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Having been absent from the DC Universe for years, ’90s hero Connor Hawke returns by inhabiting the roles of different ’90s action movie heroes.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for “One” from Green Arrow 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular by Brandon Thomas, Jorge Corona, Matheus Lopes and Steve Wands, and Robin #3 by Joshua Williamson, Gleb Melkinov, Luis Guerrero and ALW’s Troy Peteri, on sale now
Connor Hawke has been absent from the DC Universe for some time. With DC’s New 52 reboot, the character was written out of continuity, only recently returning thanks to Infinite Frontier making all of DC’s history canon. With his return, the son of Green Arrow finds himself filling a role that’s somewhat unusual for his character — the role of a 90s movie action hero.
Connor Hawke is the son of Oliver Queen and was first introduced in the 90s. When his father died, he took up the mantle of the father he never knew and became the new Green Arrow. Unlike Oliver who was action-oriented outgoing in his crusade for justice, Connor was defined more by his tranquility, having more in common with the zen attitude of Marvel’s Iron Fist. Connor’s return sees him stepping out of his comfort zone, now being defined by a different medium of the decade that created him.
The recent Green Arrow 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular places Connor in the role of Bruce Willis’s John Mclane. The story “One” from the celebratory anthology is undeniably an homage to the 1988 film Die Hard, whose subsequent sequels came to define the action movie scene of the 1990s. Terrorists take control of a large skyscraper in Star City and demand a large ransom. It’s up to one man with limited resources (in this case one trick arrow) to stop them. It couldn’t get any more Die Hard.
Having lost all his other arrows on the way in, Connor is left with a single trick arrow that bounces off his foes and returns to him. With this single arrow, he is able to take down the terrorists and save the hostages. All the while he is helped by the one member of law enforcement on the ground who believes in him, similar to beat cop Al Powell from Die Hard.
Though Connor started out hating his father’s trick arrows, a JLA story saw him discover their value and add them to his own quiver. “One” reminds readers of this story, highlighting that it’s not entirely out of character for Connor to evolve and replace his peaceful attitudes with urgency and action should it help him be a better hero.
Connor Hawke’s other prominent appearance in the DC Universe lately has him take on a different 90s action movie entirely — 1995’s Mortal Kombat. The Lazarus Tournament from the new Robin series is an obvious analog of the famous video game fighting tournament. Participants travel to an island for a prestigious tournament and fight to the death in the hopes of winning the coveted prize of immortality. That premise perfectly fits both Mortal Kombat and Robin.
Connor has been set up as the tournament’s most fearsome and deadliest opponent. This is a far cry from the hero seen in the ’90s who, though certainly a master of various martial arts and other disciplines, was never portrayed as a capable killer.
Connor’s reasons for entering the tournament run deeper than those of his competition though. In a conversation with Damian in Robin #3, he reveals his entry in the competition is to aid the League of Shadows, who oppose the tournament’s organizers, the League of Lazarus. Connor’s participation is out of loyalty for those that took him in when no one else would.
Though he finds himself in 90s action hero roles, Connor’s actions aren’t as out of character as they may initially seem. The situations he finds himself in now are reflective of the era that gave birth to the character and, in a way, inform the character for a new generation.
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