Queen Industries
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| Queen Industries | |
 If this infobox is not supposed to have an image, please add "|noimage=yes". |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| In story information | |
| Type of business | Conglomerate |
| Owner(s) | Robert Queen Oliver Queen |
Queen Industries is a fictional business organization in the DC Comics universe. It is owned and run by Billionaire Oliver Queen, aka the Green Arrow. Oliver reluctantly inherited the company after his parents, Robert and Laura Queen, were killed in a plane crash.It was founded by Robert Queen,Oliver's father
[edit] Parallels to Wayne Enterprises
Although the story seems on the surface to be very similar to Bruce Wayne's inheritance of Wayne Enterprises after his parents' death, there are several fundamental differences. Whereas Wayne's parents were killed by a criminal, driving Batman to seek justice and revenge, Queen's parents were killed in a plane accident, and the Green Arrow initially does his vigilantism for the sheer fun of it. Wayne allowed his parents' murder to define his life, and managed every detail of his inheritance carefully in accordance. Queen however, used his inheritance to live lavishly, taking his mind off his troubles by reveling in luxury and women. As a result, while Wayne Enterprises expanded into one of the largest companies in the world, Queen Industries struggled with financial and administrative problems. Eventually, Oliver lost his whole fortune and sold the company.
[edit] Fictional History
In the early days of Oliver's ownership, Queen Industries made much of its profits from the sale of weapons and munitions. In "Peacemakers", written by Dennis O'Neil, Oliver discovers some of the disastrous impacts that the weapons he is making his money from are having in other countries. As a result, Oliver decides to sell off what is left of the company, giving all of the proceeds to a war relief effort. (This was a widely accepted retelling of the originally story of how Queen lost his remaining fortune to a man named John Deleon).
For many years following, Queen Industries was without its namesake ebullient owner, as Green Arrow traversed the countryside, to discover the true America. During this period, he formed strongly liberal values (in stark contrast to his frequent conservative traveling partner, Green Lantern) which he was never shy about espousing, and which defined and motivated his later career. The strength of his convictions indeed became one of his most indelible characteristics, and was a primary influence in the new treatment of social issues as a valid theme for mainstream superhero comics.
Eventually, Oliver Queen was able to reassert his control of Queen Industries, now divested of its weapons contracts. He used the income from it to secretly fund his superhero activities. Originally, much of the money was funneled into bankrolling the fledgling Justice League of America. However, this ended when Oliver quit the JLA, having decided that they were only interested in fighting the big battles with the supervillains, and weren't looking out enough for "the little guy." Since then, the income from Queen Industries has gone to charitable donations and to funding his own crime-fighting activities.
