Green Arrow, the first member to join the Justice League who was not part of the original group, has an interesting family tree. In Green Arrow Annual #4, OIiver Queen was in Nottingham, England, to delve into his family tree. It wasn't just to delve into his Robin Hood fetish. Oliver's great-great grandfather, Barnabas Queen, protested in Nottingham, an early center for England industrialization, after marrying Samantha Aylward. Samantha was the descendent of Samkin Aylward, the great archer in Conan Doyle's WHITE COMPANY. Barnabas Queen was protesting the awful working conditions---and the industrialists had him arrested several times, and finally he moved to America rather than face prison again. A fiery speaker, he was conscious that, with a wife and children, he could no longer be the firebrand he once was. (He was a distant cousin of John Clayton, the Socialist Duke of Greystoke, and was descended from the First Duke of Greystoke through his mother, and the Grebsons, including the Green Archer, one of the sources of the Robin Hood legend. He met with and often agreed with John Clayton I, the "Unsocial Socialist", the Duke who became a taxicab driver.)

He had two sons. One, Zachariah Queen, went to the Appalachins and started the branch that resulted in Grandpa, Zeb and Pearly Queen, the hillbilly distant cousins of Oliver Queen seen in one of the mid-fifties' stories. The younger one, Harold Queen, married a Jewish woman of Germany, who already had two children, including a son, Richard, by an English lover. Bard Mengel in "Watching the Detectives, or the Family Tree of Sherlock Holmes" speculated that Sherrinford Holmes was the father, Sherlock's oldest brother. Whether that was true or not, Richard was adopted by his new "father", Harold Queen, and Richard Queen grew up to become a New York city police inspector, and the father of the writer and sleuth, Ellery Queen.

The German-Jewish woman was actually half-American, and named Esther Morgan. She was the daughter of Levy Morgan, alias "Deadwood Dick" and many other pseudonyms, a Jewish gunfighter (and crack shot) who toured the American West. Her German mother and businessman grandfather had been touring America when she encountered Levy Morgan, and like many, succumbed to his charms. She was illigitimate, and had no real claim to the nane "Morgan", but her mother---a Marx, kin to Karl Marx's father,..pretended to be the "widow" of an American named Morgan. (Marx's fiery temper and concern for the downtrodden can be seen echoed in Oliver.) Esther Marx Morgan was as unconventional in her love life as her father, Seth Morgan, which was shown by her bearing two children to an English squire---possibly Sherrinford Holmes. (Note that, through Levy Morgan, Oliver Queen Jr. was descended from a noted marksman---albeit with a gun rather than a bow and arrow---and also had some Indian blood in him, one of Seth Morgan's ancestors being an American Indian woman, Malaeska. See the article "The Morgans" at for more information. His father, the first Oliver Queen, was fascinated by Indian culture....possibly aware of that genetic link, one of two connnections to Indian culture....and certainly Oliver Queen II was a womanizer like Levy Morgan.)

Richard Queen's full sister, (by the English squire) Jane Queen married a Sloan. In the words of a noted WNU researcher, she "married an American by the name of Sloan. Their son James became a detective in the Los Angeles police department. James Sloan mysteriously walked out on his family one day, and--apart from a letter from him saying he'd gone to New York--was never heard of again. It was not unnatural for him to chose that city in light of his uncle's family living there, but in fact he had actually been murdered and the letter faked, something only discovered by his elder son Mark many years later. Dr. Mark Sloan resembles Thiraud's portrait of his great-uncle Richard remarkably, as indeed did one of Richard Queen's grandsons the Inspector." See the TV show: DIAGNOSIS: MURDER.

Richard had two younger half-siblings, Leon Queen and Carla Queen. The sister married a Barton, nephew to Sir Lionel Barton, baronet and explorer. (See the Fu Manchu series by Sax Rohmer.) Their child was Harold Barton, who in turn was father to Clint and Barney Barton. Barney became a professional criminal, but Clint became the Avenger known as Hawkeye, who was similar to both Green Arrows in many ways.

