The Earth-One Index
Green Arrow
Adventure Comics No. 218
November 1955
Story: “The Archer Who Lost His Aim” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Intro: Green Arrow of Earth-One (Oliver Queen; origin revealed in issue #256; chronologically earliest appearance in Superboy story in issue #258; last chronological appearance in flashback in issue #234), Speedy of Earth-One (Roy Harper; origin revealed in issue #262; last chronological appearance in flashback in issue #234)
Comment: Though there is no clear line of demarcation between Earth-Two and Earth-One stories in the Green Arrow series, we have chosen this issue to begin the Earth-One stories due to the debut of J’onn J’onzz, the first Justice League hero of the Fifties, in DETECTIVE COMICS #225 this month.
Green Arrow wears a red hat with a yellow feather until issue #242, in which he begins wearing a green one with a red feather.
Green Arrow’s previous chronological appearances are as follows:
ADVENTURE COMICS #258 (Superboy story)
GREEN ARROW #1 (flashback; pg. 6, panel 3-pg. 10, panel 3)
ADVENTURE COMICS #256 (flashback)
DC SUPER-STARS #17 (flashback)
GREEN ARROW #1 (flashback; pg. 10, panel 3-pg. 11, panel 5)
GREEN ARROW #1 (flashback; pg. 12, panel 1)
ADVENTURE COMICS #262 (Speedy’s first chronological appearance)
ADVENTURE COMICS #226 (Green Arrow and Speedy train the Scarlet Bowmen)
ADVENTURE COMICS #234 (Green Arrow and Speedy capture the Sky Raider, the Harbor Thief, and Whitey Dunn)
World’s Finest Comics No. 79
November-December 1955
Story: “Archer From Across the Sea” (6 pages)
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Writer: George Kashdan
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between ADVENTURE COMICS #218 / 219)
Intro: Bow Master (only appearance)
Villains: A Bow Master impostor and his gang, various crooks (first and only appearance for all)
Comment: This is the first appearance of the Earth-One Green Arrow and Speedy in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS. See comment above.
Synopsis: Green Arrow agrees to train his European counterpart, the Bow Master, not knowing he is really training an impostor.
Adventure Comics No. 219
December 1955
Story: “The Human Chess Game” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisigner
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (last appearance for both in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #79)
Synopsis: An eccentric chess master forces people (including Green Arrow and Speedy) to act as markers on a human chess board.
Adventure Comics No. 220
January 1956
Story: “The Arrows From Outer Space” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Intro: Prof. Wilton (only appearance)
Villains: Carter and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Arrow-shaped rockets begin landing in Star City, and Green Arrow and Speedy can barely avert a city-wide panic, especially when criminals decide to capitalize on the event.
World’s Finest Comics No. 80
January-February 1956
Story: “The Bewitched Bow” (6 pages)
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Villains: Karl Florian and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Millionaire Karl Florian takes reporters and Green Arrow and Speedy through the “jinx collection” in his mansion. Among the famous jinxed objects is the Bewitched Bow, said to bring misfortune to its owner after a witch cursed it. Florian challenges Green Arrow to use the bow, and GA accepts. But Green Arrow has dizzy spells the next two times he fights crime, and the crooks go free. The archers return to Florian’s mansion, where GA declares he will defy the curse by shooting an apple off Speedy’s head, which he does, even though Florian spills water on the bow. Green Arrow reveals that Florian is the secret head of the gang of thieves. The legend and the “Bewitched Bow” are both frauds, and the dizzy spells were caused by chemicals on the bowstring which were activated when wet, and Florian’s gang was careful to pull robberies in locales that would get the bow saturated with water. Florian admits that he had hoped to finish Green Arrow’s career with the stratagem, and, when his gang attack the archers, both they and Florian are defeated and captured.
Adventure Comics No. 221
February 1956 Story: “The Satellite Arrow” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (last appearance for both in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #80)
Villains: Octopoid aliens (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy are shot into space in an experimental spacecraft, where a band of alien invaders attempt to gain mental control of them and use them to destroy Earth’s atmosphere.
Adventure Comics No. 222
March 1956
Story: “The Cowboy Archers” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both next appear in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #81)
Intro: Tom Barnes (only appearance)
Villains: Larry Barnes, various crooks (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy agree to perform at a rodeo whose prize animals are being stolen--and which is operated by a man Green Arrow once arrested.
World’s Finest Comics No. 81
March-April 1956
Story: “The G.A. Goes G.I.” (6 pages)
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between ADVENTURE COMICS #222 / 223)
Adventure Comics No. 223
April 1956
Story: “The Decoy Archer” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (last appearance for both in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #81)
Villains: Walter Craig, the Decoy Gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Green Arrow deputizes an archer to be his stand-in while they fight the two-pronged crime spree of the Decoy Gang, not knowing his substitute has criminal intentions himself.
Adventure Comics No. 224
May 1956 Story: “The Bad Luck Archers” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both next appear in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #82)
Intro: Matt Bagley, Carson, Lewis (only appearance for all)
Villains: Ted Olsen and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: When a ski resort appears plagued by a series of accidents caused by “bad luck” superstitions, Green Arrow and Speedy agree to investigate.
World’s Finest Comics No. 82
May-June 1956
Story: “The Pictures of Peril” (6 pages)
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between ADVENTURE COMICS #224 / 225)
Adventure Comics No. 225
June 1956
Story: “The Useless Arrows” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (last appearance for both in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #82)
Synopsis: Green Arrow’s regular arrows are stolen by crooks, and he has to resort to using trick arrows designed by children.
Adventure Comics No. 226
July 1956
Story: “The Scarlet Bowmen” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both next appear in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #83; both also appear in flashback, between flashbacks in issues #262 / 234)
Intro: The Scarlet Bowmen (Peter Regal and Albert Regal), King Paul (only appearance for all)
Villains: Gen. Strodoff and his men (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Two costumed archers who safeguard the nation Belgravia are jailed in their secret identities by a treacherous official, and the king secretly asks Green Arrow and Speedy to stand in for them.
World’s Finest Comics No. 83
July-August 1956 Story: “The Error-Car” (6 pages)
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between ADVENTURE COMICS #226 / 227)
Intro: Prof. Weldon Immelwimmer (only appearance)
Villains: Hinge Wilson and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy are given a new Arrowcar designed by a grateful scientist, whose many accessories prove to be a total botch during crime-fighting.
Adventure Comics No. 227
August 1956
Story: “The Green Arrow Mystery Cards” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (last appearance for both in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #83)
Intro: Joey, Kongo, Mr. Deems (only appearance for all)
Villains: Kirk Fenton, Douglas (only appearance)
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy agree to reenact three crime-fighting scenes from their past to complete a set of Green Arrow photo trading cards, but a rich crook plans to use one reenactment to turn a profit.
Adventure Comics No. 228
September 1956
Story: “The Ozark Archer” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both next appear in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #84)
Intro: Pearly Queen, Zeb Queen, Grandpa Queen (distant relatives of Green Arrow’s), Jeb Mansfield and the Mansfield clan (only appearance for all)
Villains: A Jeb Mansfield impostor (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: Oliver Queen and Roy Harper are dragged into a feud between the mountaineering Queen clan and their rivals, the Mansfields.
World’s Finest Comics No. 84
September-October 1956
Story: “The Mystery of 1,000 Masks” (6 pages)
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Writer: Dave Wood
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between ADVENTURE COMICS #228 / 229)
Villain: Birdie Andrews (first and only appearance) Intro: An FBI agent (only appearance)
Comment: This story takes place during Mardi Gras of 1956.
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy go to New Orleans during Mardi Gras, seeking Birdie Andrews, a crook who has been at large so long that, the day after Mardi Gras, the statute of limitations will run out on his crime. Andrews has come back, disguised as one of the masked revellers, to recover a hidden stash of stolen money. Green Arrow is tricked by another person costumed as “Green Arrow” into getting his fingerprints on a rubber suction-tipped arrow, but deduces that the man is an FBI agent, checking the prints to see if GA is really Andrews, who has a similar build. Soon, Green Arrow, Speedy, and the agent flush Andrews out of hiding and capture him. GA says that he knew the FBI man would keep his identity secret when Andrews was captured.
Adventure Comics No. 229
October 1956
Story: “The Wildcat Archers” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Intro: Tom Cotter (only appearance)
Villains: Gus Jordan, Drake (first and only appearance for both)
Synopsis: To save townspeople from being pushed off their land by a greedy oil developer, Green Arrow and Speedy help them find ways of drilling for oil.
Adventure Comics No. 230
November 1956
Story: “The Outlaw Archers” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
World’s Finest Comics No. 85
November-December 1956
Story: “The Dangers From Tomorrow” (6 pages)
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between ADVENTURE COMICS #230 / 231)
Adventure Comics No. 231
December 1956
Story: “The Battle of the Arrowcars” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (last appearance for both in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #85)
Intro: Green Arrow Fan Club (only appearance)
Villains: Marty, Joe, various crooks (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Two crooks steal the Arrowcar from Green Arrow and Speedy, so the Ace Archers use toy Arrowcar duplicates and the help of the Green Arrow Fan Club to counter the hoods.
Adventure Comics No. 232
January 1957
Story: “The Case of the A-B-C Arrows” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both next appear in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #86)
Villains: Barton, various crooks (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Green Arrow seems unable to choose the right arrows for a situation after an encounter with a crooked character.
World’s Finest Comics No. 86
January-February 1957
Story: “1,000 Arrows To Doom” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer: Dave Wood
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between ADVENTURE COMICS #232 / 233)
Intro: Mr. Lindquist (only appearance)
Villains: Jason, the Jones gang, various crooks (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: A fan of Green Arrow’s offers to donate $100 to charity for every shaft fired by Green Arrow during a 24-hour period.
Adventure Comics No. 233
February 1957
Story: “A Lesson For a Bully” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (last appearance for both in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #86)
Supporting Characters: Green Arrow Fan Club (including Jimmy)
Villains: The Phantom-Thief (Frank Bates), Tommy Bates (first and only appearance for both)
Synopsis: Roy Harper must fight a bully with one hand tied behind his back, or risk exposing his Speedy identity.
Adventure Comics No. 234
March 1957 Story: “The Three White Feathers” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both also appear in flashback; see Comment under issue #218 for chronology)
Villains: The Sky Raider, the Harbor Thief and his gang, Whitey Dunn (all in flashback; first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Green Arrow is accused of cowardice in three past deeds, and has to reenact them to prove he and Speedy were not cowards.
World’s Finest Comics No. 87
March-April 1957
Story: “The Green Sword” (6 pages)
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between ADVENTURE COMICS #234 / 235)
Adventure Comics No. 235
April 1957
Story: “The Doom of the Giant Arrows” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (last appearance for both in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #87)
Villains: A gang of crooks (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy must learn why crooks are destroying arrow-shaped structures around Star City.
Adventure Comics No. 236
May 1957
Story: “The Make-Believe Archer” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Intro: Melvin Meekle (only appearance)
Synopsis: Melvin Meekle, mild-mannered employee of an arrow manufacturing company, gets his chance to help a hero when he meets the Green Arrow.
World’s Finest Comics No. 88
May-June 1957
Story: “The Imprisoned Archer” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between ADVENTURE COMICS #236 / 237)
Villains: A gang of crooks (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: After Green Arrow is captured and photographed without his mask by a gang of thieves, he is still able to get information to Speedy about the mob’s crime plans.
Adventure Comics No. 237
June 1957
Story: “The Home-Made Arrows” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (last appearance for both in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #88)
Villains: A pair of crooks (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy have to use experimental arrows invented by amateurs to take down a pair of crooks.
Adventure Comics No. 238
July 1957
Story: “Perils of the Polka-Dot Archer” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both next appear in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #89)
Intro: The Polka-Dot Archer (Warren Thurston; only appearance)
Villain: A phoney Polka-Dot Archer (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: A stage clown, the Polka-Dot Archer, has an act in which he pokes fun at Green Arrow with comedic arrows. Unfortunately, he believes Green Arrow is really a “phoney” and a show-off. Then, after witnessing a crime, the Archer himself has to be guarded by Green Arrow and Speedy from assassination attempts before he can testify at a trial. At first, the Polka-Dot Archer’s opinion of the ace archers does not change. But, when they rescue him from an impostor who abducts him, the Green Arrow and Speedy are gratified to find out later that the Archer has changed his act to thank the heroic archers after every performance.
World’s Finest Comics No. 89
July-August 1957
Story: “The Strange Circus of Mr. Sinestro” (6 pages)
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between ADVENTURE COMICS #238 / 239)
Adventure Comics No. 239 August 1957
Story: “The Classroom Archer” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (last appearance for both in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #89)
Cameo appearance: The Spider (in a photograph; first and only appearance)
Villain: The Trickster (first and only appearance; not the villain introduced in THE FLASH #113)
Synopsis: Green Arrow teaches a school class for a day, in which Roy Harper insists on causing trouble.
Adventure Comics No. 240
September 1957
Story: “Arrows--For Hire” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Villains: A gang of crooks (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: When money problems force Oliver Queen and Roy Harper to raise $2,000 in two days or lose their house, they advertise to do odd jobs for a fee as Green Arrow and Speedy. Beforehand, however, Green Arrow fires tiny arrows into the doorways of everyplace in Star City that might be hit by crooks. The arrows contain tiny microphones which relay back sounds to a special earplug he wears, thus alerting him to any attempted crimes while he and Speedy are working. The two archers earn the $2,000 in time, and stop a jewelry store holdup as well.
World’s Finest Comics No. 90
September-October 1957
Story: “The Amazing Archer From Mars” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Adventure Comics No. 241
October 1957
Story: “The Queen Arrow” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Intro: Queen Arrow (Diana Dare; only appearance), Everet Dare (her father; only appearance)
Villains: The Gunner Malone gang, Petie and other crooks (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Diana Dare, daughter of millionaire Everet Dare, is a collector of arrows and an idolizer of Green Arrow. But when night falls, she is something else, as she sleepwalks, gathers a bow and arrows, dons a mask and green costume patterned after Green Arrow’s, and goes out to fight crime as Queen Arrow. Green Arrow and Speedy are flabbergasted at her appearance, though she is an effective crimefighter. When they find that the Queen Arrow has fired one of their old arrows, they deduce her identity and go to the Dare estate. Everet Dare, Green Arrow, and Speedy all see Diana sleepwalk back to her room. Green Arrow examines the arrows in her collection and finds a “rare Javiro ceremonial arrow”, which is painted with a “potion that causes loss of will power! The victim then will carry out any hidden desires!” Dare confirms that Diana did cut her finger on the arrowhead. Green Arrow mixes up an antidote for the potion and administers it to Diana. When she awakens, she has no memory of her brief career as Queen Arrow.
Adventure Comics No. 242
November 1957
Story: “The Return of Robin Hood” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Villain: Archie the Archer (alias “Darby Van Heller”; first and only appearance)
Comment: Green Arrow begins wearing a green hat with this story.
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy respond to a challenge from writer Darby Van Heller to duplicate fabled feats of archers such as William Tell and Robin Hood in order to prove such feats could really be accomplished. However, after Green Arrow performs a shot that sets off a cache of gunpowder, Speedy is astonished to see what appears to be his partner emerging from the smoke, talking as if he were Robin Hood, and running away. In days to come, the “Green Arrow / Robin Hood” aids crooks with his archery, while supposedly convinced he is the famed medaeval archer. Finally, Speedy stops his “partner” and unmasks him as Van Heller, whom the police confirm is Archie the Archer, a crook. Green Arrow had been taken prisoner by Archie’s gang while Archie pretended to be an addled, criminal “Green Arrow”. Speedy says the clue that tipped him off was the green feather Archie wore in his hat; the real Green Arrow “always wears a red one!” The real Green Arrow soon appears, having freed himself.
World’s Finest Comics No. 91
November-December 1957
Story: “The Chain Letter Arrows” (6 pages)
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Writer: France Herron
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between ADVENTURE COMICS #242 / 243)
Adventure Comics No. 243
December 1957
Story: “The Million-Dollar Arrows” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (last appearance for both in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #91)
Villain: A phony maharajah and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: When a maharajah is kidnapped, Green Arrow and Speedy must accede to his wishes and use special jeweled arrows to rescue him.
Adventure Comics No. 244
January 1958
Story: “A Medal For Roy” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both next appear in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #92)
Other Character: President Dwight David Eisenhower (of Earth-One; learns Green Arrow’s and Speedy’s secret identities in this story)
Intro: The president’s grandson (only appearance)
Villains: Clyde Roker and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Roy Harper is scheduled to receive a medal for bravery from the president at the same time that Speedy must help identify a crook in a lineup.
World’s Finest Comics No. 92
January-February 1958
Story: “Marauders From the Deep” (6 pages)
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Villains: The Frogmen Gang (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: Star City is beset by a group of crooks called the Frogmen Gang, who stage underwater escapes with the help of scuba gear. Since the efficiency of Green Arrow’s and Speedy’s shafts are decreased when fighting below the surface, Green Arrow is captured and taken aboard the thieves’ escape boat. But Green Arrow manages to throw the boat’s compass off with his Magnetic Arrow, deceiving the crooks into docking at the Oceanographic Institute, where Speedy has police waiting to nab them.
Adventure Comics No. 245
February 1958
Story: “The Big Surprise Arrows” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Adventure Comics No. 246
March 1958 Story: “The Rainbow Archer” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer: France Herron
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Villains: The Rainbow Archer (Albrecht Raines; first appearance; next appears in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #244) and his gang (Joe and Iggy named; first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: After artist and counterfeiter Albrecht Raines is nabbed by Green Arrow and Speedy, thanks mainly to the lousy coloring job on his bogus money, he escapes from a police vehicle and vows revenge. Raines creates the costume and identity of the Rainbow Archer, with a bow and arrows which utilize every color in the rainbow for criminal purposes, except for green, the color of his hated enemy, Green Arrow. The Rainbow Archer pulls off a series of crimes, until the heroic archers and the cops capture his gang. Ironically, the Rainbow Archer finds that he could head off the cops with a duplicate of the green signal-arrow GA is using to point out his whereabouts...but he has no green arrow. The Archer is captured.
World’s Finest Comics No. 93
March-April 1958
Story: “The Raid of the Vulture Man” (6 pages)
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between ADVENTURE COMICS #246 / 247)
Villains: The Vulture-Man and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy must cope with the thieving ways of a flying crook known as the Vulture-Man.
Adventure Comics No. 247
April 1958
Story: “The Thirteen Superstition Arrows” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Villains: C. M. Hawkins and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Attorney C. M. Hawkins, the executor of the late J. J. Brandon’s estate, summons Green Arrow and Speedy to his office and gives them 13 odd arrows in the shapes of objects of superstition, such as a black cat, an ace of spades, and a ladder. Hawkins tells Green Arrow that Brandon was a strong believer in the occult, and will leave $5,000,000 to the charity of the hero’s choice if he can defeat bad luck on Friday the 13th by using those “bad luck” arrows to fight crime successfully. Green Arrow opts to give it a try, and he and Speedy manage to make do with the strange arrows. Finally, one of the crooks they capture admits that he and the others have been hired by Hawkins, to try and thwart Brandon’s wishes so that Hawkins, as executor, could pocket a million dollars of the estate’s money. Hawkins tries to escape, but GA nabs him by knocking a giant horseshoe sign off a building with an Ace of Spades arrow, pinning Hawkins and the stolen Arrowcar under it.
Adventure Comics No. 248
May 1958
Story: “The World’s Three Most Dangerous Arrows” (8 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Villains: Assorted crooks (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: After Oliver and Roy get x-rays as part of a community drive (during which Oliver accidentally breaks the crystal of his brand new watch), he learns from the x-ray lab that the photos indicate a radium burn on a small but vital part of his body, and that he has only a month to live. Thus, feeling he has nothing to lose, Green Arrow decides to use three unperfected and potentially deadly arrows to fight crime: the Electronic Arrow, which can set up a small electrical storm, also endangering the user; the Satellite Arrow, whose jetstream could be fatal to an archer standing behind it; and the Super-Boomerang Arrow, which flies back to the one who uses it so quickly that he cannot avoid being hit. Green Arrow does use the three arrows successfully to fight crime. Later on, however, he learns that the radium “burn” on the x-ray was only caused by part of the radium dial on his watch rubbing off on the photo--and nearly faints when he hears it.
World’s Finest Comics No. 94
May-June 1958
Story: “The Rocket Raiders” (6 pages)
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between ADVENTURE COMICS #248 / 249)
Villains: The Rocket Raiders (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: The Rocket Raiders, a gang of criminals who use rocket power in their thefts and escapes, beset Star City and defy Green Arrow and Speedy to capture them. Armed with weapons that shoot rocket projectiles, the Raiders seem more than a match for the heroic pair. But Green Arrow devises some “two-stage rocket arrows” that first blow up the rocket weapons, then expand into boxing glove arrows that kayo the crooks.
Adventure Comics No. 249
June 1958
Story: “The Man Who Hated Arrows” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (last appearance for both in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #94)
Intro: Wood King (only appearance)
Villains: Hog Benson and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy find themselves in a town in which arrows are outlawed.
Adventure Comics No. 250 July 1958
Story: “The Green Arrows of the World” (6 pages)
Writer: Dave Wood (also credited to France Herron)
Penciller: Jack Kirby
Inker: Roz Kirby
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both next appear in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #95)
Intro: The Green Arrows of the World (the Phantom of France, the Bowman of Britain, the Bowman of the Bush, the Green Arrows of Japan, Mexico, and Switzerland, and two other Green Arrows; first and only appearance for all)
Villain: Counterfeit Carson (first and only appearance)
Comment: This story is patterned somewhat after the Batman story, “The Batmen of All Nations”, in DETECTIVE COMICS #215. Strangely enough, the Scarlet Bowmen from issue #226 are not present.
Synopsis: Green Arrow hosts a convention in Star City for the crime-fighting bowmen in other nations who have imitated his costume and modus operandi. The Bowman of Britain is waylaid shortly after his arrival by “Counterfeit” Carson, an old enemy of Green Arrow, who appropriates the Englishman’s costume, bow and arrow, and identity in order to infiltrate the group and attempt revenge on GA. However, when Carson, as “the Bowman”, shows Green Arrow a fake wanted poster for an English criminal he claims to be chasing, GA is tipped off to the imposture by the fact that the reward money advertised on the poster is in dollars, not British pounds. The international Green Arrows do their bits to try and capture the escaping Carson, but it is the American Green Arrow who finally nabs him.
World’s Finest Comics No. 95
July-August 1958
Story: “Green Arrow vs. Red Dart” (6 pages)
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Writer:
Artist: George Papp
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between ADVENTURE COMICS #250 / 251)
Villain: The Red Dart (John “the Midas” Mallory; first appearance; next appears in Air Wave / Atom story in ACTION COMICS #513) and his gang (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: The Green Arrow and Speedy are aided in their crime-fighting chores by a costumed newcomer, the Red Dart, who uses specially-equipped darts the way they use arrows to catch crooks. Secretly, however, the Red Dart is really John “the Midas” Mallory, whom GA sent to jail three years ago for fencing gold. By playing the part of a hero, the Dart intends to throw Green Arrow off-track while his gang robs the gold bullion stored in the Central Bank. But Green Arrow has already deduced the Dart’s identity, thanks to prison slang the Dart had spoken and the aqua regia stains he has on his hands, a result of his gold-handling past. The Red Dart and his gang are subsequently captured.
