The DC Universe is no stranger to serial killers and criminal masterminds, but one killer that Kevin Smith turned into a horrific murderer. When Oliver Queen meets a kindly old man to help him get readjusted to the land of the living, he has no idea he's just befriended a horrible serial killer.
At the start of Kevin Smith and Phil Hester's 2001 Green Arrow run, Oliver Queen is returned to life after having died trying to save Metropolis from a bomb. Disoriented and confused, Oliver assembles his classic Green Arrow attire from mostly stuff he salvages from the garbage. Green Arrow uses these garbage arrows to fight crime as best he can until he meets a man named Stanley Dover. Stanley quickly recognizes who Oliver is and takes him home, caring for him and helping him to re-adjust to the times since Oliver seems to be under the impression it is 10 years earlier than it actually is. Eventually, the reason for Oliver's amnesia is revealed, as is the reason why Stanley has taken him in to begin with.
A Goofy Kids' Comic Character Is Secretly A Serial Killer
Stanley Dover is actually a character from the 1960s, having first appeared in Fox and the Crow #95 by Arnold Drake and Win Mortimer. Before Stanley showed up as a villain for Green Arrow, Stanley first appeared in the 1966 story "Stanley and His Monster" which is reflected in Stanley's Green Arrow appearance. In it Stanley's grandson actually successfully summons a demon named Spot as his "imaginary friend" and Stanley Senior, obsessed with immortality, wants control over the demon so that he can rule the world and find other objects of magical power.
The Fox and the Crow series would be re-named Stanley and His Monster, but the Stanley Dover from Smith and Hester's comic is a stark contrast from the 1960s version. Stanley and His Monster mostly centered around the humorous hijinks of the titular duo. In Smith and Hester's comic, Stanley Senior is unable to take control of Oliver when Green Arrow's soul returns to his body. Following his defeat, he is then eaten alive by Spot.
Thankfully, Stanley Dover fails in his plan of using Oliver's access to the Justice League Watch Tower to take over the world. But the fact that Kevin Smith took Stanley Dover from a lovable '60s character to an occultist child murderer with world domination on his mind makes this one of the strangest villains Green Arrow ever faced.
