Oliver Queen's early life would have two major influences. First, he was the only known son of a wealthy businessman, and for his entire youth, he was groomed to take over from his father one day. He was taught to dress, to behave, to be a natural in the jet set society. In short, he was made into a playboy, and one of those 'most eligible bachelors'. The second important thing during his formative years -- and one that would become very important indeed in his later life -- was his idolization of Robin Hood. His idolization was such that one Christmas, his father got him an archery set -- a real one, not one with suction cup arrows. Shortly thereafter, Oliver would use this archery set to accidentally kill a rabbit. This would teach him a very severe lesson that he would remember for decades to come, and which would always make him take death and killing extremely seriously.

During his early teens, Oliver was orphaned as his parents perished during a stampede on an African safari. Oliver's uncle would become his legal guardian, but would ship Oliver off to various prep schools. With little adult supervision, Oliver played the fast and loose life of an up-and-coming playboy. He took the family Porsches out for a spin, to cruise for chicks, and wasted his time in all kinds of shallow pursuits that teenagers -- especially rich ones -- are known for. He also wasted money on his Robin Hood idolization, by hiring the world-famous stuntman and bow hunter Howard Hill to teach him private archery lessons. It wasn't until his twenties that he started developing some mature aspects to himself.

These mature aspects would turn out to be his involvement in political activism. During his time as a student at Hudson University, Oliver started to participate in various kinds of demonstrations and rallies. He developed very liberal and anti-estabilishmentarian views, and radical extremist groups would frequently try to recruit him, to gain access to his fortune. Oliver refused these extremist pursuits every time, already showing a very solid moral core and an understanding of right and wrong. Also during his time at Hudson University, Oliver would meet a woman named Sandra "Moonday" Hawke, with whom he would conceive a child. This child would grow up to become Connor Hawke, Green Arrow II, but Oliver would not meet him, or be aware of him, for years to come.

After finishing his BA in Business Administration at Hudson, Oliver moved back to Star City where he worked on his Master's Thesis. At the same time, he would start taking over Queen Enterprises from the board that had been running it since his parents' death. This would be a very taxing time of his life, as he would work on his thesis, run a business, live the life of a playboy, and participate in a number of expensive hobbies all at the same time. It is little wonder that he developed a great amount of stress, and first started showing signs of self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy that would continue to plague him for the rest of his life. In this case, it would be his father that he felt that he couldn't measure up to. Not feeling that he could handle things, he tried to be very much like his father, and this sent him down a very treacherous path.

In trying to emulate his father, Oliver started to abandon the lofty ideals he had attached himself to during his university years. He would become more estabilishmentarian, would think less of the common man, and would treat his employees with arrogance. During these 'bad years', he would learn a lot of things, however -- perhaps most importantly practical experience in business administration, but also several things that would become very very useful later in his life: namely, his expensive hobbies that included aircraft, archery and martial arts.

During his 'bad years', Oliver would obtain an official pilot's license, he would continue his archery training and association with Howard Hill, and he would teach himself various martial arts such as boxing and judo. He would take to all of these extremely well -- especially archery -- but none of it was as good a comfort for his inadequacy as alcohol and women. This downwards spiral led to one fateful night...

...when he was on a cruise off the California coast, aboard Howard Hill's yacht. His brain soaked with gin, he fell overboard and washed out to a deserted island. On this island Oliver would run into the murderer Nicholas Kotero, who was similarly stranded. The two of them would scuffle and Oliver would escape off the island in a makeshift raft. Kotero would become his enemy for life, however.

The next island Ollie ended up on, Starfish Island, was totally devoid of other humans, and for 11 weeks, he had to survive in the wild with nothing but his wits, and what he could make of his environment with said wits. He learned to make bows and arrows, he learned to stalk and hunt the animals of the island and he learned rudimentary first aid and cooking skills. Finally, after 11 weeks, two other humans would come to the island -- a pair of potheads whom Oliver captured while they were smoking and helpless. With their boat, Oliver returned to civilization and gave the potheads to the authorities, without sticking around to identify himselves. Papers would embellish the story and make it seem as if there had been tons of well-armed drug smugglers that this 'modern day Robin Hood' had defeated and captured.

