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Green Arrow just explained to a fellow hero why he doesn’t want superpowers, and it’s a quietly perfect summation of the character.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Aquaman/Green Arrow: Deep Target #4 now on sale from DC Comics
Green Arrow is one of the handfuls of heroes in the DC Universe who have no special powers or abilities. He doesn’t even have the lifetime of preparation and training that Batman and his allies can boast. He instead relies on a couple of years of life experience and danger to define who he is. As it turns out, even when given the opportunity to flaunt some newfound powers, he just doesn’t want to.
Aquaman/Green Arrow: Deep Target #4 (by Brandon Thomas, Ronan Cliquet, Ulises Arreola, and Josh Reed) revealed exactly why Green Arrow doesn’t like the fact that he’s suddenly ended up with superpowers. It’s quietly a perfect summation of who Oliver Queen is, and why earning his current role and abilities define the character.
Green Arrow and Aquaman have spent Deep Target having swapped abilities in a transformed world, leaving neither man exactly pleased. Aquaman has been trying to adjust to his sudden lack of power (and the connection it gives him to his family), but Green Arrow has a different problem. Although he now possesses amazing abilities, he’s incredibly uncomfortable with what that means he can do. On the one hand, this is because he’s clearly inexperienced with his abilities and unsure of how to properly deploy them. He’s trained to fight with a human body, and now super-strength and super-durability mean he has to fight in a far different manner. But beyond that, his newfound powers take away some of the things that helped Oliver Queen define himself.
As he explained to Aquaman, he admits having powers is cool. But becoming the man he is today took a lifetime of work. The man Oliver Queen used to be was useless, a waste of space with an over-inflated place in the world. It took hard work for Oliver Queen to become a more heroic man, to become the Green Arrow. Having superpowers almost feels too easy, and clearly weighs on Oliver. It’s the super-powered equivalent of being rich and powerful by birthright. Superpowers just aren’t what makes Green Arrow a hero, so all of a sudden having them inherently feels wrong. This is one of the reasons Oliver has been so on board with giving his powers back to Aquaman and regaining his archery skills. He doesn’t want to be Aquaman or any other superhero for that matter. He earned being Green Arrow, and that’s who he is.
It’s a quietly perfect summation of who Green Arrow really is at the end of the day. While other powerless heroes may secretly want powers or at least have considered what it would be like to have them, Green Arrow isn’t one of them. The comparison of his newfound abilities to the power afforded him in his careless and wealthy youth is an interesting wrinkle on the character. Oliver did everything he could to stop being that person, and relying on powers he didn’t earn feels like a backslide. All of a sudden, Oliver is reminded how easy life can be if you’re lucky enough. But he had plenty of that before he became a hero. Green Arrow can appreciate everything he went through to become the better man he is today. Part of that involved all the trauma and training he suffered to become skilled enough to become Green Arrow.
Oliver isn’t quite himself without that. There are other Green Arrow associated figures, but there isn’t as big of a commitment to a singular identity as with Batman. The various former Robins may wonder who will one day become Batman, but Oliver Queen might be the only true Green Arrow. That includes the abilities and skills he’s developed, and having swapped powers with Aquaman highlights just how important that aspect is to the character. It perfectly sums up what makes Green Arrow special, and why that matters so much to him.
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