Adventure Comics No. 251
August 1958
Story: “The Case of the Super-Arrows” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger Writer: France Herron
Penciller: Jack Kirby
Inker: Roz Kirby
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #95 / 96)
Villains: Cougar Cain and his gang (first and only appearance)
Comment: In this story, Green Arrow and Speedy receive “Sherlock Holmes mementos” from Scotland Yard, including a deerstalker hat.  It is not specified whether Holmes is real or a fictional character in the Earth-One universe.
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy are given super-powered arrows by grateful fans from 3000 A.D., but the shafts get into the hands of gangster “Cougar” Cain, who uses them for crime.
World’s Finest Comics No. 96
September 1958
Story: “Five Clues to Danger” (6 pages)
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Writer:
Penciller: Jack Kirby
Inker: Roz Kirby
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between ADVENTURE COMICS #251 / 252)
Intro: Professor Anderson (only appearance)
Villains: The Boss and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: After a friend of his is lost at sea, Oliver Queen is willed five unusual possessions, which a gang attempts to steal.
Adventure Comics No. 252
September 1958
Story: “The Mystery of the Giant Arrows” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer: Dave Wood
Penciller: Jack Kirby
Inker: Roz Kirby
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Intro: Professor Riggles, children from another dimension (first and only appearance for all)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Star City is endangered by giant arrows, many with fantastic properties, that seemingly emerge from nowhere. Green Arrow and Speedy manage to cope with the sizable shafts. Then Professor Riggles shows the two heroes a scene on his cosmo-radar set: children from another dimension, playing with bows and arrows. The children are gigantic in size, and their toy arrows have somehow passed from their dimension into Earth’s. When Green Arrow and Speedy climb aboard a giant cable-arrow fired from the other world, they are drawn back with it into its native dimension.
Adventure Comics No. 253 October 1958
Story: “Prisoners of Dimension Zero” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer: Dave Wood
Penciller: Jack Kirby
Inker: Roz Kirby
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both next appear in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #97)
Intro: Xeen Arrow (only appearance)
Villains: Crooks from “dimension zero” (intro; only appearance)
Comment: This story continues from last issue.
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy find themselves in a world of giants over a mile tall. They come upon the scene of a robbery, in which the bandits are opposed by a masked and costumed archer named Xeen Arrow. When one crook tries to shoot Xeen Arrow, Green Arrow and Speedy release balloon arrows from their bows, distracting the villain and allowing Xeen Arrow to capture him. Later, Xeen Arrow tells the two heroes that a comet has had the freak effect of weakening dimensional barriers between his world and that of Earth. Before the comet can depart and seal off their dimensions again, Xeen Arrow shoots a shaft bearing Green Arrow and Speedy back to Earth.
World’s Finest Comics No. 97
October 1958
Story: “The Menace of the Mechanical Octopus” (6 pages)
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Writer: France Herron
Penciller: Jack Kirby
Inker: Roz Kirby
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (between ADVENTURE COMICS #253 / 254)
Villains: A gang of crooks (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy fight a gang of thieves who employ a giant mechanical octopus to help them.
Adventure Comics No. 254
November 1958
Story: “The Green Arrow’s Last Stand” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer: Dave Wood
Penciller: Jack Kirby
Inker: Roz Kirby
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (last appearance for both in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #97)
Intro: Professor Hagen, a tribe of Sioux Indians (only appearance for all)
Villain: Big Turtle (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy brave a rough storm in their Arrowplane to locate Professor Hagen and his two-man crew near Crow Mountain, though the plane is damaged in landing. The foursome find themselves surrounded and beset by attacking Sioux Indians, from a tribe that vanished in 1880 and migrated to a valley near Crow Mountain. Green Arrow and Speedy use their trick arrows to repel the tribe. Big Turtle, chief of the tribe, fears his people will learn that the tribal wars have stopped since their exodus from the outside world, and his chieftainship will be lost. Thus, Big Turtle challenges Green Arrow to fulfill the legend of the greatest bowman, who can supposedly fire arrows at the full moon and cause a thunderstorm. The archers accomplish this feat with the help of a Dry-Ice Arrow, which seeds the clouds and causes a downpour. As the four whites leave in the repaired Arrowplane, they see the tribe below them, returning to the outer world.
Adventure Comics No. 255
December 1958
Story: “The War That Never Ended” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer: Dave Wood
Penciller: Jack Kirby
Inker: Roz Kirby
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both next appear in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #98)
Villains: Major Tayako and his soldiers (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Marooned on Tongi Island, Green Arrow and Speedy encounter Major Tayako, a Japanese soldier who has not heard that World War II has been over for 13 years, and who forces them to work on giant arrows to be used against American ships.
World’s Finest Comics No. 98
December 1958
Story: “The Unmasked Archers” (6 pages)
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Writer: Ed Herron
Penciller: Jack Kirby
Inker: Roz Kirby
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between ADVENTURE COMICS #255 / 256)
Villains: Assorted crooks
Intro: The police commissioner of Star City
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy are convinced that their secret identities have been revealed to the world when they see a newspaper headline declaring that the heroic archers are really Oliver Queen and Roy Harper. They unmask in front of the police commissioner, who thinks it is all a joke, since the phony newspaper headline was only part of an initiation gag run on Queen by the members of his club. To cover up their identities, Oliver pretends to be pretending to be Green Arrow when another crime is pulled, and fakes inept archery, while Speedy, out of sight, fires a balloon arrow shaped like the Arrow-Plane, making it seem as though Green Arrow is observing them from overhead.
Adventure Comics No. 256
January 1959
Story: “The Green Arrow’s First Case” (7 pages) Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer: France Herron
Penciller: Jack Kirby
Inker: Roz Kirby
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (last appearance for both in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #98)
Origin: Green Arrow (in flashback, which takes place between flashbacks in GREEN ARROW #1 (pg. 7, panel 3-pg. 10, panel 3 / pg. 12, panel 1); story retold in DC SUPER-STARS #17, GREEN ARROW #1 (flashback; pg. 10, panel 4-pg. 11, panel 5) and in text form in SECRET ORIGINS (first series) #1)
Comments: This origin distinguishes the Green Arrow of Earth-One from the Earth-Two Green Arrow, who had an entirely different origin in MORE FUN COMICS #89.
Green Arrow states in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #144 that he and Speedy stayed on for a short vacation at Starfish Island, which caused them to miss the gathering of heroes recounted in that issue.
Synopsis: When Oliver Queen hears that an expedition is bound for supposedly-unexplored Starfish Island in the south seas, he and Roy Harper become Green Arrow and Speedy and head there in the Arrowplane, since GA believes that his secret identity may be uncovered by the visitors there. On the way, he tells Speedy how he first became the Green Arrow.
While on a pleasure voyage, Oliver Queen fell overboard and finally managed to swim to Starfish Island, off of regular shipping lanes and surrounded by rocky shoals. He took up residence in a nearby cavern and, after finding a water spring, began to devise arrows with which to catch fish. After days of practice, Queen became a crack shot with the bow. When he shot his first fish with an arrow, though, he learned that he couldn’t keep it from swimming away with the shaft. Thus, he designed a rope arrow by tying a vine onto the end of his shaft, and landed the fish he shot with it. Later, he designed a net arrow with which to catch many fish, and a drill arrow to knock down and pierce coconuts. He also designed a green outfit for himself from tree leaves, and began chiseling a diary on the cave wall.
Still later, Oliver Queen saw a ship in the distance, swam out to it, and learned that the crew was in mutiny. He masked himself by rubbing anchor-chain grease around his eyes, then nabbed the mutineers with his trick arrows. When the captain asked his name, Queen replied, “The Green Arrow! Yes, that’s it--just call me the Green Arrow!”
Roy realizes that the diary Oliver carved on the cavern wall can betray his mentor’s identity. When Green Arrow sees one expedition member holding a geiger counter, he fires a “Fake Uranium Arrow” at the ground, and the resulting clicks on the geiger counter convince the explorers that the island is radioactive from H-bomb fallout. They leave, enabling the archers to destroy the cave-diary and safeguard Green Arrow’s secret.
Adventure Comics No. 257
February 1959
Story: “The Arrows That Failed” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both next appear in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #99) Villains: A gang of crooks (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: Green Arrow finds that his and Speedy’s arrows are veering away from a criminal’s car.
World’s Finest Comics No. 99
February 1959
Story: “Crime Under Glass” (6 pages)
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Writer: Robert Bernstein
Penciller: Jack Kirby
Inker: Roz Kirby
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between ADVENTURE COMICS #257 / 258)
Villains: Petie and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy must deal with a gang of crooks that use glass in their crimes.
Adventure Comics No. 258
March 1959
Cover: Superboy and Oliver Queen as the young “Green Arrow” //Curt Swan / Stan Kaye
Story: “The Arrow Platoon” (7 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (last appearance for both in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #99)
Intro: Pvt. Kovacs, Pvt. Brandt, Pvt. Martin, Pvt. Cohen (only appearance for all)
Villains: A gang of crooks (first and only appearance)
Comment: The Superboy story for this issue features a young Oliver Queen, and is indexed in the part of this index pertaining to Superboy. That story is referred to in this story.
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy, in the desert to test new arrows, are stranded there when a sandstorm fouls their Arrowplane’s motor. While there, they find four Army privates, who were tracking a group of escaped convicts from federal prison but who have lost their jeep, canteens, rations and weapons in a quicksand patch. Green Arrow and Speedy outfit the soldiers with four new bows and train them in archery. Later, the crooks, who have disguised themselves as Indians, are accidentally discovered by the heroes and soldiers in a nearby ghost town. Green Arrow, Speedy, and the “arrow platoon” match their arrows against the gang’s rifles and grenades and win, apprehending the crooks and preparing to take them back to civilization.
World’s Finest Comics No. 100
March 1959
Story: “The Case of the Green Error Clown” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: France Herron? (possibly Jack Miller)
Artist: Lee Elias
Intro: Green Error (only appearance; a clown)
Villains: Louie and his gang (first and only appearance for all) Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy take in a carnival show featuring a clown who parodies Green Arrow as Green Error, complete with a run-down Errorcar and crazy trick arrows. But, when the circus’s payroll is heisted by a gang of crooks in animal costumes, and the Arrowcar breaks down, GA and Speedy take the clown’s Errorcar with his permission and give pursuit. As it turns out, they have grabbed two quivers of the clown’s trick arrows in place of their own, and are forced to use the Green Error’s armament of balloons, jack-in-the-boxes, birds, rabbits, and monkeys against the crooks...successfully. They exchange cars and arrows with the Green Error, and thank him for weapons that worked.
Adventure Comics No. 259
April 1959
Story: “The Green Arrow’s Mystery Pupil” (7 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Villain: Herb Vraney (aka Hector Vance; first and only appearance)
Synopsis: The Green Arrow agrees to tutor a millionaire in archery, not realizing he is teaching an old enemy who plans revenge.
Adventure Comics No. 260
May 1959
Story: “Green Arrow’s New Partner” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Intro: Jerry Halleck (only appearance), Ed Halleck (no appearance; name only mentioned; only appearance)
Synopsis: Roy Harper becomes convinced that Green Arrow is trying to replace him with a new partner when he secretly discovers GA giving a costumed youth archery lessons. He learns that the boy is one of his classmates, Jerry Halleck, and finally confronts Jerry and Green Arrow. Jerry says that GA has merely been training him so that he and his father can fight crime in Alaska as the “Arrows of Alaska”. Jerry tells Speedy that he may someday become as good as Speedy, but never better, and he will be happy if he is half the help to his father that Speedy is to Green Arrow.
World’s Finest Comics No. 101
May 1959
Story: “The Battle of the Useless Inventions” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Villains: Mr. Ventor and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: A mysterious man called Mr. Ventor is buying up inventions which the government or businessmen consider useless. But the inventions...which include a hovering artificial “moon” craft, a mechanical spider, and a “blackout saucer”...are used by Ventor for criminal purposes. When Green Arrow and Speedy try to fight the spider-machine, they are captured by it and taken to Ventor. However, the ace archers find a way of using Ventor’s inventions against him, and capture him and his gang.
Adventure Comics No. 261
June 1959
Story: “The Curse of the Wizard’s Arrow” (6 pages)
Editor:
Writer:
Artist:
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Comment: This issue has yet to be indexed.
World’s Finest Comics No. 102
June 1959
Story: “The Case of the Camouflage King” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: France Herron
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (next chronological appearance for both in ADVENTURE COMICS #263)
Villains: The Camouflage King and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: A museum robbery is carried out by crooks who are covered by a special camouflage paint that blends them and their getaway car, also covered by the paint, into any surroundings, thus making them almost invisible. Green Arrow and Speedy are unable to prevent the robbery. When the Camouflage King (the inventor of the paint) goes with the gang on a robbery, he has GA and Speedy doused with the paint, so they cannot see one another. But the archers loose arrows that cover the crooks in black paint, revealing their whereabouts. And, since they cannot now see Green Arrow or Speedy, the gang is easily apprehended by the two archers.
Adventure Comics No. 262
July 1959
Story: “The World’s Worst Archer” (7 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer: Robert Bernstein
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (story takes place between his origin flashback in issue #256 and issue #218), Speedy (first chronological appearance; origin revealed)
Origin: Speedy (story precedes his first appearance in issue #218, his next chronological appearance)
Intro: Brave Bow (only appearance; a Sioux chief; Roy Harper’s first guardian), Ranger Harper (in flashback; Roy’s father; dies in this story)
Villains: Ed and other crooks (intro; only appearance for all)
Comment: This is an untold tale of Green Arrow and Speedy. Speedy’s origin in this story distinguishes him from his Earth-Two counterpart, whose origin was told in MORE FUN COMICS #89.
Synopsis: Roy Harper has been raised by Sioux Indian chief Brave Bow since the death of his father, a forest ranger who once saved Brave Bow’s life. Now, the old chief wishes to pass the boy’s guardianship on to Green Arrow, who is in Roy’s hometown of Greenville for an exhibition at a fair. Roy takes a trip on the magnetic Space Platform before meeting Green Arrow and asking to audition to be his partner. Unfortunately, when Roy tries to hit targets, his arrows go awry and strike metallic objects, missing their targets. Roy helps Green Arrow catch crooks on two occasions, but Green Arrow doubts that Roy was a good enough archer to help him and disbelieves his claims. However, the hero does see Roy perform at a track meet, and is impressed enough to give him another test...which he fails when his arrows again veer off and strike metal. After Roy shoots an arrow with a flint head into an escaping criminal’s car tire, Green Arrow deduces the truth: Roy’s other arrows, which had metal heads, were magnetized by the space platform Roy rode on earlier, which caused them to veer off their marks. GA winds up by saying, “And because you’re as quick with the bow as on a track, hereafter I’m calling you Speedy...partner!”
Adventure Comics No. 263
August 1959
Story: “Have Arrow--Will Travel” (6 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (last chronological appearance for both in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #102)
Villains: Two crooks (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: Roy Harper wants to buy a sailboat, and Oliver Queen won’t increase his allowance, fearing to spoil his ward. To earn the cash, Speedy takes out a newspaper ad, offering his unique services for money. One of his clients is ostensibly a manufacturer of archery targets, who employs Speedy to test his arrows on his products. Unknown to the boy bowman, the “manufacturer” and his aide are really criminals, who substitute a booby-trapped arrow with a time bomb for one of Speedy’s shafts. When he “retrieves” the deadly arrow and puts it in his quiver, both crooks are certain he and Green Arrow will be doomed. But Speedy detects the substitution, and he and Green Arrow lay a trap that catches both crooks. Unfortunately, Speedy has lost the wallet with all the money he had earned in it. But he saves the life of a manufacturer of sports boats, who gratefully gives him a sailboat in return.
World’s Finest Comics No. 103
August 1959
Story: “Challenge of the Phantom Bandit” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: Bob Haney
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Villain: The Phantom Bandit (Joey Sanders; first and only appearance)
Synopsis: Star City is victimized by the Phantom Bandit, a crook who can become immaterial and make anything he steals immaterial as well. The Bandit’s power comes from two liquids devised by Professor Dorn, whom he murdered: one to make him intangible, the other to restore him to normalcy. Green Arrow and Speedy seem stymied as to how to capture him, until they learn the source of his power. Then, after they track him down, GA uses a ruse to make the Bandit believe he has become permanently immaterial due to an overdose of the fluid, and gets the crook (who is actually now solid) to reveal the hiding place of the fluids. Speedy pours the liquids down a sink drain, and the Phantom Bandit is taken into custody.
Adventure Comics No. 264
September 1959
Story: “The Green Arrow Robin Hood” (7 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both next appear in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #104)
GS: Robin Hood, Little John, Friar Tuck, the Merrie Men, Maid Marion
Villain: The Sheriff of Nottingham
Comment: The chronology of the Earth-One Robin Hood, who also appears in ROBIN HOOD TALES #7-14, BRAVE AND THE BOLD #5-15, DC SPECIAL #22-25 and in guest appearance in various stories, has not yet been determined; therefore, it is impossible to say where in his chronology this story takes place.
Synopsis: While he and Roy Harper are visiting Sherwood Forest in England, Oliver Queen comes upon a cave in which he discovers a secret atomic laboratory dating back to World War II. He touches a control, and, after a great electrical discharge, finds himself thrown back into the past. There he discovers a wounded Robin Hood, who, after determining Queen is not one of the Sheriff of Nottingham’s agents, asks for his help. Robin lends Oliver his bow and arrows, tells him of his secret identity as a chimney sweep in the village, and bids him save his men from the Sheriff’s trap. Oliver, finding a spare suit of Robin’s Lincoln green in his hideout, disguises himself as Robin Hood and helps the Merrie Men fight off the Sheriff’s agents and rescue Maid Marion from the Sheriff himself. Later, he returns the uniform and weaponry to Robin, just before a second electrical discharge throws him back to 1959. Oliver wonders if his strange time-journey has really been a dream.
World’s Finest Comics No. 104
September 1959
Story: “Alias Chief Magic Bow” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both between ADVENTURE COMICS #264 / 265)
Intro: Princess Morning Moon (only appearance)
Cameo appearance: Chief Magic Bow (in flashback; first and only appearance)
Villains: Ch’waka and his men (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Green Arrow opts to help an Indian girl defy an evil medicine man by posing as the legendary Chief Magic Bow.
Adventure Comics No. 265
October 1959
Story: “The Amateur Arrows” (7 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (last appearance for both in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #104)
Intro: Hank (only appearance)
Villains: The four Terris brothers (Ed, Bud, and two others; first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Kids at a dude ranch design fairly useless arrows for Green Arrow and Speedy, and the Emerald Archers find that they have to use them against the four criminal Terris brothers.
Adventure Comics No. 266
November 1959
Story: “The Case of the Vanishing Arrows” (7 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
GS: Superman (last appearance in ACTION COMICS #258; next appears in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #105)
Villains: Assorted crooks (first and only apperance for all)
Comment: Green Arrow’s comments about “the renowned Batman” imply that he has not yet met Batman. This is the first meeting of Green Arrow, Speedy, and Superman, though Superboy and Oliver Queen met years ago, as shown in issue #258.
Synopsis: When Green Arrow fashions green stone arrowheads for his and Speedy’s arrows from a green rock outside their arrowcave, he and Speedy are astonished to discover that, after they use them, their arrows disappear as if by magic. Hours later, the two heroes are intercepted by Superman, who admits that he has been destroying their arrows. The “green rock” that the arrowheads were fashioned from was really a Kryptonite meteor. Thus, he used his X-ray vision and super-breath from afar to destroy the shafts. He does not tell them that he was stranded atop a Star City skyscraper in his Clark Kent identity, preventing him from flying down and simply telling the heroes to dispose of their new arrowheads. Later, Green Arrow and Speedy dump the remaining Kryptonite fragments in a deep pool.
World’s Finest Comics No. 105
November 1959
Story: “The Mighty Mr. Miniature” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Villain: Mr. Miniature (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy are unable to prevent a robbery and escape by Mr. Miniature, a crook who uses fully-functioning miniature weapons in his crimes. But, in their second encounter with him, they are able to track Miniature to his hideout, wherein he has an actual miniature “city”, and, finally, to defeat him. Green Arrow says that after Miniature is jailed, the small city will become a children’s playground.
Adventure Comics No. 267
December 1959
Story: “The Underwater Archers” (7 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
GA: Aquaman (continued from his story in this issue; next appears in next issue)
Villain: The Wizard (Horace Kates; last appearance)
Comment: This story continues from the Aquaman story in this issue.
This is the first meeting of Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Speedy.
Synopsis: Horace Kates, alias the Wizard, makes good on his promise to “Shark” Norton to commit crimes on water, rather than land, and thus avoid his old foe, Green Arrow. But GA and Speedy hear of the Wizard’s new m.o., and devise pneumatic-air crossbows for underwater use, scuba-style uniforms with oxygen tanks, and an Arrow-Boat. The heroic archers thwart the Wizard and his gang and drive them into the hands of the police, but are also lured into a deathtrap in which they face a sub-sea, flame-breathing dinosaur. Green Arrow, recognizing Aquaman’s pet Topo the octopus nearby, concentrates on sending him a telepathic message to ask the monster not to harm them. Topo picks up the message, relays it, and gets the dinosaur to leave them alone. Later, Aquaman welcomes Green Arrow and Speedy back to dry land.
World’s Finest Comics No. 106
December 1959
Story: “The Crimes of the Pneumatic Man” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Villains: The Pneumatic Man and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: The Green Arrow and Speedy tackle the Pneumatic Man, a crook who uses an inflatable suit and gimmicks in his crimes.
Adventure Comics No. 268
January 1960
Story: “Green Arrow in King Arthur’s Court” (7 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Other Characters: King Arthur, Merlin (of Earth-One)
Cameo appearance: Mark Twain
Villains: A gang of crooks, Sir Sagramor, Morgan Le Fey (of Earth-One; first and only appearance for all)
Comment: The chronology of “real” historical characters on Earth-One has not yet been completed; thus, King Arthur and related characters cannot be reliably tracked.
Synopsis: While chasing a gang of crooks, Green Arrow and Speedy fall prey to a mysterious gas that seems to transport them back to King Arthur’s time.
Adventure Comics No. 269
February 1960
Story: “The Comic Book Archer” (7 pages)
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy (both next appear in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #107)
Synopsis: A young comic book artist creates a hero based on Green Arrow, and the real Green Arrow tries applying some of the character’s tactics to crime-fighting.
World’s Finest Comics No. 107
February 1960
Story: “The Menace of the Mole Men” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: France Herron
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Villains: The Mole Men (first and only appearance for both)
Synopsis: When Star City is beset by a strange “tank-drill” carrying two “Mole Men” who drill from underground into buildings and then vanish, scientists ask the police not to capture them, as they think the Mole Men are denizens of an underground world and they want to show them that surface men are basically friendly. But Green Arrow and Speedy uncover evidence that the Mole Men are pulling robberies. Then they manage to confront and capture the Mole Men, and unmask them as regular crooks.
World’s Finest Comics No. 108
March 1960
Story: “The Creature From the Crater” (7 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Intro: Mr. Rainseford (only appearance)
Villains: A gang of crooks (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: On an island plantation, Green Arrow and Speedy encounter a fire-breathing dinosaur which is not quite what it seems.
World’s Finest Comics No. 109
May 1960 Story: “Prisoners of the Giant Bubble” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Villains: The Boss and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy go against a gang who can escape in flying plastic bubbles.
World’s Finest Comics No. 110
June 1960
Story: “The Sinister Spectrum Man” (7 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Villains: The Spectrum Man and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: The Green Arrow and Speedy battle the Spectrum Man, a villain who uses color and lights in his robberies.
