DC’s Infinite Frontier may have charted a new future for the DC Universe, but it’s had a more questionable impact on Green Arrow and the people around him. While Oliver Queen might himself guiding the Justice League’s future, the idea that everything that has ever happened in the DC Universe could be canonical to some extent raises some uncomfortable issues.
For a character like Oliver Queen, this can be fairly problematic. For the most part, his entire history was erased in 2011’s New 52 reboot then partially restored five years later in DC Rebirth. While the core elements of the hero will survive this newest transition, the rest of the Arrow Family may not be so lucky.
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Shado
The character most impacted by these changes is Shado, a bow-wielding assassin introduced in Mike Grell’s 1983 comic Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters. Originally, she was trained by the yakuza to avenge her father, who had been brutally tortured by the guards in a US internment camp. She teamed up several times with Green Arrow, and even had a son with him. After Oliver Queen died, his son Connor Hawke (whose mother was a different woman) became the next Green Arrow and got into a relationship with Shado.
In The New 52, she was re-imagined as the lover of Oliver’s father, Robert Queen, with whom she had a daughter named Emiko. In other words, in the newest continuity, Shado has had a relationship with three generations of Queen men, and had children with both Robert and Oliver Queen. Notably, her daughter Emiko is one of the only characters in the Arrow Family unaffected by these changes (aside from having another brother who is also her nephew).
Roy Harper
Green Arrow’s original sidekick, Roy Harper, spent years operating as Speedy before using the superhero names Arsenal and Red Arrow. Roy has had a hard life. After his father died, he was adopted by a Navajo medicine man, who taught him archery and asked Green Arrow to raise him. He helped found the Teen Titans, and eventually led the Titans. When Green Arrow abandoned him to go on a road trip, Roy turned to heroin. He overcame his addiction, but his relationship with Oliver Queen never fully healed. Roy also had a daughter named Lian who was murdered by the villain Prometheus.
The New 52 retconned Roy’s mother into his early life and had him adopted into the Spokane tribe instead of the Navajo. He was also made a recovering alcoholic instead of (and then in addition to) being a heroin addict. Now, Roy’s mother was simultaneously absent and present in his early life, while he was somehow adopted into two different tribes at the same time. Also, he died in Tom King and Clay Mann’s Heroes in Crisis, but has been resurrected.
Mia Dearden
One of the breakout hits of Kevin Smith and Phil Hester’s Green Arrow run was Mia Dearden, a 13-year-old sex worker who Green Arrow trained as the next Speedy. Mia was also among the first HIV-positive superheroes. She disappeared without explanation in The New 52, then returned as the daughter of a villainous businessman named John King, from whom she was fleeing. Prior to this, her father had been an abusive deadbeat. Now, it seems Mia has two fathers, or at the least, her father is both a poor deadbeat and a business tycoon.
Black Canary
The original Black Canary came to the main Earth-1 Universe from Earth-2 in a 1969 crossover between the JLA and JSA. Shortly thereafter, she began dating Green Arrow. She then transferred her consciousness into her daughter, who became the next Black Canary (and continued dating Green Arrow).
Crisis on Infinite Earths retconned things so that Dinah Lance inherited her mother’s superhero identity but not her memories. Dinah had an on-again-off-again relationship with Oliver Queen, married him, and got divorced. The New 52 combined Dinah with her mother’s character, gave a different ex-husband, and removed any connection to Green Arrow. However, Black Canary met the Emerald Archer for the first time (again) in DC Rebirth.
Connor Hawke
The son of Oliver Queen, Connor Hawke disappeared entirely during The New 52. The weirdest parts of the new continuity for him will be that he hooked up with Shado, who bore a son to his dad and a daughter to his grandfather. This means Emiko is simultaneously his cousin and his aunt. Otherwise, Connor escapes the retconning unscathed.
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