The following contains spoilers for Dark Crisis: Worlds Without a Justice League – Green Arrow #1, on sale now from DC Comics.
Justice League #75 contained the shocking death of DC’s iconic team and subsequently kicked off Dark Crisis. While Pariah wiped the League out in one incredible blast, something just as shocking happened just prior. During the fight with the Dark Army, Green Arrow was crushed under the fists of Doomsday. Superman couldn’t survive a one-on-one fight with this indestructible monster back in Superman #75. It would seem to stand to reason that Green Arrow had no chance at survival.
It looked like Pariah’s use of the League to create brand-new worlds saved Oliver, but some doubts were raised in the Black Canary backup story in Dark Crisis: Worlds Without a Justice League – Green Arrow #1 (by Dennis Culver, Nik Virella, Romulo Fajardo Jr. and Troy Peteri). There was a major flaw in the creation of Green Arrow and Black Canary’s worlds when Pariah was constructing these Crisis Earths. Neither Arrow nor Canary would accept a world without the other in it. This led Pariah to remake these worlds over and over again, and each attempt meant restoring them to their original state.
Pariah Claimed Green Arrow is on the Verge of Death
Pariah was searching for solutions to his situation and asked the two problem heroes how he could fix it. The thing is, only Canary could respond. Green Arrow was still suffering from his encounter with Doomsday. He was totally unresponsive and his wounds from the battle clearly visible. In fact, he was so pale and his eyes so vacant that it looked as though he was dead already. The only thing that suggested there was still life in the Emerald Archer was Pariah, who claimed that there was still some life still in him – and that the only way to preserve that life was in one of his Dark Crisis Earths.
Although it seemed like there may be a chance for Oliver on one of these Earths, especially since he’s his usual jaunty self in his prison universe, there is the distinct possibility that Pariah is lying. After all, having seen him outside of Pariah’s plot, Oliver looked like he was dead. No one could survive a direct blow from Doomsday. What little energy Pariah has drawn on to make Green Arrow’s Earth may be the last embers of life – not enough for him to survive outside of Dark Crisis.
There are Multiple Green Arrows in Dark Crisis
There was another issue too which suggested something was up with Green Arrow. Out of all the Justice League, he’s the only one with multiple avatars on these Earths. Both the island Oliver who attacked Arrow and Canary in the main story and the narrator of the main story were shown to be other iterations of Oliver from Pariah’s past attempts. The fact that these characters exist in the same way other background characters of these Earths do may suggest that, unlike the rest of the League, they don’t need Green Arrow to exist. The only plausible reason why that would happen with Arrow and not Canary is because Oliver is dead – the Olivers of these Dark Crisis Earths are just echoes.
DC brought back Green Arrow’s son in Damian Wayne’s Robin series recently. Further adventures with the ’90s Green Arrow were teased but nothing has been announced regarding Conner’s future just yet. If it turns out that Green Arrow really is dead and is not resurrected by the end of Dark Crisis, it could be that Conner has been set up to take his father’s place once again. There’s also the existence of these other Green Arrows. If they survived the deaths of their universes, who’s to say they won’t endure past Dark Crisis. It may, perhaps, even end up as a multiversal version of Spider-Man’s Clone Saga. Whatever the case, Green Arrow’s future looks bleak and, right now, he may as well be considered dead.
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