Green Arrow: Year One

Green Arrow: Year One is a 2007 Green Arrow limited series published by DC Comics. The series is written by Andy Diggle with art by Jock, the acclaimed team behind The Losers.

Plot summary

Oliver Queen is a frivolous playboy and a thrill-seeker. After yet another drunken party, he decided to embark on a sea voyage only to be betrayed by his only friend and trusted bodyguard Hackett. He then found himself marooned on a deserted jungle island.

Oliver survived his new unforgiving environment with nothing more than a makeshift bow and arrows gradually realizing that he is a natural-born bowman. Being stranded on the island for months taught him to treasure the simple things he had squandered, and for the first time in his life, he felt really happy.

Things took a turn for the worse when he learned that the island was not as deserted as he thought. A woman whom he called China White had enslaved the island's inhabitants and forced them to grow opium and manufacture heroin. After a tussle with Hackett, who turned out to be her business associate, Oliver was seriously wounded. Taiana, one of the natives of the island, saved him from certain death.

Her selfless act of kindness opened Oliver's eyes to the guilt he had been carrying his entire life: the guilt of stepping over the underprivileged on his way to the top. To repay the debt he owed Taiana, he made it his life's calling to fight for the rights of the downtrodden. He then freed the slaves by taking down China White's organization armed only with Howard Hill's bow (which the earlier party had an auction for) and a dozen arrows.

When the authorities arrived, Oliver downplayed the whole scenario. He sacrificed the credit of busting a drug ring in order to protect the lives of Taiana's people. Believing that it's not his style to bask in the limelight anymore, he chose to live a double-life as a brash socialite by day and by night, someone he never dreamed he would be, a hero. Upon his return to Star City, he crafted a costume and took the name Taiana gave him: Green Arrow.

Collected editions

Green Arrow: Year One was first collected in hardcover in 2008 (ISBN 9781401216870) and later as a trade paperback (ISBN 9781401217433) in 2009.^[1]

In other media

This limited series served as an inspiration for the creation of the live-action TV show, titled Arrow, with its whole first season based on the comic book. Also one of the main characters John Diggle (who was created especially for the show and is played by actor David Ramsey) was named after Andy Diggle, the author of the comic book series, as is John's brother who bears the exact name. Moreover, the character of China White, whose first and only appearance is in this limited series, appears in the television series (where she's portrayed by actress Kelly Hu). While she was only a minor villain leading the Chinese Triad in present day during the first two seasons, season three saw her introduced as a main villain in the flashbacks, a direct homage to her role in Year One. Season four also introduced Taiana who is one of many slaves to Baron Reiter's operations on Lian Yu which Oliver returns to, forcibly because of A.R.G.U.S., to cripple from the inside. Taiana and Oliver form a bond after he saves her from Reiter's men.

References

External links

• 'Green Arrow: Year One' at the Comic Book DB
• Jock on Green Arrow: Year One, Newsarama, May 7, 2007