June 1942: Batman with a Bow

I wonder if Batman ever thought of installing a people-catapult in the Batmobile?

Borrowing an idea from the Green Arrow would only have been fair, since the Emerald Archer lifted so many from him.

“Except for the archery motif, the ‘Green Arrow and Speedy’ series sounds like a direct swipe of Batman and Robin,” noted comics historian Don Markstein.

The Green Archer — a 1923 Edgar Wallace novel that became a movie serial in 1925 and again in 1940 — was also an obvious influence. 

“In that Columbia Pictures chapter play, the title character ‘mysteriously appears with his deadly bows and arrows whenever needed,’” noted author Ron Goulart.

“Green Arrow was created, if that’s not too strong a word, by Mort Weisinger, editor of DC’s More Fun Comics, who introduced the crime-fighting archer in the 73rd issue of that title (Nov. 1941) — the same one that first featured Aquaman. George Papp illustrated that initial outing, and remained the character’s principal artist for many years,” Markstein said.

“Green Arrow was never as strong a character as the one he was modeled after. Whereas Batman appears intensely motivated — driven, even — Oliver Queen, the man who masqueraded as Green Arrow (Roy Harper, his ward, was Speedy), seemed merely to dabble in crimefighting. Still, Green Arrow was a modest success. Six months after his introduction, he ousted Dr. Fate from the cover of More Fun, and held it, with a few exceptions, until 1946, when he lost that spot to a humorous pair of identical twin detectives, Henry Boltinoff's Dover & Clover.”

Instead of a Batmobile, this then-brown-haired Green Arrow got about in an “Arrowplane” (which, despite the name, functioned as a car).

“Although Weisinger was on record as having said he ‘wasn’t remotely influenced by Batman’ when thinking up the Green Arrow and his boy sidekick Speedy, the feature itself actually looked and sounded like Batman and Robin in Robin Hood costumes, right down to the archery team’s car,” Goulart wrote.