Malcolm Merlyn

Malcolm Merlyn was a wealthy businessman, the CEO of Merlyn Global Group, 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, 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 was discovered that he had taken up somewhat of an anti-Arrow persona, the Dark Archer. Malcolm planned The Undertaking, and while his plan to level the Glades was partly successful, he was ultimately defeated by Arrow.

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. This man is implied to be Ra's al Ghul.

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, Malcolm 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, and 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 died.

Personality
It was unknown what his personality was like before his wife's death, but it can be assumed that he was probably once a good person, kinder and caring as well. After his wife's death, he shut his son out and went away for two years. He returned as an apathetic, calculating, and ruthless man. He seemed 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 somewhat of a sociopath. He also seemed 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 had a hostage read out that he will kill them if Arrow "doesn't surrender to his authority". When asked what he wanted by luring Arrow out, by Oliver (under the guise of Arrow) he simply answers that he "wanted to know who is the better archer". He 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 had demonstrated to be quite a match if not a superior fighter. In 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. He had also demonstrated sufficiently high enough strength to break Oliver's bow in half with a single strike and knead a steel beam with a single kick. His reflexes allowed him 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. Despite defeating him on two occasions, Malcolm claims that due to his youth, Oliver is faster than he is.


 * Master archer: As the Dark Archer, Malcolm proved himself as an expert archer with astounding archery skills, a feat acknowledged by Oliver seeing how tightly grouped the arrows shot to Adam's body were. He was successfully able to catch Oliver off guard and wound him. Because of this, Malcolm's archery skills can be considered equivalent if not superior to Oliver's. He uses a customized compound bow as opposed to Oliver, who uses a customized recurve bow.
 * 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 incapacitate two Chinese Triad members (disarmed one and kill the other with his own gun). Malcolm was able to best Oliver in hand to hand combat once, even knocking him out after a brutal fight in their second encounter. In a third encounter he was able to fight both John and Oliver at the same time. Based on what had been shown, his style seems to be a mix of martial arts similar to Oliver's, but with a more grounded focus on close combat. It should be noted that in the situations where he had bested or almost bested Oliver in combat always take place in tight quarters, suggested he was a superior fighter in terms of technique. This is possibly due to training for almost 20 years.
 * Skilled tactician/Genius-level intellect/Great business acumen: In his daily life, Malcolm was the CEO of Merlyn Global Group, overseeing its daily activities and ensuring its success as a multi-billionaire corporation. 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 kill 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 knew about The Undertaking and the Markov Device, he accelerated his plan to level the Glades that same night. As a fail-safe for his masterplan (and in an attempt to maximise devastation upon the area) he had a second device placed in the east sector of the Glades, devoted to levelling this sector.
 * 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 easily dispatch 3 heavily armed police officers using a scimitar.

Equipment

 * Customized Compound Bow: Malcolm as the Dark Archer, used his signature weapon of choice: A Customized Compound Bow combined with his arrows, which he used to kill anyone who gets in his way, or threatens The Undertaking.
 * Customized Hunting arrows: Malcolm as the Dark Archer, used these, 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 splitting 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 fighting Oliver and John, Malcolm utilized double bladed throwing knives, using one to severely 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.
 * League of Assassins costume: Malcolm wore a costume as his villain alter-ego, the Dark Archer, To hide his identity from his victims. It is worn by members of the league of assassins, unknown what materials it is made from.
 * Voice filter: Malcolm used 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 it changed his voice to a deep, low growl.

Appearances
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Season 2
"Broken Dolls" (mentioned)
 * "City of Heroes" (mentioned)
 * "League of Assassins" (mentioned)

Comics
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 * Arrow #5
 * Arrow #23

Trivia

 * In, 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. It is most likely (confirmed in the comics) that it is where Malcolm learned archery and how to fight. This would explain why he was able to almost best Oliver in their first fight and defeat him in their second fight as he has been training a lot longer. 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.
 * In "Sacrifice", everyone in Starling City now knows the Queen's Gambit's boating accident, was not an accident at all, it was sabotaged by Malcolm Merlyn, and they know he was the mastermind, behind the conspiracy known as The Undertaking.
 * In "City of Heroes", it is confirmed by Oliver Queen, that Malcolm is dead.
 * John Barrowman will reprise his role of Malcolm Merlyn, likely through flashbacks, in Season 2.
 * In "League of Assassins " Oliver learns that Al Owal, the Assassin sent to capture Sara Lance, was the one who trained Malcolm Merlyn at Nanda Parbat.