World’s Finest Comics No. 111
August 1960
Story: “Crimes of the Clock King” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: France Herron
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Villain: The Clock King (William Tockman; first appearance; next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #5; given name and origin revealed in issue #257)
Synopsis: The Clock King, a costumed criminal who uses time as a motif for his crimes, pulls several jobs in Star City, outwitting Green Arrow and Speedy once. But in their next encounter, they are trapped in a giant hourglass whose sands are sifting out over a spiked bottom. Green Arrow gets them out with a line attached to a suction-cup arrow, and both heroes are then able to defeat the Clock King.
World’s Finest Comics No. 112
September 1960
Story: “The Spy in the Arrow-Cave” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Villains: Flint Morgan (intro; dies in this story), Mike Bancroft and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Flint Morgan, an escaped embezzler, stumbles onto the entrance to the Arrow-Cave, learns that Green Arrow and Speedy are really Oliver Queen and Roy Harper, and blackmails them into letting him stay there while they try to find a way to turn him in without revealing their secret identities. Morgan promises not to reveal their i.d.’s as long as they let him stay, but he does sell a schedule of their patrols through Star City to gangster Mike Bancroft. Bancroft uses the information to decoy GA and Speedy away from a major robbery he is pulling. Green Arrow and Speedy almost catch Bancroft’s thugs, but Speedy hurts his leg in the process. When Morgan sees it, he is stricken by remorse, not wanting anyone to get hurt, and turns himself and his ill-gotten gains in, promising to keep Green Arrow’s secrets. But Bancroft is also on the scene, and threatens to kill the heroes. Morgan throws himself into the path of the gunfire and is killed. Green Arrow captures Bancroft and his gang, and Speedy tells a cop that Flint Morgan’s name “will be inscribed in our trophy room--under the heading of ‘hero’!”
World’s Finest Comics No. 113
November 1960
Story: “The Amazing Miss Arrowette” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: Dave Wood
Artist: Lee Elias
Intro and origin: Miss Arrowette (Bonnie King; next appears in issue #118)
Villains: Assorted crooks
Synopsis: Bonnie King, a female archer, is crowned “Miss Arrowette” after winning an archery meet. Not long afterward, she goes into action as a crime-fighter, helping out Green Arrow and Speedy with a Powder-Puff Arrow and Hairpin Arrows against crooks. But in their second encounter with her, GA and Speedy get captured by crooks when her Lotion Arrow accidentally trips them up. To make good on her blunder, Miss Arrowette uses her arrows to trail the crooks, and Green Arrow, who has been deprived of his quiver, uses Bonnie’s shafts to help them escape and capture the villains. Even though Bonnie says she will go back to regular archery, Green Arrow tells Speedy he wonders if they will not meet again.
World’s Finest Comics No. 114
December 1960
Story: “Green Arrow’s Alien Ally” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Intro: Van-Jon (only appearance)
Villain: Ankov (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: A miniature alien comes to Earth to enlist Green Arrow and Speedy against a foe.
World’s Finest Comics No. 115
Story: “The Mighty Arrow Army” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Speedy
Villain: Bracato (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: When the Arrowplane’s motor conks out over South America, Green Arrow and Speedy are forced to land and find themselves in the midst of armed conflict. Dictator Bracato is invading a neighbor country, and all the defenders have for armament is bows and arrows. To even things out, GA and Speedy use their trick arrows to help fight off the invaders. Angered, Bracato himself leads a destroyer attack. Green Arrow and Speedy sneak aboard the ship, immobilize Bracato with a handcuff arrow, and lead an attack that defeats the dictator’s forces. When the defenders ask what payment the two archers wish for their work, GA and Speedy settle for getting their plane repaired, and take off afterward.
World’s Finest Comics No. 116
March 1961
Story: “The Ape Archer” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (next appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #4), Speedy
Intro: Bonzo (an ape)
Villains: Lance (first and only appearance), Bart Rockland (in flashback; first and only appearance)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow joins the Justice League of America and helps them in their encounter with Carthan in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #4.
Synopsis: Oliver Queen and Roy Harper watch the trained ape Bonzo perform at a circus, remembering how, months before, they had encountered Bonzo when he was the archery-trained pet and assistant for a thief, Bart Rockland, and how they had captured him. Since then, Bonzo seems to have “reformed”, but he goes missing after a tiger is loosed and Green Arrow and Speedy help capture it. In the days to come, Bonzo appears to make heists with his bow and arrows, but Green Arrow and Speedy capture “Bonzo” and unmask him as Lance, Bonzo’s new trainer. They find the real Bonzo caged in Lance’s hideout.
World’s Finest Comics No. 117
May 1961
Story: “The Cartoon Archer” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #4), Speedy
Intro: Bill Rame (only appearance)
Villains: Shorty Rame and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: When gangster Shorty Rame takes his cartoonist brother Bill hostage and uses his house as a hideout, Bill smuggles out requests for help enclosed in satirical cartoons of Green Arrow.
World’s Finest Comics No. 118
June 1961
Story: “The Return of Miss Arrowette” (6 pages) Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #5), Speedy
GS: Miss Arrowette (last appearance in issue #114; next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #7)
Villains: A Green Arrow and Speedy impostor and their gang (first and only appearance for all)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League fight Dr. Destiny in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #5.
Synopsis: Miss Arrowette, substituting for Green Arrow when the latter is summoned but does not appear, begins to suspect that the Emerald Archers of late have been kidnaped and impersonated.
World’s Finest Comics No. 119
August 1961
Story: “The Man With the Magic Bow” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (between JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #5 / 6), Speedy
Villain: Frankie “The Acrobat” Doran (first and only appearance)
Intro: A museum curator (dies in this story)
Comment: Shortly after this story, Green Arrow helps the Justice League fight Amos Fortune in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #6.
Synopsis: When Frankie “The Acrobat” Doran is being pursued by Green Arrow and Speedy at the site of a museum robbery, he is given by mistake the Magic Bow of Diana by the dying museum curator. The Bow and its arrows will magically do what their wielder desires, and Doran is able to fire an arrow that magically expands to giant size, sweeps Green Arrow and Speedy away, and takes them far from the museum before they can manage to get free. Doran commits another robbery with the magic bow, but GA and Speedy trick him into firing at the remote-controlled Arrowplane while they snatch away his bow with a Fish-Hook Arrow. Feeling the Bow of Diana and its arrows are too dangerous, Green Arrow weights them down with a rock and throws them into the sea.
World’s Finest Comics No. 120
September 1961
Story: “The Deadly Trophy Hunt” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: France Herron
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (between JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #6 / 7), Speedy
Intro: Anderson, Tetley (only appearance for both)
Villains: Brihill and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League deal with the Cosmic Fun-House in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #7 and save Superman in SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE #29.
Synopsis: Ollie Queen and Roy Harper join a crew of retired adventurers on a trophy hunt which turns deadly.
World’s Finest Comics No. 121
November 1961
Story: “The Cop Who Lost His Nerve” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: John Broome
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (last appearance in SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE #29), Speedy
Intro: Fred Jennings (only appearance)
Villains: Artie, Weasel, and other crooks (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Rookie cop Fred Jennings has a secret phobia of cats, which he reveals to Green Arrow and Speedy, and to a shady underworld figure who secretly overhears the conversation. The crook passes along the info to confederates, and the gangsters pull a robbery on Fred’s beat and unleash a cat when he tries to nab them, paralyzing Fred with fear. But Green Arrow fires an arrow shaped like a cat at the gunsel holding Fred captive, disarming the crook and allowing Fred to knock his foe unconscious. GA and Speedy take down the rest of the gang, and Fred proves he has gotten over his cat-fear by stroking the cat which the gang had brought for him.
World’s Finest Comics No. 122
December 1961
Story: “The Booby-Trap Bandits” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: Bob Haney
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #8), Speedy
Villains: The Booby-Trap Bandits (first and only appearance)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League battle Pete Ricketts and the Top Ten in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #8.
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy run into the Booby-Trap Bandits, whose m.o. involves leading their victims astray with booby-trapped lures. When the heroes capture two members of the gang, the mob leader swears revenge, but GA and Speedy capture more of the gang during their next encounter. Finally, the gang plants a phony manhole cover, concealing a mine, on a street, lures Green Arrow into the area with a call for help, and blows up the Arrowcar. But the two archers turn up only seconds later in the real Arrowcar, having figured out the trap since there was no manhole system in the area, and capture the rest of the Booby-Trap Gang.
World’s Finest Comics No. 123
February 1962
Story: “The Man Who Foretold Disaster” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: Dick Wood Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (between JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #8 / 9), Speedy
Intro: Professor Marlo (only appearance)
Villains: Pete Sommers and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow learns the origin of the Justice League in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #9.
Synopsis: Professor Marlo, a dabbler in alchemy, is caught in a chemical explosion during an experiment. It leaves him with the ability to sense disaster or danger in advance by a strange ringing that develops in his ears. Crooked reporter Pete Sommers exploits the professor’s ability by staging dangerous events which draw the attention of Marlo, and thus the Ace Archers and the police, while his gang of crooks pulls a job elsewhere. Green Arrow and Speedy catch the crooks, and Marlo discovers his power has worn off.
World’s Finest Comics No. 124
March 1962
Story: “The Case of the Crime Specialists” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: France Herron
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #9), Speedy
Villain: The “Mastermind” and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: A “crime specialist”, by utilizing the talents of crooks with various specialties, manages to pull off robberies previously thought impossible. Green Arrow and Speedy manage to capture him by playing on the crime chief’s lust for gold, concealing themselves in gold statues, and nabbing him when he attempts to steal them.
World’s Finest Comics No. 125
May 1962
Story: “The Man Who Defied Death” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: France Herron
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #10), Speedy
Intro: Fred Jenkins (only appearance)
Villain: Dr. Davis (first appearance; next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #14) and his gang (first and only appearance)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League fight Felix Faust, the Lord of Time, Abnegazar, Rath, and Ghast in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #10-11.
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy save the life of Fred Jenkins when a flying machine on his back conks out. But Jenkins says that he will do even riskier jobs, because he needs money for his son’s operation. After another risky stunt, from which the archers also save him, Jenkins finds himself employed by one Dr. Davis, who attempts to force him to rob the estate of wealthy Mr. Chaney or face being blown up by a bomb hidden in the vehicle in which Jenkins rides. When Jenkins does not respond, Davis triggers the bomb. But Green Arrow and Speedy have been trailing Jenkins and get him to safety before the bomb goes off. Then the three of them capture Davis and his gang. GA tells Jenkins that the reward money for Davis’s capture will more than cover the cost of his son’s operation.
World’s Finest Comics No. 126
June 1962
Story: “Dupe of the Decoy Bandits” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (between JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #11 / 12), Speedy
Villains: Professor Dawes and his gang (Alfie named; first and only appearance for all)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League battle Dr. Light in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #12.
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy take part in a series of psychological reaction tests based on fighting crime, created and administered by Professor Dawes. But Dawes takes the data and applies it to real crimes, decoying GA and Speedy away with ruses while his gang pulls real robberies. Green Arrow soon sees through the decoy maneuvers, and nabs Dawes and his men.
World’s Finest Comics No. 127
August 1962
Story: “Green Arrow’s Secret Partner” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: George Kashdan?
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (between JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #12 / 13), Speedy (next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #13)
Intro: Terry Burns and the Green Arrow Fan Club (only appearance for all)
Villains: The Birdman Gang (?; next appearance in issue #132; see comment)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League fight its robot duplicates in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #13, in which Speedy also briefly appears.
Though the gang in this story is unnamed, their m.o. is so similar to the Birdman Gang which appears in issue #132 that we have tentatively identified the gangs as one and the same.
Synopsis: At a meeting of the Green Arrow Fan Club, young Terry Burns tells the members of an adventure he claims to have had with Green Arrow. He relates how he saw Green Arrow and Speedy fight and capture members of a jet-pack-wearing gang, came upon other members of the gang and was kidnapped by them, and signalled the patrolling GA and Speedy by setting off a rocket in the gangsters’ hideout. The Ace Archers landed their Arrowplane, captured the crooks, and freed Terry. The others scoff, since a newspaper headline story mentions nothing of Terry in their account of the case, though it says three gang members escaped.
At that point, Green Arrow and Speedy enter, confirm Terry’s story, and say that if they had revealed the capture of the three missing gang members, they might not have been able to trap the rest. Then they show a more recent newspaper, with Terry’s picture on the front page and an updated story of the events.
World’s Finest Comics No. 128
September 1962
Story: “The Too-Old Hero” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: Dave Wood
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (between JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #13 / 14), Speedy (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #13)
Intro: Charlie Donley (only appearance)
Villains: Assorted crooks
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League fight Mr. Memory and initiate the Atom in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #14.
Synopsis: Patrolman Charlie Donley feels the weight of his passing years when he is kicked upstairs, from beat cop to desk sergeant, after Green Arrow and Speedy catch crooks that he couldn’t. But, when he sees other hoods setting a mine to blow up the Arrowcar, he triggers it himself with a rock and tips off GA and Speedy in time. Then he helps bring in the crooks personally, and, a day later, proudly displays to the archers a newspaper headline which names him as the hero.
World’s Finest Comics No. 129
November 1962
Story: “The Iron Archer” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (between JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #14 / 15), Speedy
Villains: Prof and his gang, Iron Archie (a robot; first and only appearance for all)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League deal with untouchable aliens in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #15.
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy are temporarily stymied by Iron Archie, a robot archer designed by “Prof” originally for an archery range, but turned to criminal purposes in search of greater revenue. Since the robot can fire more arrows faster than both GA and Speedy, the heroes are kept away from their criminal quarry. But when Green Arrow deduces that the robot is firing at an electric eye placed in GA’s quiver, he is able to turn the robot against its users and defeat the crooks.
World’s Finest Comics No. 130
December 1962
Story: “The Human Sharks” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (between JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #15 / 16), Speedy
Villains: The Shark Gang (first and only appearance) Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League solve the case of the Maestro in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #16.
Synopsis: When the Shark Gang strikes Star City with scuba gear and underwater escapes from robberies, Green Arrow and Speedy unveil their new Arrow-Sub, counterattack with their own scuba equipment and underwater arrows, and defeat the bandits.
World’s Finest Comics No. 131
February 1963
Story: “A Cure For Billy Jones” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (between JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #16 / 17), Speedy
Intro: Billy Jones, Mr. and Mrs. Jones (his parents), a doctor (only appearance for all)
Villains: Mike and other crooks (first and only appearance for all)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow and the Justice League battle the Tornado Tyrant in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #17.
Synopsis: When Billy Jones seems to be wasting away of apathy, his parents and doctor hit on a solution: get him interested in living by having him participate in a case with Green Arrow and Speedy, his heroes. The Ace Archers protest, not wanting to get him involved in a dangerous situation, but the police and his parents finally convince them. Billy is allowed to go on patrol with GA and Speedy and even given a bow and a quiver of trick arrows, but still seems apathetic. However, when the two heroes are endangered by crooks, he snaps out of his ennui, launches shafts that put the villains to flight, and enable Green Arrow and Speedy to save the day. From that moment on, Billy Jones gains a new zest for living.
World’s Finest Comics No. 132
March 1963
Story: “The Green Arrow Dummy” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer:
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (between JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #17 / 18), Speedy
Villains: The Birdman Gang (last appearance in issue #127?; last appearance)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League battle the protectors of Starzl in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #18.
Synopsis: When Oliver Queen gets a sprained ankle thanks to a tennis mishap, Speedy is forced to patrol Star City with a Green Arrow dummy in the Arrowcar to throw off gangland suspicions. He carries on a series of battles against the Birdman Gang, until the crooks destroy the dummy and its secret is revealed. Fortunately, Green Arrow appears, having trailed Speedy in the Arrow-Copter, and, with his bum leg taped up at the knee and a phony lower leg tied on, he helps his partner capture the rest of the crooks.
World’s Finest Comics No. 133 May 1963
Story: “The Thing in the Arrowcave” (6 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: France Herron
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (between JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #18 / 19), Speedy
Intro: Professor Franklin (only appearance)
Villains: Three crooks (first and only appearance)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League fight Dr. Destiny and the Super-Justice League in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #19.
Synopsis: Vulcan, a super-boring machine with camera eyes, is stolen by crooks from Prof. Franklin, its inventor, and accidentally bores into the Arrowcave for a moment, where it gets a photographic record of Oliver Queen and Roy Harper in civilian garb. Green Arrow and Speedy trail the machine back to Franklin’s lab, where the scientist explains what has happened. The crooks make a jewel robbery with Vulcan’s aid, but GA and Speedy place a homing device on it and track it back to the thieves’ hideout, though they are scarcely able to cope with its power. However, Franklin has fixed his remote control for the machine, brings Vulcan back to his lab, and enables the archers to catch the crooks there. Green Arrow and Speedy recover the films, preserving their secret identities.
World’s Finest Comics No. 134
June 1963
Story: “The Mystery of the Missing Inventors” (10 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: France Herron
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (between JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #19 / 20), Speedy
GS: Miss Arrowette (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #7; last appearance)
Intro: Prof. Rankin, Dr. Forsythe (only appearance for both)
Villains: A gang of crooks (first and only appearance)
Comments: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League battle Spaceman X in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #20.
Synopsis: When Professor Rankin, the inventor of an anti-gravity ray, and Dr. Forsythe, the creator of a powerful Z-ray, are kidnapped, Green Arrow and Speedy trail them to a hidden fortress and break them out, with crooks pumping shots at the Arrowplane. But when they tell their tale shortly afterward to a crowd in Star City, Bonnie King, alias Miss Arrowette, asks why they didn’t get a single bullet hole in their plane. As it transpires, the two “inventors” who were rescued were ringers in rubber masks who gain access to the real scientists’ inventions. Miss Arrowette is captured by the crooks, but leaves a trail with her Mascara Arrow for GA and Speedy to follow. Eventually the Ace Archers rescue Bonnie and the two scientists, thwart the crooks’ attempts to rob $10 million worth of diamonds with the Z-ray, and capture the crooks.
World’s Finest Comics No. 136
September 1963 Story: “The Magician Boss of the Incas” (10 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: France Herron
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (between JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #20 / 21), Speedy (next appears in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #50)
Villain: Mighty Micro (first and only appearance)
Intro: Tlahuana and an Inca tribe (first and only appearance for all)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League and Justice Society battle the Crime Champions in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #21-22. Then Green Arrow and Speedy team with J’onn J’onzz to fight Vulkor in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #50. Finally, Green Arrow rejoins the Justice League to combat the Queen Bee in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #23 / ATOM #8.
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy trail criminal stage-magician Mighty Micro to Peru, where he has convinced an isolated tribe of Incas with his phony magic that he should be made chief of their tribe. Micro is actually angling to steal the jewels in the chief’s ceremonial garb. When the two heroes split up to follow forks of a trail, Green Arrow ends up masquerading as an Inca, and Speedy rescues him with what the natives call a “magic bow”. The real Inca chief, Tlahuana, says that GA and Speedy should have a fair trial, despite Micro’s protestations. GA and Speedy match their archery “magic” against Micro and outpoint him in the tribe’s eyes. Thus, they are allowed to leave with Micro as their prisoner.
World’s Finest Comics No. 138
December 1963
Story: “The Secret Face of Funny-Arrow” (10 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: France Herron
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #23 / ATOM #8; next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #24), Speedy (last appearance in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #50)
Intro: Funny-Arrow (a clown), Danton (only appearance for both)
Villains: Halley, Mike (first and only appearance for both)
Comments: Shortly after this story Green Arrow has an unchronicled team-up with J’onn J’onzz, then helps the Justice League and Adam Strange fight Kanjar Ro in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #24.
Synopsis: Oliver Queen and Roy Harper take in the act of Funny-Arrow, a circus clown who lampoons Green Arrow. But when Funny-Arrow tries to get into the act by “helping” GA and Speedy nab crooks at a heist, his trick arrows bollix the Ace Archers and enable the thieves to escape. Later, Funny-Arrow is reported making robberies of his own. The clown claims his innocence and that he is being impersonated, but Green Arrow, Speedy, circus owner Danton, and publicity agent Halley doubt his story. Eventually, though, Green Arrow unmasks Danton as the real culprit, whose confederate, Mike, imitated Funny-Arrow in the robberies. Green Arrow takes down Danton, but Funny-Arrow himself nabs Mike with one of his trick arrows.
World’s Finest Comics No. 140 March 1964
Story: “The Land of No Return” (10 pages)
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer: Bill Finger
Artist: Lee Elias
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (between JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #24 / 26), Speedy (next chronological appearance in flashback in TEEN TITANS #53)
Intro: The Hermit and the Valley People (first and only appearance for all)
Villains: The Gnorl (intro; a monster; dies in this story), the Hill People (first and only appearance for all)
Comment: After this story, the Green Arrow’s adventures are tracked in THE OFFICIAL JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA index and Speedy’s adventures are tracked in THE OFFICIAL TEEN TITANS INDEX.
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Speedy follow an energy-absorbing monster, the Gnorl, from their world through a time-warp in a fog into another world, wherein men from all lands and times dwell. They learn from The Hermit, a resident of the other dimension, that this land is a sort of “Sargasso Sea” on land. The unique atmosphere kept people from aging, and the inhabitants lived in peace until a meteor landed, burst into two pieces, and gave warmth and good vibes to the Hill People and the Valley People, each of whom got half the meteorite. Now, greed has pitted each tribe against the other, with each one hoping to capture the other meteorite from the other. But Green Arrow and Speedy take the meteorites themselves, join them as the head of a giant “arrow” made from a tree, and fire them from a huge crossbow straight at the Gnorl. The monster, trying to absorb the meteorites’ powerful energy, overloads and explodes. Without the meteorites’ influence, the Hill and Valley People return to their normal amiability. Green Arrow and Speedy leave through the space-time warp and return to their own world.
Interim appearances
GREEN ARROW:
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #26-28
ACTION COMICS #314
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #31
AQUAMAN #18
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #33
TEEN TITANS #53 (flashback)
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #36, 38, 40, 41, 44, 45, 50, 52
BRAVE AND THE BOLD #71
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #53
ACTION COMICS #350
SUPERMAN #199
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #57
THE FLASH #175
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #59-61, 63, 240
ACTION COMICS #365
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #65, 66, 68, 69, 71
WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #189 JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #72, 74
BRAVE AND THE BOLD #85 (gets new costume)
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #122, 75
GREEN ARROW #1 (flashback; pg.12, panel 4-pg. 13, panel 3)
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #77
TEEN TITANS #25
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #78-80
GREEN LANTERN #76, 77
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #81
GREEN LANTERN #78, 79
BRAVE AND THE BOLD #91 (Black Canary)
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #82, 83
GREEN LANTERN #80-82
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #88
GREEN LANTERN #83
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #89
GREEN LANTERN #84-86
Green Lantern No. 87
December 1971 / January 1972
Story: “What Can One Man Do?” (13 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Penciller: Neal Adams
Inker: Dick Giordano
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in issue #86; next appearance in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #207)
Intro: Jack Major (next appears in issue #100), Kevin McManus (only appearance), a boy (dies in this story)
GA: Hal Jordan (Green Lantern; between first story in this issue and issue #89), Dinah Lance (Black Canary; next appears in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #100), Bruce Wayne (Batman), Clark Kent (Superman; next appears in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #207)
Comment: This story continues in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #207, in which Green Arrow teams with Superman to fight Effron the Sorcerer and decides not to run for mayor of Star City.
Synopsis: Mayor Jack Major wishes to step down as head of Star City’s government. Mayoral aide Kevin McManus phones up Oliver Queen and asks him to run for the office. Queen phones some of his Justice League friends to talk over the offer, and gets mixed advice. But, shortly after, Green Arrow is embroiled in a race riot in which a young boy is shot, and, despite GA’s and a team of doctors’ best efforts, he dies. Moved to tears by the incident, Green Arrow goes to see Dinah Lance, and tells her he has decided to run for mayor.
WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #207
GREEN LANTERN #89
BRAVE AND THE BOLD #100
Adventure Comics No. 418 April 1972
Story: (untitled) (8 pages)
Editor: Joe Orlando
Writer: Denny O’Neil
Artist, letterer: Alex Toth
Feature Character: Black Canary (last appearance in GREEN LANTERN #89)
Villains: The Women’s Resistance League (including Bertha, Marcy, and Timothy; first appearance for all)
Comment: Since Black Canary is such an integral part of the Green Arrow saga, we have chosen to index her solo adventure in this section of the index.
This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Black Canary, looking for a job, finds one teaching martial arts to members of the Women’s Resistance League, a feminist group. Later, she sees the group being held at gunpoint by masked terrorists. She defeats the crooks easily, only to be blackjacked unconscious by one of her own students. The WRL head, Bertha, tells one of the group to shoot Black Canary to death.
Adventure Comics No. 419
May 1972
Story: (untitled) (8 pages)
Editor: Joe Orlando
Writer: Denny O’Neil
Artist, letterer: Alex Toth
Feature Character: Black Canary (next appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #90)
Villains: Catwoman (last appearance in BATMAN #210; next appears in WONDER WOMAN #201), the Women’s Resistance League (last appearance)
GA: Green Arrow (in flashback to an indeterminate time)
Intro: Hill (only appearance)
Synopsis: Bertha elects to use Black Canary as a hostage, instead of killing her, and has her bound and placed inside a van they are driving to a point where they intend to intercept and free their leader, a prisoner being taken from one prison to another. Black Canary revives and learns Bertha’s plan, finally breaking loose and defeating Bertha and their gang. Later, she learns that the prisoner Bertha hoped to free is Catwoman.
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #90-92, 94, 95, 97, 98
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #99 (Black Canary only)
ADVENTURE COMICS #423
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #100-103
THE FLASH #217-219
Action Comics No. 421
February 1973
Story: “The Headline Maker” (8 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Penciller: Sal Amendola
Inker: Dick Giordano Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in FLASH #219; next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #104)
GS: Dinah Lance (Black Canary; last appearance in FLASH #219; next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #104)
Villain: Lucas Branson (first and only appearance)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League of America fight Shaggy Man in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #104, and teams up with Batman to battle Two-Face in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #106. Then Black Canary teams with Batman to fight Monk Devlin and Willie Kresh in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #107.
Synopsis: After saving patrons from a burning theater and trading bon mots with a press agent, Green Arrow switches to Oliver Queen and helps Dinah Lance open her new flower shop in Star City. Since he needs a job, he is inspired to become a press agent, and promises to get Dinah’s shop in the headlines. Not long afterward, he spies hit man Lucas Branson, learns he is about to perform a killing, and phones the city newspapers saying that Green Arrow will take down Branson in front of Dinah’s shop. Then Queen herds Branson by various devious means down to Dinah’s locale, where he switches into his Green Arrow identity and captures Branson as soon as the photographers arrive. Dinah’s shop gets into the newspapers, but Oliver is most pleased with the big front-page photo of Green Arrow.
Action Comics No. 424
June 1973
Story: “The Candy Kitchen Caper” (8 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Penciller: Dick Dillin
Inker: Dick Giordano
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #106; next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #105)
Intro: Evelyn Woodhouse, Phil (only appearance for both)
Villains: Jack, Artie, Mr. Heller (first and only appearance for all)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow and Black Canary help the Justice League fight T. O. Morrow and induct the Elongated Man and the Red Tornado in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #105-106.
Synopsis: After failing to stop two jewel thieves, Green Arrow changes into his Oliver Queen identity, goes by Ye Olde Candy House on an impulse, tries some of confectioner Evelyn Woodhouse’s fudge, and is quite pleased. On the spot, he tells Woodhouse that he will get her great publicity, and more customers, within a week...and he does, using all his P.R. skills. Unbeknownst to either Ollie or Evelyn, the two jewel thieves are using the shop as a front for their diamond-stealing operation, and are encasing the gems in fudge and smuggling them out. When the gem fence demands of Ollie that his picture not be taken, the suspicious Queen changes into Green Arrow and nabs the fence and the two jewel thieves. The candy shop is closed, but Green Arrow tells Evelyn she can start her own shop, and gives her the reward money from the captured thieves to do it.
Action Comics No. 426
August 1973 Story: “The Wrong Side of the Tracks” (7 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Penciller: Dick Dillin
Inker: Dick Giordano
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #106)
GS: Dinah Lance (Black Canary; last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #106)
Intro: Chatworth Osborne, Jr., Harry and his partner (only appearance for all)
Villains: Gregory Gates and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Oliver Queen’s suspicions are aroused when two truckers ask directions for an address from him, while driving a truck from a firm that has been defunct for two years. Travelling to the address as Green Arrow, he discovers the truth: that Osborne Foundation president Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. is being electronically bugged by his vice-president, Gregory Gates, who was demoted from general finance manager by Osborne. Green Arrow captures Gates and his gang, and then goes over Osborne’s books with him, making sure that the youth will be able to do the charitable work he wishes to. As a payment, Green Arrow asks that Dinah Lance’s flower shop get orders for every orphanage and old age home in Star City, and she gets them.
Action Comics No. 428
October 1973
Story: “The Plot To Kill Black Canary” (7 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Artist: Dick Giordano
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #107)
GS: Black Canary (next appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #107)
Villains: Albert the Artist, Pete Larkin, Seldon, Nenner (first and only appearance for all)
Intro: Trump, Louie, Linda, Stanley (only appearance for all)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League, the Justice Society, and the Freedom Fighters battle the Nazis of Earth-X in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #107-108.
Synopsis: Green Arrow persuades Black Canary to do an endorsement of the Trump motorcycle as a favor to his publicity agency. Two crooks with a grudge against the Canary plot to have her killed while she rides the cycle at a stock car show. Green Arrow, getting wind of the plot, nabs the killer at the show, knocks Dinah off the cycle, and saves himself just before it explodes. Later, when Black Canary and Ollie are talking over the incident in his office, Dinah finally breaks down and admits that she thinks she loves him.
Action Comics No. 431
January 1974
Story: “The Case of the Runaway Shoebox” (7 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Penciller: Dick Dillin
Inker: Dick Giordano
Feature Character: Green Arrow (between JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #108 / 109) Villains: Harper and other crooks (first and only appearance for all)
Intro: Ralston Thomas
Comments: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League fight Eclipso in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #109 and the Key in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #110.
Green Arrow states that he is 6 feet tall and 185 pounds.
Synopsis: Oliver Queen has his pocket picked on the way to paying his rent, and, retracing his steps to try and find it, runs into a robbery scene in front of a museum. He switches to his Green Arrow identity and takes down a ring of thieves before they can steal the rare and valuable fragments of an ancient Greek amphora. While at the police station after taking in the crooks, Green Arrow sees the pickpocket who robbed him being brought in by a beat cop. He is able to identify the envelope of money that was lifted from him, and thus is finally able to pay his rent.
Action Comics No. 434
April 1974
Story: “Zatanna’s Double-Identity” (7 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Plotters: Elliot S! Maggin, Al Milgrom, Sal Amendola, Neal Adams, Joanne ?
Scripter: Elliot S! Maggin
Penciller: Dick Dillin
Inker: Frank McLaughlin
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #110)
GS: Black Canary (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #110), Zatanna (last appearance in SUPERGIRL #7; next appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #114)
Villains: Eben Flow and other crooks (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Dinah Lance and Oliver Queen are surprised when Zatanna the magician bursts into Ollie’s office, kisses him passionately, and acts as though she is in love with him. Dinah angrily stomps out, and Ollie, deducing that Zatanna is under a magic spell, has her come with him to a demonstration of a bank’s new burglar alarm system. When crooks show up to attempt to rob the bank, he becomes Green Arrow and battles them, and Zatanna fights them initially with Black Canary-style judo tricks, then with a magic spell that snaps her out of her “Canary” personality. She tells GA that, in an earlier case, she had cast a spell to give her the Black Canary’s fighting skills, but wound up getting Dinah’s personality as well...and fell for Oliver Queen. After Zatanna leaves Oliver’s office, the Black Canary kicks in the door, ready for a brawl with the sorceress, but Green Arrow explains what took place, and Dinah is mollified.
Action Comics No. 436
June 1974
Story: “Young Man With a Drum” (7 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Penciller: Dick Dillin
Inker: Tex Blaisdell
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #112)
GS: Roy Harper (Speedy; last appearance in GREEN LANTERN (second series) #86; next appears in TEEN TITANS #44), Black Canary (next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #112)
Intro: Great Frog (Roy Harper’s band; next appears in GREEN LANTERN (second series) #100)
Villains: Aubrey, Archie, and their gang (first and only appearance for all)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League fight Amazo in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #112, Effron the Sorcerer in the Superman story in next issue, and Anakronus in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #114.
Synopsis: When Green Arrow goes on the trail of a ring of transporters of stolen merchandise, he is astonished to find the trail leads to his ex-partner Roy Harper, alias Speedy, who is drumming with a rock band called Great Frog. Roy pretends to knock Green Arrow out in the presence of one of the crooks, but is shamming (as is GA) and leaves his old partner a radio transmitter through which he can trace Roy. Green Arrow and Roy find the kingpin of the gang and bring him and his men down. But, when Green Arrow offers to help Roy more, his former ward refuses GA’s help, saying that he needs to be alone for awhile to sort things out and get his band in shape.
Action Comics No. 440
October 1974
Story: “Little Dog Lost” (6 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Artist: Mike Grell
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #114)
GS: Dinah Lance (Black Canary; last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #114), Krypto (last appearance in flashback in SUPERMAN #287)
Villains: Professor Steelgraves (first appearance), Georgie, Large Maxie (first and only appearance for both)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Green Arrow is assisted in his fight against Prof. Steelgraves and his smuggling ring by a white dog, who later brings Oliver Queen a device Steelgraves was trying to smuggle, and shuts it off when it produces a beam that makes Dinah Lance hallucinate. Both Ollie and Dinah agree that he is no ordinary dog, and Dinah gives him the name Demian.
Action Comics No. 441
November 1974
Story: “The Mystery of the Wandering Dog” (6 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Artist: Mike Grell
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in BATMAN #260)
GS: Black Canary (next appears in WONDER WOMAN #215), Krypto (next appears in SUPERMAN #287)
GA: Clark Kent (Superman; last seen in the first story in this issue; next appears in SHAZAM! #15)
Villain: Professor Steelgraves (last appearance)
Comment: Shortly after this story Oliver Queen briefly appears in BATMAN #260, then Green Arrow and Black Canary help the Justice League fight Mars in WONDER WOMAN #215 and Zazalla the Queen Bee and other foes in issue #443.
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Black Canary try to unveil the mystery of the illusion-projector by freeing Prof. Steelgraves. Both are aged by a ray in Steelgraves’s hideout, but Krypto breaks in and destroys the machine, after which GA captures the villain. When Steelgraves calls Krypto “that blasted superdog!”, Green Arrow and Black Canary realize that “Demian” is really Krypto. But the amnesiac Krypto has run off, and all GA can do is call up Clark Kent and tell him that his dog is on the loose.
Action Comics No. 444
February 1975
Story: “The Black Canary Is Dead” (6 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Artist: Mike Grell
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in Superman story in last issue)
GS: Dinah Lance (Black Canary; last appearance in Superman story in last issue)
Villains: The Four Horsemen (Peter Lazenby, Max Lucker, and two others; first appearance for all)
Intro: Mr. Genetta, Tommy Genetta (only appearance for both)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: At the behest of the boy’s father, Green Arrow tries to talk Tommy Genetta out of hanging around with a crowd of juvenile delinquents and junkies, who have indirectly caused the death of Tommy’s big brother Frankie through an overdose. While he is in the neighborhood, GA sees and trails a man whose clothing is far too expensive for the run-down area he is passing through. Later, GA learns from the police that the man is Peter Lazenby, one of the Four Horsemen, a drug cartel. Oliver Queen gets Dinah Lance to agree to hang out at the casino of Max Lucker, another Horseman, in order to meet Lazenby and get information on the drug ring. Later, Green Arrow raids Lucker’s office, beats up his guards, and warns him of further pressure if GA finds out he was behind the Frankie Genetta death. But Lucker swears to get back at GA, and sends a tape for him to police headquarters, with a lock of blonde hair from the Black Canary’s wig. The taped message says, in part, “Tell Green Arrow the Black Canary is dead...and tell him we did it...slow!”
Action Comics No. 445
March 1975
Story: “Find Black Canary, Dead Or Alive” (6 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Artist: Mike Grell
Feature Character: Green Arrow
GS: Black Canary
Villains: Cherry Noller (first appearance), Max Lucker
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Green Arrow catches Cherry Noller, a “gambling therapist”, leaving Max Lucker’s casino, and enlists her help in finding the Black Canary and getting information on Lucker and the Four Horsemen. When Cherry phones in an “all clear” signal to GA, he enters, but is met by a small army of thugs. After he fights past them, Green Arrow locates and frees Black Canary and overcomes Max Lucker. But he discovers that Lucker is not really one of the Four Horsemen...and Cherry Noller, who has slipped up behind them and is covering them with a gun, is.
Action Comics No. 446
April 1975
Story: “Billion-Dollar Bust” (6 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Artist: Mike Grell
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #116)
GS: Black Canary (next appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #117)
Villains: Max Lucker, Cherry Noller (last appearance for both)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League and Golden Eagle fight Matter Master in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #116 and both Green Arrow and Black Canary reinduct Hawkman into the Justice League and help them fight the Equalizer in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #117. Then Green Arrow monitors Wonder Woman’s battle with the Duke of Deception in WONDER WOMAN #217 and Felix Faust in WONDER WOMAN #218. Then Black Canary helps the Justice League fight the Adaptoids in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #118-119 and is involved with other JLA members and Batgirl in Supergirl’s fight against “Cleopatra” in SUPERMAN FAMILY #171. Then Green Arrow helps the Justice League monitor Wonder Woman’s battle with Mchsm in WONDER WOMAN #219, and both Green Arrow and Black Canary help the Justice League fight Kanjar Ro and attend the wedding of Adam Strange and Alanna in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #120-121. [Black Canary’s appearance in WONDER WOMAN #216 goes somewhere around here]
Synopsis: Black Canary utters her Canary Cry and enables herself and Green Arrow to escape. Then both heroes have a showdown with Lucker and Noller and their gang at a point where a drug boat is being unloaded, and, with the help of the police, the crooks are caught and a billion-dollar drug raid is accomplished.
Action Comics No. 450
August 1975
Story: “A Gremlin in The Works” (5 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Artist: Mike Grell
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary (last appearance for both in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #121)
Intro: Jesse Tenzer (only appearance), Davy Tenzer
Villains: Thurston Keane (first appearance), the Organization (first appearance; revealed in next issue; one member dies in this story)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance are given a free week’s vacation at Squire’s In the Berkshires, the favorite resort of Jesse Tenzer, whose chocolate factory had been helped by Oliver’s publicity. The gift was the idea of Jesse’s quiet son, David. But four murders occur while Oliver and Dinah are vacationing, all committed by bludgeoning the victims with black rocks from a sling. Thurston Keane, the resort manager, tries to pin the blame on Green Arrow and Black Canary, but the two heroes discover that the real killer is Davy Tenzer.
Action Comics No. 451
September 1975
Story: “The Day the Dreaming Dies” (5 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Artist: Mike Grell
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary
GS: Davy Tenzer
Villains: Thurston Keane, the Organization
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Black Canary feel they have little choice but to help Davy Tenzer, who claims to have lived for centuries, and who tells them that a deadly band called the Organization is meeting at the hotel, planning to “neutralize every government on Earth!” Davy gets them into the Organization’s secret planning room, but the three of them are taken down by guards. Green Arrow learns that Thurston Keane is a member of the Organization, and is held prisoner with Davy and Black Canary in a room in which the Organization stores its nuclear weapons.
Action Comics No. 452
October 1975
Story: “When Madmen Rule the World” (5 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Artist: Mike Grell
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary (both next appear in THE JOKER #4)
GS: Davy Tenzer (last appearance)
Villains: Thurston Keane, the Organization (all die in this story)
Comment: Shortly after this story, Green Arrow and Black Canary fight the Joker in THE JOKER #4, then help the Justice League, the Justice Society, and Elliot S! Maggin fight the Injustice Society and Cary Bates in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #123-124. Then Green Arrow helps Superman and the Atom fight Junkman in issue #455. Afterward, Green Arrow and Black Canary rejoin the Justice League to fight the Anarchist in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #127, after which Black Canary briefly appears in SUPER-TEAM FAMILY #3. Then Green Arrow helps the Justice League reinduct Wonder Woman in WONDER WOMAN #220-222, joined by Black Canary in issue #222, and both help the Justice League battle Nekron in WONDER WOMAN #222 / JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #128-129.
Synopsis: Green Arrow frees himself and his friends from their bonds and leads Davy and Black Canary in an assault on the Organization. But, once again, they find themselves outnumbered and make an escape...without Davy, who stays behind and blows up the Organization with a detonator from one of the nuclear bombs. GA feels that Davy has surely perished, but, out of his sight, the youth makes his way out of the rubble and begins to play his harp.
Action Comics No. 456
February 1976
Story: “Bail Out the Nutty Kid” (5 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Artist: Mike Grell
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary (last appearance for both in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #129)
Intro: Danny Harris
Villains: Lex Luthor (revealed in next issue; disguised as Danny Harris; last appearance in SUPERMAN #299), Frankie and other “clowns” (first appearance)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Comedian Danny Harris is kidnapped by a group of thugs masquerading as clowns during his pledge-drive telethon, at which Oliver Queen is manning a phone bank. Ollie telephones Black Canary to come to their aid while the clowns levy a demand for ransom money before taking him to a helicopter. Black Canary has taken out one of the clowns guarding the chopper and is posing as him, but her imposture is discovered by the villains once they are airborne.
Action Comics No. 457
March 1976
Story: “Flight of the Nutty Kid” (5 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Artist: Mike Grell
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary
Villains: Lex Luthor and his gang
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Green Arrow tries and fails to catch the helicopter bearing Black Canary and the clown gang. Black Canary fights the clowns and defeats them, bringing the helicopter to a safe landing. But “Danny Harris” draws a weapon on her and pulls off a headmask, revealing himself as Lex Luthor.
Action Comics No. 458
April 1976
Story: “Masquerade of the Nutty Kid” (5 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Artist: Mike Grell
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary (both next appear in WONDER WOMAN #223)
GS: Danny Harris (last appearance)
Villain: Lex Luthor (next appears in THE JOKER #7)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow and Black Canary appear with the Justice League in WONDER WOMAN #223, then Green Arrow joins Green Lantern to fight Jinn in GREEN LANTERN #90, after which Green Arrow and Black Canary help the Justice League and Supergirl battle Despero in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #132-133. Then Green Arrow joins Batman and the Atom to fight Two-Face and the Joker in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #129-130 and aids the Justice League, the Justice Society, the Marvel Family and the Shazam Squadron in their battle against King Kull and his minions in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #135, 137.
Synopsis: Lex Luthor fires a hypno-beam at Black Canary, inducing her to want to kill Green Arrow. But she hypnotizes herself into believing Lex Luthor is Green Arrow, and attacks him. Luthor teleports away, and the desire to kill leaves Black Canary. Green Arrow turns up moments later, and, after a reunion, he and Black Canary find Danny Harris in the cargo section of Luthor’s helicopter.
Detective Comics No. 464
October 1976
Story: “A Hot Time in Star City Tonight” (6 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writers: Bob Rozakis, Laurie Rozakis
Penciller: Mike Grell
Inker: Terry Austin
Feature Character: Black Canary (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #133; next appears in DC SUPER-STARS #10)
GA: The Atom (last appearance in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #130; next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #139)
Cameo appearance: Elongated Man
Villain: The Calculator (between Atom story in last issue and Elongated Man story in next issue)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow and Black Canary join the Justice League to fight a group of villains in DC SUPER-STARS #10.
Synopsis: The Black Canary encounters the Calculator, who has created a condition in which every time the Canary uses her sonic cry, the temperature in the city will escalate to a frightening degree.
Detective Comics No. 466
December 1976
Story: “Take Me Out of the Ball Game” (6 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Bob Rozakis
Penciller: Marshall Rogers
Inker: Terry Austin
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in DC SUPER-STARS #10; next appears in GREEN LANTERN #91)
GS: Elongated Man (last appearance in last issue; next appears in issue #468)
Villain: The Calculator (last appearance in last issue; next appears in next issue)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow teams up with Green Lantern to fight Sinestro in GREEN LANTERN #91-92, after which he and Black Canary help the Justice League and Adam Strange to battle Kanjar Ro in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #139. Then Green Arrow briefly appears with the Justice League in SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS #5, and Black Canary helps the JLA, Captain Comet, and Tommy Tomorrow fight Chronos and Tyrano Rex in DC SPECIAL #27. Then Green Arrow and Black Canary help Captain Comet fight the Secret Society of Super-Villains in SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS #6. Then Green Arrow and Black Canary help the Justice League fight the Calculator in DETECTIVE COMICS #468, Captain Cold and other villains in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #139, the Manhunters in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #140-141, and The Construct in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #142.
Synopsis: The Elongated Man, trying to get Green Arrow to help him catch the Calculator, accompanies the archer to the World’s Series game, at which he is to throw out the first ball. When two balls thrown by GA vanish, Green Arrow is confronted by the Calculator himself, who has captured the baseballs with his strange headgear device. The Elongated Man finds himself powerless to pursue the villain directly. But Green Arrow uses Ralph’s ductile body as a bow and himself as an arrow, and catapults himself at the Calculator, bringing him down.
World’s Finest Comics No. 244
April-May 1977
Story: “Rainbows of Doom” (10 pages)
Editor: Denny O’Neil
Writer: Jack C. Harris
Penciller: Mike Nasser
Inker: Terry Austin
Feature Character: Black Canary (between JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #142 / 143)
GS: Green Arrow (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #142)
Intro: George Taylor, Jr. (last chronological appearance in SUPERMAN: THE SECRET YEARS #4; next appears in issue #246), George Taylor III
Villains: Rainbow Archer (last appearance in ADVENTURE COMICS #246; last appearance), Slingshot (first appearance; David Drayson; revealed in Green Arrow story in this issue; real name revealed in issue #246), their henchman (first appearance; dies in this story)
Comment: Story continues in the Green Arrow story in this issue.
Synopsis: When pole-vaulter George Taylor III’s vaulting pole snaps, Black Canary saves him and questions the attendant who was paid to saw through the pole. But the attendant is killed by an arrow that throws a rainbow of colors before he can reveal who employed him. When Dinah brings the arrow to Oliver Queen, he deduces the murder as the work of the Rainbow Archer. In turn, the Rainbow Archer is being employed by the mysterious villain Slingshot to strike at Daily Star editor George Taylor, Jr. thru his son, in revenge for backing a political candidate Slingshot wanted defeated. In disguise, Black Canary staves off another murder attempt on young Taylor and brings down the Rainbow Archer. But Slingshot knocks her down with a metal ball thrown at her forehead, and Oliver Queen switches to his Green Arrow identity and seeks vengeance.
