Bonvillains six

This is part one of  a comprehensive listing of Green Arrow's rogues gallery, and it covers A through I. You can find part two here. Fittingly most of Green Arrow's rogues use specialized projectile weapons, and surprisingly he had a lot more rogues than I realized, I'm talking about Batman levels of depth, many of them can easily be refurbished with some wood putty and a couple of decent coats of paint. So what I'm saying here is that Green Arrow has a decent rogues gallery, so many in fact that I had to weed out two thirds of them.

Anton Allegro [1]: Anton Allegro was a Russian musician who was accidentally deafened by one of Green Arrow's sonic arrows. Anton then became the DCU's first and only "technomage" when he discovered a tome of demonic magic, and created an advanced synthesizer which cast specific spells when he hit certain keys. Justice League of America vol. 1 #163 (February 1979)

Ape Archer [2]: There were two different Ape Archers, the first was a chimpanzee named Bonzo who was outfitted with a Green Arrow styled costume and used to rob banks by an unscrupulous trainer named Bart Rockland. Strangely the flashback to the first Ape Archer does not refer to a previous story, but is used to give a quick and dirty background for Bonzo. The second Ape Archer was Lance, a short man in an ape suit, that for some reason looked exactly like the proportions of a real chimpanzee up to the point that he was unmasked. (they apparently had some amazing costume technology back in the 1960s) World's Finest Comics vol 1 #116 (March 1961)

Archer From Mars: As you may have guessed, typical to Silver Age stories, the Archer From Mars was not actually a Martian, he was in fact a crook in a bad alien suit. World’s Finest Comics vol. 1 #90 (September 1957)

Bad Penny: Bad Penny was a criminal who wore special mesh gloves that somehow generated controlled electrical arcs with no visible power source, she was allied with Printer's Devil and Pinball Wizard. Detective Comics #543 (October 1984)

Barricade: Old skullface there is named Barricade, he was "A monk named Lars" (sounds like the name of an indie band) from the same monastery where Onyx originated. Barricade was made immortal and transformed into a ghoul by the "Book of Ages", a magical tome that has reappeared not since. Yep Onyx in her original, or as it is now known, her good costume with the killer 'fro. Not the crazy bald freak we have today. Detective Comics #566 (September 1986)

Big Game [3]: Big Game I was a Kraven the Hunter styled knockoff, his son Blake became Big Game II after his father was murdered by Cupid. As far as I can tell, both versions of Big Game were introduced in the same storyline. Green Arrow and Black Canary #23 (October, 2009)

Bird Gang: The Bird Gang used really cool looking miniature avrocars to make their getaway back in the days before your local police force had helicopters or surveillance drones. World's Finest Comics #132 (March 1963)

Birdman Gang: Like the caption says, the Birdman Gang wore "one-man jet units" that enabled them to make quick getaways after robbing banks. Using advanced technologies back in the 1960s that would have made them millionaires if properly marketed. World’s Finest Comics #127 (August 1962)

Black Magician: As per usual in early Green Arrow stories, the Black Magician had no "true" magical talent, but he was an expert at disguise, misdirection and sleight of hand. World's Finest Comics #62 (January 1953)

Blue Bowman: Yep the Blue Bowman was actually Phillip Cobb the Calendar Man in one of his two archery inspired villain costumes. I never really found out why the Calendar Man hated Green Arrow so much, but I think he was much more successful as an archer than with the calendar shtick. As far as I can tell, he never actually fought Green Arrow as the Blue Bowman. Batman vol. 1 #139 (April 1961)

Blue Lancer: The Blue Lancer was actually one the best villains I've seen in a Silver Age Green Arrow story. Just like Suicide Squad veteran Javelin who would come along later, the Blue Lancer carried a brace of specialized spears, lances and javelins. World's Finest Comics #43 (December 1949)

Bonfire: The villainess known as Bonfire fought both Green Arrow and Black Canary and is one of the few true metahumans in his rogues gallery. Detective Comics #553 (August 1985)

Bulls-Eye: Yep this guy was Green Arrow's Joker and I'd love to see a crossover, he had quite a few madcap appearances in the early days. Leapo the clown wore a bullseye on his chest, and was also a crack shot. World's Finest Comics #24 (September 1946)

Calendar Man: Here he is again Phillip Cobb the Calendar Man in one of his later unique archery inspired costumes. Detective Comics #551 (June 1985)

Camouflage King: The Camouflage king was an artistic criminal genius who had invented special spray guns which could render objects invisible through visual obscurity. World’s Finest Comics #102 (June 1959)

Captain Lash: The captain is a pirate themed whip expert who was skilled enough to deflect arrows in mid-air. Green Arrow mini-series #4 (August 1983)

Champion: The mercenary known as Champion was basically a version of Paladin from Marvel Comics, but with lesser scruples. He first appears to be a hero, but later crosses the line when he commits arson for a client and runs afoul of Green Arrow. I dug the flying suit and his high tech arsenal. I also liked that he was a superpowered mercenary who was not Deathstroke. Detective Comics #560 (March 1986)

