This is what Green Arrow looks like in the comics:
The first time he appeared in live-action, this is what he looked like:
While Justin Hartley played a pretty close portrayal to his source material, people didn’t start paying attention until this happened:
While there were those who complained that he was basically Batman with a hood, Arrow received enough success, that it produced a spin-off. And then a spin-off was created from that spin-off.
Who is this Green Arrow, anyway, that people say Stephen Amell’s portrayal is far from? The DC Comics Encyclopedia says, “While on a South Sea cruise, playboy billionaire Oliver Queen was knocked overboard and washed up on Starfish Island. He fashioned a crude bow and arrow and lived like Robinson Crusoe until he was rescued. A short time later he was rescued and was back on the social scene in his hometown, Star City. Donning a Robin Hood costume for a party, Queen foiled a robbery during the event, gaining the nickname Green Arrow. Resolving to become a crime fighter, he soon experienced firsthand the diseased underbelly of society he had only previously read about.”
- Billionaire playboy? Check
- Shipwrecked on an island? Check
- Learning of the “diseased underbelly of society?” Check
So, what’s missing? Oh yeah, that’s right – the look. The standard Green Arrow look is a goatee with a handlebar mustache, otherwise known as the Van Dyke, and a Robin Hood-style hat, otherwise known as a bycocket. The “Arrow” of Arrow has some stubble, and a hood. The Oliver Queen of the comics was obsessed with Robin Hood, and Erroll Flynn, the actor who played the fabled character in 1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood. While the standard Robin Hood look wears the bycocket and a feather, Robin of Loxley also wears a hood. And while the Green Arrow of the comics wears the bycocket and feather more often than not, the hood did not originate from the show.
So there’s this picture that Amell posted on his Facebook. In such, he sports the goatee that Green Arrow is known for, instead of the stubble that Amell is known for. The caption reads “’I’ll never grow the Green Arrow goatee.’ – Stephen Amell. ‘Please remember that I’m an idiot.’ – Stephen Amell.” And like people on the internet usually do, they’re going crazy – over facial hair.
Does this mean that Amell’s character (that went from “the vigilante,” to “the hooded guy,” to “The Hood,” to “The Arrow,” to finally, Green Arrow) will eventually look like that standard Green Arrow from the comics? Although it’s just a simple Facebook pic, Amell has been known to tease with his social media.
While he hasn’t ditched the hood for the bycocket, his special-guest-appearance on Legends of Tomorrow episode “Star City 2045,” where the time-traveling team arrived to the place the title implied, was the closest to his source material yet. More specifically, his appearance was close to his look from Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, where a dystopian future took one of his arms.
As Arrow has transitioned into the more optimistic Green Arrow, people now complain that the quality of the show has declined. But, like I said, they also complained that he was too much like Batman in the initial seasons. Sigh, you just can’t please everyone. Any case, now that we see how he turns out in 2045, lets see how he’ll progress into that. Hopefully, he will resemble that standard Green Arrow look from the comics a little closer: with the bycocket, and the feather, and the Van Dyke facial hair.
Source: Stephen Amell on Facebook