Malcolm Merlyn

Malcolm Merlyn was a wealthy businessman, and the CEO of Merlyn Global Group, and a prominent figure in Starling City, and an acquaintance of the Queen family, as well as the first season's main antagonist. He was also the husband of the late Rebecca Merlyn, and the father of the late Tommy Merlyn, a former close friend of the late Robert Queen, and a former friend of Moira Queen.

In "Year's End", It is discovered that he has taken up somewhat of an anti-Arrow persona, the Dark Archer, a role that Malcolm has taken up after his wife's death. Malcolm planned The Undertaking, and while his plan to level the Glades was partly successful, he was ultimately defeated by Oliver Queen.

Earlier life
After the death of his wife in around 1993, Malcolm visited Nanda Parbat. while there, he trained under the mentorship of a man, and is implied to have learned his fighting skills from the man in question.

In late 2007, Malcolm met with a number of associates, among them Robert Queen and Frank Chen. He discussed his plan to level the Glades, with a particular device. Later, when Robert questioned him as to whether it was a good idea or not, Malcolm revealed his wife's horrible death whilst in the Glades.

Season 1
In "An Innocent Man", Malcolm Merlyn met with Moira Queen to discuss Arrow. He expressed that he was uneasy about him. At first Moira expected this was because he had a large amount of wealth, but he replied that it was because Arrow was targeting "The List".

In "Damaged", Malcolm later invited Moira to talk with him upon short notice. They discuss whether Oliver might actually be Arrow, and he holds up his end of the argument that he strongly believes that Oliver is. After this, he sent a man to kill Oliver based on his assumption. After the chaos cleared, Moira went to consult with him. Moira threatened to ruin his life if he ever tried to hurt the Queen family again.

In "Muse of Fire", When Moira was almost shot, she earned a concussion, and so had to stay in bed for several days. Malcolm visited her during this time, much to her distaste. He offered her friendship as they previously had, but she was hesitant. Later, his son Tommy came asking why his father cancelled his credit card while the elder was practicing fencing. His father replied that he had permanently cut Tommy off from his trust fund and the family.

In "Year's End", Malcolm decided to take action, as Walter was getting very close to discovering the truth about "The List", and in turn the Undertaking. Moira tried to reassure him that she could get Walter off the scent, but Malcolm did not believe her, he also asked if they should send their "associate", The Dark Archer, to take out Walter. Following this, As The Dark Archer, Malcolm gathered a number of hostages and lured Arrow out. As Oliver arrived and freed the hostages, Merlyn attacked, and tried to discover his foe's true identity. He failed when Oliver stabbed him with a knife. Both managed to escape, and Malcolm decided to kidnap Walter so that Moira would cooperate.

In "Trust but Verify", Malcolm invited his son and Laurel to have dinner with him. at dinner, Malcolm quite openly mentioned to Laurel how his wife was killed, though not before trying to getting Tommy to sign over his mother's clinic, so it could be shut down.

In "Betrayal",

In "Dead to Rights", At an awards ceremony which he attended with his, albeit reluctant, son, Malcolm was given an award for his philanthropy and charitable nature to making Starling City better. As he was giving his speech, the lights were turned off by the Chinese Triad. Malcolm quickly exited and found Tommy, and the two made it up to his office. Malcolm explained to Tommy about his safe room, and proceeded to open the door to it. However, before he could admit to his son his alter ego of The Dark Archer, Malcolm was shot from afar by "Deadshot", who had been assigned to his assassination. Before Malcolm could die, Arrow arrived and was able to convince Tommy to give his father a blood transfusion, in order to rid his body of curare poison laced in the bullet. He woke up in a hospital bed some time later. Moira Queen visited, and Malcolm asked her to find his would-be killer, who was hired, unknowingly to him, by Moira.

In "Salvation", Moira later gave evidence to Malcolm that showed it was Frank Chen who ordered the assassination attempt, and he came to kill Frank as Moira met with him.

In "Unfinished Business", After quitting his job at Verdant, Tommy visited his father at Merlyn Global Group and asked for a job.

In "Darkness on the Edge of Town", Malcolm visited the Unidac Industries building and eliminated Dr. Brion Markov and his team, before destroying the labs in which they were working. He sped off in his car following this. The following day, Malcolm ran in to Oliver in his company's building, while Oliver's team attempted to hack the system. Later, when Malcolm realized that Felicity Smoak has hacked into his system, he removed the device and had it hidden. When John found the empty container, he relayed this information to Oliver, who was in the process of confronting Malcolm. Oliver attempted to shoot Malcolm with an arrow, but Malcolm caught the arrow right with precision in front of his face. The two of them engaged in hand-to-hand combat, Malcolm ultimately coming out the victor, knocking Oliver out. He lifted Oliver's hood, and was shocked to discover Arrow's identity.

