Starfish Island (DC Comics)
| Starfish Island | |
|---|---|
| Notable characters | Green Arrow, China White |
| First appearance | Adventure Comics #256 (January, 1959) |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
Starfish Island is a fictional Island in the DC Comics universe. The island first appeared in Adventure Comics #256 (January, 1959). It is the central location of Green Arrow origin stories.
History
Starfish Island is the island billionaire playboy Oliver Queen washed up. After the cruise ship he was on sank, he had been stranded on the island, where he learned to survive by any means necessary using a bow and arrows. He developed primitive Trick Arrows as advanced methods of hunting and foraging for food, then assembled a green suit for camouflage.
Pre-Crisis
Eventually a commercial freighter stopped by the island, and he swam out thinking they might rescue him. They were in the middle of a mutiny and he had to liberate the crew from dangerous pirates. Making a small mask to hide his face from sight, he took them all down using the skills he had developed. Now calling himself Green Arrow, he realized that he could use his abilities to serve society for the greater good and fight crime.[1]
Post-Crisis
The Crisis on Infinite Earths ended the Multiverse and streamlined the entire DC Universe into a new continuity. Oliver Queen was still a wealthy playboy, but also the hard-working corporate executive of Queen Industries. After drunkenly falling off of his boat and washing up on Starfish Island, he became a hunter to survive. He was finally able to escape when he caught a group of drug dealers using the location for an illegal marijuana farm and turned them into the authorities.[2]
Green Arrow: Year One
The revisionary story Green Arrow: Year One changes some of this and expands on his island adventures. Prior to the incident he is shown to be a rich playboy and an adventurous thrill-seeking alcoholic with no real sense of direction or responsibility, struggling to find meaning in a hollow existence of luxury. His best friend Hackett betrayed him to embezzle money and shot him off of a boat in the middle of the ocean. Oliver landed on an island located among the Fiji Islands, but also does not give it a name. controlled by China White, ruthless leader of a massive drug cartel, and mastered his bow to shut down her heroin operation before coming home. This experience inspired him to fight crime regularly.[3]
Other media
- The island is featured the The Batman (TV series) episode "Vertigo". In this episode, it is explained that Oliver Queen was on his yacht when he ran into some fog on his way, and he started to feel dizzy. He saw another ship, and it had on it Count Vertigo. He is stuck on a deserted island for two years, and uses his time to train and hunt becoming Green Arrow when he is rescued.
- In Smallville television show, When Oliver Queen yacht sailed into rocks, Oliver washed up on a nearby deserted island and explored it for two years. After discovering a group of drug runners, he pricked his hand on a toxic flower and collapsed, waking up hours later in a tent surrounded by armed men with Tess Mercer examining him. She told him the flower was deadly and that he had only 12 hours left to live after the poison entered his system. She used leeches to suck the poison out of his body and admitted that she and her friend Megan had been kidnapped.One of the kidnappers told Oliver that he knew his identity, and announced a plan to ransom Oliver. He then shot Megan dead and almost shot Tess, but Oliver jumped in front of her and Marcos decided that she would live. Oliver tried to console Tess over the death of her friend. Later, Oliver staged an escape out of the island when the drug runners were leaving by knocking out one of them and by poisoning Marcos with the toxin. Oliver and Tess then left the island by using the drug-runner's boat and returned to his home Star City.
- Lian Yu (煉獄 Liànyù, translated as purgatory) is the island featured in the flashback in the Arrow television show. The island is located in the North China Sea where Oliver Queen was stranded for 5 years, before he was found by Chinese fishermen. His time on the island is expanded as the series continues.