Story: “Slings and Arrows” (10 pages)
Editor: Denny O’Neil
Writer: Tony Isabella
Penciller: Mike Nasser
Inker: Terry Austin
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colorist: Liz Berube
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #143)
Intro: Whitney Spencer (cameo; in flashback)
Villain: Slingshot (next appearance in issue #246) Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow and Black Canary help the Justice League fight the Construct in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #143, then help Green Lantern fight Colonel Krisp in GREEN LANTERN #93-95. After that, Green Arrow learns the secret origin of the Justice League in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #144 and helps Batman and the Metal Men fight Jason Morgan and Ruby Ryder in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #136. Then Green Arrow and Black Canary help the Justice League battle Count Crystal in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #145 and the Construct in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #146, and team up with the Justice League, Justice Society, and Legion of Super-Heroes against Mordru and Abnegazar, Rath and Ghast in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #147-148, after which Green Arrow is among the Justice Leaguers briefly taken in by the Parasite’s plot in the Superman / Batman story in issue #246.
Synopsis: Green Arrow pursues Slingshot, who can use either hand or both to launch metal balls gimmicked with acid and other devices. Slingshot is trying to cause the political defeat of judge Whitney Spencer, who once sentenced him to life imprisonment. The pursuit takes both men into the courtroom where Slingshot received the sentence, and where Oliver Queen once learned that he had become bankrupt. Green Arrow defeats Slingshot, but the villain escapes.
World’s Finest Comics No. 245
June-July 1977
Story: “The Man-Bear Stalks At Midnight” (10 pages)
Editor: Denny O’Neil
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciller: Mike Nasser
Inker: Terry Austin
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last chronological appearance in Superman and Batman story in issue #246)
GS: Dinah Lance (Black Canary; last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #148)
Intro: Michael Ursus
Comment: This story continues in the Black Canary story in this issue.
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Black Canary have come to a Catskills lodge so that GA can hunt down the “bear” that is terrorizing it. But the bear proves to be Ursus, a “man-bear” with human thinking and speaking processes, who tells Green Arrow that he has no quarrel with him, and tells him to “beat it!” GA comes upon Ursus later, while the man-bear is rifling the lodge vault. After being kayoed by Ursus, Green Arrow comes to, trails him, and uses his trick arrows to capture the hulking being. Later, viewing Ursus behind bars, Green Arrow tells Black Canary that Ursus is a freak, not a crook, and he hated to place him behind bars. Furthermore, he feels that Ursus was turned into a monster by someone else, who probably ordered him to rob the hotel, and GA vows to find out who that someone is.
Story: “Hospital of Fear” (10 pages)
Editor: Denny O’Neil
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciller: Mike Nasser
Inker: Terry Austin
Feature Character: Black Canary
GS: Michael Ursus (dies in this story) Villains: The Doctor (first appearance; dies in this story), Herman Dolchak and other thugs (first and only appearance for all)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Black Canary battles a group of three men who have come to spring Ursus from jail, but is kayoed by the explosion of their bomb, which blasts out the prison wall. However, she has heard one of them call another “Dolchak”, which, she discovers, is the name of an orderly at a hospital. When she goes there to investigate, she is chloroformed by one of the gang. Black Canary awakens to find herself tied to a table in front of Ursus, the man-bear, who is bound to a wall, with the three men and a surgically-masked villain called The Doctor before her. The Doctor gives Ursus an injection which will both madden him and, he thinks, make him a slave to the Doctor’s commands, intending to have Ursus kill Black Canary. But Ursus knocks the Doctor down, giving the Canary time to free herself. After a brief confrontation, Black Canary pushes Ursus back with water from a fire hose. When Ursus sees the Doctor draw a gun on the Canary, he attacks the man, thrusting both of them through a window. They fall to their deaths. Later, a sheriff tells Black Canary that the Doctor was just an intern, working for someone else, and that he couldn’t have been Ursus’s creator. Black Canary vows to find out who the man-bear’s creator really is.
World’s Finest Comics No. 246
August-September 1977
Story: “Wulf Hunt” (10 pages)
Editor: Denny O’Neil
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciller: Mike Nasser
Inker: Terry Austin
Feature Character: Black Canary
GA: Oliver Queen (Green Arrow)
Intro: Pierre Dubois, Dr. Grant (flashback; both die in this story), Wulf
Villains: Three men (first and only appearance for all)
Comment: This story continues in next issue and crosses over with the Green Arrow story in this issue.
Synopsis: Black Canary stops three lumberjacks from killing a wolf and her cubs. She learns that they were hunting for a wolf that killed their friend, Pierre Dubois. Later, she hears of Dr. Grant, a scientist and animal rights advocate, and finds him dead in his cabin. The Canary reads in Grant’s notes of how he transformed a bear and wolf into humanoids (one of which was Ursus). The diary breaks off as if Grant had died while writing it. Black Canary fights off the lumberjacks again, who fear they will be blamed for Grant’s death. Later, Dinah Lance takes a shower in her hotel room, not knowing she is being watched by the humanoid wolf.
Story: “Manhunt For a Murderer” (10 pages)
Editor: Denny O’Neil
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciller: Mike Nasser
Inker: Terry Austin
Feature Character: Green Arrow
Villains: Slingshot (between issues #244 / 276), Barney “Boss” Breed (first appearance; next appears in issue #276), Reggie Ronson (first appearance)
GS: George Taylor, Jr. (next appearance in issue #258)
Comment: Story crosses over with the Black Canary story in this issue and continues in next issue.
Synopsis: Green Arrow trails Slingshot to the office of his employer, Boss Breed, and captures Breed but fails to nab Slingshot. However, fingerprints left by Slingshot on a doorknob prove him to be David Drayson, a cop-killing psychotic. GA follows up Slingshot, again failing to catch him in their next encounter, but finally bringing him down in their next meeting.
World’s Finest Comics No. 247
October-November 1977
Cover: Parasite (as Kor-El), storm troopers, Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash, and Green Arrow //Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez / Dick Giordano
Comment: Neither Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, nor the Flash appear in the Superman / Batman story in this issue, despite the cover scene.
Story: “Requiem of Rage” (chapter 1: 5 pages)
Chapter 2 (5 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Gerry Conway
Artist: Sal Amendola
Letterer: Morris Waldinger
Colorist: Liz Berube
Feature Character: Black Canary
GS: Wulf
Villains: Marcel Moreau and his gang (first appearance for all)
Comments: This story continues in the Green Arrow story in this issue.
The villain Marcel Moreau and his modus operandi are inspired by Dr. Moreau in H. G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau.
Synopsis: Dinah Lance is surprised by Wulf, the humanoid wolf, while climbing out of the shower, but defeats him in battle. Wulf explains that he has not come to molest her, but requesting her aid, as his master, Dr. Grant, is dead, and he knows the murderer’s identity. Dinah changes into her Black Canary outfit and heads out on her motorcycle, while Wulf, riding behind her, explains what happened: Dr. Grant was murdered by a mysterious man called Marcel Moreau and his gang, who had financed his operation but who were no longer its beneficiaries. Wulf ended up killing the gang member who had murdered Grant. The Canary tells Wulf she has learned that Moreau is a war profiteer who supplies arms to Middle East revolutionaries. She takes them to Moreau’s island, but, since the sun is coming up, the nocturnal Wolf is paralyzed by a phobia of daytime and the Canary heads on alone. She is brought down by another humanoid animal and soon finds herself Moreau’s prisoner.
Story: “Isle of Hate, Island of Dreams” (chapter 3; 5 pages)
Chapter 4 (5 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Gerry Conway
Artist: Sal Amendola
Letterer: Clem Robins Colorist: Liz Berube
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in GREEN LANTERN #96)
GS: Black Canary (next appears in GREEN LANTERN #96), Wulf (dies in this story)
GA: Flash (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #147; next appears in DC SPECIAL SERIES #6)
Villains: Reggie Ronson (last appearance), Marcel Moreau (dies in this story), Moreau’s animal-men (first appearance; die in this story)
Intro: Detective Mack Morgan
Comments: Shortly after this story Green Arrow and Black Canary help Green Lantern unravel the mystery of the Mocker in GREEN LANTERN #96-99, then help the Justice League battle the Privateer and the Key in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #150.
Synopsis: After capturing Reggie Ronson and his gang, Green Arrow is contacted by Detective Mack Morgan of the Star City police, who relays a warning call from a Canadian resident who was told to call Star City if the Black Canary didn’t return by sundown. GA warps into British Columbia by way of the Justice League’s transporter, meets Wulf, and breaks into Moreau’s residence with him, only to be captured. Moreau gives Wulf a treatment intended to make him a slave, and tells Wulf to release GA and Black Canary into an acid bath, which will free their protein to be used as base material for more animal men. But Wulf rejects Moreau’s order, and causes an explosion which frees the heroes, allowing them to escape. Wulf and Moreau are destroyed in the blast.
World’s Finest Comics No. 248
December 1977 - January 1978
Story: “Hellgrammite Is His Name, Rebirth Is His Game” (20 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Vince Colletta
Letterer: Clem Robins
Colorist: Liz Berube
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary (last appearance for both in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #150)
Villains: Hellgrammite (last appearance in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #80), his gang (first appearance), John Deleon (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #75)
GS: Mack Morgan
Intro: Ruth Anderson (last name revealed in issue #252), Regine (dies in this story)
Comment: According to a footnote, this story takes place before the story in GREEN LANTERN #100.
Synopsis: While Dinah Lance is trying out for a fashion designer’s job, the clothes factory at which she is applying is raided by Hellgrammite and his gang, who are stealing large spools of fiber. Dinah switches to her Black Canary identity and tries to battle him, but is wound up in a large cocoon by the villain and only released after the crooks have completed their robbery. Oliver Queen refuses to help her track down Hellgrammite, citing the needs of poor Star City residents as his first priority, and Black Canary storms out, determined to find the super-villain on her own. Later, Mack Morgan asks Green Arrow to donate a spare costume to the police museum’s super-hero detectives section, which already contains uniforms and memorabilia of several other heroes, and Green Arrow agrees. He also learns of missing Star City millionaires form Morgan, who points him in the direction of a group called Rebirth, Inc. This is secretly a front for Hellgrammite, whose “rebirth cocoons”, for a $100,000 fee, appear to turn older men into younger ones, with a new cover identity. Deleon, the man who stole Oliver Queen’s fortune, had wanted to participate, but gets cold feet. At that moment, Black Canary intervenes, but is beaten and captured. Deleon gets away in the confusion. He later calls Green Arrow and demands protection, saying that he has taken over the Queen mansion and now knows Oliver Queen’s secret identity. Green Arrow grudgingly goes to his old mansion, fights his way through Hellgrammite’s men, and loses his weapons, mask, and shirt in the process. When GA finally encounters Deleon, the crooked financier presents him with the uniform he had stolen from the police museum, which he believes is that of Oliver Queen’s secret identity...the Batman.
World’s Finest Comics No. 249
February-March 1978
Story: “Will the Costume Make the Hero?” (20 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Vince Colletta
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colorist: Gene D’Angelo
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (next appears in DC SUPER-STARS #17), Black Canary (next appears in GREEN LANTERN #100)
Villains: Hellgrammite (last appearance) and his gang (two die in this story; last appearance for all), John Deleon (dies in this story)
GS: Mack Morgan
Synopsis: Clad in the Batman uniform, Green Arrow uses the utility belt’s weapons to defeat Hellgrammite’s gang. Then he takes John Deleon (who, by now, has guessed that Oliver Queen is really Green Arrow) to the police, with the secret instruction that Deleon be released later so that GA can trail him. However, Green Arrow is detained fighting Hellgrammite’s other gangsters, and Deleon is able to grab his money and go to Hellgrammite in hopes of cutting a deal. He comes upon Hellgrammite while the latter is killing two of his men with cocoons, which have also killed the businessmen who came to him in hopes of gaining new youth; the men were simply impersonated by younger crooks in Hellgrammite’s pay. When the villain leaps at Deleon, the crooked financier dies of fright. Green Arrow takes down Hellgrammite, having trailed Deleon, while Black Canary breaks free of her cocoon. Black Canary tells GA later that he might be able to recover his fortune if he went to court to get Deleon’s records, but Green Arrow tells her he doesn’t want to be a millionaire anymore. But the Canary refuses GA’s advances, saying that she is her own woman.
DC Super-Stars No. 17
November-December 1977
Story: “The Origin of Green Arrow” (10 pages)
Editor: Paul Levitz
Writer: Denny O’Neil
Penciller: Mike Grell Inker: Bruce Patterson
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colorist: Liz Berube
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #249; next appears in GREEN LANTERN #100; origin retold)
Intro: A woman (only appearance), Miranda (in flashback; only appearance)
Villains: A subordinate of John Deleon (first and only appearance), a gang of pirates (in flashback)
Comment: There is no title on the splash page; title taken from contents page of DC SPECIAL BLUE-RIBBON DIGEST #23, in which this story is reprinted.
Synopsis: A gunman who was formerly employed by John Deleon, to whom Oliver Queen lost his fortune, holds a woman hostage at gunpoint aboard the deck of a ship. Green Arrow opposes him, seeking the briefcase full of evidence of Deleon’s wrongdoings the gunman carries, but the terrorist insists on Green Arrow leaping overboard in return for his releasing the woman. Green Arrow remembers his origin story, how Oliver Queen once fell off another ship, swam to Starfish Island, learned the use of a makeshift bow, and used it to help defeat a band of pirates who landed on his isle. Green Arrow then manages to take out the gunman, though the briefcase is lost in the sea. He decides that the papers within it don’t have much meaning to him anymore.
Green Lantern No. 100
January 1978
Cover: Green Lantern, Air Wave, Black Canary, and Green Arrow // Mike Grell (signed)
Story: “Beware the Blazing Inferno” (17 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Penciller: Mike Grell
Inker: Vince Colletta
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary (last appearance for both in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #249; both next appear in next issue)
GS: Roy Harper (Speedy; last appearance in TEEN TITANS #53; next appears in DC SPECIAL SERIES #11), Great Frog (last appearance in ACTION COMICS #436; next appear in SUPERMAN FAMILY #192), Jack Major (last appearance in issue #87; next appears in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #255), Elmer Durgin (last appearance in issue #87)
Villains: Justin Marcus, Harry Barkis, Leonard Fish, the Blazing Infernos (first and only appearance for all)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow and Black Canary help Green Lantern fight Bill Baggett and Hector Hammond next issue, then help the Justice League battle Amos Fortune and his minions in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #151 and encounter Ultraa in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #153. Then they help Green Lantern battle Taupin and Pi-X-Square in issues #102-103, after which they team up with Superman, Batman, and the Earth-Two Wonder Woman to fight Agent Axis and the Ravager in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #250. Then both Green Arrow and Black Canary help the Justice League battle Dr. Destiny in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #154 and Amazo in ACTION COMICS #480-481, 483, after which Black Canary teams with Batman to fight the Joker in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #141. Then she and Green Arrow reunite with the JLA to fight the Regnans in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #155, and Black Canary helps them battle the gods of Oceania in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #156. Then Black Canary and Green Arrow team up with Green Lantern and Air Wave to fight Sonar and Itty in issues #104-106.
Meanwhile, Speedy attends Kid Flash’s high school graduation after this story in DC SPECIAL SERIES #11.
Synopsis: When the latest in a series of Star City bombings injures the leg of Roy (Speedy) Harper, who is playing with his band Great Frog at a high school concert, Green Arrow and Black Canary are driven to discover the culprits. The bombers prove to be the Blazing Infernos street gang, but they find out that their backers are three businessmen in town, named Marcus, Barkis, and Fish. The heroes, with the help of Roy, take down the gang and their backers, who have been causing the bombings to raise insurance rates. Meanwhile, Mayor Jack Major is almost certain that Oliver Queen is Green Arrow, and wants him to run for mayor in the upcoming election. Oliver agrees to do so.
World’s Finest Comics No. 251
June-July 1978
Story: “The Vertigo Version” (10 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Gerry Conway
Editor: Trevor Von Eeden
Feature Character: Black Canary (last appearance in GREEN LANTERN #106; next appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #157)
GS: Ruth Anderson, Mack Morgan
Villain: Count Vertigo (intro)
Intro: Count Vertigo’s parents (cameo; in a photo; dead before this story begins), Anson (only appearance)
Comment: This story crosses over with the Green Arrow story in this issue.
Synopsis: Dinah Lance, at a fashion show with Ruth, is witness to a jewel robbery by Count Vertigo, a costumed villain who can induce dizziness and loss of balance. A jeweler tells her that the only jewels robbed were ones that formerly belonged to the Vertigo family, who ruled a small Balkan country before World War II before they had to flee the Russians and liquidate their jewel collection. She also learns the Vertigos had a hereditary inner ear problem, affecting their sense of balance. Learning the target of his next robbery, Black Canary meets Count Vertigo there and defeats him with her canary cry. She learns that his powers derived from a device he had built to offset his defective inner ear, whose power could be used to affect other people.
Story: “No Home For the Hero” (10 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciller: Jerry Bingham
Inker: Bob Layton
Letterer: Shelly Leferman
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (last appearance in GREEN LANTERN #106; next appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #157), Speedy (last appearance in DC SPECIAL SERIES #11; next appears in SUPERMAN FAMILY #191)
GS: Mack Morgan
Villains: The Stinger (first appearance) and his gang (including Jackson; first and only appearance for all)
Comments: Shortly after this story Green Arrow and Black Canary help the Justice League and Supergirl fight the Siren in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #157, then team with Green Lantern and Air Wave to battle the Yellow Peril in GREEN LANTERN #107.
Shortly after this story Speedy joins Jimmy Olsen and the Newsboy Legion to track down the Golden Guardian in SUPERMAN FAMILY #191-194, rejoins the Teen Titans to help Batman in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #149, and joins the Teen Titans and other heroes to deal with a galactic menace in SHOWCASE #100, after which he joins the New Teen Titans in BEST OF DC DIGEST #18. From that point on, his continuity is tracked in the OFFICIAL TEEN TITANS INDEX.
Synopsis: After the breakup of the Teen Titans and his recent adventure with Green Arrow and Black Canary, Roy Harper hunts up Green Arrow in Star City, finds his old mentor busting crooks, and changes into his Speedy guise to help. Unfortunately, he learns that he captured a member of the gang that GA and Detective Mack Morgan wanted to let go, in hopes of trailing him to his leader, the Stinger. Speedy cooks up an alternative plan, which involves having him pose as a crook, breaking one of the gang free, and trailing him with a transmitter planted in his shoe. Unfortunately, the transmitter is bollixed when Roy steps in a puddle, but Green Arrow is able to track him anyway and captures the Stinger. Later, Roy and Oliver realize that they are a good fighting team still, but they can no longer be as close as they once were, and Roy leaves.
World’s Finest Comics No. 252
August-September 1978
Story: “Blades and Illusions” (20 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Vince Colletta
Letterer: Milton Snapinn
Colorist: Mario Sen
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary (both between GREEN LANTERN #107 / 108)
GS: Ruth Anderson, Mack Morgan
Villains: The Stinger (last appearance), Count Vertigo (next appears in issue #270), Stinger’s gang (Howard, Stevie, and Ernie; first and only appearance)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow and Black Canary join Green Lantern to battle Replikon in GREEN LANTERN #108-109, then Green Arrow helps Batman fight the Gargoyle in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #144. Then Green Arrow and Black Canary help Green Lantern fight Borch in GREEN LANTERN #110 and briefly appear during the Justice League’s, Justice Society’s, and a group of time-warped heroes’ battle against the Lord of Time in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #159-160. Then Green Arrow teams with Green Lantern and the Green Lantern of Earth-Two to uncover the mystery of the Starheart in GREEN LANTERN #111-112.
Synopsis: The Stinger, now a costumed villain, teams up with Count Vertigo to gain revenge on their foes Green Arrow and Black Canary by switching opponents. Count Vertigo defeats Green Arrow, and the Stinger beats Black Canary. Both heroes are thrown into a death-trap, but Green Arrow defeats the trap and the twosome confront and vanquish the Stinger and Count Vertigo.
World’s Finest Comics No. 253 November 1978
Cover: Superman, Batman, Prince Jon, Julie Madison, Captain Marvel, Creeper, Green Arrow, Black Canary //Jim Aparo
Story: “I Die Screaming” (19 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Vince Colletta
Letterer: Shelly Leferman
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (last appearance in GREEN LANTERN #112), Black Canary (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #160)
GS: Hawkman, Hawkgirl (both last in XXX; both next in XXX)
Villains: The Glorn and the Hive-Master (first appearance for all)
Synopsis: After Green Arrow and Black Canary have a fight against a group of faceless aliens, they are astonished to discover the aliens have vanished. Later, the aliens--who are called the Glorn--and their king capture Black Canary at her apartment. Green Arrow discovers Dinah is missing and appeals to Hawkman and Hawkgirl for help. They use a Persona-Tracker from Thanagar on a costume Black Canary has left behind and learn that the Glorn come from a buffer dimension between Earths One and Two, in which the Canary picked up the energy charge that gave her the canary cry. Hawkman gives Green Arrow a dimensional travelling machine. GA enters the Glorn’s dimension and battles past soldier-Glorn to the Glorn Hive-Master’s inner chamber, where he is captured, seeing a bound Black Canary before him, and learning that she is to be the Glorn’s queen.
World’s Finest Comics No. 254
December 1978 - January 1979
Cover: Batman, Superman, Sinestro; Black Canary and Green Arrow vs. The Glorn; Green Arrow in Arrowcar; Creeper vs. Mr. Wrinkles; Captain Marvel vs. “The Devil” (five vignettes) //Jim Aparo
Story: “Primeval Scream” (10 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Vince Colletta
Letterer: Shelly Leferman
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary (next appears in GREEN LANTERN #113)
Villains: The Glorn and the Hive-Master (last appearance for all)
Synopsis: Green Arrow and Black Canary learn that the Glorn have been evolved during the last 100 years by radio waves, and that they intend to expand into Earth-One and wipe out humanity. But the Canary manages to reach her Justice League signalling device and triggers it, sending out radio waves that devolve the Glorn into an egg-form again. Green Arrow and Black Canary then free themselves.
Story: “The Race Is in the Running” (10 pages) Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Vince Colletta
Letterer: Clem Robins
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in GREEN LANTERN #113)
Intro: Bobbie Walleck (only appearance)
Villains: Ernie, Freido (first appearance for both), Tobias Whale (last appearance in BLACK LIGHTNING #8; next appears in issue #256)
Comments: Shortly after this story Green Arrow and Black Canary deal with Granny Bleach in GREEN LANTERN #113.
Synopsis: The Arrowcar is sold at auction for $100,000, far more than what it should bring, and Green Arrow decides to investigate the buyers. It transpires that the Arrowcar is used to attempt a heist of a million-dollar racing car from driver Bobbie Walleck. Green Arrow stops the thieves by destroying the Arrowcar with a grenade arrow, and, depressed after having to destroy his old car, vows to find the boss behind the crooks.