In "Sacrifice", Malcolm had Oliver tied up before he could regain consciousness. Oliver was awoken, and Malcolm explained to him why he had done what he had before leaving, awaiting the destruction of the Glades. Later in the day when Moira went public with her story, Malcolm confessed everything to Tommy, after which Tommy turned on him, Malcolm killed the cops that were sent to arrest him, and knocked out Tommy as this happened, after this he waited, geared up, in his saferoom, Oliver and John soon found him. Malcolm fought them both simultaneously, despite being on the losing end, he threw a throwing knife at John and managed to escape to the roof, Oliver and Malcolm squared off on the roof, shooting arrows at each other, before engaging in hand-to-hand combat, he managed to get Oliver in a chokehold, telling him that he would soon be joined by his mother and sister in death, Oliver managed to stab Malcolm through the chest with one of Malcolm's arrows, by stabbing himself through his shoulder, Oliver rose from the ground, and after receiving confirmation from Felicity that the device was disarmed, told Malcolm that his plan had failed, injured, Malcolm revealed he had a second device stationed in the Glades, believing he had won, Malcolm fell on his side and lost consciousness, presumably dying from his wound.

Personality
It was unknown what his personality was like before his wife's death, it can be assumed that he was probably once a good person, kinder and caring as well. After his wife's death, he shuts his son out and went away for two years, possibly to concoct his plan and to train in martial arts. Now he was cold, apathetic, calculating ruthless, and arrogant. He seems to believe what he was doing was right and was for the greater good, and will do anything, regardless of the number of lives he ruins and will kill anyone who gets in his way, to see his goals fulfilled, which made him a psychopath. He also seems to have somewhat of an ego, choosing not to let the public blame Arrow for the murders he committed and announcing himself as a different person, possibly to lure Arrow out. It was even said by Robert Queen that Malcolm had "something of a God-complex." He has a hostage read out that he will kill them if Arrow "doesn't surrender to his authority". When asked what he want by luring Arrow out by Arrow himself, he simply answers that he "wanted to know who is the better archer". He also blames all the people living in the Glades for his wife's death, not just the person who killed his wife but also the ones who walked past his wife while she was dying and didn't try to help her.

Abilities

 * Peak of human physical condition: in all three of his confrontations with Oliver, Malcolm demonstrated that although he was not as fast as Oliver, he was stronger than Oliver, during their first confrontation, Malcolm was strong enough to severely injure Oliver and was able to break three of Oliver's ribs by kicking him in the abdomen repeatedly, However it should be noted that Oliver was badly injured by Malcolm's arrows, and Couldn't fight back properly yet he did manage to injure Malcolm's leg with a Flechette before knocking Malcolm out cold with a single punch and escaping, Alongside being physically powerful enough to snap Oliver's bow in half with a single punch, Malcolm is also swift enough to catch an arrow shot at him by Oliver during their second confrontation (a feat only the highly skilled Billy Wintergreen and formidable Helena Bertinelli have demonstrated), He was also shown himself to be able to dodge an arrow and fire one directly after Oliver tried to shoot him in their first confrontation, In their third confrontation, Malcolm was skilled enough to take on both Oliver and John, however, He was ultimately defeated by Oliver during their final confrontation. It should be noted that in his first 2 confrontations with Oliver, and then in his third confrontation with Oliver and John. The fighting took place in tight spaces, Malcolm used tight spaces to overwhelm his opponents. In his final confrontation with Oliver, on the rooftop of the building of Merlyn Global Group the fighting took place in a open space. It seems like possibly in tight spaces, Malcolm had an advantage due to his experience, and possibly he had a disadvantage in open spaces due to his lack of experience.


