Green Arrow: Every Trick Arrow Explained

Where does he get those wonderful toys?

By Andrew Pollard /

It may be a quote directed towards Batman from Jack Nicholson's Joker back in 1989, but the phrase "where does he get those wonderful toys?" is likely one that many a Green Arrow rival has pondered.

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Much like the Dark Knight has his famed utility belt and advanced technology to fall back on, the Green Arrow has a whole host of arrows up his sleeve. Well, in his quiver, but you get the idea.

In addition to his standard arrows, the decades have seen Oliver Queen develop explosive arrows, tech-driven hacking arrows, zipline arrows, and a wide variety of more rational, logical arrows that are used on a relatively frequent basis by the Emerald Archer. Much like Batman and his toys, these 'trick arrows' have grown to become just as much a part of GA lore as his trademark Van Dyke facial hair.

Away from these more standard pieces of kit though, Ollie also has some more outlandish and powerful items of weaponry at his disposal - ranging from world-decimating arrows, to some absolutely bonkers arrows.

Digging deep into the Green Arrow's arsenal then, here's at look at just what wonderful delights the Master Bowman so often has at his fingertips.

10. The Aqua-Lung Arrow

In case of being required to take an emergency deep water dive, what better thing to have at your disposal than the aqua-lung arrow?

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To give some context to this, this most bizarre of arrows was put front 'n' centre in 1958's World's Finest #97. In a story titled The Menace of the Mechanical Octopus, Green Arrow and Speedy find themselves fighting a giant robotic octopus.

Deciding there's only one way to safely enter the water for just such a battle, Ollie pulls out his patented aqua-lung arrow.

It looked stupid, it made absolutely zero sense, and it was clearly the sort of story that belonged in the Silver Age.

Thankfully, the end of the Silver Age would see the Green Arrow embark on one of his very best runs, with Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams coming together to give the character a much-needed revamp. To no one's surprise, the aqua-lung Arrow was not in Oliver Queen's arsenal.

Plus, with the aqua-lung arrow, wouldn't it be just as useful - and, for sure, more practical - to not stick an arrow shaft on a scuba mask, and just have the mask itself kept in the quiver?

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