Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Case File #147: Connor Hawke

I spoke last week about Mia Dearden, the replacement for longtime Green Arrow sidekick Speedy.

But Green Arrow himself was replaced for a period by a character named Connor Hawke who turned out to be the son of the origjnal Green Arrow.  He disappeared at some point.

Connor Hawke first appeared just after Zero Hour.  Oliver Queen, upset and depressed over putting an arrow through his best friend Hal Jordan after Hal went all Parallax and almost destroyed all time and space (Hal wasn’t killed by the arrow, but Ollie didn’t know that), retreated to a Buddhist monastery to stay for a while and meditate.  While there he met a young monk named Connor Hawke who was a big fan of the Green Arrow.  When Ollie later hit the road, Connor came along and even took to wearing a similar costume to his longtime hero.  Eventually it came out that Connor was Ollie’s son by a college girlfriend that Ollie apparently didn’t know about.

Apparently, Connor and associate Eddie Fyers were aware of Connor’s birthright the whole time and said nothing.

Let’s face it:  Oliver Queen is hardly father of the year material.

And then he died in an explosion.

That meant that Connor would become the new Green Arrow.  In terms of approach, Connor was as far removed from Ollie as he could get.  The bellicose, belligerent Oliver Queen was a stark contrast to the quiet, serene former Buddhist monk.  Heck, Connor wasn’t even much of a ladies man like his father either, leading to some fan speculation he might have been gay (he wasn’t).  He did have some things in common with Ollie.  Writer Grant Morrison would put him on the JLA for a brief period, taking out the longtime League foe the Key with the “ridiculous” boxing glove arrow at the best moment to do so.  He’d also become good friends with Kyle Rayner, the Green Lantern who succeeded Hal Jordan.

Then Oliver came back from the dead (it happens) and took back his superhero name, though Connor had already returned to his monastery by then.  Connor did also return and was a secondary Green Arrow, assisting his father and Mia and generally being a contrast to his dad.

Connor himself actually died and came back, but initially he came back a bit off with no memory of his past life as well as no archery skills.  As it is, Connor was always described as a natural martial artist, so he did alright with his fists even without a bow.  At some point just before the New 52, Connor regained his memories but found himself unable to forgive Ollie for years of shoddy treatment anymore.

And that was that apparently.  When the New 52 rolled around, Ollie became a young man, much too young to have an adult son.  Connor did reappear after a fashion as the heroic Red Arrow on Earth-2.  Then he got killed.

Someone keeps killing Green Arrows.

Oh well, at least he appeared, after a fashion, in the Arrowverse TV show Legends of Tomorrow as the successor the Green Arrow in a dystopian future.