World’s Finest Comics No. 255
February-March 1979
Cover: Superman, Batman, Gitchka, “Bat-Man”, Captain Marvel, Black Canary, the Creeper, and Green Arrow //Jim Aparo
Story: “Nothing But a Man” (20 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Elliot S! Maggin
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Vince Colletta
Letterers: Clem Robins, Ben Oda
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Feature Character: Green Arrow (between GREEN LANTERN #113 / 114)
GS: Green Lantern (last appearance in GREEN LANTERN #113; next appears in DC COMICS PRESENTS #6), Black Canary (last appearance in GREEN LANTERN #113; next appears in DC COMICS PRESENTS #7), Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Clark Kent (Superman; next appears in DC COMICS PRESENTS #7; all appear as the Justice League of America), Batgirl, Robin, Supergirl,
Supporting Characters: Jack Major (last appearance in GREEN LANTERN #100; dies in this story), Carol Ferris (last appearance in GREEN LANTERN #109; next appears, as Star Sapphire, in DC COMICS PRESENTS #6)
Villains: Thaddeus Cable and his gang (first and only appearance for all)
Intro: Ralph Halstead, Mike (only appearance for both)
Comment: Shortly after this story Black Canary helps Superman and the Red Tornado fight the Weaponers of Qward in DC COMICS PRESENTS #7. Then Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Green Lantern battle the Crumbler in GREEN LANTERN #114-115. Then all three join the Justice League to initiate Zatanna and fight the Warlock in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #161, after which Green Arrow and Green Lantern help the JLA fight the Shark in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #162, all three heroes help Zatanna and Zatara uncover the mystery of Zatanna’s mother in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #163-165, and then fight the Secret Society of Super-Villains in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #166-168.
Synopsis: Oliver Queen’s race for the mayorality of Star City against Ralph Halstead goes into high gear, with super-heroes endorsing Queen for mayor. But Queen is kidnapped by hoods and forced into a meeting with crime-boss Thaddeus Cable. There he learns that his mentor, incumbent mayor Jack Major, has secretly been in cahoots with Cable for over twenty years. Queen manages to secretly switch to Green Arrow and battle his way out, then, with the help of Green Lantern and Black Canary, stops two of Cable’s gunmen from attempting to assassinate him at his campaign headquarters. Jack Major, also at the scene, dies of a heart attack, but admits to Oliver Queen before he dies that he did cut a deal with Cable. Ralph Halstead wins the election, possibly due to rigged votes. But when Clark Kent calls Queen’s residence to tell him that Oliver may really have won the election and could be proven the winner after an investigation, Dinah Lance tells Kent not to pursue the inquest. The disillusioned Green Arrow no longer wants to be mayor.
World’s Finest Comics No. 256
April-May 1979
Cover: Superman, Batman, Lar-On, Sandy Terry; Black Lightning vs. Green Arrow; Hawkman and Hawkgirl; Captain Marvel at his parents’ graveside; Black Canary (five vignettes) //Ross Andru / Dick Giordano
Story: “Encounter With a Dark Avenger” (10 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Denny O’Neil
Penciller: Dick Dillin
Inker: Frank Chiaramonte
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #168)
GS: Black Lightning (last appearance in BLACK LIGHTNING #11; next appears in Black Lightning story in next issue)
Villains: Tobias Whale (last appearance in issue #254; next appears in Black Lightning story in next issue), Ernie, Friedo (last appearance in issue #254; last appearance for both), Tabitha Katt (first appearance; next appears in Black Lightning story in next issue)
Synopsis: Green Arrow trails the crooks who had used his Arrowcar to an estate controlled by Tobias Whale, where he meets Black Lightning, also on Whale’s trail. After battling several guards and evading an acid trap, GA and BL find that Whale has escaped. Green Arrow decides to leave the case to Black Lightning, but both acknowledge that they will meet each other again.
Story: “The Night the Cry Failed” (10 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciller: Jose Delbo
Inker: Vince Colletta
Letterer: Milt Snapinn
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Feature Character: Black Canary (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #168; next appears in GREEN LANTERN #116)
GS: Green Arrow
Villain: The Gypsy Queen and her gang (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: The Black Canary goes to a deserted amusement park to try and perfect her canary cry, but runs afoul of a female crook called the Gypsy Queen who is using the park as a hideout for herself and her gang. The Canary manages to defeat the Queen and her crooks, though she demolishes most of the park with her cry.
World’s Finest Comics No. 257
June-July 1979
Cover: Superman, Batman, Maude, Captain Marvel, Hawkman, Green Arrow, and Black Lightning //Jim Aparo
Story: “Time Keeps On Killing” (10 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Paul Kupperberg
Penciller: Jose Delbo
Inker: Frank McLaughlin
Letterer: Shelly Leferman
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in GREEN LANTERN #116)
Villain: The Clock King (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #5; next appears in issue #284; origin revealed in this story, in flashback [his earliest chronological appearance, predating his appearance in issue #111])
Intro: Nate Petersen (only appearance), Dr. Merlis (in flashback; only appearance), Beverly Tockman (no real appearance, mentioned only; dies before this story begins; Clock King’s sister)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow teams with Green Lantern and Guy Gardner to fight Professor Ojo and the Crumbler in GREEN LANTERN #116-118 and help the Karsh’Klesh in GREEN LANTERN #119, in which issues Dinah (Black Canary) Lance also makes minor appearances. Then Green Arrow and Black Canary team with the Justice League and Ultraa to fight the Over-Complex in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #170.
Synopsis: After taking down a group of crooks at Star Tower, which houses the town clock on one of its faces, Green Arrow encounters a workman whose face he places only after he leaves: William Tockman, the Clock King, whom he encountered years earlier. Originally, Tockman became the Clock King to steal enough money to support his invalid sister when a doctor mistakenly told him he had only six months to live. However, during the Clock King’s long imprisonment, his sister died. Thus, the Clock King vowed to get revenge on both the doctor and Green Arrow, which he intends to fulfill by blowing up Star Tower, where the doctor has his offices and where he has tricked Green Arrow into showing up. After a brief battle, Green Arrow defeats the Clock King and stops the time bomb in the works of the great clock.
World’s Finest Comics No. 258
August-September 1979
Cover: Batman, Superman; Hawkman; Black Lightning at the Superman Museum; Green Arrow; Captain Marvel, Jr., Captain Nazi, and Beautia Sivana //Neal Adams & Dick Giordano / Dick Giordano
Story: “One Man Can Cry” (10 pages) Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciller: Jose Delbo
Inker: Dave Hunt
Letterer: Shelly Leferman
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #170)
GS: Mack Morgan, George Taylor, Jr. (last appearance in issue #246)
Villains: A gang of crooks (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: After stopping a group of crooks from stealing welfare checks, Green Arrow takes Daily Star publisher George Taylor, Jr. up on his offer to have Oliver Queen write an opinion column for the newspaper.
World’s Finest Comics No. 259
October-November 1979
Story: “Stakeout Earth” (1 page)
Chapter l: “Concerning an Emerald Archer” (9 pages)
Chapter 2: “Regarding the Winged Wonder” (9 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciller: Don Newton
Inker: Dave Hunt
Letterer: Shelly Leferman
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (next appears in GREEN LANTERN #120), Hawkman (last appearance in last issue; next appears in GREEN LANTERN #122)
GS: Black Canary (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #170; next appears in GREEN LANTERN #120)
Villains: The Searcher (first and only appearance)
Intro: The Fugitive (first and only appearance)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow and Black Canary team up with Green Lantern to fight Jaime Sanchez in GREEN LANTERN #120 and El Espectro in GREEN LANTERN #121, then Black Canary briefly goes to Earth-2 to attend Mr. Terrific’s funeral with the Justice Society in ADVENTURE COMICS #466, then Green Arrow and Black Canary attend the almost-wedding of Green Lantern and Kari Limbo along with the rest of the Justice League in GREEN LANTERN #122, after which Green Arrow and Green Lantern break up their partnership in GREEN LANTERN #123. Then Green Arrow and Black Canary help the Justice League and Black Lightning fight the Regulator in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #173-174, though Black Canary does not appear in issue #173. Then Green Arrow teams with Superman to fight Bo Force in DC COMICS PRESENTS #20. Afterward, Green Arrow and Black Canary help the Justice League fight Despero in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #177-178.
Shortly after this story, Hawkman attends the almost-wedding of Green Lantern and Kari Limbo along with the rest of the Justice League in GREEN LANTERN #122, then helps the Justice League and Justice Society discover the murderer of Mr. Terrific in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #170-171.
This story is derived from Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. Synopsis: Green Arrow comes upon a strange, ghostly apparition emerging from a theater near which he is stopping a mugging. The ghostlike creature coalesces into a man and informs GA that he is being pursued by the Searcher, who has sought him for 5,000 years, but he will not leave his adopted home of Earth. Then the creature vanishes. Later Green Arrow and Black Canary learn of another energy-being coming into being near a Star City electrical billboard. GA learns that the new being is The Searcher, pursuing the Fugitive, whom he claims is a criminal. When Green Arrow questions the Searcher’s authority and is attacked, Black Canary uses her cry on the Searcher and gets blasted by electrical force. Green Arrow manages to get Black Canary to the Justice League satellite, where Hawkman, on monitor duty, tends to her. Hawkman takes up the case, finds the Fugitive, and learns he stole a food ship to feed his starving people, for which the Searcher has pursued him for 50 centuries. The Searcher appears, knocks Hawkman aside, and engages in an energy-duel with the Fugitive. But Hawkman overloads their power with electricity from a nuclear power plant and forces them to “another physical plane of existence, where they can finish their battle without harming the Earth”.
World’s Finest Comics No. 261
February-March 1980
Story: “The Relativity of Auntie Gravity” (10 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciller: Alex Saviuk
Inker: Frank Chiaramonte
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary (last appearance for both in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #178)
GS: Mack Morgan
Villains: Auntie Gravity, Horace, Clem, and Todd (first appearance for all)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: An old woman develops anti-gravity telekinetic powers after exposure to pollutants, calls herself Auntie Gravity, and leads her three nephews on a robbery spree in Star City. She resists Green Arrow’s and Black Canary’s attempts to capture her, and levitates City Hall into the air, with the mayor and city council inside. Her fee for restoring them unharmed: the entire city budget for the fiscal year. GA and Black Canary try another trap, but Auntie Gravity pulls Green Arrow telekinetically off the ground and starts him spinning like a top, until the force is so great he can no longer breathe.
World’s Finest Comics No. 262
April-May 1980
Story: “Gravitational Boom-A-Rang” (7 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciller: Romeo Tanghal
Inker: Vince Colletta
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colorist: Jerry Serpe Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary (both next appear in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #179)
Villains: Auntie Gravity, Horace, Clem, and Todd (last appearance for all)
GS: Mack Morgan
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow and Black Canary help the Justice League induct Firestorm and fight the Satin Satan in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #179-180.
Synopsis: Black Canary frees Green Arrow from Auntie Gravity’s power with her canary cry, and then battles Auntie and her relatives, but is kayoed by a tree branch Auntie sends against her, and is kidnapped by the villains. However, the Canary later breaks free, subdues Auntie’s nephews, and defeats Auntie Gravity in a power-duel.
World’s Finest Comics No. 263
June-July 1980
Story: “Hell’s Acre Savior” (10 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Bob Haney
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Armando Gil
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Feature Character: Green Arrow (between JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #180 / 181)
GS: Black Canary (between JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #180 / 181), George Taylor, Jr.
Villains: Matthew L. Durkin, Ricky Sanchez, Rooftop Robinson (first and only appearance for all)
Comments: Shortly after this story Green Arrow and Black Canary help the Justice League fight the Star-Tsar, after which Green Arrow resigns from the League, in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #181. Afterward, Black Canary helps Batman battle The Penguin in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #166. Later Green Arrow and Black Canary help the Justice League on a mission involving Felix Faust in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #182.
Synopsis: Green Arrow takes down the third crooked generation of a family in Hell’s Acre of Star City, inspiring him (in his Oliver Queen identity) to write a demand that the neighborhood be upgraded. Wealthy magnate Matthew L. Durkin astonishes all by unveiling a project to do just that. But GA later proves that Durkin has dealings with local mobsters, who dumped corpses of murder victims in a plot of land in Hell’s Acre that Durkin’s new project is scheduled to cover in concrete. Green Arrow exposes Durkin and the scandal and sees him sent to prison for life. But the reclamation project goes on, funded by private contributions.
World’s Finest Comics No. 264
August-September 1980
Story: “Any Number Can Lose” (8 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Bob Haney
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Vince Colletta
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #182) GS: George Taylor, Jr.
Intro: Moe Byams (only appearance)
Villain: Tony Roller (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: When Lola Fontana opens a new and supposedly legitimate gambling casino in Star City, Green Arrow exposes “her” casino as crooked and Lola “herself” as former gang boss and female impersonator Tony Roller.
World’s Finest Comics No. 265
October-November 1980
Story: “One Red Rose For Never” (11 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Bob Haney
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Jimmy Janes
Letterer: Milton Snapinn
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #168)
GS: Dinah Lance (Black Canary; last appearance in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #166), George Taylor, Jr.
Intro: The mayor of Star City (not Ralph Halstead), J. Tynan (only appearance), Elizar Van Wyck (in flashback; dies before this story begins), Elizar Van Wyck (first appearance; dies before this story begins)
Villain: Jarret Van Wyck (first and only appearance)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow teams up with Batman to help Simon Citadel in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #168.
Synopsis: Dinah Lance calls in Green Arrow to help after she is hired for large money to deposit a red rose on a gravesite in Star City, but is attacked by thugs during one such delivery. Soon both he and the entire city learn that the rose is being delivered to the gravesite of Annabel Van Wyck, whose widower, the original Elizar Van Wyck, deeded the land to establish Star City with the provision that one rose be delivered to Annabel’s grave every Friday, or the land would be forfeit. Now the modern Elizar Van Wyck claims that the contract has been broken, and demands Star City be ceded to him. GA proves that the modern “Elizar” is really black sheep Jarret Van Wyck, who murdered his brother and posed as him in hopes of gaining control of Star City. Dinah Lance saves Green Arrow with her canary cry when Jarret attempts to murder him.
World’s Finest Comics No. 266
December 1980 - January 1981
Story: “I Shot an Arrow Into the Air” (8 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Bob Haney
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Rodin L. Rodriguez
Letterer: Shelly Leferman
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #168; next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #186)
GS: Dinah Lance (Black Canary; next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #186) Supporting Character: George Taylor, Jr. (next appears in SUPERMAN FAMILY #207)
Villains: A gang of crooks (first and only appearance)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow and Black Canary help the Justice League fight Shaggy Man in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #186, then Black Canary teams with Superman to fight Dr. Destiny in DC COMICS PRESENTS #30.
Synopsis: Daily Star editor George Taylor, Jr. hopes to expose Green Arrow as Oliver Queen by having GA sit on a flagpole for 48 hours on behalf of a charity. But Green Arrow delivers his daily column each day with some help from Dinah Lance, and catches a band of crooks out to steal the gold-plated star from the top of the newspaper building.
World’s Finest Comics No. 267
February-March 1981
Story: “With This Gun, I Thee Slay” (8 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Bob Haney
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Vince Colletta
Letterer: John Costanza
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Feature Character: Black Canary (last appearance in DC COMICS PRESENTS #30; next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #188)
GS: Oliver Queen (Green Arrow; last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #186)
Intro: Adele King, the Graffiti Guys, Blind Jack (only appearance for all), Little Willie (dies in this story)
Villains: Chino (first and only appearance)
Comment: Before her reappearance in issue #274, the Black Canary helps the Justice League fight a gang of thieves in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #188, Starro in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #189-190, the Key in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #191, and Amos Fortune in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #194.
Synopsis: When teenage gang member Little Willie dies, apparently from a gunshot fired by police officer Adele King, Willie’s gang, the Graffiti Guys, vows vengeance. Black Canary enlists the help of a blind but sharp-eared beggar to prove King’s innocence at a “trial” conducted by the gang, and uncovers Chino, another member, as the real killer, who murdered Willie for fear he would expose his drug dealing.
World’s Finest Comics No. 268
April-May 1981
Story: “The Blade of Death” (10 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Bud Simons
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Brett Breeding
Letterer: John Costanza
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in SUPERMAN FAMILY #207)
Villains: Al Canino and his gang (first and only appearance for all) Intro: Yoshido Minowara, Ms. Minowara (his daughter; only appearance for both)
Comment: Shortly after this story Oliver Queen almost betrays Superman’s secret identity in SUPERMAN FAMILY #207.
Synopsis: When Green Arrow begins cracking down on the drug-dealing operations of gangster Al Canino, the gang-boss forces samurai and restaurateur Yoshido Minowara to work against the archer by kidnapping Minowara’s daughter. But Green Arrow and Minowara form an alliance, free the girl, and bring down Canino and his operation.
World’s Finest Comics No. 269
June-July 1981
Cover: Green Arrow, Robin, Superman, Captain Marvel, Hawkman, and Green Arrow over Batman’s gravesite //Rich Buckler / Dick Giordano (signed)
Story: “Escape Me--Never” (8 pages)
Editor: Jack C. Harris
Writer: Bob Haney
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Brett Breeding
Letterer: Todd Klein
Colorist: Carl Gafford
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in SUPERMAN FAMILY #207)
Supporting Character: George Taylor, Jr. (last appearance in SUPERMAN FAMILY #207)
Villains: Mercedes de Diego, Lopez, Capitan Carranzas (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: While on assignment as Oliver Queen in the Caribbean nation of San Felipe, Green Arrow rescues the beautiful Mercedes de Diego from an attempted kidnapping. Queen is there to try and discover the key players in the drug trade that emanates from San Felipe to Star City, but Mercedes induces him to help her free through bribery a man she first claims to be her brother, then, later, her cousin, from a tough prison where he is held for political reasons. Green Arrow appears to agree and helps her with the operation. But he has deduced that she is really involved in the drug trade herself, and her “brother / cousin” turns out to be a man who had betrayed her and whom she wishes to kill. Green Arrow turns her and her quarry over to drug agents at the U. S. Embassy.
World’s Finest Comics No. 270
August 1981
Story: “A World Gone Mad” (8 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Bob Haney
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Bob Smith
Letterer: John Costanza
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Feature Character: Green Arrow
GS: Mayor of Star City
Villain: Count Vertigo (last appearance in issue #252)
Intro: Duke Denicha (last name revealed next issue) and the Guardian Archers
Comment: This story continues in issue #272. Synopsis: Count Vertigo escapes from jail with a new vertigo-inducer and uses his power to dizzy Green Arrow so much that the archer agrees to negotiate and get Vertigo the crown of Vlatava, which Vertigo believes is rightfully his, as a member of the royal line. But, after Vertigo gets the crown, he takes a sledgehammer to it.
World’s Finest Comics No. 272
October 1981
Story: “A Bloody Crown For a Cold Corpse” (8 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Bob Haney
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Brett Breeding
Letterer: Pierce Bernard, Jr.
Colorist: Gene D’Angelo
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in issue #270)
GS: Duke Denicha and the Guardian Archers
Villain: Count Vertigo
Intro: The “messenger boy” (only appearance)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Green Arrow and a government agent find the apparent corpse of Count Vertigo, with a note beside it in Vertigo’s own hand, saying that the crown was booby-trapped by the government with deadly gas and that he charges Green Arrow to bring back his body to Kastle Vertigo in Russian-occupied Vlatava. Duke Denicha, leader of the vigilante Guardian Archers, insists on accompanying GA. The two manage to get their burden through to the castle, despite villagers that denounce Vertigo as a tyrant. Once there, they discover that Vertigo is very much alive, and that the crown contained no gas, but a mechanism that enables him to turn his vertigo-illusions into reality. Meanwhile, Russian troops catch sight of the activity at the castle and mobilize.
World’s Finest Comics No. 273
November 1981
Story: “Assault On Kastle Vertigo” (8 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Bob Haney
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Larry Mahlstedt
Letterer: Todd Klein
Colorist: Carl Gafford
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #194)
GS: Duke Denicha (last appearance)
Villain: Count Vertigo (next appears in GREEN ARROW #2)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow becomes involved in the Justice League’s battle against Amos Fortune in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #194.
Synopsis: Count Vertigo sends a Russian missile held underneath Kastle Vertigo towards Moscow, intending to terrorize the city by circling it with the weapon until he deigns to detonate it. Green Arrow and Duke Denicha strike up an alliance with the major who commands the Russian troops and defeat Count Vertigo, getting to a fail-safe device in the castle in time to safely blow up the missile. Vertigo is taken away by the Russians, and GA and Duke are allowed to return to the U.S.
World’s Finest Comics No. 274
December 1981
Story: “The Archer Or the Man?” (8 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Mike W. Barr
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Larry Mahlstedt
Letterer: John Costanza
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #194; origin briefly retold in flashback)
GS: Black Canary (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #194), George Taylor, Jr.
Intro: Lt. Trask
Villains: A gang of crooks (first and only appearance)
Synopsis: Green Arrow takes down a group of drug pushers, but when Lt. Trask insists he spill the name of his source, GA says the stoolie reported to Oliver Queen. Accordingly, Trask subpoenas Queen to turn over the name of his information source, or face time in jail. Oliver refuses to reveal the name in court, and the judge gives him 24 hours to give the stoolie’s name or go to jail until he does so. He goes to Starfish Island to think things out. Black Canary finds him there, and learns he has decided to give up his source’s name. But she convinces him not to compromise, and Oliver Queen returns to court, ready to go to jail.
World’s Finest Comics No. 275
January 1982
Story: “Archer in a Cage” (8 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Mike W. Barr
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Larry Mahlstedt
Letterer: Pierre Bernard, Jr.
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary (next appears in issue #277)
Villain: Max Crowley, Lancaster, and other gangsters (first and only appearance for all), Morgan Thorpe (first appearance; next appears in issue #277)
Intro: Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez and their family (only appearance for all)
Comment: Oliver Queen only appears as Green Arrow in a flashback panel.
Synopsis: Oliver Queen hears from Sanchez, a fellow prisoner whom Green Arrow nabbed, that Sanchez’s family is being forced by their landlord, Max Crowley, to help him move up in the local mob, or face being turned in as illegal aliens. To help Sanchez, Oliver gets Black Canary to frame Crowley as a “police agent” in the eyes of the local mob, save him from the mobster’s vengeance, and get him to escape and assume another identity in a different town. Then Dinah Lance employs Mrs. Sanchez in her floral shop, enabling her to apply for citizenship. Dinah reports the good news to Oliver on her next visit to prison.
World’s Finest Comics No. 276
February 1982
Story: “Bedlam in the Big House” (8 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Mike W. Barr
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Larry Mahlstedt
Letterer: Pierre Bernard, Jr.
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Character: Green Arrow
Villains: Slingshot (between issues #246 / 282), Barney Breed (last appearance in issue #246; last appearance)
Synopsis: When Oliver Queen and other prisoners are transferred for a time to another jail, David Drayton, aka Slingshot, causes a power failure that frees the cons from their cells. Queen dons a handkerchief mask and improvises a bow and arrows, saving the guards from the prisoners. Slingshot has gone after ex-gang boss Barney Breed, but Green Arrow has a showdown with his old foe and beats him. Gratefully, Breed tells GA that Morgan Thorpe put out the contract on his life.
World’s Finest Comics No. 277
March 1982
Cover: Superman, Batman, and a mad scientist; vignettes of Zatanna, Captain Marvel, Green Arrow, and Hawkman //George Perez / Smith
Story: “Green Arrow Sought For Questioning in Murder” (8 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Mike W. Barr
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Rodin Rodriguez
Letterer: Phil Felix
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Character: Green Arrow
GS: Black Canary (last appearance in issue #275), Lt. Trask
Villains: Morgan Thorpe (last appearance in issue #275; dies in this story), Scott, Lady Ashford (first appearance for both), Edna Bukowski (first appearance)
Intro: Madison, Mrs. Edna Bukowski
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Oliver Queen is released from jail after Morgan Thorpe is killed by one of Green Arrow’s own shafts. Green Arrow sets about clearing his own name while being sought by police, investigating Morgan Thorpe (whose own secretary was Oliver Queen’s stool pigeon) and finding out other ganglords wished to move into his territory. But, while atop a building trying to eavesdrop on the ganglord in question, a Lady Ashford, GA is shoved off the edge.
