I have my own thoughts on this but I'd like to know what everyone else thinks.
Sure Ollie is popular enough and his inclusion in Smallville I think really helped that out a lot(as is obvious by the upcoming Arrow show.) but lets face it; Nobody really thinks of him being on the level of say Batman, Superman, Wolverine, Spider-man, or lots of others, even Daredevil(Who I think Green Arrow creative directions could take a huge queue from.)
I have been thinking about this way too much as of late because I really think Green Arrow is a really awesome character himself but when I read his books or try to think of what defines him, I just come up kind of blank. He is just simply not as interesting as he should be. He has too much potential. I stopped getting the new 52 issues after 6 issues because it just felt like a totally under achieving book. I will say that a bright spot in it was his little team though. I really like that idea of him having the behind the scenes team helping him build his toys and feeding him info and such. Good supporting characters. I hope they continue to be there and build up, when I can afford it I definitely plan on going back and catching up with the book still.
So my thoughts are this: What do characters like Batman and the others have that he doesn't?
First thing that comes to mind is the Rogue Gallery. Every great character is very much shaped and defined by his villains but Green Arrow just lacks in this department I feel. I have about 60 Green Arrow comics(Maybe I just haven't read enough of him yet?) and I could not even tell you who his arch-nemesis was. I had to look it up! From what I can tell a lot of people say it is Merlyn. I have never really even heard of Merlyn... that is really a bad sign(unless I am alone here which I'm betting I am not.)
I think the Green Arrow books could really benefit from better villains and a very knowable, well done, arch-nemesis. Since it is quite late in the life span of the emerald archer it may be too late really to just thrust a new villain on everybody and say it his greatest enemy though. So for now I think borrowed villains would help a lot. Daredevil for instance also does not have the best villain list, other than bullseye, a lot of his biggest enemies and best stories tend to borrow villains(from spider-man a lot.) This of course wouldn't completely fix the problem but I think it'd make the book a little better over all. Villains like The Riddler(probably a lot of batman villains really.) would be appropriate.
One villain I think they could really bring out of the depths and not just borrow but completely steal from Superman would be the Toyman. In the smallville series the episodes where Ollie and the Toyman were at it actually worked really well. If he would be worked in a lot over the years who knows, maybe would turn into Green Arrow's Joker?
Another villain that I think could be fun to read if done correctly would be Mirror Master from Flash books. Though he is quite well established as a Flash villain so he couldn't just steal him but I think it'd be a fun situation(come on... an archer shattering mirrors with his arrows... could be pretty cool.)
Two other options would either be; try to implement an entirely new foe and morph him into a nemesis over time, or take Merlyn(or another of his bigger villains) and just do a huge overhaul with a very exceptional creative team that could re-establish and bring more life to the character.
Aside from the villain thing another possible idea is to just make him the best at something besides accuracy with a bow. I think, at least with what I read in the first 6 issues of the new series, technology should really be Green Arrows thing. He doesn't have to take anything away from Batman and his wonderful toys but if Queen could top him in this department it would do wonders for him. He doesn't really have to beat Batman or even REALLY have better stuff. But if they could write stories(perfect opportunity for the borrowed villains who are surprised by how different or better his things are than Batmans.) but basically that his tech is 'the best' in the DCU it would create his niche in the fan base too I think. Marvel kind of did this with Iron Man for example. If technology is involved in the Marvel U, Tony Stark comes to mind. It would obviously have to be a little different here since it would be more like Queen Industries or his little team of techs, but it would still be his. This could also be done in a way as to not take anything away from Batman or Bruce Wayne, which is important(Batman is obviously never going to be topped in anyway by Green Arrow so DC would make sure this stays true, kind of why a lot of the comparisons in this post have been directed toward Batman, well.. that and they are similar characters in a few important ways).
So I don't know if anybody will ever read this since it has turned into quite a large post or if I'm waaaay off base but I was wondering if anybody else had anymore thoughts on the matter.
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