Cyrus Gold

For other characters using the title of Acolyte, see Acolyte (disambiguation)

Cyrus Gold
Biological Information
Species	Human
Status	Deceased
Universe Information
Home universe	Earth-1
General Information
Occupation	Head of Zandia Orphanage (formerly)
Affiliation	Church of Blood (in secret)
Alter ego	The Acolyte
Actor	Graham Shiels

"The incubation process has begun. Serum will be ready for distribution in 48 hours."

— Cyrus Gold^[src]

Cyrus Gold (died December 11, 2013), 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 one of the original members of the Church of Blood under Father Trigon.

Biography

Early life

According to Sebastian Blood, he and Cyrus Gold knew each other at an orphanage where Sebastian was raised. Cyrus was a preacher in the orphanage and the only man to get him to start talking a month after his arrival. 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 Roger Trigon.

When Sebastian's father came at him with a gun, Cyrus and Trigon broke into the house in their alter-egos as the Acolyte and the Devil and beat Sebastian's father. Sebastian then was given a gun by Trigon to slay his father. He did so and was escorted by the Acolyte and the Devil to an abandoned factory in the Glades to a gathering where he joined Trigon's cult, the original Church of Blood. Some time prior to November 2013, when Trigon died, Cyrus took his position as preacher and the head of Zandia Orphanage.

Membership with the Church of Blood

As the Acolyte, Cyrus supported Father Trigon in all of the Church of Blood's activities as his second-in-command. He stayed in the new, reformed organization, which was now led by his childhood friend Sebastian. Under the guise of Brother Blood, Sebastian injected Cyrus with the Mirakuru serum in an attempt to replicate the process that had given Slade Wilson superhuman abilities. Though the injection caused his eyes to bleed, 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 2013, Cyrus appeared in his alter-ego as the Acolyte and broke into Queen Consolidated's Applied Sciences division on Sebastian's orders. After killing several security guards, Cyrus stole an industrial centrifuge by ripping it from the ground. After stealing type O blood from a blood bank, The Arrow confronted Cyrus while he was driving a stolen truck from a sugar refinery. Cyrus took an arrow to the leg and was knocked out of the truck. Later on, inside an A.R.G.U.S. bunker, he attacked Oliver again, who questioned him if he was injected with Mirakuru. Cyrus replied that 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, allowing Cyrus to escape.

Afterwards, the police were after Cyrus on a tip from Oliver, who had gained Barry Allen's help in identifying him. John Diggle entered Cyrus's apartment with Oliver as backup. Cyrus attacked but Diggle managed to get away on the fire escape. Blood was informed that the police were after Gold, who ambushed them, hurting Officer Quentin Lance and killing Detective Lucas Hilton. At the hospital, Quentin gave the Arrow a key he managed to grab from Cyrus.

Cyrus killed after he is knocked into a mix of chemicals by The Arrow.

Barry Allen and Felicity Smoak managed to track the Church of Blood down to an abandoned factory where the key was made. Oliver confronted Cyrus, but was quickly incapacitated. 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 against the wall. He shot the centrifuge next to Cyrus with an arrow, destroying it and spilling a mix of chemicals over Cyrus' face, killing him.

Powers and abilities

"Did he give you the Mirakuru? Did he inject you with it?"
"No. He saved me with it."

—The Arrow and Cyrus Gold^[src]

Powers

• Enhanced physical condition: Being the first test subject of Brother Blood to survive the injection of the Mirakuru serum, Cyrus wielded all the benefits of the Mirakuru serum. His strength, durability, stamina, and endurance where increased beyond human capability, while his reflexes, agility, senses and speed were raised to peak human. In addition, like all other subjects of Mirakuru, he possessed an accelerated healing factor.
  • Enhanced strength: Cyrus had shown sufficient strength to break down giant reinforced steel doors, break human bones with one hand, and carry an industrial centrifuge over one shoulder. He was capable of sending objects flying at the speed of an arrow, such as as when he threw a metal case into a camera in seconds. He was also capable of pushing a large wooden crate through the air and into a wall when aiming it at the Arrow, smashing it to pieces, as well as kicking a table several feet away. Cyrus had proved to be more than a physical match for the Arrow, allowing him to send the him flying through the air with his attacks.
  • 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. He could also effortlessly land on his feet from several stories without being hurt or slowed down.
  • Enhanced speed: In "The Scientist", 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 comics, Cyrus Gold became an inhuman zombie named "Solomon Grundy" after being murdered, when he was extorted for money due to 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 nod to the poem.
• This is the third live action appearance of Cyrus Gold, but only the second appearance of him alive, not as Solomon Grundy.

Appearances

Arrow

Season 2

• "State v. Queen"
• "The Scientist"
• "Three Ghosts"
• "Blast Radius" (mentioned)
• "Blind Spot" (mentioned)
• "The Promise" (mentioned)

Season 7

• "Emerald Archer" (archive footage)

Novels

• Arrow: Vengeance