Hobbes' Choice

There is much to react to in the New History of the DC Universe: inclusions that laudable, regrettable, tragic, and absurd.

But not much that is as laugh-outloud funny as this is:

One of these things
is not like the others.

Like most decent people, I ignored the whole "Leviathan" crossover, knowing full well that its after-effects on continuity would be zilch.  But, as a result I sadly missed the fact that it included Green Arrow among "the world's sharpest detectives".  

Tee hee.

Ollie may be the world's sharpest archer (or just have the world's sharpest arrows), but as I have noted here repeatedly "Ollie is no detective".  I'd like to think he just overheard something about this group and decided to add himself to it whether he was up to snuff or not.

Just as he did with the Justice League of America.

Batman and Robin? Obvs.  The Question? Makes sense; like Lois Lane, he's an investigative reporter, besides it's built into his name and his whole schtick. Manhunter, a crusading D.A., who also covered the "Mark Shaw" angle of it all.  Plas, whom foolish writers dismiss as a goofball, was (and may still be) an FBI agent for most of his comics career.  But... Green Arrow?

The ability to use a calendar does not make you a detective.  And it doesn't take a detective to know when Hal Jordan messes up.

He never even noticed his ward had become a junkie.
Really now.

I suppose the rationale was that the Leviathan thing was a big conspiracy and Ollie is the kind of person who goes for that sort of thing, but... yeah, no, the Question has that angle covered.  

If that group really needed a seventh, there are innumerable better or more natural choices.  If you just needed a Real Detective, you had Tim Trench, Slam Bradley, Jason Bard, Jonny Double, The Human Target, et al.  If you needed a "super-" detective you had the Elongated Man, Detective Chimp, Sam Simeon, et al.  If you needed another A-lister besides Batman, there was Flash, Martian Manhunter, or even Hawkman.

I'm not sure Hawkman would have been my choice, but there is precedent, and at least one version of him IS a police officer.

I can only assume Ollie was chosen by default. They DIDN'T want someone too super-powerful (Plas doesn't really count and neither does Manhunter, because I mean "super powerful enough to give the group too much of an advantage").  They wanted a "street level" investigative team, with enough of an anti-authoritarian bent to get their hands dirty but enough clout to cover their keisters. 

And if you're trying to keep things quiet, Hawkman isn't your first choice.