Every week, we will be examining comic book stories, plots and ideas that were abandoned by a later writer while still acknowledging that the abandoned story DID still happen. Click here for an archive of all the previous editions of Abandoned Love. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

This week, we take a look at how Jeff Lemire's dramatic first issue of the New 52 Green Arrow, as he uses a bit of a scorched earth approach to abandon the previous set-up for the series.

The set-up for the New 52 Green Arrow was established pretty easily in the first few pages of Green Arrow #1, by JT Krul, Dan Jurgens and George Perez.

You had Queen Industries' CEO, Emerson, who is clashing with young Oliver Queen, who is in charge of a subsidiary of Queen Industries, the technology company known as Q-Core....



And Oliver Queen, of course, is Green Arrow...



Later, we pursue the conflict between Ollie and Emerson....



as well as spend some more time with two characters we met earlier in the issue, Green Arrow's two assistants, Naomi, his version of Oracle...



and Jax, who makes him his weapons...



So that's the set-up of the title. Oliver Queen owns Queen Industries, but his father put Emerson in charge until Oliver was ready to handle the company. In the meantime, Emerson gives Oliver Q-Core and Ollie uses the technology from Q-Core to help him fight crime as Green Arrow, joined by his two assistants. When Ann Nocenti took over, the book shifted focus a bit and Ollie's riches and his vast arsenal were slowly but surely de-emphasized in Nocenti's final issues.

However, with the most recent issue, Jeff Lemire took over as writer (with Andrea Sorrentino as artist) and he quickly dropped all of the original set-up.

First, Queen Industries is sold and as Ollie confronts Emerson about it...







So now Emerson and Queen Industries are out of the picture, as is Oliver Queen's safe secret identity as famous millionaire (billionaire?) Oliver Queen.

But Ollie still has Q-Core and Naomi and Jax, right?

Well...





Bam. In just a few pages, Lemire wiped out the entire status quo of the title and pretty much the whole supporting cast.

The end of the issue has Lemire set up a story involving a couple of mysterious figures (including the archer who killed Emerson) and the island that Ollie was stranded on years ago where he first became the Green Arrow, but whatever Lemire has planned for the future is another story, we're just here to show how he abandoned the previous stories. And he certainly did so with some gusto!

If YOU have a suggestion for an abruptly dropped storyline, e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com