The aforementioned events would not make Oliver decide to become Green Arrow, however. That would come when he was attending a costume party, dressed as Robin Hood. The costume party would be crashed by a mugger called 'Greedy the Gooch' (I'm not making this up), whom Oliver would stop with his first ever trick arrow -- an arrow that accidentally had a golf ball stuck at the tip. Again, the papers would be very excited about this "green, arrow guy". The paper, together with the recent debut of Superman and a lot of other costumed heroes, would inspire Oliver to name himself Green Arrow, and become a crimefighter.

Soon after his debut, Oliver would be joined by thirteen-year-old Roy Harper who hero worshipped Green Arrow. Roy's navajo guardian Brave Bow would arrange for Roy's guardianship to be transferred to Oliver, as Brave Bow was dying of liver cancer. As Roy became Oliver's youthful ward, he also became Green Arrow's first sidekick, Speedy. The pair would operate out of an "Arrow Cave", and utilize vehicles such as the "Arrow Car" and "Arrowplane".

The "Battling Bowmen" would occasionally team up with other archers as well, such as Queen Arrow, and Miss Arrowette. The latter -- Bonnie King -- would briefly date Oliver, then marry a local reporter by the name of Bernard "Bowstring" Jones, and give birth to a child named Cissie. Some have theorized that Cissie, possessing uncanny aim, may be Oliver's child instead of Bernard's. Over a decade later, Cissie would follow in her mother Bonnie's footsteps, and assume the superheroic nom de plume Arrowette as a member of Young Justice.

Around the same time, Oliver as Green Arrow would become the first non-founding member of the Justice League of America. He would also become the financier of the team, and begin to become romantically involved with fellow leaguer Dinah Lance, the Black Canary. This relationship would become Oliver's longest, most important and most steady relationship for the rest of his life.

After some time, Oliver would be framed by a business rival for mishandling municipal bonds. The false accusations would prevail, and Oliver would lose his entire fortune, including Queen Enterprises, the Queen Estate (which had been severely damaged anyway in a recent JLA fundraiser), and his charity organization, the Queen Fund. He would become completely and utterly broke. Oliver's social activism would heat up as his financial ruin brought him closer to

Soon after Oliver lost his fortune, he and fellow leaguer Hal Jordan would go on a road trip together, to discover America. The two would become fast friends during this time, and run into many conflicts in which Oliver often argued the grassroots liberalist viewpoint against the more naive and estabilishmentarian Hal. Despite the ceaseless arguments and conflicts, both Ollie and Hal would come to reminisce very fondly of this time, and this friendship, in their later years.

Around this time Oliver's romance with Dinah Lance became more and more serious, and Roy Harper, feeling abandoned by his mentor, becomes a heroin addict. Dinah would be instrumental in helping to wean Roy off drugs. Oliver would soon afterwards accidentally kill a sniper, and this would have very serious repercussions as it would be the first time he'd killed since the rabbit in his childhood. Though it had been an accident brought on by his being injured at the time, he would nonetheless break his bow, give up the identity of Green Arrow, crash the Arrowplane into a mountain, and make his way to a monastery in Napa Valley, California. All of this at a time when Roy could have really used him.

At the Ashram Monastery, under the spiritual guidance of Master Jansen, Oliver would eventually get over his breakdown. Returning to the identity of Green Arrow, he re-took his place in the JLA alongside Hal and Dinah. He was unable to eliminate the bad blood between himself and Roy, however, and the dynamic duo broke up, going their separate ways.

