The latter half of Arrow saw former spoiled billionaire Oliver Queen serve as both Green Arrow and the mayor of his hometown, Star City. Juggling his roles as a public servant and vigilante was an increasingly difficult task, and it was also one which had its roots in the comics. Since Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams' acclaimed run on Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Qieem had waxed and waned on entering public office several times.
However, these ideas came to fruition during "One Year Later," the time-jump immediately after Infinite Crisis, where the voice of the streets finally became the man in City Hall in a story that would later be echoed in the Arrowverse. Now, we're taking a look back at how the Emerald Archer served his city in comics, as well as how it all came crashing down.
Right before Oliver Queen became mayor Star City, Merlyn, and Doctor Light set off a series of bombs that leveled Star City, leaving most of the city a derelict heap in a story that would later be adapted for the Season 1 finale of Arrow. The fallout from this event -- including Oliver's own grievous injuries -- had him relocate along with Connor Hawke and Mia Dearden to the Marshall Islands.
There, they trained for months to become better prepared to defend what was left of their city, with the once bow-reliant Oliver now tutored by Deathstroke's former teacher Natas. Oliver would also maintain contact with Frederick Tuckman, a political adviser who informed him of Star City's worsening status. This prompted Ollie to save his city in a whole new way by running for elected office.
Starting with Judd Winick and Scott McDaniel's Green Arrow #60, Oliver Queen served as Star City's newly elected mayor. Queen was devoted to revitalizing the city to some semblance of its former self, but not in ways that ingratiated him in the company of the many corporate vultures that attempt to feast off of Star City's carcass. Many of his actions were incredibly controversial at the time, such as his using legal loopholes to perform same-sex marriages. While this in particular seemed to mostly be a political statement on the part of Oliver's views, it was also an attempt to boost the city's economy and tourism industry. On the other hand, Oliver refused to allow the corporate fat cats behind the Willowbeigh Project to turn Star City into a wasteland of casinos and tourist traps.
Though he publicly condemned his own secret actions as Green Arrow, Mayor Queen would use the resources of the local SWAT team to assist him on his nightly adventures. During his tenure as mayor, Oliver had again become independently wealthy through stock manipulation. He would use some of this money to back the team known as the Outsiders, which would soon come back to bite him. This was all in an attempt to help his former sidekick and ward Roy Harper to be able to stabilize the team in the hopes that Roy would then leave to join the Justice League. He also gained a political rival in the form of Brian Nudocerdo, who wished to wrestle control of Star City from Oliver Queen. To this end, he teamed up with villains Deathstroke and Constantine Drakon.
Nudocerdo revealed to the public that Mayor Queen had been backing the Outsiders -- which, given the team's extralegal activities -- put a gigantic target on Oliver. Nudocerdo requested a recall election and entered himself as Queen's potential replacement. Oliver didn't have any defense against these charges, and he wasn't overwhelmingly popular among the majority of the citizenry. Faced with an uphill battle, Oliver chose to resign from his post, though he chose to give his position to someone he trusted that would also help take over the social programs that he had introduced.
Oliver's tenure as mayor wouldn't amount to much in terms of remembrance in his city, though it did come back in tragic irony after Justice League: Cry for Justice. There, arrested for his cold-blooded murder of Prometheus, Queen was publicly unmasked by Nudocerdo. Officially exiled from the city which he once protected on two fronts, the man who once ran City Hall was quite literally made the voice of the streets.