WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Green Arrow #38

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The standard-setting Green Arrow Rebirth has ended in the best way possible… while taking some subtle shots at past writers. The idea of one comic writer throwing shade at a predecessor may surprise casual fans, but one can’t ignore that without key aspects of the characters being subverted, ignored, or destroyed, neither Green Arrow nor Black Canary would have needed a ‘rebirth’ in the first place. Fans of Oliver Queen can look towards a brighter future, while still lamenting Green Arrow’s darkest days - summed up in the sudden return of the assassin named Constantine Drakkon.

A villain created by writer Judd Winick as part of his opening arc on the Green Arrow comic in 2003, Constantine Drakkon was a self-taught Greek assassin who started killing people at the age of ten just to see how it felt (turned out he was good at it). Despite being repeatedly stated to not be a metahuman, Drakkon was somehow fast enough to catch arrows being shot by multiple archers simultaneously.

Where the best villains are more than just hard to kill, Drakkon easily defeated Oliver Queen every time they faced off. The only reason he didn’t bother to kill the famous vigilante was his claim that he ‘wasn’t being paid enough’ to kill costumed heroes by his current employers.

This cartoonish stretching of believability was par for the course during Winick’s tenure on Green Arrow, with Oliver and company routinely outclassed by villains who were always three steps ahead of them. What few victories Team Arrow won were all part of the villain’s larger plans, further heightening the absurdity of the story. (Oliver Queen once beat Deathstroke, only for it to be revealed that he’d thrown the fight so that he could be sent to a particular prison to gain intel.)

Winick’s run was also notorious for changing or ignoring aspects of a character’s history that were valued by fans if it conflicted with the stories he wanted to tell. The most infamous example being Oliver’s transformation into “a horndog who chases skirts and can’t stay faithful.” That makes even Bruce Wayne’s playboy ways sound respectful.

This characterization dismissed earlier writers who showed Oliver to be overprotective to the point of possessiveness when it came to “his Pretty Bird.” That classic characterization lent an aura of complexity to Oliver Queen’s character, as he tried to balance his feminist politics with his chivalric impulses towards his own girlfriend. A woman who was more than capable of fighting her own battles, as a better fighter than Oliver on any day!

This bad characterization ultimately led to Oliver suddenly sleeping with Joanna Pierce - the newly created niece of Jefferson Pierce, a.k.a. Black Lightning. This, in turn, led to a feud between Winick and Black Lighting creator Tony Isabella, who had famously established Black Lightning as an only child with no family apart from his widowed mother. It also perplexed Green Arrow and Black Canary fans when Dinah later dumped Oliver over “the affair”, since the two heroes had never been formally established as a committed couple by earlier Green Arrow writers.

DC Comics later forced a reconciliation of the two lovers with a Green Arrow/Black Canary Wedding Special, but Winick’s displeasure at being overruled was evident. Their once playful flirtations became a “relationship” defined by alternating bouts of physical combat and physical intimacy.

Insults were thrown along with punches, and would likely have rivaled Joker and Harley Quinn for DC’s most mutually abusive relationship were it not also presented in the same over-the-top fashion as the un-kill-able Constantine Drakkon.

Thankfully, Benjamin Percy’s run on Green Arrow following DC Rebirth helped to restore the classic Green Arrow/Black Canary romance. This time it was a true romance, with Dinah Lance slowly falling for the good man she found inside Oliver Queen, fighting his way to the surface. Oliver, in turn, found a true equal and willing partner who refused to stop fighting for or believing in him, even when he couldn’t do it himself.

And so, we arrive at the final pages of Green Arrow #38, Percy and Juan Ferreyra’s goodbye letter to their Rebirth run. One scene in particular, in fact, that affirms both Green Arrow’s and Black Canary’s competence as a crime-fighting duo (and their continued love and respect for each other). After a rooftop conversation in which the two reflect on their future together and conclude that “…we’ll keep fighting. Just… hopefully not each other,” the two heroes get a surprise visit from Constantine Drakon.

Ollie notes he hasn’t seen the goatee-ed, tribal tattoo-ed assassin in a while… as Dinah easily puts Drakon down for the count with a focused Canary Cry directly into his ear.

This final touch is hard to take as anything but a subtle rebuffing of the Green Arrow/Black Canary run of both Winick and Andrew Kreisberg. Kreisberg after followed Winick on the series, penning a brief run before finding fame as an executive producer of The Flash and Supergirl - a position from which he was recently fired following allegations of harassment.

Kreisberg drew heavy criticism from Black Canary fans in particular, due in part to continuing Winick’s characterization of Black Canary as a damsel in need of regular rescuing. He also portrayed her as having so little control of her powers that she accidentally deafened an innocent bystander (who went to become the villain Discord).

Worst of all, Kreisberg revamped the histories of both Black Canaries, forcing Dinah Drake into early retirement to become a housewife (she had originally run her own business while continuing to be a vigilante). Rather than following in her mother’s footsteps, Dinah Lance now grew up ignorant of her mother’s past as Black Canary and a member of the Justice Society, and Dinah’s many superhero ‘uncles’ along with it!

While the classic mother/daughter legacy of Black Canary has yet to be restored by DC Rebirth, hopes are high that a reunion could be in the future as part of DC teasing the JSA’s return. Even so the future for Green Arrow and Black Canary is looking strong in the wake of Percy’s departure from the series.

Hopefully, the new creative team will follow his example… rather than those set by his predecessors.

More: Green Arrow Comic Finally Gets Black Canary Romance Right

Green Arrow #38 is now available at comic shops everywhere and on-line at ComiXology and DC Comics.