World’s Finest Comics No. 278 April 1982
Story: “The Archer and the Assassin” (9 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Mike W. Barr
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Larry Mahlstedt
Letterer: Phil Felix
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #195)
GS: Dinah Lance (Black Canary; next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #195), Lt. Trask
Intro: Pat Bukowksi (cameo; in a photograph; dead before this story begins)
Villains: Edna Bukowski, Lady Ashford (last appearance for both)
Comment: Shortly after this story Black Canary helps the Justice League and Justice Society battle the Secret Society of Super-Villains in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #195-197, with Green Arrow briefly appearing in issue #195. Then Black Canary helps the Justice League, Superman, and the Legion of Super-Heroes battle Mordru in DC COMICS PRESENTS #43. Then Green Arrow and Black Canary help the Justice League defeat the Appelaxians in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #200, after which Green Arrow rejoins the Justice League. Then Green Arrow teams up with Batman to battle the Penguin in BRAVE AND THE BOLD #185. Afterward, Green Arrow and Black Canary help the Justice League and Ultraa fight Joe Parry in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #201, and help the JLA deal with a transformed Batman in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #202. Then Black Canary helps the Justice League and heroines from other Earths fight the Adjuciator in WONDER WOMAN #291-293.
Synopsis: Green Arrow saves himself from falling to his death by catching a flagpole with his bow. Then, after consulting with Mrs. Bukowski, Thorpe’s former secretary, and with Dinah Lance, Oliver Queen decides that Lady Ashford was not behind the Thorpe killing, and that the arrow which killed him could not have been fired accurately from a bow, since it was missing a control feather. Green Arrow then exposes and captures the real murderer, Mrs. Bukowski, who stabbed Thorpe to death with the arrow in revenge for Thorpe’s murder of her policeman husband.
World’s Finest Comics No. 279
May 1982
Cover: Gangsters crashing car against Superman while Batman, Hawkman, Captain Marvel, and Green Arrow direct traffic //Ross Andru / Dick Giordano?
Story: “The Hidden Soul of Harmony” (9 pages)
Editor: Mike W. Barr
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Larry Mahlstedt
Letterer: Adam Kubert
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #202)
Intro: Laura Goodman, Paul Goodman, Jesse, Donna
Villains: Rev. Marcus Hale, Out of Harmony (first appearance for all) Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Green Arrow learns of a new religious cult, Harmony, when he breaks up a brawl between some of its members and some of its opponents. He also learns that one of the cultists is Laura Goodman, daughter of one of his fellow workers at the Daily Star. After consulting with Paul Goodman, her father, Oliver Queen goes to the offices of Out of Harmony, a group dedicated to fighting the cult, and is told that they will have Laura out of Harmony’s hands...and deprogrammed...within two days. Suspicious, Oliver investigates as Green Arrow, and finds out that Out of Harmony is a front for Harmony, and controlled by Harmony’s leader, Rev. Marcus Hale. He also overhears them issuing orders for Laura to be taken to Hale’s upstate mansion.
World’s Finest Comics No. 280
June 1982
Story: “Harmony and Discord” (9 pages)
Editor: Mike W. Barr
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Larry Mahlstedt
Letterer: Philip Felix
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #204)
GS: Laura Goodman (last appearance)
Intro: Mark (only appearance)
Villains: Rev. Marcus Hale, Harmony, Out of Harmony (last appearance for all)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow and Black Canary help the Justice League fight the Royal Flush Gang and Hector Hammond in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #204-205. [Green Arrow also appears with the Justice League in the Air Wave story in ACTION COMICS #535, but I don’t know where that fits in the chronology]
Synopsis: Green Arrow tries to convince Laura Goodman not to marry Mark, the man Rev. Hale decrees she wed to stay within his cult. At first she opposes GA, then, after hearing the cultists’ condemnation of her independent thinking, she rebels against Harmony, refuses to take part in the marriage, and leaves with Green Arrow.
World’s Finest Comics No. 281
July 1982
Story: “The Forgotten People” (9 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Larry Mahlstedt
Letterer: Phil Felix
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last seen in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #205; next appears in DC SPECIAL BLUE RIBBON DIGEST #23)
Intro: Neal Holmes, Daphne Wilbur (dies in this story)
Villain: Allan Starkwether, Eddie, and Ralph (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: After hearing a tape recording of a homeless woman who has seen a building torched, Oliver Queen becomes Green Arrow and seeks her out, but the arsonists burn her to death before she can reveal much to him. Queen traces the burned buildings to real estate magnate Allan Starkwether and defeats his hired arsonists. Then Green Arrow blackmails Starkwether into putting up a shelter for the homeless, rather than going to jail.
DC Special Blue-Ribbon Digest No. 23
July 1982
Cover: Green Arrow (old style), Speedy, Green Arrow (new style), Black Canary //Jim Aparo
Story: “The Green Arrow Scrapbooks” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer:
Artist: Dan Spiegle
Feature Character: Green Arrow (between WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #281/ 282)
GS: Black Canary (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #205; next appears in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #282)
Cameo appearance: John Deleon (flashback)
Synopsis: After Green Arrow misses a dinner date with Black Canary due to his busting a drug ring, he comes back to his apartment to find the Canary there and poring through his old scrapbooks. They relive old cases GA undertook with Speedy, Batman, and Black Canary herself, and some on his own. At the end, they find that they have read and reminisced all night, and both declare their love for each other as the sun comes up.
World’s Finest Comics No. 282
August 1982
Story: (untitled)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Mike W. Barr
Artist: Gil Kane
Letterer: John Costanza
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary (last appearance for both in DC SPECIAL BLUE-RIBBON DIGEST #23)
Villains: Mrs. Hollinger (first appearance), Slingshot (last appearance in issue #276), Juan, Jimmy, and other hoods (first appearance for all)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Mrs. Hollinger, seeking revenge on Green Arrow for killing her hoodlum son (in FLASH #217), has Black Canary kidnapped by GA’s enemy Slingshot. She then has a note informing Green Arrow of the kidnapping sent to Ollie Queen, with one of Slingshot’s pellets and the Canary’s choker enclosed. Before he gets to Slingshot, GA first has to fight his way through a gang of street punks also hired by Mrs. Hollinger, one of whom snatches the blunt-ended stun arrows from his quiver and replaces them with identically-marked arrows that have deadly pointed ends on them. Mrs. Hollinger intends to have Green Arrow accidentally kill Slingshot, figuring that, as her son’s killing drove GA mad with guilt, a second accidental homicide will drive him insane. And, as GA confronts Slingshot, he draws one of the gimmicked arrows and does appear to kill him.
World’s Finest Comics No. 283
September 1982
Story: “Mightier Than the Sling” (8 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Mike W. Barr
Artist: Gil Kane
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colorist: Bob LeRose
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary (next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #209)
Villains: Slingshot, Mrs. Hollinger, Juan, Jimmy, and her gang (last appearance for all)
Synopsis: Green Arrow has figured out the duplicity and sent off a shot that broke the arrowhead off a wall and stunned Slingshot with the broken remainder of the arrow. His act of remorse was a fake-out for Mrs. Hollinger’s benefit. But Slingshot has now revived, and holds the gagged Black Canary and Mrs. Hollinger hostage, intent on a death-duel showdown with Green Arrow. Instead of sending another arrow at Slingshot, GA whirls and fires a shaft that tears loose Black Canary’s gag. She uses her canary cry to disable Slingshot. As Mrs. Hollinger is being taken away by the police, Green Arrow asks for her forgiveness. She replies that she cannot, since her hate of Green Arrow is all that keeps her alive.
World’s Finest Comics No. 284
October 1982
Story: “When the Old Clock Died” (8 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Mike W. Barr
Artist: Dan Spiegle
Letterer: Adam Kubert
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #209)
Villains: Clock King (last appearance in issue #257; next appears in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #9), Cassidy (first and only appearance)
Intro: Ronnie Tempus, Mr. Tempus (only appearance for both)
Comment: Shortly after this Green Arrow and Black Canary make a brief appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #209.
Synopsis: Oliver Queen stops a young girl from being nabbed for stealing a hot dog, and she explains that she stole it because she is hungry; her name is Ronnie Tempus, and her grandfather, with whom she lives, spends all their money on a grandfather clock. When Ollie takes Ronnie to her grandfather’s home, the old man explains that his father built the clock, and he feels that he must maintain it in working order, since he believes that when it stops, he will die. The Clock King seeks to steal the timepiece, and Oliver becomes Green Arrow to defeat him. But the grandfather clock stops, and Mr. Tempus has a heart attack. Green Arrow manages to keep Mr. Tempus alive and gets him to a hospital. Later Tempus thanks Green Arrow for having shown him what is really important in life...people, not clocks.
Detective Comics No. 521
December 1982 Cover: Green Arrow fighting crooks //Jim Aparo (signed)
Story: “The High Tech Highwayman” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Artist: Trevor Von Eeden
Letterer: Phil Felix
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #209)
GS: George Taylor, Jr.
Villain: Hi-Tek II (Rich; first appearance; Hi-Tek I (no relation) first appeared in GREEN LANTERN #100)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: A newspaper story on computer crime Oliver Queen is working on vanishes from his computer terminal at the Daily Star. In its place is the talking image of Hi-Tek, who tells Oliver that he deleted his story rather than have his secrets exposed. Learning the address of the firm which the Star rents computer space from to store its data, Oliver Queen becomes Green Arrow and there confronts Hi-Tek’s image, and an exploding robot which knocks him out. GA revives to find guards sticking guns in his face, and demanding he explain his presence within three seconds.
Detective Comics No. 522
January 1983
Story: “Automatic Pirate” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Artist: Trevor Von Eeden
Letterer: John Costanza
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in DC COMICS PRESENTS #54)
GS: George Taylor, Jr.
Villain: Hi-Tek II
Comment: Shortly after this story, Green Arrow and Black Canary team with Superman to deal with Dr. Titus Selinger in DC COMICS PRESENTS #54, then, with the Justice League, attend the almost-wedding of Wonder Woman in WONDER WOMAN #300. Then Green Arrow helps the Justice League fight Madame Zodiac and Dr. Zodiac in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #286.
Synopsis: Green Arrow convinces the guards and George Taylor, Jr. that he is not a thief, and learns that the Daily Star also shares time with a junior high school. There, after defeating some other robots, he discovers that Hi-Tek is really a 14-year-old computer nerd. After some talking, Green Arrow decides to become the boy’s friend and let him design a computerized digital sight for his bow.
Detective Comics No. 523
February 1983
Story: “Mob Rule” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Irv Novick Inker: Ron Randall
Letterer: Phil Felix
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #286)
GS: Rich (Hi-Tek II)
Villains: Machiavelli, the Executrix, Stearns, Micklin, Roberts, Roth and other members of the Wall Street Irregulars (first appearance for all)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: After stopping a riot at the site of a strike, Green Arrow notices two men who had fought each other acting chummy and tails one of them. He discovers that the man is part of a group that intends to throw Star City into chaos and then usurp leadership, with a plot created by their advisor, Lord Machiavelli. GA reveals his presence, whereupon Machiavelli calls upon his partner, the Executrix, to battle him with twin laser-torches.
Detective Comics No. 524
March 1983
Story: “Heat of the Moment” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Irv Novick
Inker: Ron Randall
Letterer: Phil Felix
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Character: Green Arrow
Villains: The Executrix (last appearance), Machiavelli, the Wall Street Irregulars
Intro: James (only appearance)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Green Arrow finally defeats the Executrix with reflector-signal arrows and pumps her for information about Machiavelli. In the meantime, Machiavelli is huddling with the Wall Street Irregulars and convinces them that criminals can run Star City’s government better than its elected officials. Later, Machiavelli and his group crash a town meeting on the anti-strike clause, at which the villain gives a political speech and is greeted with “Mac for mayor!” cries. When the real mayor of Star City tries to shoo Machiavelli off the stage, a gunsel pulls a weapon on him, and Green Arrow, in hiding, nocks an arrow to his bow, only to find another hood’s gun at his head.
Detective Comics No. 525
April 1983
Story: “The Irresistible Rise of Machiavelli” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Irv Novick
Inker: Ron Randall
Letterer: Phil Felix
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in GREEN LANTERN #165)
Villains: Machiavelli, the Wall Street Irregulars (last appearance for both) Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow teams with Green Lantern (John Stewart) against a crystal being in GREEN LANTERN #165, then briefly appears with the Justice League in DC COMICS PRESENTS ANNUAL #2.
Synopsis: Green Arrow disarms the gunsel with a mace arrow, and disarms the hood covering the mayor as well. Machiavelli beats a retreat, but crashes a Teamsters Union meeting later. But before he can talk them into a city-paralyzing strike, Machiavelli’s power is broken when GA fakes a fire with his smoke arrow and shows the audience how they must depend on each other--rather than on “number one”--to get to safety. Green Arrow takes Machiavelli away.
Green Arrow No. 1
May 1983
Cover: Green Arrow vs. crooks’ guns //Trevor Von Eeden / Dick Giordano (signed)
Story: “All My Sins Remembered” (23 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Mike W. Barr
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Dick Giordano
Letterer: John Costanza
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in DC COMICS PRESENTS ANNUAL #2; also appears in flashback; see Comment under ADVENTURE COMICS #218 for chronology; origin retold in detail)
GS: Dinah Lance (Black Canary; last appearance in WONDER WOMAN #300)
Intro: Abigail Horton (in flashback; dies in this story), Thorndyke, Maxwell Stein, Theodore Norton, Jr., Deidre Wagner
Cameo appearances: Speedy, Green Lantern, Black Canary (in flashback)
Villains: Cynthia Horton Sinclair, Jerry Sinclair (first appearance for both), Scab, Rafe (first and only appearance for both), “Minnow” (first appearance; dies in this story)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Oliver Queen inherits a fortune from a deceased friend, but soon learns that the money makes him a target for a killer.
Green Arrow No. 2
June 1983
Cover: Count Vertigo vs. Green Arrow //Trevor Von Eeden / Dick Giordano (signed)
Story: “A Slight Case of Vertigo” (23 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Mike W. Barr
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Dick Giordano
Letterer: John Costanza
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Character: Green Arrow
Intro: Mrs. Sangster, George (only appearance for both)
Cameo appearance: Abigail Horton
GA: Dinah Lance (Black Canary) Other Characters: Maxwell Stein, Theodore Norton, Jr. (dies in this story), Thorndyke
Villains: Count Vertigo (last appearance in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #273), Jerry Sinclair, Cynthia Sinclair
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Green Arrow tries to uncover the identity of the person who wants Oliver Queen killed, but is unable to stop Count Vertigo from killing Ted Norton, Jr.
Green Arrow No. 3
July 1983
Cover: Green Arrow and Jones facing gunfire //Trevor Von Eeden / Dick Giordano (signed)
Story: “Hexagon of Death” (23 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Mike W. Barr
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Dick Giordano
Letterer: John Costanza
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Character: Green Arrow
Other Character: Mrs. Sangster
Intro: Theodore Norton, Sr., Dr. Wooley (both in flashback; both die in this story), Jones
Other Characters: Deidre Wagner, Thorndyke
Cameo appearances: Abigail Norton, Cynthia Sinclair, Max Stein
Villains: Count Vertigo (last appearance; the New Earth Count Vertigo first appears in LEGENDS #4), a gang of crooks (first and only appearance), Jerry Sinclair
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Green Arrow learns the reason why Abby Norton was targeted for death, but not the persons responsible.
Green Arrow No. 4
August 1983
Cover: Green Arrow vs. crooks on power wires //Trevor Von Eeden / Dick Giordano (signed)
Story: “Showdown At Sea” (23 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Mike W. Barr
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Dick Giordano
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in DETECTIVE COMICS #527)
GS: Black Canary (next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #213)
Other Characters: Jones, Deidre Wagner, Max Stein, Thorndyke (last appearance for all)
Villains: Captain Lash and his gang (first and only appearance for all), Jerry Sinclair, Cynthia Sinclair (both die in this story)
Comment: This story continues from last issue.
Synopsis: Before he can expose the killer of Abby Norton, Green Arrow must battle Captain Lash and his gang of modern-day pirates.
Detective Comics No. 527
June 1983
Story: “Getting Up” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Paris Cullens
Inker: Pablo Marcos
Letterer: Todd Klein
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in GREEN ARROW #4)
GS: Rick
Villains: Ozone, Rick’s father (first appearance for both)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Ozone, a graffiti artist and super-villain, employs super-high pressure aerosol cans in his crimes. But he accidentally takes an aerosol can loaded with botulinus poison, unknown to him. Green Arrow tries to capture Ozone during a robbery at a men’s magazine office, but gets thrown a can of spray which propels him through a window 30 stories above the ground.
Detective Comics No. 528
July 1983
Story: “Poisoned Art” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Paris Cullens
Inker: Pablo Marcos
Letterer: John Costanza
Colorist: Nansi Hoolahan
Feature Character: Green Arrow
GS: Rick
Villains: Ozone, Rick’s father
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Green Arrow saves himself by aiming the spray can at the ground and propelling himself back through the window. The man who exchanged canisters with Ozone tries to take his can back at gunpoint, but Green Arrow captures the man and Ozone escapes. From the man, GA learns of the botulism danger. To try and trap Ozone, Oliver Queen arranges for an exhibition of his graffiti art. Ozone does crash the party, but glues Oliver and the rest of the guests there to the floor and gets away again.
Detective Comics No. 529
August 1983
Story: “Lost in the Ozone” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Paris Cullins
Inker: Frank Giacoia
Letterer: Adam Kubert Colorist: Nansi Hoolahan
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #213)
GS: Rick, James
Villains: Ozone (next appears in issue #535), Rick’s father (last appearance for both)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow and Black Canary helps the Justice League in their adventure in the Microverse in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #213-216, then Black Canary helps Wonder Woman fight Karl Schlagel in WONDER WOMAN #308-310. Then Green Arrow helps the JLA and the Teen Titans fight Brainiac in ACTION COMICS #546, witnesses Batman’s retirement from the Justice League in BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #1, participates in their battle against Dr. Destiny in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ANNUAL #1, and helps them battle Professor Ivo in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #218.
Synopsis: Rick helps free Ollie and the rest of the people Ozone glued to the exhibition room’s floor, and then reveals that the man in pursuit of Ozone is his own father, a psychotic scientist. Green Arrow tracks down Ozone with the help of an informant and captures him. The botulism toxin is destroyed by the heat of an open furnace at their battle site.
Detective Comics No. 530
September 1983
Story: “Survival of the Fittest” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Adrian Gonzales
Inker: Rick Magyar
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colorist: Nansi Hoolahan
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #218)
Villains: The Survivalist and his troops (first appearance for all)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: When the Russian embassy in Star City is attacked by extreme rightists led by the Survivalist, a paramilitary type, Oliver Queen (covering an ambassador’s speech for the Daily Star) switches to his Green Arrow identity and drives away the Survivalist and his troops. Later, GA takes a captured weapon from the group to a general at nearby Fort Carlin and finds it far in advance of most regulation weapons. They are interrupted by the advent of the Survivalist and his men, who use a secret device in their possession to start raising nuclear missiles from their silos.
Detective Comics No. 531
October 1983
Story: “Shelter From the Storm” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Jerome Moore
Inker: Mike DeCarlo
Letterer: Bob Tappan
Colorist: Nansi Hoolahan
Feature Character: Green Arrow
Villains: The Survivalist and his troops Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Green Arrow prevents the silos from completely opening with his magnetic arrows, and blasts the apparatus that sends power to the missile detonators. Then he trails the Survivalist and his men through the sewers near the base, but is discovered along with a forager and, after learning the Survivalist wishes to trigger a nuclear war, is held at gunpoint.
Detective Comics No. 532
November 1983
Story: “Soft Targets” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Pencillers: Jerome Moore, Adrian Gonzales
Inker: Sal Trapani
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Colorist: Nansi Hoolahan
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in THE FLASH #327)
Villains: The Survivalist and his men (last appearance for all)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow votes with the Justice League on the Flash’s continued membership in THE FLASH #327-329, then helps the Justice League, the Outsiders, and the Teen Titans defeat the Pantheon in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #300.
Synopsis: The Green Arrow breaks free and captures the Survivalist and his men.
Detective Comics No. 533
December 1983
Story: “The Black Box” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Chuck Patton
Inker: Shawn McManus
Letterer: Phil Felix
Colorist: Nansi Hoolahan
Feature character: Green Arrow (last appearance in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #300)
Villains: The Detonator (Coopersmith), the Werewolves of London (first appearance for all)
Intro: Warren Whelmsley, Meredith Moran
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: A terrorist known as the Detonator blows up a plane carrying industrialist Warren Whelmsley, having failed to make him pay $2,000,000 in extortion money. Green Arrow and Star City police hope that the “black box”, an in-flight voice recorder, will give them clues as to the Detonator’s identity. But the Detonator grabs the box, only to be confronted by a motorcycle gang that also wants it.
Detective Comics No. 534
January 1984
Story: “Werewolves of London” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri Penciller: Chuck Patton
Inker: Shawn McManus
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colorist: Nansi Hoolahan
Feature Character: Green Arrow
Villains: The Detonator, the Werewolves of London
GS: Warren Whelmsley, Meredith Moran (last appearance)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: The Werewolves of London, the motorcycle gang, make off with the black box, and the Detonator also escapes. Green Arrow captures one of the gang and makes him reveal the location of their hiding place. But when he goes to the Werewolves’ hideout, GA is surprised from behind by another of the band.
Detective Comics No. 535
February 1984
Story: “On the Cheap” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Artist: Shawn McManus
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Colorist: Nansi Hoolahan
Feature Character: Green Arrow
Villains: Cheapjack (first and only appearance), Werewolves of London (last appearance), the Detonator
GS: Ozone (not a villain in this story; last appearance in issue #525)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Ozone makes an appearance at the junkyard the Werewolves are using for a headquarters, looking for stuff to cannibalize for equipment, and is captured. Green Arrow defeats the gang member who had stalked him and comes after the Werewolves, only to find Ozone in their custody. Together, GA and Ozone escape, defeat the Werewolves, and take the black box. But Detonator appears, and demands they give it to him.
Detective Comics No. 536
March 1984
Story: “Short-Fuse” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Shawn McManus
Inker: Sal Trapani
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Colorist: Nansi Hoolahan
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #224)
GS: Ozone (not a villain in this story), Rick (next appears in issue #543), Warren Whelmsley (last appearance)
Villain: The Detonator (last appearance)
Intro: Cleese, Boris, Milligan (only appearance for all) Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League fight Paragon in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #224.
Synopsis: Green Arrow is injured slightly by the Detonator, who finds that the archer does not have the black box. GA awakens in a hospital bed, surrounded by Rick and Ozone, who has the box. However, there is no voice on the box’s tape. Green Arrow has Warren Whelmsley assemble his staff and identifies the one who is secretly the Detonator: Coopersmith, Whelmsley’s pilot, who gave himself away by not calling for help. Green Arrow captures Coopersmith.
Detective Comics No. 537
April 1984
Story: “Strike First” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Artist: Shawn McManus
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Colorist: Nansi Hoolahan
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #224)
Villains: A landlord, Larry, Mario and other hoods (first and only appearance for all)
Intro: Madame Estelle, Sammy (only appearance for both), Sammy’s parents (in flashback; both die in this story)
Synopsis: Oliver Queen, finding that hirelings of the landlord who owns his building are moving his furniture out, stops them and learns from Madame Estelle, another resident, that the landlord is trying to get everyone to leave. Ollie leads the other residents in a strike against the landlord. Secretly, though, the landlord is a one-time hitman who seeks to kill Sammy, one of the building’s residents, who witnessed him killing his parents years ago. Green Arrow tricks the landlord into firing a gun into a dummy, then nabs him and tells him that Sammy was institutionalized and had his memories of his mother and the killing destroyed by shock therapy.
