Another noteworthy event in Adventure Comics #266 (Sept 1959) was the establishment of Green Arrow and Speedy into the mainstream DC continuity. We already had an inconsequential story of Superboy meeting Oliver Queen as a boy, but this time we see not one, but two instances of DC weaving Green Arrow into their growing stable of Silver Age superheroes.
Batman sends Green Arrow a note congratulating them on solving a case. Speedy notices Batman’s insignia and asks Oliver why he doesn’t come up with a trademark. Oliver thinks it’s a great idea and designs the tips of all their arrows to be green for the first time.
However, when they go out and try to use them, the arrows keep disappearing or flying away in really weird ways. Are they cursed? No, it turns out the green stone tips were fashioned out of kryptonite and Superman was in Star City using his heat vision and super breath to destroy the arrows.
Why didn’t Superman just approach Green Arrow and tell him this in the beginning? A flimsy excuse is provided at the end via Superman’s thought bubbles: He was “trapped” as Clark Kent on the top of the Star Building when the elevator broke down and had to stay up there, so I guess he was bored and thought he would just mess with GA.
The last couple months of stories have had several deliberate casual drop-ins by superheroes in adventures such as Aquaman and Green Arrow. I take it as an attempt at cross-marketing, but also a realization that readers are excited about superheroes again. In-universe, maybe the reason this is happening is that Batman and Superman are scouting for members of the Justice League of America? 🙂
(I guess Green Arrow failed his initial test)