Malcolm Merlyn

Malcolm Merlyn is a wealthy businessman and prominent figure in Starling City, and an acquaintance of the Queen family, as well as the show's main antagonist. He is the husband of the late Rebecca Merlyn, and the father of Tommy Merlyn. His family owns Merlyn Global Group, presumably making him the CEO. Later in "Year's End", it's discovered that he has taken up somewhat of an anti-Arrow persona, "The Dark Archer". However, it has been hinted that Malcolm's role as the Archer dates back to before Oliver's return. It has also been hinted that The Dark Archer persona has ties to The Undertaking.

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.

Work with The Undertaking
Malcolm Merlyn met with Moira Queen to discuss the vigilante 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 the vigilante was targeting "The List".

Malcolm later invited Moira to talk with him upon short notice. They discuss whether Oliver might actually be the green-hooded vigilante, 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.

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.

Malcolm decides to take action as Walter was getting very close to discovering the truth about the List. Moira tries to reassure him that she can get Walter off the track, but Malcolm does not believe her. He also asks if they should send their "associate", Dark Archer, to take out Walter. Later he goes as Dark Archer to try to kill the vigilante by luring him with hostages. As Oliver arrives and frees the hostages, he attacks, and tries to see who his foe really is. He fails when Oliver stabs him with a knife. Both manage to escape, and Malcolm decides to take Walter so that Moira will cooperate.

Malcolm invites his son and Laurel to have dinner with him where it is learned that his wife, Tommy's mother, was shot dead and tries getting Tommy to sign over his mother's shelter. Later, Tommy confides to Laurel why he hates his father so much: after Tommy's mother was murdered, Malcolm left him for two years. It is implied that it was during those two years that Malcolm became the expert archer that he now is.

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 died, 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.

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.

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

In The Undertaking, Malcolm Merlyn in is seen meeting two older Asian men who could be from Nanda Parbat as he speaks in Tibetan to the two of them and they leave as Moira interrupts their meeting. He is heard saying that he is sorry for the interruption from Moira in Tibetan as the two men leave.

In Darkness on the Edge of Town, Malcolm, in his Dark Archer persona, eliminates Dr. Markov and his team before destorying the labs in which they were working.

In Sacrifice, Malcom confesses everything to Tommy, after which Tommy turns on him. Malcom knocks out Tommy, and kills the cops sent to arrest him. After this he waits geared up in his saferoom. Oliver and Diggle doubleteam him. Malcolm fights them both simultaneously, but seems to be on the losing end. He manages to injure Diggle with a throwing knife before escaping to the roof. Oliver and Malcolm square off on the roof, shooting arrows at each other, before engaging in hand to hand combat. He manages to get Oliver in a chokehold, but Oliver gets a flashback of his father, and stabs Malcom in the chest with an arrow, before knocking him down.

Injured, Malcolm reveals he has a second device stationed in the city, he then loses consciousness. He is apparently dead, but the episode offers no final confirmation on that point. Later, Oliver reveals to the dying Tommy that he hasn't killed Malcolm; however, this is possibly to let Tommy die in peace, thinking that his father is alive.

Personality
It is unknown what his personality was before his wife's death, it can be assumed that he was once a good person, kinder and caring as well. After his wife's death, he shuts his son out and went away for 2 years, possibly to concoct his plan and to train in martial arts. Now he is cold, apathetic, calculating and ruthless. He seems to believe what he is doing is right and is 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. 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 the Arrow out. 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 the Arrow himself, he simply answers that he "wanted to know who is the better archer".

Abilities

 * Peak of human physical condition: Malcolm has demonstrated so far that although he is not as fast as Oliver he is stronger. During their first confrontation, Malcolm is 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 knife 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
 * Outstanding Bowmnanship: As the Dark Archer, Malcolm proved himself as an expert archer with astounding bowmanship, a fact acknowledged by Oliver seeing how tightly grouped the arrows shot to Hunt's body are. 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.
 * Master martial artist: Malcolm has shown to be a highly skilled martial artist. He was able to fight two 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 Diggle and Oliver at the same time.
 * Skilled tactician: Malcolm has proven himself to be remarkably clever when it comes to devising plans and battle strategies. He even managed to catch Oliver off guard on two occasions and was almost able to defeat him. One of Malcolm's plans involves the deaths of thousands of people
 * Swordsmanship: Malcolm might be trained and particularly skilled with swords. In "Muse of Fire", Malcolm is shown fencing with experience, also in "Trust but Verify" Malcolm's secret room where he keeps his Dark Archer equipment is shown to house several racks of swords of various kinds. Also, in the last episode "Sacrifice", he is able to kill two armed policemen with his sword, in his own office, which had the secret room.

Equipment

 * Customized compound bow: and Customized hunting arrows: Malcolm as The Dark Archer, uses as his signature weapon of choice a customized compound bow and arrows, which he creates and designs himself, to kill anyone who gets in his way, or threatens the undertaking. The arrows he uses 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 uses are deadlier than those used by Arrow.
 * Quiver: An arrow container strapped to Malcolm's back. He uses it to carry his arrows as his vigilante alter-ego, The Dark Archer.
 * Throwing knives: When fight Oliver and Diggle Malcolm utilised in double bladed throwing knives, using one to severly injure Diggle.
 * Swords: During his third fight with Oliver Malcolm was shown carrying a scimitar and also used one to kill two police officers.

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 "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 uses a compound bow while Oliver uses a recurve bow.
 * The black arrows used by the Dark Archer may be a reference to the Golden Age Green Arrow villain, Black Arrow. They are also the same arrows used by Justin Hartley's version of Green Arrow in Smallville, the most notable feature includes the custom-made titanium arrowheads.
 * Alongside Billy Wintergreen and Helena Bertinelli, Malcolm Merlyn is one of the only three characters in season 1 shown to be swift enough to catch an arrow in midair.
 * It was revealed in the end of "Dead to Rights", Malcolm spent two years in Nanda Parbat when Oliver 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 best Oliver in both of their fights as it would mean he recieved his training long before him therefore he has at least 20 years of experience on him.
 * Malcolm Merlyn is the seventh person to discover Oliver Queen's secret identity, Arrow. He discovered this in "Darkness on the Edge of Town". However, it is also said that his exact number is unknown counting Dr. Webb's accomplices.