Oliver Queen died confronting a power-hungry Superman in the legitimately great Injustice comics, which were a prequel to the 2013 game Injustice: Gods Among Us from NetherRealm Studios. In the forthcoming Injustice 2, which sees the return of Superman’s Regime, a new Green Arrow steps up to take the deceased archer’s place. But this “new” Green Arrow isn’t a stranger: He comes straight from the epilogue of Tom Taylor’s Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Two #24.
In the new trailers for Injustice 2, Firestorm fights a smarmy Oliver Queen, aka Green Arrow, who also appears by Batman’s side with his wife, Dinah Lance, aka Black Canary. True to their socialist attitudes, they’re not down with the Regime and team up with Batman and the Insurgency to make sure Supes stays down.
But Injustice fans know that this can’t really be the original Green Arrow. In Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year One #33, the original Green Arrow confronted Superman head-on while he sneakily shot out an arrow to Batman containing a secret weapon: a Kryptonian pill that gives users strength equal to Superman, which Batman uses to make duplicates. But the Green Arrow is left to the mercy of Superman, who brutally beats him. His last thoughts were of his true love, Black Canary.
Green Arrow dies at the literal hands of Superman in the prequel comic 'Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year One.'
Fast forward to Year Two #24, Doctor Fate intervenes from Black Canary’s death by Superman and tries to restore some happiness throughout the DC Universes. Against orders, Fate heals Canary and takes her and her son, Connor Lance-Queen, to another Earth where Oliver Queen is still alive but has lost his Dinah. Though they hadn’t “met,” their ambiguous ending is implied that they pick up where their other selves left off.
Based on their appearance together in Injustice 2, things went smoothly. On the game’s official website, as well as the game’s writer Shawn Kittelson on Twitter, the new Green Arrow in Injustice 2 is the same parallel Earth Oliver Queen who appeared at the end of Year Two #24.
Still, based on the trailers, it looks as if nothing has really changed: Green Arrow is still a wiseass with a goatee, just as fans want him to be.
Injustice 2 will be released May 16.