 * Master archer: As The Dark Archer, Malcolm proved himself as an expert archer with astounding archery skills, A fact acknowledged by Oliver seeing how tightly grouped the arrows shot to Adam's body were. He was successfully able to wound Oliver, Under the guise of Arrow, With three arrows accompanied by incredible accuracy. Because of this, Malcolm's archery skills can be considered equivalent, If not superior, To Oliver's, However it should be noted that he caught Oliver off guard, and He was only able to successfully wound Oliver, With 3 of his arrows, Because Oliver's back was turned. His archery skills were possibly slightly inferior to Oliver's, unlike Oliver who can shoot 2 or 3 arrows at the same time from his bow. He can only shoot 1 arrow from his bow at a time.
 * Master hand-to-hand combatant / Martial artist: Malcolm had shown to be a highly skilled martial artist and hand-to-hand combatant, He was able to fight two Chinese Triad members, Disarm one and kill the man with his own gun, Even more impressively, He was able to defeat Oliver in hand to hand combat once, Knocking him out after a brutal fight in their second encounter, In a third encounter he is able to fight both John and Oliver at the same time.
 * Skilled tactician: Malcolm had proven himself to be remarkably clever when it comes to devising plans and battle strategies, He even managed to catch Oliver off guard on at least 2 occasions and was almost able to defeat him, One of Malcolm's plans involves the deaths of thousands of people living in the Glades, However after he found out Oliver is Arrow, and that he knows about The Undertaking, and the Markov Device, He accelerated his plan to level the Glades tonight, Knowing that Oliver and his team would be able to find and deactivate the first Markov Device, He had the second Markov Device placed in the east sector of the Glades, possibly due to the fact that he was in a hurry, Malcolm miscalculated the fact that the earthquake caused by the second Markov Device, would be contained in the east sector of the Glades, and His plan to level the entire Glades failed, and Only level the east sector of the Glades, possibly He cannot think everything through, or Calculate everything when he is in a hurry.
 * Master swordsman: Malcolm might be trained and particularly skilled with swords. In "Muse of Fire", Malcolm was shown fencing with experience, also in Trust but Verify, Malcolm's secret room where he keeps his Dark Archer equipment was shown to house several racks of swords of various kinds. Furthermore, In "Sacrifice", He was able to kill two armed policemen with his sword, In his own office, which had the secret room.

Equipment

 * Malcolm Merlyn's Customized compound bow: Malcolm As The Dark Archer, Used as his signature weapon of choice a customized compound bow combined with his arrows, witch he used to kill anyone who gets in his way, or Threatens The Undertaking.
 * Customized hunting arrows: Malcolm As The Dark Archer, Used as his signature weapon of choice arrows, Which he creates and designs himself, To kill anyone who gets in his way, or Threatens The Undertaking. The arrows he used have arrow heads with three "teflon-coated titanium blades" on each arrow, With the blades serrated for spliting bones, and The shaft itself is made of "specialized polymer stronger than typical carbon fiber". As such, it is safe to assume that the arrows he used are deadlier than those used by Arrow.
 * Quiver: An arrow container strapped to Malcolm's back. He used it to carry his arrows as his villain alter-ego, The Dark Archer.
 * Throwing knives: When fight Oliver and John Malcolm utilised in double bladed throwing knives, Using one to severly injure John.
 * Swords: Malcolm first used a scimitar to kill two police officers. during his third fight with Oliver, Malcolm was shown using a scimitar against Oliver, Though he was very quickly disarmed by Oliver.
 * The Dark Archer costume: Malcolm wears a costume as his villain alter-ego, The Dark Archer, To hide his identity from his victims. It is unknown if it was designed by Malcolm, and it is also unknown what materials it is made from.
 * Voice changer: Malcolm uses this device to change his voice regardless of who he spoke to As The Dark Archer. This could be for the purposes of intimidation as he changes his voice to a deep, low growl.

Appearances
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Comics
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 * Arrow #5
 * Arrow #23

Trivia

 * In "Year's End", After Oliver claimed that the vigilante needed a new nickname other than "The hood", Malcolm suggested the name "Green Arrow", a clear reference to the vigilante's original DC Comics name. However, Oliver disliked the name, stating that it was lame.
 * In the Green Arrow comics, The Dark Archer is fully known As "Merlyn The Dark Archer", with "The Dark Archer" just being a title, and a member of the League of Assassins. It is unknown if his affiliation to the League is pursued or continued in the TV series or if the League will actually have an appearance in the show. However the plan to kill thousands and purify the Glades draws parallels with Ra's plan to purify the world by killing billions of people. Malcolm's reference to 'a man' who trained him could be an allusion to Ra's.
 * Malcolm used a compound bow while Oliver uses a recurve bow.
 * Alongside Billy Wintergreen and Helena Bertinelli, Malcolm Merlyn was one of the only three characters in season 1 shown to be swift enough to catch an arrow in mid air. However, while Helena and Billy only performed this once, Malcolm performed this feat twice.
 * It was revealed in the end of, Malcolm spent two years in Nanda Parbat when Oliver was around 9, and Tommy was around 8 where he received mentorship from another individual. Most likely that's where Malcolm learned archery and how to fight. This would explain why he was able to almost best Oliver in their first fight and best him in their second fight as it would mean he recieved his training long before him therefore he has at least 20 years of experience on him.
 * Malcolm Merlyn was the seventh person to discover Oliver Queen's secret identity Arrow, He discovered this in.
 * However it is also said that his exact number is unknown, Counting Dr. Brion Markov's accomplices.