Leon Queen married a Canadian woman named Georgina Yellowbird . Her pedigree is...interesting. There were many rumors that the blonde, blue-eyed American Calvalry General George Armstrong Custer had an Indian love child by an Cheyenne woman, Monaseetah. Recent research has thrown doubts on that claim, but not ruled it out completely. Monaseetah had a child by some American calvaryman, possibly the blonde, blue-eyed, fiery and opinionated George Armstrong Custer, (and we can certainly see some of those traits in Oliver Queen II) called Yellow Bird. Yellow Bird, like many of the Cheyennes Custer fought, went to Canada. There the blonde, blue-eyed half-Indian met and married Robin Crusoe. It was knowledge of his Indian heritage, as well as being descended from one of the most famous Indian fighters, that caused Oliver Queen I to become an expert on Indian culture.

Robin Crusoe was descended from the children of the world-famous Robinson Crusoe. Crusoe spent several decades cut off from civilization, and is world-famous for making his own way on an island....as his descendent, Oliver Queen II would do, albeit for a much shorter period, on Starfish Island. His exploits were chronicled in three books by Daniel Defoe. (Robinson Crusoe was from a York family but his father was a German from Bremen. I am currently investigating whether Robinson Crusoe was related to the Swiss family named Robinson.)

Some of the Crusoes eventually emigrated to Canada, and Robin Crusoe fell in love with Yellow Bird and had Georgina. Georgina and Leon were very happy. He had two sons, Oliver and Roland, and one older daughter, Leona Queen. Oliver became an archeologist and museum curator, interested in Indian culture.....and the first Green Arrow.

Dennis Powers, in his article on Green Arrow, voiced many stimulating theories and speculations on Green Arrow and Oliver Queen and Oliver Queen II. He agreed with my theory, previously voiced on Oct. 15, 2000 in "The Fastest Families Alive" that the later Green Arrow was the son of the first. That is, of course, because Dr. Powers, a dedicated scholar, came across many of the same sources I did.

However, I respectfully differ with Dr. Powers on the parentage of the second Green Arrow. He maintains that Oliver Queen II was the son of Leona _____, who married Joe Harper III, and the first Oliver Queen. I instead maintain that Oliver Queen I briefly married Morgana Stark, and Oliver Queen II was the result. Morgana Stark was the sister of the horribly ugly Benedict Stark, the cruel billionaire who was perhaps the Shadow's second-greatest foe (he fought him four times, as he did Schwan Khan), and Howard Stark, who was the father of the munitions maker and Avenger, Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man.

Please note that Tony's unscupulous Stark cousin, (perhaps a son of Benedict) had the first name of Morgan. Morgana, Benedict, and Howard's mother was a Morgan. Interestingly enough, she was the sister of the curator Morgan who ran the museum Oliver Queen I worked with. That curator (an older man at the time of the original Green Arrow's origin) was the grandfather of Travis and "Ace" Morgan, two brothers who became pilots and later adventurers, one becoming a Warlord of an other-dimensional "Lost World" chronicled by Mike Grell, one of Oliver's biographers, his brother surviving a deadly accident with three others, and becoming a leader of the "Challengers of the Unknown" as chronicled by Jack Kirby. That makes Travis Morgan and Oliver Queen II cousins, and the strong resemblence between the two has been noted.

Curator Morgan and his sister seemed to be the grandchildren of Levy Morgan, or "Deadwood Dick", which means they were related to the Queens in another way. I'm still trying to determine which branch of this family they fit into. (I suspect the "Old Sleuth" married before he married a Hardy and changed his name to Frank Hardy, father of the Hardy Boys...and had two children by that previous marriage.)

Dr. Powers' theory is interesting, but the only parent we ever see of the original Roy Harper was his father, who died under different circumstances than recounted in his article. I don't want to slavishly follow the original stories, but I see no reason to deviate from the original origin in this case, and it's hard to explain the presence of a small child on "Lost Mesa" without such a parent crash-landing in a plane. I instead suggest that Roy's father is a Harper, but that his mother was Leona Queen, the older sister of Oliver Queen I....so that he did have a parent who was a Queen, which could explain many similarities between them. Dr. Powers got wind that Roy had a Queen as a parent, and made an understandable, if wrong, conclusion. Their relationship was not father and son, but uncle and nephew.

