Real
Name: John Bellamy
Green Archer
Real
Name: John Bellamy
Identity/Class: Normal human
Occupation: Orphanage owner, former WW I pilot, convict, engineering student
Affiliations: Captain Jim Featherstone,
Enemies: Abel Bellamy
Known Relatives: Michael Bellamy (father, deceased), Elaine Held Bellamy (mother), Valerie Howett (sister), Abel Bellamy (uncle), unidentified grandfather
Aliases: John Wood
Base of Operations: Garre Castle, Berkshire, England
First Appearance: The Green Archer (novel, 1923)
Powers/Abilities: Exceptional archer.
History: In Berkshire, England in 1487 a green clad archer, allegedly one of the de Curcys who owned Garre Castle, was hanged for poaching deer. Ever since then he was reputed to have haunted the castle. In early 20th century America, the immoral Abel Bellamy accumulated a fortune through illicit and immoral means, hurting many innocents in the process. He fell in love with Elaine Held, but she was only interested in his younger brother, Michael, who she eventually married despite Abel's attempts to sabotage their wedding. The vindictive Abel then spent years using his connections to covertly ruin his brother, even going to far as to kidnap Michael and Elaine's second child, Valerie, when she was a baby, faking the child's demise and giving her up for adoption. Michael died soon after, but still Elaine declined Abel's advances, emigrating to England to evade him. Eventually he learned her whereabouts and followed her, again choosing to strike at her through her children. This time he targeted John Bellamy, now an engineering student, framing him for theft. John was sentenced to six months hard labour, and Abel gloatingly confessed his part in this to Elaine, threatening further vengeance if she didn't submit to him. He imprisoned her in Garre Castle, which he had recently purchased, but still arranged for John to be framed again, this time for assaulting a guard in the prison, ensuring John got the lash. When John was released, he discovered his mother had vanished, and, while he searched for her, he began going by the name John Wood to escape his convict stigma, subsequently settling in Belgium, where his hobbies included obsessively practising archery. When WW I broke out he enlisted under his real name, and subsequently mistakenly reported killed; seeing the report and missing the subsequent retraction, Abel thought his nephew dead and dismissed him as a concern. After the war John, who cared passionately for children, founded several orphanages and accumulated his own fortune. Finally discovering what had happened to his mother, he returned to England and, using the legend of the ghostly Green Archer of Garre Castle, pursued a vendetta against his wicked uncle, eventually slaying him and rescuing his mother.
Comments: Created by Edgar Wallace. Originally a novel, the character was adapted to the big screen three times, once in 1925 by Pathe Films as a 10 episode silent era serial, and again in 1940 as Columbia Picture's 12th serial, a 15 part story, and finally in 1961 in Germany as a movie, Der grüne Bogenschütze.
CLARIFICATIONS: None.
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