Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Dark Knights of Steel #2.
In a new comic Green Arrow has been given a familiar injury once inflicted on him by Superman in the reality of The Dark Knight Returns, this time losing an arm in the fight against tyranny in the world of Dark Knights of Steel. Many stories have seen the Emerald Archer lose a limb thanks to those who sought to incapacitate him without killing him. These efforts were rarely successful, however, as Oliver Queen is too stubborn to let the loss of an arm stop him from fighting, no matter what reality he is in.
Dark Knights of Steel is set in an alternate DC Comics universe where Jor-El of Krypton built a rocket capable of holding his entire family and landed on Earth in medieval times. Nearly a score of years later, Jor-El became a king, raising his son Kal-El to follow in his footsteps and granting a special role to his bastard son, Bruce Wayne, who defends the Castle of El as a literal dark knight. His chief charge is defending the kingdom against magic-users and metahumans of any kind, who are seen as the only real threat to Jor-El's rule. Ironically, Jor-El was slain by a common arrow in the closing pages of Dark Knights of Steel #1, albeit one briefly enhanced by the power of the Green Man, who is this world's version of Green Lantern.
Unfortunately, the Green Man was quick to abandon his ally, an archer named Oliver, who fired the shot that slew King Jor-El. The Bat-Prince was equally swift in tracking the archer but was careful not to kill him. Instead, he cut off Oliver's left forearm, leaving him unable to draw a bow but still alive to face the justice of the House of El. This seems to be a clear tribute to The Dark Knight Returns, where Oliver Queen was similarly injured following an unspecified encounter with Superman.
True to form, his apparent harmlessness does nothing to make this version of Oliver Queen any meeker or repentant for his actions. Indeed, he doubles down on his anti-tyrant rhetoric when questioned by Prince Kal-El later in the issue, telling the young prince that he and his father are not really men, for all their noble pretensions. The speech he gives evokes the spirit of Green Lantern/Green Arrow writer Dennis O'Neil, who once had Green Arrow give a similar speech to Hal Jordan and the Guardians of the Universe, saying "You call yourself a hero! Chum, you don't even qualify as a man!"
While the second issue of Dark Knights of Steel ends with this medieval Green Arrow still in prison, it seems improbable that his story will end there. It's more likely that, much like in The Dark Knight Returns, the loss of an arm will only make Oliver more determined to fight against Superman and find ways to compensate for his injury, drawing his bowstring with his teeth if he must. While he'll probably find some kind of prosthetic or might be healed by the magicians employed by Jor-El's rival King Jefferson, any Green Arrow worthy of the name will continue to fight so long as they can draw breath, even if they can't draw an arrow.
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