The first Green Arrow's career lasted roughly between 1940 and 1950. His son was raised apart from him, raised by Morgana Stark. He was a rebellious and somewhat spoiled son, and the man he called "father" was his mother's new husband, who didn't understand his step-son. He also stole his uncle (Roland Queen) 's antique car, just for kicks. Later, he was stranded on Starfish Island and learned to cope for himself cut off from civilization, and developed archery skills he had never shown before. When he returned to the mainland, he did some investigation and found out about his father's double life, and determined to be the second Green Arrow.

Roy's father, Joe Harper III, was the brother of Jim Harper, who would become a policeman...but would moonlight as the costumed Guardian, who constantly saved the Newsboy Legion. According to my article on Captain America, a "Rogers Roll-Call", William Harper Littlejohn's mother was named Sarah Harper, a cousin of the famed Yale linguist, William Raney Harper. (Johnny was named for him.) Johnny's sister, also named Sarah, was the mother of Steve Rogers.

Sarah Harper's brother, Jack, was the father of Joe Harper III (named for his uncle, Joseph Harper II) and Jim Harper. (Their mother was Jane Duncan, daughter of the "Clay" Duncan who ran the "Boy's Ranch" chronicled by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Jane's mother was Andrea Yellowbird, another daughter of Yellow Bird and Robin Crusoe, which gives us a third familial line where they are commonly derived.) Joe Harper III married his second cousin once removed, Leona Queen, having met her through tracking their family history, and had Roy Harper. But Joe died in a crash at "Lost Mesa", and Roy was raised by Joe's Indian servent, Quag. The fact that Queen and Roy Harper I were uncle and nephew explains how easily a bachelor like Queen could become the ward of Harper. Roy, however, had no idea that the blonde stranger, who also landed on Lost Mesa, was his uncle, having been stranded on the mesa for a number of years, and Oliver being busy on archeological digs when Roy was young.

Leona had died a number of years ago. Roy had one older brother, Duncan Harper, who was also fascinated by Indian culture, (understandably, given his heritage) and became a park ranger. (He had been in boarding school when his father and brother disappeared.) He saved an older Indian, Strong Bow, in the late forties, but later died from complications involving smoke inhalation. Strong Bow raised Duncan's sole son, Roy Harper II...who was later adopted by the second Oliver Queen. (Oliver Queen and Duncan were cousins, and he was able to assume guardianship on the strength of familial relationship, the original Roy Harper having disappeared.)

Strong Bow was dying, and he arranged---after demonstrating Roy's archery talents-- for Oliver Queen II to adopt Roy Harper II. Together, they became the new team of Green Arrow and Speedy, starting their careers around 1955. (The adventures after the original duo disappeared with the rest of the Seven Soldiers of Victory in the early fifties appear to be totally fictional.)

Oliver Queen II joined the fledgling Justice League, and eventually fell in love with the second Black Canary. The second Speedy joined the junior branch of the Justice League, the Teen Titans.

Oliver Queen II and Roy Harper II were both womanizers, in their way. Oliver Queen had a love child by the half-Korean, half-African American Sandra "Moonday" Hawke, and that child, Connor Hawke, became the third Green Arrow when Oliver Queen II was presumed dead. He also had a love child by a Japanese female assassin named Shado. He had a long relationship with Dinah Laurel Lance, the second Black Canary, and daughter of the first.

Roy Harper II, for a short time, became a junkie addicted to heroin. He recovered and found he had a child, Lian, by an Oriental woman he had an affair with. He took the name of Arsenel as a grown man, and assumed responsibility for raising his daughter, Lian.

As to whether the second Green Arrow eventually returned, seemingly resurrected by one of the last living acts of Hal Jordan---patient research still proceeds on that.