10 Comic Book Characters You Wish You Could Be

9. Green Arrow

The first entry in this article to acknowledge the power of the relatively recent superhero boom in film and television, billionaire playboy archer Green Arrow wouldn’t have come within arrowshot of a list like this five years ago.

But this is what happens when a comic book character is suddenly portrayed in a different light. In a way, it’s no different than when Frank Miller took over writing Daredevil, transforming a second-tier, poorly selling superhero title into something vital and audacious. The CW’s show Arrow - now heading towards a sixth season - has fundamentally altered the way in which the the hero is thought of by a wider audience, for good or ill, and lead actor Stephen Amell has been a big part of that, with his portrayal of The Arrow, later the Green Arrow, as a scarred, troubled but ultimately noble urban ninja, Batman with a bow.

It helps that Amell’s easy on the eye, obviously - this is a CW show, after all. But more than that, the actor’s sheer charisma and physicality, coupled with the display of movie-quality fight choreography, has set the show streets (hell, whole neighbourhoods) ahead of lightweight television like Smallville, which was the nearest point of comparison at the time of Arrow’s debut.

Thanks to Arrow, Oliver Queen has become someone else… something else. He isn’t just some Justice League also-ran anymore, a man dressed as Robin Hood with boxing gloves on the tips of his arrows. In 2017, the Green Arrow is sexy, hard as nails, brooding and dangerous.