Green Arrow: Year One

Plot summary

Oliver Queen is a frivolous playboy and a thrill-seeker. After yet another drunken party, he decided to embark on a sea voyage only to be betrayed by his only friend and trusted bodyguard Hackett. He then found himself marooned on a deserted jungle island.

Oliver survived his new unforgiving environment with nothing more than a makeshift bow and arrows gradually realizing that he is a natural-born bowman. Being stranded on the island for months taught him to treasure the simple things he had squandered, and for the first time in his life, he felt really happy.

Things took a turn for the worse when he learned that the island was not as deserted as he thought. A woman whom he called China White had enslaved the island's inhabitants and forced them to grow opium and manufacture heroin. After a tussle with Hackett, who turned out to be her business associate, Oliver was seriously wounded. Taiana, one of the natives of the island, saved him from certain death.

Her selfless act of kindness opened Oliver's eyes to the guilt he had been carrying his entire life: the guilt of stepping over the underprivileged on his way to the top. To repay the debt he owed Taiana, he made it his life's calling to fight for the rights of the downtrodden. He then freed the slaves by taking down China White's organization armed only with Howard Hill's bow (which the earlier party had an auction for) and a dozen arrows.

When the authorities arrived, Oliver downplayed the whole scenario. He sacrificed the credit of busting a drug ring in order to protect the lives of Taiana's people. Believing that it's not his style to bask in the limelight anymore, he chose to live a double-life as a brash socialite by day and by night, someone he never dreamed he would be, a hero. Upon his return to Star City, he crafted a costume and took the name Taiana gave him: Green Arrow.

Collected editions

Green Arrow: Year One was first collected in hardcover in 2008 (ISBN 9781401216870) and later as a trade paperback (ISBN 9781401217433) in 2009.

In other media

This limited series served as an inspiration for the regular flashback sequences of the live-action TV show, titled Arrow, with the flashbacks in every episode for the first 5 seasons showing the 5 years after Oliver was shipwrecked on an island, based on the comic book. Also, one of the main characters John Diggle (who was created especially for the show and is played by actor David Ramsey) was named after Andy Diggle, the author of the comic book series, as is John's brother Andy. Moreover, the character of China White, whose first appearance is in this limited series, appears in the television series (where she's portrayed by actress Kelly Hu). While she was only a minor villain leading the Chinese Triad in present day during the first two seasons, season three saw her introduced as a main villain in the flashbacks, a direct homage to her role in Year One. Season four also introduced Taiana in a role similar to that in the comic.

In the first season's flashbacks, Oliver is stranded on the island after his yacht is bombed by Merlyn. There he is trained in archery by Shado and meets Slade Wilson, who was stranded on the island too while executing a government operation. The trio take down a mercenary group that was on the island to murder China White.

In season two, the three of them encounter Professor Ivo and the Amazo, who come to the island looking for an experimental serum from World War 2-era Japan. Slade is mortally wounded and Oliver gives him the serum to save his life, which works. However, Ivo messes with his mind, leading him to use his enhanced abilities to kill Ivo and his men, destroy the Amazo, and attempt to kill Oliver, but the latter traps Slade aboard Ivo's sinking ship with an arrow through his eye. This leads to Oliver being found by A.R.G.U.S..

In season three, Oliver is shipped to Hong Kong with a promise from Amanda Waller to be returned to his family in America if he succeeds in taking down China White and her plan to obtain and sell a bioweapon of mass destruction. He succeeds with Katana's help, but the virus falls into the villainous Lieutenant General Shrieve and he uses it to decimate Hong Kong's population. Oliver violently kills Shrieve in retaliation, leading him to realize what he has become during the three years that passed since his shipwreck, and he no longer wishes to go home for he thinks himself a monster.

In season four, Oliver wears a hood and uses his archery skills to fight crime in Coast City, but Amanda Waller recruits him again for a mission back to the island since she knows of his familiarity with it and his fighting skills. He meets Taiana, who is one of many slaves to Baron Reiter's Shadowspire drug operations on the island Oliver was stranded on, to which Oliver returns to cripple from the inside on behalf of Waller. Taiana and Oliver form a bond after he saves her from the criminals. After Taiana and the Baron are killed, and the drug operation on the island is dismantled, Oliver feels he owes her a debt to put down the crime lord in Russia who ruined her and her family's life before she came to the island, and he has A.R.G.U.S. leave him in Russia to fulfill this debt.

In season five, Oliver decides that to take down Kovar, he will need an army, so he joins the Bratva to climb in ranks till he has enough men and power to take down Kovar. After being initiated into the Bratva by his old friend and high ranking Bratva member Anatoly Knyazev, Oliver passes several tests and earns respect from fellow members of the gang. After being set up by distrusting Bratva members who are allied with Kovar, he encounters and battles Kovar in person, only to be soundly defeated. After suffering extreme torture at the hands of Kovar's men in the Bratva, he is suddenly rescued by Talia al Ghul, who reveals she has been investigating him ever since he was shipwrecked on the island because of his abilities, experience, and because the father of Shado, who taught Oliver archery on the island, was a student of Talia's. She was able to train a man so old despite appearing so young because of her father's Lazarus Pit. She agrees to aid Oliver in his war against Kovar, and they fight Kovar's suppliers side by side.