26 Years Ago, the Last DC Hero Anyone Expected Became the Bestselling Character in Comics

DC Comics is at the top of the sales charts again, and for a lot of fans it’s about time. For years, Batman was one of the bestselling title in comics, but the rest of DC’s books rarely took the top of the sales charts throughout the mid to late ’10s. However, the ’00s were a different time. DC was more competitive with Marvel, and that started with the beginning of the first decade of the 21st century. In the year 2000, a DC Comics title became the bestselling comic around, and it was one that no one ever would have expected: Green Arrow.

Green Arrow is one of DC’s most storied characters. He began his life as Batman in Robin Hood drag in the Golden Age, disappeared with the vast majority of Golden Age DC heroes in the early ’50s, and would return in the Silver Age. He became popular again because of Justice League of America and “Hard-Traveling Heroes”, fade away again, get another chance in the ’80s with Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters, and soldiered on until the ’90s, when the character was killed so he could replaced by his son Connor (the most ’90s DC thing to happen to a character). He stayed dead through the rest of the decade and then something happened that no one could have predicted: an acclaimed film director wanted to make Oliver Queen the bestselling comic and it all started, strangely enough, at Marvel.

Kevin Smith Said He Would Make Green Arrow the Bestselling Comic and He Did It Perfectly

Kevin Smith made being a nerd cool in the ’90s. His indie film Clerks starred two Gen X slackers trying to figure out what to do with their life while talking about the pop culture they grew up on. His second movie, Mallrats, had a main character who was a comic nerd, and his third film Chasing Amy was about comic creators. He loved comics, and in 1998 was announced as the new writer of Daredevil (Vol. 2), helping launch the Marvel Knights line and paving the way for Joe Quesada to become editor in chief at Marvel.

Smith could have worked on any book in the industry, but he chose Daredevil because he wanted the challenge of making the character popular again. He spoke with Wizard magazine a lot in 1998 and 1999, and talked about how much he loved Oliver Queen and that if he had the chance to write the character, he would make it the bestselling comic in the land. DC Comics, seeing his success at Marvel and on the View Askewniverse comics at Oni Press, decided to call his bluff.

Smith was tapped for a new Green Arrow series, along with artist Phil Hester. Teases of the first issue were published in Wizard and fans who loved Smith’s films (which at the time was a lot of comic fans) were excited. Soon, the first issue dropped and something no one ever expected to happen did: it became number one on the sales charts, kicking off the classic Green Arrow story “Quiver”.

“Quiver” told the story of how Queen was brought back to life, and took the story in some amazing directions. Even fans who were just reading because Smith was there (and he found a way to do his risque humor without the f-bombs) fell in love with Oliver Queen. Smith found a novel way to explain the hero’s return and did a fantastic job of modernizing him, setting up a new status quo, and bringing back a classic DC character no one had thought of in decades as an important part of the story. It’s a 12-issue masterpiece, and it did everything it said it would: make Green Arrow the bestselling book in the comic industry.

Smith’s Success Helped Make Green Arrow an A-lister Again

Green Arrow has had some massive success in the 21st century and all of it can be traced back to Kevin Smith telling a comic magazine that he was going to make the hero into the most popular character in comics. In the ’90s, as much as we loved Smith (and, again, comic fans loved him back then), no one believed him. Ollie was a relic to the readers of the day, and many fans loved Connor Hawke as Green Arrow. However, “Quiver” was so good that it made everyone stand up and take notice.

Since then, the character’s fortunes have improved immensely. His comics aren’t always bestselling, but even people who never read comics know about him because of his CW show; he made DC TV popular again. Smith reminded fans of why Queen was one of the greatest characters in the history of the medium, and opened the door for amazing Green Arrow stories in the years to come. It was an exciting time, all caused by a writer keeping a promise that no one believed he could.

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