Green Arrow's 10 Greatest Failures

Death is never the end of comic characters, but it nevertheless is an impactful moment for readers, creators, and characters anytime a hero goes down fighting the good fight. For Green Arrow, however, one of his earliest deaths in the comics was less than glorious.

During the storyline "Run of the Arrow" Oliver decides to go undercover inside an eco-terrorism cell. As usual, the billionaire playboy fell in love with the leader of the group and realized too late that they designed a bacteria that eats all plastics, including the plaster used for constructing buildings.

The terrorists were set to take off in a plane towards their first target, Metropolis. A firefight ensues, wounding Oliver who placed his hand inside the trigger mechanism.

This turns out to be a huge mistake, and the world's greatest archer becomes trapped. Bleeding out and losing consciousness, Olie seems a goner until Superman burst through the door and quickly assesses the situation. It becomes quite clear that a decision needs to be made.

Either Superman cuts his arm off and saves him, or blows up the plane with the archer still inside. Both plans save the city, but Ollie felt that there was no way his arm could possibly be replaced after removal, so he chooses self-sacrifice and goes up in flames with the airplane.

His death is rather selfish overall, as he hurts those closest to him by believing his skill as an archer was more important than his life.