Detective Comics No. 539
May 1984
Story: “Three Years Ago Today” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Shawn McManus
Inker: Pablo Marcos
Letterer: Albert DeGuzman
Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Character: Green Arrow
GS: James
Intro: John Lennon of Earth-One (unidentified; dies in this story), Dave
Villains: Jacaruso (first and only appearance), Mark David Chapman of Earth-One (unidentified; first and only appearance)
Comment: Even though Lennon and Chapman are not identified by name or pictured, the connotations in this story make their identities all too clear.
Shortly after this story, Green Arrow (and Black Canary) appear with the Justice League and Teen Titans to commemorate the anniversary of Supergirl’s arrival on Earth in SUPERGIRL #20. Synopsis: Green Arrow is able to capture Jacaruso, a gun-runner, but is unable to prevent John Lennon from being killed just before they were to do an interview.
Detective Comics No. 539
June 1984
Story: “The Devil You Don’t Know” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Shawn McManus
Inker: Sal Trapani
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Character: Green Arrow
GS: George Taylor, Jr.
Intro: Morris Burdick
Villain: The Printer’s Devil (Tommy Doyle; first appearance)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Australian tabloid publisher Morris Burdick is considering buying the Daily Star. Shortly afterward, a costumed villain called the Printer’s Devil appears with a flame-throwing weapon and threatens the Star building. Green Arrow battles the Printer’s Devil, but is trapped by his own net-arrow as a stray flame from the Devil’s weapon nears gas station pumps across the street from the newspaper offices.
Detective Comics No. 540
July 1984
Story: “In Cold Type” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Shawn McManus
Inker: Sal Trapani
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Colorist: Shelley Eiber
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #225)
Villain: The Printer’s Devil (appears next, as Tommy Doyle, in issue #543)
GS: George Taylor, Jr.
Comment: Shortly after this story, Green Arrow helps the Justice League of America fight Lord Gravesend, Hellrazer, and Fiatlux in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #225-227, observe the Swamp Thing’s battle with the Floronic Man in SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING #24, and celebrate Supergirl’s anniversary in SUPERGIRL #20.
Synopsis: Green Arrow uses one of the Printer’s Devil’s fires to burn through the net, then extinguishes the fire before it can get to the gas pumps. The Printer’s Devil escapes, but has a confrontation with GA the next day in front of the Star offices, and gets captured. Green Arrow unmasks the Devil, who proves to be Tommy Doyle, one of his fellow columnists. Doyle confesses that he hoped to devalue the Star through his terrorism and thus make it less valuable to Burdick. Later, Ollie Queen learns that Burdick has indeed decided not to buy the Daily Star.
Detective Comics No. 541
August 1984
Story: “The Nightfly” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Shawn McManus
Inker: Sal Trapani
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in SUPERGIRL #20)
Villains: The Death Dealer, Becker (first appearance for both)
Intro: Wallace Hooper
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: After Oliver Queen is attacked mistakenly by the Death Dealer, a card-wielding criminal out to kill Wallace Hooper, he learns that Hooper is really Davy Chase, a former con artist and current all-night deejay. Hooper testified against his mob employers and was given a new identity via the Witness Relocation Program. But Queen and Hooper are trapped in separate rooms by the Death Dealer, who then uses incendiary cards to set those rooms on fire.
Detective Comics No. 542
September 1984
Story: “The Turn of an Unfriendly Card” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Shawn McManus
Inker: Sal Trapani
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #228)
Villains: The Death Dealer, Becker (last appearance for both)
GS: Wallace Hooper (last appearance)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow helps the Justice League fight Martians in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #228-230, then resigns from the Justice League in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ANNUAL #2. [Green Arrow also appears in GREEN LANTERN #180 somewhere around this time]
Synopsis: Oliver Queen saves himself and Wallace Hooper from the fire, then gets Hooper to tape his show a half-hour ahead of time to lure the Death Dealer back to the station. When the Dealer returns to finish the assassination, Green Arrow meets him and defeats him. Then he exposes station manager Becker as the employer of the Dealer. Becker confesses that he had been hired by the phone company to catch Hooper at a scam years before, but could not do it, and thus lost his investigations agency. Green Arrow captures Becker as well.
Detective Comics No. 543
October 1984
Story: “It’s No Fair” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein Scripter: Joey Cavalieri
Artist: Shawn McManus
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ANNUAL #2)
Villains: The Printer’s Devil II, Bad Penny, Pinball Wizard (first appearance for all)
GS: Tommy Doyle (last seen, as Printer’s Devil, in issue #540), Rick (last appearance in issue #536), James, George Taylor, Jr.
Intro: Sharon Greenglass
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: A new Printer’s Devil steals the costume and trident from Tommy Doyle, the former Devil, and teams with two partners, the Pinball Wizard and Bad Penny, in order to attack the Star City World’s Fair, whose futuristic exhibits they blame for putting them out of business. Oliver Queen and his fellow reporter, Sharon Greenglass, are caught in the crossfire while covering the Fair.
Detective Comics No. 544
November 1984
Story: “Fair From the Madding Crowd” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Artist: Shawn McManus
Letterer: Todd Klein
Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Character: Green Arrow
Villains: Printer’s Devil II, Bad Penny, Pinball Wizard, Mr. Penumbra (first appearance)
GS: Sharon Greenglass
GA: Rick, James
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Green Arrow battles and defeats the Printer’s Devil, but Bad Penny and Pinball Wizard take over an automated automat at the fair grounds and hold the people within hostage for $6,000,000. Oliver Queen is allowed inside to inspect the hostages, but Bad Penny stops him at the door, wanting to know what he has inside a bag he is carrying--which contains his Green Arrow gear.
Detective Comics No. 545
December 1984
Story: “Fair Raid” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Artist: Shawn McManus
Letterer: Adam Kubert
Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Character: Green Arrow
Villains: Bad Penny, Pinball Wizard, Vengeance (first appearance) GS: Sharon Greenglass
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Oliver Queen explains away his uniform to Bad Penny as a costume he is wearing for a play, and is admitted to the auto-automat. Shortly thereafter, he changes into his Green Arrow guise, defeats Penny and Pinball Wizard, and frees the hostages.
At the same time, on another street in Star City, a costumed vigilante called Vengeance shoots down a man, and then mutters that he has others to bring to justice tonight, at their class reunion.
Detective Comics No. 546
January 1985
Story: “Clash Reunion” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Jerome Moore
Inker: Bruce D. Patterson
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Character: Green Arrow
Villain: Vengeance
Intro: Robert Sommerfeld, Barbara Dropkin, Davy Arnold (only appearance for all), Onyx
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Vengeance invades the class reunion of Oliver Queen’s old high school, seeking to kill Davy Arnold, an embezzler who hides out as the school’s janitor. Green Arrow stops Vengeance, but is unable to prevent his escape.
Elsewhere, an aged monk from a monastery gives a woman named Onyx some instructions on his deathbed: find Oliver Queen, who once spent some time with their order, and bring him back, to save the world.
Detective Comics No. 547
February 1985
Story: “Most Likely To Die” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Jerome Moore
Inker: Bruce D. Patterson
Letterer: Ben Oda
Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Character: Green Arrow
GS: James, Onyx
Villains: Tim Selby (first appearance), Vengeance
Intro: Mary Ho, William Davis
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Green Arrow learns from James that Tim Selby, one of Oliver Queen’s old classmates, is now an enforcer for the Vietnamese Mafia, but is keeping kickbacks he takes from the merchants in the Vietnamese section of Star City. The archer baits a trap for him by setting up a phony gift shop ostensibly run by a friend, Mary Ho. But, shortly after Selby arrives and begins his shakedown attempt, Vengeance appears, shoots at Selby, and hits Mary.
Detective Comics No. 548
March 1985
Story: “Vengeance Is Mine” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Jerome Moore
Inker: Bruce Patterson
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Character: Green Arrow
Villains: Tim Selby, Vengeance (last appearance for both)
GS: William Davis, Onyx, James, Mary Ho
Synopsis: Mary Ho is saved by the bullet-proof vest she wears under her clothes, and Green Arrow subdues both Tim Selby and Vengeance. Elsewhere, Onyx finds a place to stay, from a shopkeeper in Star City.
Detective Comics No. 549
April 1985
Story: “Night Olympics” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Alan Moore
Artist: Klaus Janson
Letterer: Todd Klein
Feature Character: Green Arrow
GS: Black Canary (last appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ANNUAL #2)
Villains: Pete Lomax, Joey (first appearance for both), Sutter (or Resnick?; first appearance; dies in this story)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: While Green Arrow and Black Canary are on patrol and catching thugs, Pete Lomax, an “ordinary guy”, gets a bow and arrows from an underworld armorer formerly in partnership with Pete Gambi, tailor to super-villains, and kills him with an arrow. Then he seeks out the two heroes, and wounds Black Canary with another arrow.
Detective Comics No. 550
May 1985
Story: “Night Olympics: Part Two” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Alan Moore
Artist: Klaus Janson
Letterer: Todd Klein
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in GREEN LANTERN #188)
GS: Black Canary (next appears in GREEN LANTERN #188)
Villains: Pete Lomax, Joey (last appearance for both)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow and Black Canary briefly appear in GREEN LANTERN #188, then appear with the Justice League during Red Tornado’s battle with the Construct in RED TORNADO #1, 3 (Green Arrow does not appear in issue #1), and then help Green Lanterns John Stewart and Katma Tui fight the Predator in GREEN LANTERN #190.
Synopsis: Green Arrow gets an ambulance for the Black Canary, then answers the challenge of Pete Lomax and easily defeats him in a duel of arrows.
Detective Comics No. 551
June 1985
Story: “Sanctuary” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Jerome Moore
Inker: Bruce D. Patterson
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in GREEN LANTERN #190)
GS: Dinah Lance (Black Canary; last appearance in GREEN LANTERN #190), Onyx
Intro: Guillermo, Francisco, an immigration officer, a priest
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Oliver Queen does not appear as Green Arrow in this story.
Synopsis: Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance encounter Guierrmo, an El Salvadorian refugee and naturalized citizen, who is mistaken for his illegal alien brother and is almost deported by the authorities. After Oliver learns how Salvadorans in flight from their war-torn country are helped into the U.S. and towards eventual naturalization by an “underground railroad”, he is allowed to visit Francisco, Guierrmo’s brother, in a church where he is hiding. Unfortunately, the immigration authorities are on his trail, and Oliver is taken prisoner along with Francisco and the priest.
Elsewhere, Onyx prepares to begin her search for Oliver Queen.
Detective Comics No. 552
July 1985
Story: “The Huddled Masses” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Jerome Moore
Inker: Bruce D. Patterson
Letterer: John Costanza
Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Character: Green Arrow
GS: Dinah Lance (Black Canary), Onyx
Intro: An immigration authority, Giles
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Oliver Queen is broken out of detention, along with two Salvadoran refugees, by Dinah Lance. They head for the next stop on the “underground railroad” and leave their new friends there. A night later, Green Arrow makes his way back to Oliver Queen’s apartment, not knowing that Onyx is observing him in secret.
Detective Comics No. 553
August 1985
Story: “Crazy From the Heat” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Scripter: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Jerome Moore
Inker: Bruce D. Patterson
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Character: Green Arrow
GS: Black Canary
Cameo appearance: Black Canary I (in a photograph)
Villain: Bonfire (first appearance)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: When a fire-throwing villainess named Bonfire traps Black Canary in a burning tenement, the Canary finds herself stricken by a phobia and unable to free herself. Green Arrow rescues her, and she later tells him she had a strange episode of deja vu while caught in the fire. Later, looking through her scrapbook at old pictures of her mother, the first Black Canary, Dinah Lance is struck by a revelation.
Detective Comics No. 554
September 1985
Cover: Batman, Black Canary, and Green Arrow //Klaus Janson
Story: “The Past Is Prologue” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Jerome Moore
Inker: Bruce Patterson
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Colorist: Shelley Eiber
Feature Characters: Green Arrow (next appears in issue #556), Black Canary (gains a new costume in this story; next appears in GREEN LANTERN #194)
Villains: Bonfire (last appearance), Pyra (in a photograph and flashback; only appearance)
Cameo appearance: Black Canary I (in flashback)
Comment: The cover of this issue echoes the cover of FLASH COMICS #92.
Synopsis: Dinah Lance learns that her phobia is generated by her mother’s memories (imprinted upon her own) of Pyra, a villainess with powers similar to Bonfire’s, who was the one foe the first Black Canary failed to capture. Deciding that the way to break her phobia is to break with the past, Dinah designs a new Black Canary costume for herself, seeks out Bonfire, and is almost defeated by her foe again until she lashes out with her canary cry and bowls her over. She and the late-arriving Green Arrow take Bonfire into custody.
Detective Comics No. 555
October 1985
Story: “The Case of the Runaway Shoebox” (reprinted from ACTION COMICS #431)
Detective Comics No. 556
November 1985
Story: “Zen and the Art of Dying” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Jerome Moore
Inker: Bruce Patterson
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance in issue #554)
GS: Onyx
Villain: Lars (intro; in flashback)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Onyx asks Green Arrow to help her battle Lars, a renegade monk who killed the Exalted Master with a poisoned arrow and intends to take control of the monastery himself. GA, who remembers an encounter he had with Lars during his brief monastic stay, in which the renegade confided that he sought a “wisdom key” that unlocked the powerful Book of Ages, agrees. But when he and Onyx enter the monastery, they are confronted with bow-armed minions of Lars’s.
Detective Comics No. 557
December 1985
Story: “The Pursuit of Wisdom” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Jerome Moore
Inker: Bruce D. Patterson
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Character: Green Arrow
GS: Onyx (next appears in issue #564)
Villain: Lars (next appears in issue #566 as Barricade)
Synopsis: Lars captures Onyx and forces Green Arrow to flee. From Onyx he takes the key to the Book of Ages, and leaves her shackled to the monastery’s great bell, where she will be killed by the bell’s automated hammer when it tolls on the hour. Green Arrow frees Onyx before the hammer can fall. But they cannot stop Lars from opening the box containing the Book of Ages, which disintegrates into dust and vapor...and leaves Lars only a skeleton.
Detective Comics No. 558
January 1986
Story: “Believe Everything I Hear” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Dean R. Traven
Penciller: Trevor Von Eeden
Inker: Dell Barras
Letterer: Agustin Mas Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Character: Green Arrow (next appears in GREEN LANTERN #194)
Intro: Denzil Neely, Ben, Sammy and his mother
Villains: Ionesco, Beckett (first and only appearance for both)
Comment: Shortly after this story Green Arrow and Black Canary team up with Green Lanterns John Stewart and Katma Tui to encounter Harbinger in GREEN LANTERN #194, then become involved in the Crisis on Infinite Earths in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #5-7. Then Green Arrow briefly rejoins the Justice League to deal with the rampant Red Tornado in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ANNUAL #3, after which he and Black Canary once again become embroiled in the events of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #9 and 10, though GA does not appear in the latter issue.
Even though Green Arrow takes part in the Crisis, the Earth-One Green Arrow continues in existence through issue #567, at which point he is replaced by the New Earth Green Arrow.
Synopsis: Green Arrow is almost stymied when an underworld informant is struck down, almost before he can give him a clue to where a large drug shipment is being made. His only words seem to be “sure...bet”. GA finally deduces that the clue is “sherbet”, which leads him to a cargo of imported ice cream with the drugs concealed within.
Detective Comics No. 559
February 1986
Cover: Batman, Catwoman, Green Arrow, Black Canary //Brian Bolland
Story: “It Takes Two Wings To Fly” (22 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Doug Moench
Penciller: Gene Colan
Inker: Bob Smith
Letterer: John Workman
Colorist: Adrienne Roy
Feature Characters: Batman (last appearance in BATMAN #392; next appears in BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #28), Green Arrow
GS: Catwoman (last appearance in BATMAN #392), Black Canary
Intro: Mr. Sample (flashback; dies in this story), Curtis Sample (only appearance)
Supporting Characters: Commissioner Gordon (between BATMAN #392 / 393), Lucius Fox (last appearance in issue #553), Alfred Pennyworth (last appearance in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #323)
Villains: Mr. Kemson, the Kemson Corporation, a hired assassin (first and only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Batman and Catwoman team with Green Arrow and Black Canary to bring down a crooked corporation which has caused the savage beating of a man out to expose their dangerous practices.
Detective Comics No. 560
March 1986
Story: “Me a Bad Guy?” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller; Jerome Moore Inker: Dell Barras
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary
Intro: Mr. Panofsky
Villains: Steelclaw (Mayor Bolt), various gangsters, Champion (first appearance for all)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance converse about topics that interest them. For Oliver, it’s a “superhero” called Champion who only works for pay, and neglects to help people who haven’t paid him. For Dinah, it’s her desire to become the shadowy, mysterious Black Canary her mother once was, operating outside both the law and the underworld, which Ollie thinks is a stupid idea. Elsewhere, a cloaked figure called Steelclaw gasses and lightly slashes a roomful of drug dealers, and demands a piece of the action.
Detective Comics No. 561
April 1986
Story: “In the Grip of Steelclaw” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller; Jerome Moore
Inker: Dell Barras
Letterer: Agustin Mas
Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary
Villains: Steelclaw, various drug dealers, Champion
Supporting Character: James
Intro:
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Black Canary tracks down Steelclaw at a drug dealers’ meeting where she discovers that real-estate magnate Marty Costa is behind the influx of heroin into Star City, before she is gassed unconscious. Green Arrow has a brief encounter with Champion, who neglects helping endangered children so that he can perform a paying task.
Detective Comics No. 562
May 1986
Story: “The Criminal Element” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller; Jerome Moore
Inker: Dell Barras
Letterer: Agustin Mas
Colorist: Shelley Eiber
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary
Villain: Steelclaw
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Black Canary is dumped in the bay by the drug dealers, but revives and captures them, except for Steelclaw, who escapes. Green Arrow bursts in on a televised news conference held by Mayor Bolt, who demands that he enforce anti-vigilante laws to curb Champion’s activity, but Bolt rebuts that he might well be forced to lock up Green Arrow in such a case. Later, Bolt secretly becomes Steelclaw, which guise he uses to control the criminal element that he feels no other person can control.
Detective Comics No. 563
June 1986
Story: “Winner and Still Champion” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Jerome Moore
Inker: Dell Barras
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Colorist: Jeanine Casey
Feature Character: Green Arrow
GS: Dinah Lance (Black Canary), Tommy
Intro: Jerry
Villain: Champion (last appearance)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Green Arrow catches Champion in the midst of starting a fire at an art exhibition featuring the works of Ozone, which he intended to heroically put out and net himself $250,000 in insurance money. After Champion has been taken away, Oliver Queen tells Dinah that he discovered sabotage done at the site of one of Champion’s “jobs”, and figured out his insurance scam. Dinah Lance has a revelation, as well: why would Steelclaw call Mayor Bolt’s son by a pet name, as she overheard him do, unless Steelclaw is actually Mayor Bolt?
Detective Comics No. 564
July 1986
Story: “This Masquerade” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Jerome Moore
Inkers: Steve Montano, Rodin Rodrigez
Letterer: Todd Klein
Colorist: Shelley Eiber
Feature Characters: Green Arrow, Black Canary
Villains: Steelclaw, Marty Costa (first appearance), Eddie (first appearance)
Intro: Bruce Bolt, Debi Lee
GS: Tommy, Jerry, Onyx (last appearance in issue #557)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: When Mayor Bolt threatens action against drug dealers, pusher Marty Costa tells his men to go ahead with a snatch attempt on Bruce, the mayor’s son. Green Arrow and Black Canary go to Bolt’s house to prevent such an occurrence, but Bolt becomes Steelclaw and fells Black Canary, while Green Arrow is blasted by a booby trap within Bolt’s mansion. As Costa’s gang draw guns on Steelclaw and the unconscious Canary, elsewhere Onyx appears to her harborer Tommy.
Detective Comics No. 565
August 1986
Story: “Death By Misadventure” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Artist: Stan Woch
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Colorist: Shelley Eiber
Feature Character: Green Arrow
Supporting Character: Rick O’Connor
Intro: Prof. Myrna Cuthbertson
GS: Black Canary, Bruce Bolt, Tommy, Onyx
Villains: Steelclaw (dies in this story), Costa’s gang (last appearance)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Green Arrow is unable to stop the hoods from killing Steelclaw, but does prevent them from hurting Black Canary. Elsewhere, Tommy demands Onyx tell her what she has come to Star City from, despite her reluctance to involve him in her operation.
Detective Comics No. 566
September 1986
Story: “Old Enemies Die Hard” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein
Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Jerome Moore
Inker: Dell Barras
Letterer: Bob Lappan
Colorist: Shelley Eiber
Feature Character: Green Arrow
GS: Dinah Lance, Onyx, Tommy
Villain: Barricade (Lars; first appearance as Barricade; last appearance in issue #557)
Comment: This story continues in the next issue.
Synopsis: Oliver Queen discovers his apartment burglarized and his answering machine torn up, but he manages to play the tape on another machine and hears Onyx’s voice telling him that she is in Tommy’s music store and that she has been followed by someone. In the music store, Tommy and Onyx share their first kiss, but, minutes later, a powerful villain named Barricade breaks in, battles Onyx, and snatches her headband away. Green Arrow, who has just arrived on the scene, knocks the headband away from him with an arrow, but is no match for Barricade’s strength. The villain prepares to unmask before the downed arrow, telling him it will be the last thing he sees in this life.
Detective Comics No. 567
October 1986
Story: “The Face of Barricade” (7 pages)
Editor: Len Wein Writer: Joey Cavalieri
Penciller: Stan Woch
Inker: Dave Hunt
Letterer: Todd Klein
Colorist: Shelley Eiber
Feature Character: Green Arrow (last appearance of the Earth-One Green Arrow; the New Earth Green Arrow first appears in ?)
GS: Onyx, Tommy (last appearance for both), Black Canary (last appearance of the Earth-One Black Canary; the New Earth Black Canary first appears in LEGENDS #4)
Villain: Barricade (dies in this story)
Comment: After this story, the full effects of the Crisis are finally allowed to go into effect by Mekanique and Queen Hippolyta, and the New DC Earth comes into being. Thus, this is the final story in which the Earth-One Green Arrow and Black Canary appear.
Synopsis: Barricade reveals his countenance to be the face of a skull, and tells Green Arrow he was once Lars, the monk whom GA once fought over the Book of the Ages, whose forces reduced him to a skeletal state. He says that the Book was restored by the monks of his faction through alchemical means, and that the spell which skeletized him was reversed, as long as he remained in contact with the Book. With the Wisdom Key held within Onyx’s headband, he can make the reversal permanent. Onyx, however, snatches her headband back, and Barricade leaves Green Arrow to grapple with her. The headband is then tossed to Black Canary, who has just arrived. Barricade overpowers her and snatches the headband, but Green Arrow uses his shafts to separate the Book of Ages from the pouch on Barricade’s back in which it is carried. Barricade collapses into a mass of lifeless bones.
Black Canary notes that the tiara does not carry the Wisdom Key any longer, and that Onyx is gone. Later, Onyx meets Tommy in the park, and gives him back the Wisdom Key, which she had stashed in his pocket for safekeeping during their kiss. Tommy indignantly says that Barricade could have hunted him down next. Onyx replies that, earlier, Tommy had tried to protect her from Barricade and wouldn’t leave her. But now, she leaves him.