Let's put a little
Red and
Green together for the

holidays, shall we?
Green Arrow could use some pizzazz in his Green Team (particularly if most of them did, in fact, just get blown up in the most recent issue of his book). So let's bring back ...
The Red Beeand make him part of the team!
It's a natural. Arrows sting with their pointy tips; so do
bees. Ollie's a hip metrosexual; why shouldn't he have a gay buddy?
Everyone laughs at
the Red Bee because (like many Quality Comics creations), he looks like a total flamer in his diaphanous pink blouse (well, that and the whole "fighting crime with bees" schtick).
Go with it, I say:
MAKE him a
total flamer. Face it, we live in a post-Queer Eye world; being gay (and, possibly, truly fabulous) isn't exactly a media taboo any more, so DC should wake up and smell the cappucino.
Groups are named after him.
He's got a long history.
The Brits like the name.
He's a lawyer, which Ollie could probably use for all those paternity and sexual harrassment suits.
He helps kids learn. He was in both
Starman and
Animal Man ...
and the
Absorbascon (if that don't make ya cool, what does?). Blockade Boy has given him
extra outfits (although, for me, nothing says "
My disguise must strike terror into their hearts" like
pink gauze).
Anyway, I am serious about putting the Red Bee in the Arrow Family. Ollie's going to be mayor of Star City soon; he'll need a District Attorney, which is what Rick Raleigh (a.k.a. The Red Bee) does. GA wouldn't lose any readers, I daresay, and gay readers and non-gay fans of the Red Bee (both of them) would swarm to the book like, well, bees to honey.
"
Oh, he's too LAME or SILLY," someone is preparing to type. Wake up and smell the cappucino, folks. Detective Chimp? Captain Carrot? Brother Blood? The Red Bee's time has come.
Besides, if you think the Red Bee is too silly, then you're probably not reading Green Arrow anyway.