If you love the color green and you love people that shoot other people with arrows—and the idea of those two things together gets you more excited than Wonder Woman at a sword sale—then slip on an extra pair of your excitement pants because right now, it’s all about Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow.
From his own television series to showing up as a playable character in the upcoming Injustice: Gods Among Us to multiple appearances in multiple comic book titles, Green Arrow seems to be hitting the mark all across the pop culture board. And as fellow fans of the Emerald Archer, we’re so ecstatic that we’re ready to slip on a green hoodie and run down the street firing sticky arrows onto the sides of buildings proclaiming our love of the character.
However, since the police department and general public frowns on that sort of behavior (a lesson we learned the hard way after repeated viewings of Lord of the Rings), we instead decided to present you with the 5.2 Reasons it’s a Great Time to be a Green Arrow Fan! Sadly, the existence of this column isn’t included as one of those reasons, even though we totally know you all love it so much.
1. Arrow Stikes Again
Yesterday marked the return of the popular CW television series Arrow. Besides the obvious thrill that comes with being able to see Willa Holland, Katie Cassidy and shirtless Stephen Amell again, the simple fact of the matter is that Arrow is an insanely awesome action series that has only gotten better and better with each passing episode and each introduction of a new DCU character. Firefly served as the antagonist in last night’s episode, and upcoming eps are set to include Count Vertigo, Roy Harper and more Deathstroke!
2. Jeff Lemire’s Green Arrow
We’re interested in just about everything that Lemire chooses to take on, but for Green Arrow fans, his taking the reins of the hero’s self-titled series beginning with February’s issue #17 is particularly exciting. Lemire has a knack for humanizing characters and injecting a great bit of humor into his stories, and after hearing him talk about the character in interviews, we trust him enough to put an apple on our head and let him fire away—blindfolded!
3. Bringing Arrow-y Justice to Injustice
The upcoming fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us by NetherRealm Studios looks to utilize the DC Comics stable of characters in face-punching, wall-smashing and other sure-to-leave-a-bruise ways of beating the ever-living crap out of each other. Green Arrow joins the likes of Superman, Batman, Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman, Nightwing and many yet to be revealed characters for the game, which arrives in stores this April.
4. Statues, Figures, and Toys, Oh My
Green Arrow is also taking stage in the collector’s realm with a number of statues and figures from DC Collectibles—including a beautiful Arrow statue, a 3.75-inch figure based on his appearance in Injustice, and a DC COMICS-THE NEW 52 action figure! Put them all together with others heroes from across DC Collectibles and you can reenact your very own Crisis on Multiple Earths crossover! Cause, you know, what else do we do in our spare time?
5. Arrow Goes Online
Things usually come in threes—strikes, great film franchises, celebrity deaths—and Green Arrow gets his own triple treat by not only starring in the monthly Green Arrow and the upcoming Justice League of American, but also the weekly digital first series Arrow, which ties into the television series and explores the background of various characters such as Huntress, Firefly, Diggle and more.
5.1 Green Arrow Joins the Justice League of America
5.2 Oliver Queen Joins Facebook!
Be certain to like Green Arrow’s brand spanking new page on Facebook so you can stay in the know about the latest vigilante sightings (otherwise known as Green Arrow news). And don't forget to tune in Arrow on The CW, Wednesdays at 8/7c! Be sure to tell us why you love Green Arrow in the comments below! What current or upcoming Green Arrow project do you feel hits the bulls-eye?
