“I live two lives,” the title character of the Green Arrow: Rebirth comic book series explains in the inaugural issue. “The first, as Oliver Queen, might seem enviable, as I hover over everyone in my penthouse apartment, golden cubes of light higher than fear or danger can reach. But with every passing day that world feels less conformable, and the man – the playboy socialite, the CEO of Queen Industries – feels like more of an obnoxious stranger. I prefer the company of the streets. I prefer the job description of social justice warrior. Call me Green Arrow.”
In 2016, DC comics rebooted its comic book universe and restored the legacy of its major superheroes. For writer Benjamin Percy, Rebirth enabled him to return Green Arrow to the social justice roots initially planted by Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams in the 1970s. Although the majority of DC superheroes lived in fictional cities like Metropolis and Gotham, meanwhile, Percy instead established Oliver Queen in real-world Seattle and Queen Industries as one of the city’s leading economic engines.
While O’Neil and Adams created standalone storylines centered on social issues that were prominent within the United States during their era, Benjamin Percy went further, crafting a 38-issue narrative that reflected the Age of Donald Trump. A mayoral candidate whose campaign is based on divisive rhetoric, far right activists taking the law into their own hands, and Seattle itself transformed into a monument for the wealthy elite are all features of Percy’s Green Arrow, showcasing a fictional world in which Trumpism has been taken to the extreme.
Benjamin Percy also uses the series to explore the dual nature of Oliver Queen and Green Arrow. “How can you fight the man if you are the man?” Dinah Lance (aka Black Canary) asks early on, while later adding, “The Queens – your family’s legacy – epitomizes the greed and elitism you supposedly stand against.”
“Making a difference requires money,” Oliver Queen counters, pointing out not only the cost of keeping his Green Arrow vigilantism equipped with cool gadgets and a multitude of arrows but the various charity initiatives launched by Queen Industries, including a children’s hospital, public parks, and women shelters for victims of domestic abuse. When Oliver Queen is framed for murder and left for dead, however, Green Arrow must learn how to not only continue his mission but live without the luxuries that had previously defined his life – resulting in the realization that charity work alone is not enough, that in order to make a difference, one has to literally fight for justice as well.
This renewed sense of vigilantism is greeted with the same divisive sentiments prominent within the real-world United States of the late 2010s. “Sure as heck sounds like a criminal to me,” a police officer tells a news reporter, while another argues “no such thing as Green Arrow. All them photos is doctored. The liberals wish they had a bogeyman to sic on us.” An African American woman, meanwhile, has a different viewpoint. “Two boys stole my purse, and you know who smacked them around and got my money back?” she rhetorically asks. “Green Arrow. Glad somebody cares about this zip code – we’re invisible otherwise.”
Then there’s mayoral candidate Nathan Domini. “These days, everybody’s so worried about everybody else,” he asserts at a campaign rally. “So we’re taxed more to help the homeless, foreign refugees, drug addicts, the mentally ill. Even the losers who won’t take care of themselves because they don’t want to put in hard work. Seattle needs to start thinking of its economy first and everything else second. Let’s reward the people who work hard.”
Domini’s words do more than garner votes when far-right extremists decide to turn them into actions as well. A self-described “Vice Squad,” for instance, embarks on ridding Seattle of its “losers” by raiding seedy strip clubs, homeless encampments, and even breaking into the city jail with armed rifles and killing what they consider a “stain” on society.
When Native Americans oppose the building of an oil pipeline on their land – similar to the real-world events at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota – right wing vigilantes likewise resort to violence to shut the protests down. “We’re not terrorists,” one of them explains. “We’re patriots. We’ve reclaimed 192,000 acres for the sake of the economy. The pipeline equals thousands of American jobs and billions of American dollars.”
“You’ve run a campaign based on fear and hate,” Oliver Queen later tells Nathan Domini. “But the cops and Green Arrow rallied today and took down the sort of extremists you’re encouraging.” But while Green Arrow may be winning individual battles, he fails to see the larger war that a criminal organization known as the Ninth Circle and his own Queen Industries have been waging all along.
Once Domini has been installed as mayor, they quickly reap the seeds of fear that have been planted by decimating Seattle through a series of terrorist attacks that culminate in the destruction of its landmark Space Needle. Renaming Seattle as Star City in the aftermath, Mayor Domini proclaims that this new metropolis will not be funded by restrictive government subsidies but a free market economy financed by Queen Industries instead.
“Capitalism is a meritocracy,” he asserts. “If somebody is better off than you, it’s probably because they wanted it more. And because they’re better. I’m excited to announce the new national standard, a new American ideal. This city is now supported fully and freely by private enterprise. This calls for a fresh perspective, a new identity. We fell as Seattle – but we will rise as Star City.”
Green Arrow becomes determined to not only save Seattle but ensure that its fate is not duplicated in other cities. His resulting road trip takes him to Metropolis, where Lex Luther has resisted overtures to join the Ninth Circle. In retaliation, Queen Industries unleashes a computer virus that exposes the personal secrets of his employees on social media as well as heightens their sense of fear.
While CEOs of major companies often say that “corporations are people,” Luther learns such sentiments are more than just words when the revelations and resulting suicide attempts causes Lex Corp’s stock price to plummet. Lex Luther not only saves the day by reversing the effects of the virus, but his new appreciation for his employees results in pay raises that are financed through his own massive salary.
In Washington DC, meanwhile, Green Arrow teams with Wonder Woman to save the Washington Monument from destruction and prevent the assassination of a United States Senator. “You know the worst part of this?” he rhetorically asks his counterpart. “There is no happy ending. That kind of superhero story doesn’t exist anymore. Even as we save people, even as we beat the bad guy – we don’t win. Liberals have died. Conservatives have died. Americans have died. Everyone is afraid. And when you’re afraid you lash out. And so the march to war continues.”
Despite such sentiments, Green Arrow is ultimately able to defeat the Ninth Circle and restore Seattle to the city it was before, as well as reclaim control of Queen Industry and become the wealthy Oliver Queen once again. His time in exile, however, has taught him that investing in people is important, and he quickly launches a new slate of charitable endeavors to emphasize that point.
But while Oliver Queen may still believe that “making a difference requires money,” he also understands that charity work alone is not enough to defeat the fear and hatred that overtook the Seattle of Green Arrow and likewise exists in the real world as well. “To fight fascism, we need the politicians, the police, the people,” he proclaims at one point. “And none of them will be informed or motivated without the media’s help.”
The fight also needs a symbol, and within the Rebirth comic books of Benjamin Percy, that symbol is a self-described social justice warrior who goes by the name of Green Arrow.
Anthony Letizia