Cheapjack: Star City is a weird place. Cheapjack was allied with motorcycle riding refugees from the Mad Max universe known as the Werewolves of London who hung out in the Star City Municipal Dump, we'll get into them later. Here we can see Cheapjack shocking Ozone with his electric whip, we'll also get into Ozone later. Cheapjack is just a man looking for love, while wearing a tophat and wielding a dodgy whip. Detective Comics #535 (February 1984)  Somehow he graduated to the big time, and returned one year later to take on Batman and Superman. World's Finest Comics #316 (June 1985)

Clock King: They really only had one encounter but I added him anyway because i'm seeing a pattern in the sharing of Silver Age villains between members of the Justice League, especially between Batman and Green Arrow. World's Finest Comics #111 (August 1960)

Crumbler: Alexander Percy Tuttle, the Crumbler, is a villain with a special glove that nullifies the atomic bonds in matter. He fought both Green Arrow and Green Lantern and has been pretty much forgotten. Green Lantern #114 (March 1979) 

Death Dealer: The Royal Flush Gang refugee known as Death Dealer appears to have adopted the modus operandi of Daredevil's nemesis Bullseye. He used special razor sharp metal throwing cards, club shaped mini-chainsaws, and spade shaped explosive grenades. Detective Comics #541 (August 1984) The almost definitely deceased Death Dealer was done dirty by the deranged assassin known as Cupid. Green Arrow and Black Canary #18 (May 2009)

Detonator: The Detonator was an extortionist and terrorist in a special armored suit that could make things blow up good. He shows up to bedevil Green Arrow, Ozone, Cheapjack and the Werewolves of London. We are so meta! Detective Comics #533 (December 1983)

Executrix [4]: The Executrix was a bodyguard/assassin who worked for Machiavelli and the Wall Street Irregulars. We will cover Machiavelli later. She was a trained martial artist who carried a pair of pretty effective pen sized lasers. Detective Comics vol. 1 #523 (February 1983) She returns to bedevil Batman and Superman at a later date. World's Finest Comics vol. 1 #314 (April 1985)

Funny Arrow: The Funny Arrow identity starts out being used by a professional clown making fun of Green Arrow. The identity is later co-opted by a crooked archer who uses Funny Arrow's tricks to rob banks. Green Arrow clears his name in the end. World’s Finest Comics vol. 1 #138 (December 1963)

GAMA, the Mechanical Archer: Gama was one of many robotic archers who crossed paths with Green Arrow back in the day. World's Finest Comics #76 (June 1955)

Green Error: The Green Error was another Mister Mxyzptlk styled clown based knockoff Green Arrow. And he was disturbing looking, in that clowny way. World’s Finest Comics vol. 1 #100 (March 1959)

Greenface: Yep, just as Bulls-Eye was his Joker, Greenface was Green Arrow's face mutilation guy, like Two Face, No Face or False Face. But they never quite pulled the trigger with him. Greenface was disfigured by an exploding vat of green dye which permanently tinted his face and neck green. He was a master tactician, and that's about it. World's Finest Comics vol. 1 #39 (April 1949)

Hi-Tek: The criminal hacker known as Hi-Tek actually turned out to be a teenage kid, and not so much a criminal. His adult form was actually a specially constructed digital avatar. This kid needs to meet up with the Calculator, Colonel Computron, Bug, Byte, Mystek, Jack Marshall, Oracle and Proxy at Hackapalooza. Detective Comics #521 (December 1982)

Iron Archie: Iron Archie was also known as the Iron Archer. And it was yet another robotic archer. This one was created by the "Prof", and they are all pretty interchangeable. Whoever makes these bloody things would more sensibly make a mint from military contracts. I am convinced that Oliver Queen has all these wacky robots on display in an  Arrowcave somewhere. He would have made a mint after reverse engineering the damnable things. We have seen in current continuity that Green Arrow still maintains safehouses for his old Arrowcars, so it is entirely possible that the Arrowcave is still out there but mothballed. World’s Finest Comics vol. 1 # 129 (November 1962)

Honorable Mentions
Auntie Gravity - World’s Finest Comics vol. 1 #261 (February 1980)
Bow Master II - Adventure Comics #218 (November 1955)
Brick - Green Arrow vol. 3 #40 (September 2004)
Constantine Drakon - Green Arrow vol. 3 #27 (August 2003)
Cupid - Green Arrow and Black Canary #16 (March, 2009) 
Decoy Gang - Adventure Comics #223 (April 1956)
Discord - Green Arrow and Black Canary #17 (April 2009)
Duke of Oil - Outsiders vol.1 #6 (April 1986)
Everyman - 52 #9 (July 2006)
Four Horsemen - Action Comics #444 (February 1975)
Frogmen Gang - World’s Finest Comics vol. 1 #92 (January 1958) 
Harbor Thief - Adventure Comics #234 (March 1957)



No Wikipedians were harmed during the construction of this article.