In every installment of “If I Pass This Way Again,” we look at odd comic book plot points that were rarely (sometimes NEVER!) mentioned again after they were first introduced.

Today, we look at how Green Arrow briefly had superpowers!

In 1995, DC Comics did "Year One" Annuals for their various series, with origin stories for their older superheroes (for characters with multiple titles, like Superman, the "Year One" stories told origin stories for certain specific aspects of the hero, like Superman's first meeting with various members of the Justice League. Since Batman already had a famous Year One, his annuals were instead devoted to his villains) and notable events in the lives of more modern heroes (like the Ray).

For "Green Arrow Annual" #7, Chuck Dixon told the origin of Green Arrow with art by Chris Renaud and Gerry Fernandez matched up against a framing sequence by Rick Burchett and Eduardo Barreto.

Here, we see Oliver Queen as a young boy and see how he was instantly a brilliant shot...

As Chuck Dixon later recalled, there was an editorial mandate that Green Arrow be a metahuman. Dixon complied.

When Oliver later is stranded on an island, he once again is an instant great shot, which presumably is his superpower - super aim!

Later, Robin explicitly refers to Conner Hawke as a metahuman in "Robin" #79 (also by Chuck Dixon - art by Pete Woods and Jesse Delperdang)....

Obviously, no one else really brought this up after that. However, when Green Arrow's origin in the Pre-Flashpoint DC Universe was last shown by Andy Diggle and Jock in "Green Arrow Year One," it also wasn't explicitly retconned, either...

I was considering counting this as either an Abandoned Love or an Abandoned an' Forsaked, but I guess it really doesn't count as either, does it? Since it was never really specifically abandoned, people just stopped referencing it on their own.

If anyone else has a suggestion for a little-remembered comic book plot point, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com and maybe I'll feature it in a future installment of If I Pass This Way Again!

Sorry for the late post tonight - we had some server issues on the back end that made it hard to get this posted earlier.