With "Green Arrow: Rebirth" #1 and this week's "Green Arrow" #1, we at last see Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance (Black Canary) get together in current DC Comics continuity, a pairing that was spotlighted in "DC Universe: Rebirth" #1 as one of the "loves" that was erased. As DC is placing such importance on their relationship, we thought it was a good idea to see what was so special about the Green Arrow/Black Canary romance.

The two heroes initially encountered each other in 1963's "Justice League of America" #21, the legendary first meeting between the Justice League (made up mostly of DC's then-new Silver Age characters) and the Justice Society of America (featuring DC's Golden Age heroes). They didn't share a scene, however, until 1969's "Justice League of America" #74, when the JLA and the JSA were forced to fight each other, and Green Arrow was matched up with Black Canary. He took care of her with a trick arrow filled with a sticky substance that trapped her. Canary's husband, Larry Lance, knocked Arrow out cold. However, as Canary was about to be killed by a villain, Larry sacrificed himself to save his wife. With her husband now dead, Dinah decided to move to Earth-1 and joined the Justice League.

Meanwhile, in the pages of "The Brave and the Bold" #85, artist Neal Adams dramatically redesigned Green Arrow's costume.Inspired by the new look, writer O'Neil used "Justice League of America" #75 (art by Dick Dillin and Joe Giella) to strip the hero of his wealth and give him a newly defined personality. One of the reasons DC hired O'Neil from Marvel Comics was to add some of Marvel's famed characterization to its heroes; Green Arrow was one of the first characters given that treatment. O'Neil pointedly ended the issue with Green Arrow and Black Canary spending time together, and they were frequently spotlighted during the writer's run.

In "Justice League of America" #78, we first see Green Arrow express an interest in taking their friendship to another level. When Canary is in danger in the following issue, Arrow expresses his love for her, which he reiterates once everyone is safe. However, Canary is still torn up over the loss of her husband, so she cannot yet reciprocate. But by Issue 80, Canary seems more comfortable with Arrow's romantic overtures.

It was at that point O'Neil and Adams moved Green Arrow to Green Lantern's title for the fame "Hard Traveling Heroes" era, where the two heroes crossed the country with one of the Guardians in an attempt to get in touch with the American people. In "Justice League of America" #81, Canary suddenly realizes she misses Green Arrow, who was no longer a full-time member. Amusingly enough, the Green Arrow/Black Canary relationship finally culminated in a flashback: In "Green Lantern/Green Arrow" #78, Oliver and Hal discover that Dinah has been brainwashed into joining a cult. Oliver kisses her, hoping to jog her memory, which it does, but the flashback includes events readers hadn't previously seen, namely that Dinah and Oliver had finally gotten together as a couple!

They remained together for the rest of the O'Neil/Adams "Hard Traveling Heroes" run, including a notable sequence in "Green Lantern/Green Arrow" #86 where Canary helped Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy deal with his drug addiction. Following the conclusion of the Green Lantern/Green Arrow team-ups, Ollie received his own back-up series in "Action Comics" (he rotated with a few other superheroes) written by Elliot S! Maggin. In "Action Comics" #428, Ollie (who was then working in public relations) lands a celebrity endorsement for one of his clients, Black Canary! However, when he realizes the publicity stunt is about to turn deadly, Green Arrow steps in and saves Canary from an explosive fate. She confronts him about how chauvinistic it was to think she required saving, and reveals for the first time that she's in love with him. The Green Arrow feature ran from 1972 until 1976.

In 1977, the heroes each received a feature "World's Finest Comics," initially written by Gerry Conway, which together into one story, as in Issue 245, where Dinah decides to get a new job. Over time, as space became more limited, the feature became a shared one. It ultimately came to a close in 1982, by which time Mike W. Barr had taken over as writer. Green Arrow then got a back-up feature in "Detective Comics" written by Joey Cavalieri, but Black Canary was no longer featured. She and Green Arrow still appeared together in the pages of "Justice League of America," however (Green Arrow briefly quit, but returned in Issue 200). Eventually, though, in "Justice League of America Annual" #2, Green Arrow and Black Canary were part of a large contingent of Justice League members who quit when they realized they couldn't devote the time Aquaman required of the team. Dinah then began to show up in Green Arrow's "Detective Comics" feature, and stepped out of her mother's shadow (it had been revealed Dinah had succeeded her mother as Black Canary) and got a very 1980s costume in Issue 554.

After the "Detective Comics" feature ended in 1986 (roughly around the time that "Crisis on Infinite Earths" concluded), we saw two very different sides of Dinah in two different comic books. In "Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters," writer/artist Mike Grell moved Oliver and Dinah move from Star City to Seattle, where Oliver was going through a sort of mid-life crisis. He asked Dinah to marry him, explaining that he wanted to have a family with her. She turned him down and explained that she didn't want to bring kids into their world. [arrowcanary19.jpg, arrowcanary20.jpg, arrowcanary21.jpg] They remained a couple, however. During the second issue, Dinah was abducted and tortured while investigating some missing-person cases, which led Green Arrow to kill her captors. Meanwhile, Dinah also appeared wearing her '80s costume in the newly launched "Justice League International.

"Longbow Hunters" led to an ongoing "Green Arrow" series, where Dinah's conventional outfits clashed dramatically with her superhero costume in the Justice League (in "Green Arrow," the two almost never referred to each other by their superhero names, and Dinah never used her sonic cry, which she might have lost due to the torture). Eventually, she left the Justice League, but remained a supporting character in "Green Arrow." But soon after Black Canary landed her own series in 1993, she thought she saw Oliver cheating on her at a costume party with a younger woman (he wasn't), and left him in "Green Arrow" #75. Before they could reunite, however, Oliver was killed in "Green Arrow" #100.

Black Canary teamed up with Oracle for Birds of Prey, and also joined the newly reformed Justice Society of America (and dated Doctor Mid-Nite). But then, in 2001, Oliver Queen was brought back to life by his old friend Hal Jordan, who was at the time the powerful being known as Parallax. In "Green Arrow" #6 (by Kevin Smith, Phil Hester and Ande Parks), Oliver and Dinah reunited. Death healed a lot of old wounds, and the two were more or less a couple again, although with Dinah's busy schedule, they didn't spend as much time together. During some of that time apart, Oliver cheated on Dinah, and then felt so guilty that he pulled away from her, eventually leading to a breakup in "Green Arrow" #40.

They got back together in the final issue of that volume of "Green Arrow," as Oliver proposed marriage again, and this time Dinah said yes. They were married in 2007's "Green Arrow and Black Canary Wedding Special" #1. OK, technically Oliver was being impersonated by a shapeshifter named Everyman, and it looked as if Dinah actually killed Oliver after he attacked her on their wedding night. However, Dinah soon rescued the real Oliver and they got officially married.

For the first time ever, they starred in a shared ongoing series, "Green Arrow/Black Canary," but then tragedy struck: The supervillain Prometheus attacked Star City with a teleportation device, killing many people, including Speedy's daughter Lian Harper. Oliver couldn't handle the loss, so he hunted down and killed all of those who were responsible for the attack, including Prometheus. He went on trial for his actions but was found not guilty. Dinah, however, couldn't live with his actions, and she ended their marriage while Oliver was still in jail awaiting trial.

That was their status quo at the time DC launched the New 52, where Green Arrow and Black Canary had entirely different origins and were no longer Justice League teammates. In fact, beyond a brief team-up early in his ongoing series, the pair didn't interact at all until "DC Universe: Rebirth." So it's a rebirth of their love as well.