the city.
One evening, Oliver made a visit to a local mall; coincedentally, this mall was being squatted in by Roy Harper, who hacked the mall's camera feeds in order to hide his presence. While Oliver was making his visit, Roy picked his pocket. Oliver soon realized it, and, when he came to get the wallet back, was intrigued by the strange boy. After some discussion, Oliver decided to take him in, with Roy working as tech support for Oliver. Though they worked together for some time, Roy began to want to work in the field, and Oliver was reluctant to let him put himself in danger, remembering Tommy's warnings that his recklessness would get people killed.
Roy and Oliver eventually began working alongside one another in the field, with Roy using his nickname 'Speedy' as a codename. While working as his sidekick, Roy designed Green Arrow's elaborate trick arrows, much to the Oliver's frustration.
Early on in their respective careers, a conflict with the Clock King resulted in Oliver and Roy being displaced in time, arriving in the 1940s. While stuck there, they became core members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. Oliver also shaved his beard during this period, later citing a belief that during the 1940s, only bad guys had beards. Eventually, the Seven Soldiers themselves were lost in time fighting the celestial huntsman Neh-Buh-Loh, an incident that also resulted in the apparent deaths of Lee Travis and Wing How.
This battle caused Oliver and Roy to return the present day, though their absence in their own time had done serious damage to their relationships in the present day. As a result of this excursion, Oliver and Roy had the peculiar distinction of being both the 'golden age' and modern iterations of a heroic mantle, though they had no way of knowing this when they first took up the titles. Following their excursion to the Golden Age, Oliver began to use the Arrow-Cave less and less, but not before installing a memorial to the original Seven Soldiers. At some point, Oliver began wearing a new, modified costume, storing the old one in the old Arrow-Cave alongside various other former uniforms and memorabilia.
Current Version:
Green Arrow
Former Versions:
Green Arrow (Golden Age)
Green Arrow (Q-Core)
