Green/Red Arrow and only bow and arrows as weapons

[tfresca]

I liked Roy better as Arsenal and Ollie better with a sword. I mean maybe this worked better in the 60s but I have a hard time suspending disbelief enough that a bow and arrow, even trick arrows, would be adequate enough to take out high level bad guys. It made much more sense for Roy to be more like a Bullseye type guy and for Ollie to have a good close quarters weapon. As an aside I really dislike how Roy's been treated since the version of Outsiders with him init disbanded. He went from having a solid role in a team book to just being a background player.

[titanfan]

Well, Ollie and Roy don't tackle A-List villains by themselves...if they take down someone big, usually they have help. Even in Ollie's own book, the toughest villain he solo'd was Deathstroke, and it turned out that Deathstroke kinda let him win.

I did like the moo goo gai pan thing that Devin Grayson added to Roy in Titans was a good idea--that he could turn almost anything into a weapon. It made Arsenal different than the standard Arrow wielder...

[ScottyQuick]

Yeah, I really dislike what Meltzer did to Roy. His change from Arsenal-to-Red-Arrow was completely unnatural and unwarranted, and all about him slipping back into his mentor's shadow, something Roy has been striving to never do.

[Den]

I like superhero archers myself. If you're going to believe that martial artists in colorful costumes can take on whole groups of gun men regularly and win almost every time, the idea of a guy with trick arrows taking out tanks is pretty easy to roll with, at least for me.

But I suppose everyone's suspension of disbelief level varies

[superchick]

I just consider it part of ollie's humour.

[Captain Smith]

Yeah, arrows are always a problem. In the Nail elseworlds, GA got stomped badly as being in the wrong place with a boxing glove arrow.

In the real world, a guy saw his car being stolen. He went outside with his hunting bow and got shot dead. A nut decided to go to his ex's office with his bow. Some folks who had guns in the office shot him too.

If you watch the Outdoorsy Channel and watch their skilled bowmen, you realize that a bow superhero is not viable against most supervillians.

But then you can see Hawkeye or GA nail a cosmic as they manage to shoot an arrow up their magically weak ....

[Vic Vega]

Yeah but in the real world fists don't do so well against guns either.

The Grell Green Arrow series made it seem more plausible as his crimefighting techiniques consisted of shooting at muggers from the rooftops.

I don't mind heroic archers adding thrown weapons (like knives and throwing stars) to thier arsenals as backups.

Roy at least has an in story reason to not use guns anymore.

He doesn't want his daughter seeing him gunning people down.

[Slaughter]

He doesn't want his daughter seeing him gunning people down.

Well, just use a taser then. And there's nothing wrong with plastic bullets. I would't mind them using more diverse weapons. Tasers, crossbows, stun prods, throwing knifes, etcetera.

Me, I subscribe to the theory that Ollie is actually a meta-human who likes to show-off.

[Bodhi M.]

Superhero archers make perfect sense. Guns are loud, uncontrollably deadly, can't shoot if wet, and give only limited options. With a bow, you can strike quietly without sacrificing ability (as a silencer will do to a gun), you have numerous options, especially when you add in a whole arsenal of "trick" arrows, and its far easier to wound someone with a bow than with a gun. Plus, as someone has mentioned already, the image of a gun is usually not a good one, unless its some kind of ray-gun like the one Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) used to use.

Then there is the naming. Green Gun just doesn't sound very good, or menacing to criminals.

[Den]

Originally Posted by Bodhi M.

Superhero archers make perfect sense. Guns are loud, uncontrollably deadly, can't shoot if wet, and give only limited options. With a bow, you can strike quietly without sacrificing ability (as a silencer will do to a gun), you have numerous options, especially when you add in a whole arsenal of "trick" arrows, and its far easier to wound someone with a bow than with a gun. Plus, as someone has mentioned already, the image of a gun is usually not a good one, unless its some kind of ray-gun like the one Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) used to use.

Then there is the naming. Green Gun just doesn't sound very good, or menacing to criminals.

Yeah, and "I will put a cap in your ass"-Man is too big to fit on the cover :)

[Slaughter]

unless its some kind of ray-gun like the one Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) used to use.

Oh man, don't even start. That's the worst gun ever. Seriously, could't Ted get himself a real weapon? That thing can barely knockdown a man. Can't he make something better, like a electrolaser?

[Bodhi M.]

Come on, that was a great gun. Granted, it could have been more powerful, but I think that was more lacking of the writers, especially when that Justice League became more of a joke (which I hated ). But when he first came on the scene in his own series, it was much more useful, and I think in the end it was as well.

[ScottyQuick]

Originally Posted by Slaughter

Oh man, don't even start. That's the worst gun ever. Seriously, could't Ted get himself a real weapon? That thing can barely knockdown a man. Can't he make something better, like a electrolaser?

He could, but he's so badass he didn't even want to. It's like how Wonder Woman could take bullets head on, but she's so badass that she blocks them.

[Munkiman]

Batman: The Brave and the Bold proves to us that Green Arrow is incapable of wielding a sword at close range. He can't resist the compulsion to shoot it like an arrow. :P

[Superbeast]

Having done archery myself in the past, given the time it takes to string another arrow and fire one, I'm amazed both GA and RA aren't dead.