Since his inception in 1940, many had considered Green Arrow a Batman imitation. Like the Dark Knight, the Green Arrow was rich, skilled, partnered with a young ward, and know to sport motif-themed gadgetry. So when writer Bob Haney paired Green Arrow with Batman to find out why a Senator had been shot, artist Neal Adams targeted the Emerald Archer for a radical redesign that ultimately evolved past the surface level.

The story presented identity crises for both Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen following an attempted assassination attempt on Wayne's friend, Senator Paul Cathcart. Wayne was set to fill his friend's seat and provide the passing vote on a crucial anti-crime bill. Queen, meanwhile, was at a crossroads over whether or not to give up his bow and arrow, believing that he could serve the greater good as the financier behind the construction of New Island, a second Gotham City.

Queen and Wayne each revealed their true identities to a mutual friend - Senator Cathcart's psychiatrist son, Edmund. When Edmund was abducted by Miklos Minotaur, Queen's chief rival for the New Island construction contract and the figure behind the Senator's assassination attempt, Batman and Green Arrow collaborated to rescue their friend before voting on the bill took place.

Beyond this well-crafted story, the most significant part of this issue was Adams' depiction of Green Arrow. He had rendered a modern day Robin Hood, complete with goatee beard and mustache, plus threads that were more befitting an ace archer. And where the new look began, Green Arrow's new personality soon followed. Though he was still a wealth capitalist in this story, corporate corruption soon forced Queen into bankruptcy. In effect, this created a hero who became socially conscious of the world's problems and one who would try to solve these problems when he partnered Green Lantern from issue #76 of the Emerald Warrior's own magazine.