Some time later, Oliver would be asked to run for the mayor of Star City. Agreeing, he gave a good race, but eventually was beat out by his opponent who was secretly backed by criminal families. Subsequently he would find employ in a Star City newspaper, writing a column named "Queen's Gambit". He would flounder in and out of the JLA, his inadequacies surfacing again, making him wonder if he had anything to give in such a powerful team.

After quite a while as a crimefighting duo, Oliver and Dinah decide to move from Star City to Seattle. Oliver changes his costume to a thicker, hooded one due to the colder weather, and abandons trick arrows, using only razor-tipped ones from then on. He also develops his midlife crisis, wanting to start a family. He proposes to Dinah, but she refuses due to not wanting to make children who would become orphans. Soon after, Dinah is captured by criminals she was pursuing, and tortured by them, losing her sonic cry and ability to have children in the process. In exacting revenge, Oliver would learn to kill. He would also meet the Japanese archer Shado.

Shado would become more important to Oliver very soon after the previous incident. A CIA operative would blackmail Oliver to track down Shado, but when he found her, she shot him with an arrow before realizing who Oliver was. Shado nursed Oliver back to health, and conceived a child with him. Shado would name the child Robert Tomonaga.

Oliver would then become embroiled in some government conspiracies and frame-ups, for some time becoming a wanted fugitive. After clearing his name, he would work as a stuntman in Canada for some time, and then travel the world, spending a particularly long stretch of time traveling in and getting acquainted with Africa. He would also travel to Japan and learn that he had fathered a son with Shado.

Eventually Oliver and Dinah's relationship crashed and burned. One of the reasons was Shado's child, another was the girl Marianne, who had helped Oliver during his time as a fugitive and in return been given a job at Sherwood Florist (Oliver and Dinah's little shop). For quite some time, Dinah had been suspecting Oliver of having an affair with Marianne, and became convinced of this when she saw Marianne kissing Oliver. As it happens, she was wrong, but the relationship was over none the less.

When Hal Jordan went insane, and tried to remake the universe into a better place, Oliver had to stop him by firing an arrow into his dear friend's heart. Greatly distraught in the aftermath, Oliver once more retreated to the Ashram Monastery for soul-searching. This time he met there a young man by the name of Connor Hawke. Connor -- Ollie's first son -- idolized Green Arrow, and Ollie -- without realizing Connor's connection to him -- told Connor a lot of things about his world view. The two became fast friends, and when Ollie returned to the outside world, Connor joined him. The two became a crimefighting duo.

After some time, however, Ollie learned of Connor's being his son. He was greatly suspicious and angered because he didn't understand why Connor hadn't told him this. The resultant conflict led to the duo parting ways. Oliver would go on to infiltrate a terrorist faction, having a deal with the government that in exchange all his outstanding warrants would be erased. Oliver would then die in a plane above Metropolis, stopping the terrorist faction from destroying the city.

This was not, however, the end of Oliver Queen. He would be resurrected by Hal Jordan, who would bring his body back to life, while his soul refused to leave Heaven. Ollie's body wandered the world for quite some time as an amnesiac drifter, until being taken in by a man named Stanley Dover. Stanley was, in fact, a serial killer dubbed the Star City Slayer, who sought just such a soul-less body as Ollie was, to possess and take over. Oliver's body convinced his soul to leave Heaven and re-merge with him, to prevent Dover from gaining access to their body. Dover was killed in the resultant scuffle, and Oliver is now reunited, body and soul.

Dover had transferred all his possessions to Ollie's name in anticipation of his plan's success, so Oliver now has access to Dover's house and wealth, the latter which he has used to purchase the Star City Youth Center. He has also taken in a young street kid called Mia Dearden, who wants Ollie to train her as the new Speedy. So far, he has refused.

At the moment, Oliver is working to re-estabilish himself in Star City, as the city's prime hero and protector, as well as working with the city's youth to keep them out of trouble. He is also trying to rebuild his relationships with Dinah Lance, Roy Harper and Connor Hawke, as well as keep an eye on Mia Dearden.