This is "How Can I Explain?", which is a feature spotlighting inexplicable comic book plots.

Today, we look at how the central plot of the Green Arrow storyline, "The Archer's Quest," was based on something that didn't even really exist.

In 1988, hot off the acclaimed prestige format miniseries, The Longbow Hunters, Mike Grell launched a Green Arrow ongoing series. It starred Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance after they moved to Seattle. Grell famously eschewed the typical trappings of superhero comics. For instance, while the book was CALLED Green Arrow, the character was never referred to as such within the actual comic book stories. When his super-powered friends stopped by, they came in their civilian identities.

When the book started, Oliver still at least wore a mask (here he is in Green Arrow #1 by Grell, Ed Hannigan and Dick Giordano)...

However, by Green Arrow #10 (by Grell, Dan Jurgens and Dick Giordano), the mask was gone (it was gone before that, but I liked this page a lot so I went with it)...

Then things got even more crazy, though, when Oliver goes along with a scheme that his friend, Eddie Fyers, came up with to take down a drug dealer who was operating in Seattle.

Oliver ended up being framed as a terrorist by Fyers and arrested by the FBI...

The next issue (art by Mark Jones and Bill Wray), Oliver's identity is all over the newspapers...

Even more so when he escapes from custody...

Okay, so that continued until Green Arrow #80, at which point Grell left the series. Chuck Dixon eventually took over the book and in Green Arrow #100, he killed off Oliver Queen and replaced him with Connor Hawke, Oliver's son (who worked with Eddie Fyers, who had wormed his way back into Oliver's good graces following that whole "Framed him for terrorism" incident...

Obviously, as these things are wont to happen, Oliver Queen comes back to life in the best-selling opening storyline of as brand-new Green Arrow series by Kevin Smith, Phil Hester and Ande Parks.

In the fifth issue, Batman dipped his head into the series to figure out whether this was the REAL Oliver Queen or not and did a bunch of experiments on Oliver. Along with the experiments, he also had to deal with the fact that Ollie did not seem to want to believe that he HAD died. Ultimately, Batman had to confront him with his obituary from the Daily Planet...

So Oliver Queen got to see that he died a hero (even though his first reaction to the newspaper is that Batman was trying to mess with him with a fake newspaper).

Eventually, he came to terms with the fact that Hal Jordan (as Parallax) did bring him back to life right before Hal (as Parallax) sacrificed his own life to restart the sun during Final Night.

Okay, so that is where we are with Oliver and his secret identity, but then that leads into "Archer's Quest," the story arc that followed the departure of Kevin Smith from Green Arrow...

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In Green Arrow #16 (by Brad Meltzer, Phil Hester and Ande Parks), Oliver asks Superman for photos of his funeral. Superman complies (Perry White purchased the paparazzi photos to keep them away from publication) and Oliver sees someone at his funeral that he doesn't recognize. It turns out to be Thomas Blake, Catman. Oliver and Roy Harper, Arsenal, hunt down Catman for answers and find out that Catman was working for Shade, who it turns out that Oliver hired to help protect his secret identity if Oliver died. Oliver explains that after Hal died, he contacted the Shade for help covering up anything that could jeopardize his secret identity and, therefore, the secret identities of his friends and family...

I don't think you need my help to explain why this particular identity crisis was, well, not a crisis at all. His identity was ALREADY public knowledge, so how would protecting it AFTER he died do any good?

I suppose the idea is that Meltzer is introducing a retcon, but it is pretty weird to retcon the fifth issue of a series that you are taking over in issue #16.

If anyone has a similar inexplicable comic book plot (it can be any comic book plot that did not have a good explanation for it, like the X-Men never letting anyone know that they were alive after surviving the explosion of Magneto's Antarctic base despite multiple opportunities to do so), then drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!