Cyrus Gold

"The incubation process has begun. Serum will be ready for distribution in forty-eight hours."

- Cyrus Gold

Cyrus Gold, also known as The Acolyte and Brother Cyrus, was one of Brother Blood's test subjects, and one of the few who survived the initial injection. He was a childhood friend of the late Sebastian Blood and a member of the Church of Blood.

Early life
According to Sebastian, he and Cyrus knew each other at an orphanage where he was a preacher and was the first person Sebastian talked to after not speaking for over a month. Sebastian claimed he came to view Cyrus as an older brother, even a father figure. However, this story was partially falsified, as at the time Sebastian came to the church, Cyrus was still a teenager under the tutelage of a preacher named Brother Trigon. When Sebastian's father came at him with a gun, Cyrus and Trigon broke into the house and beat Sebastian's father. Sebastian then took his father's gun and killed him, after which he joined Trigon's cult. Some time later, when Trigon died, Cyrus took his position as preacher.

Membership with the Church of Blood
Sometime prior to November of 2013, Cyrus joined the Church of Blood, which was seemingly led by his childhood friend Sebastian. Under the guise of Brother Blood, Sebastian injected Cyrus with the Mirakuru virus in an attempt to replicate the process that had given Slade Wilson superhuman abilities. Though the injection caused blood to run from his eyes, Cyrus managed to survive the ordeal, unlike the previous Church members whom Blood had experimented upon. The serum worked wonders on Cyrus, granting him incredibly increased strength and reflexes, something he noticed almost immediately. Following Cyrus's transformation, Brother Blood dubbed him "Brother Cyrus".

In December of 2013, acting on Sebastian's orders, Cyrus took the name The Acolyte and stole a piece of equipment from Queen Consolidated's applied sciences division. After stealing O-blood from a blood bank, The Arrow confronted Cyrus while he was driving a stolen truck from a sugar refinery. He took an arrow to the leg and was knocked out of the truck. Later on, inside an ARGUS bunker, he attacked Oliver again who questioned him if he was injected with Mirakuru, replying his brother saved him and immediately attacked, knocking the vigilante upwards and slamming him into a shelf where he was injected with two needles to the leg and Cyrus made his escape.



In "Three Ghosts", the police were after Cyrus on a tip from Oliver, who had gained Barry's help in identifying him as Cyrus Gold. Diggle entered Cyrus's apartment with Oliver as backup. Diggle read the Solomon Grundy poem which Oliver says he heard the nursery rhyme when he was a baby. Cyrus attacked but Diggle managed to get away off the fire escape. Blood was informed that the police were after Gold who ambushed them and hurt officer Quentin Lance and killed Lucas Hilton. At the hospital Quentin gave the Arrow a key he managed to grab from Cyrus. Felicity and Barry managed to track them down to an abandoned factory where the key was made. Oliver confronted Cyrus, but was quickly defeated. Oliver was on the verge of passing out when a hallucination of his friend Tommy Merlyn gave him new strength. Oliver continued fighting, managing to dodge Cyrus' attacks while landing powerful blows, eventually knocking Cyrus to the floor. He shot the centrifuge next to Cyrus with an arrow, destroying it and spilling a mix of chemicals over Cyrus' face, seemingly killing him.

Powers

 * Peak of superhuman physical condition: Being the first test subject of Brother Blood to survive the injection of the Mirakuru serum, Cyrus now wields all the benefits of the Mirakuru serum; his physical capacity was increased in terms of stamina, strength, durability, reflexes, agility, senses and speed, in addition to an accelerated healing factor.
 * Enhanced strength: Cyrus had shown sufficient strength to break down giant reinforced steel doors, carry an industrial centrifuge over one shoulder and push heavy crates at fast speeds. Cyrus had proved to be more than a physical match for the Arrow.
 * Enhanced durability: Cyrus had been shown to take bullets and arrows without flinching. Felicity has remarked that his muscle density is similar to common concrete, as evidenced by the deformed arrow head that was used to stab him.
 * Enhanced speed: In, Cyrus quickly dodges many of the arrows that Oliver had shot at him, and even when injured by some of them, he is able to avoid some of Oliver's punches.

Behind the scenes

 * In the DC multiverse, Cyrus Gold became an inhuman zombie named "Solomon Grundy" after being murdered when he was extorted for money after becoming the father of a baby belonging to a prostitute. He was brought back from the dead with materials from the swamp he was buried in. Grundy in the comics is a character of highly variable strength, sometimes physically bested by Batman, other times trading punches on a near-even footing with Superman.
 * In Cyrus Gold's apartment, Diggle found a book, containing a poem on Solomon Grundy. When Diggle asks about Gold after the last fight with Arrow, Oliver simply says "Dead on Saturday, buried on Sunday," a reference to the poem.
 * This is the third live action appearance of Cyrus Gold. But this is the only appearance of him alive, not as Solomon Grundy.
 * The DC comics character first appeared in All-American Comics #61 from 1944.  He was a foe of the Golden Age Green Lantern. He was created by Alfred Bester and Paul Reinman. Being made in part of wood, he was largely immune to the power of that Green Lantern's ring.

Novels

 * Arrow - Vengeance