10 Things Everyone Always Gets Wrong About Green Arrow

9. He's Always Been Afraid To Use Lethal Force

Whilst it's true that Green Arrow has always exercised a strong moral line against killing, or exercising lethal force in a flippant manner, he has been reduced to murder on more than one occasion.

During Mike Grell's run on the character, which saw a darker and more tormented take on the Emerald Archer, Oliver killed a criminal who was in the process of torturing Black Canary, and numerous others during that series were left with wounds that most would find difficult to recover from. During his escape from the clutches of China White in Year One, Oliver, perhaps unavoidably, also ends up killing some her goons. Undoubtedly the most famous casualty of Green Arrow's lethal tendencies was, however, Prometheus - who he killed in revenge for the mutilation of Roy Harper and the subsequent destruction of Star City.

Justice League: Cry for Justice was controversial for many reasons (one of them being that it was just a bad story), but Ollie's premeditated act of murder was prime among them. While the hero was potentially left without any other option in this instance (the only way to defeat Prometheus is to do the unexpected), his subsequent rampage against the villain's accomplices felt completely out of character, and a much larger departure from the ethos that had only really seen Ollie take a life in order to preserve one. Green Arrow has always been an emotionally-driven character, but the story leading up to and immediately following Prometheus' murder would be considered crass even by Arrow's standards.

Whilst not lethal per se, and indeed, the character staunchly stood against the move originally, Identity Crisis' revelation that Queen had protected Leaguers that had been mind wiping and altering the personalities of villains also crossed a line, albeit one that he himself acknowledged.