In 1987, Mike Grell wrote and drew the three-issue prestige format limited series Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters. He redesigned the character's costume, away from the costume Neal Adams had designed in 1969, and recast Green Arrow as an "urban hunter" going up against non-super-powered, real world villains such as serial killers, terrorists, street gangs, American mobsters and Yakuza.

He lost the trick arrows in favour of penetrating broadhead arrows. And he killed for the first time.

It transformed the character into one taken seriously and saw him write, and sometimes draw, the character's first ongoing series for five years from 1988 to 1993, and reduced the fantastic elements of the DC Universe that Green Arrow would have to deal with.

Not only that but the character wouldn't even be referred to as Green Arrow.

But that was then, and Grell has pursued other projects since, with his run on Green Arrow as a calling card, even as it informed much of the current Arrow TV series.

Well, for 2017, the thirtieth anniversary of Longbow Hunters, Mike Grell is returning to Green Arrow as the series new variant cover artist.

He writes,

As anyone who is following this page already knows, GREEN ARROW has always been my favorite comic character and it was the GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW series by Denny O'Neil, Neal Adams and Dick Giordano that inspired me to get into the comic business. After having drawn both characters in backup features, I was fortunate enough to have been in the DC offices when Denny announced he was resurrecting the title. I marched straight into his office and said, "Okay, who do I have to kill?" A dozen years later, I returned to Green Arrow with THE LONGBOW HUNTERS, which led to the first series with the character starring in his own title and, ultimately, to the CW series ARROW. And now I'm home again. Now, if I can just talk DC into letting me write the book… and a hard-cover edition for the 30th anniversary of THE LONGBOW HUNTERS would be nice… and a pony… and a Red Ryder B.B. gun…

So… who wants Mike Grell to write Green Arrow again? He certainly does…