Damien Darhk

Damien Darhk
Biological Information
Species	Human
Status	Deceased
Universe Information
Home universe	Earth-1
General Information
Occupation	Vessel for Mallus (briefly; formerly) Leader of H.I.V.E. (formerly) Mayor of Star City (altered reality; formerly)
Affiliation	League of Assassins (formerly) H.I.V.E. (formerly) Legion of Doom (formerly) Mallus (formerly)
Family	Ruvé Adams (wife; deceased) Nora Darhk (daughter)
Alter ego	Black Knight (formerly) Odin (formerly)
Actor	Neal McDonough

"I get it, you think that I failed you because I joined with the Legends and trapped you here. Well you're right, I did fail you. But that's not how. I was a terrible father. I was obsessed with world domination. Because of that, I died. Leaving you all alone as a child. Trapped with my name and my foolish dream. Oh, I turned you into a demon long before Mallus did. That's why I'm begging you, do not let him take you away from me."

—Damien Darhk to a Mallus-possessed Nora Darhk^[src]

Damien Darhk (c. 1759-2016; 1895-1992), also known as Kenneth Bender and Odin, was a former member of the League of Assassins, and the ex-best friend/nemesis of the late "Ra's al Ghul", as well as a former "Heir to the Demon". After escaping death at Ra's hands, Damien stole water from the Lazarus Pit and formed his own version of the League called H.I.V.E.. However, Damien's methods were far more extreme and killed thousands of people. Using the Lazarus Pit, Damien continued his schemes for over a century, plotting to end the world in nuclear fire to give it a fresh start. Damien spent years gathering the resources and followers to build a shelter to survive such an apocalypse. Around 2011, he obtained the Khushu Idol which gave him numerous powers and abilities and made him virtually unstoppable.

In 2015, Damien brought H.I.V.E. to Star City to build his ark, destabilizing the city and minimizing outside interference. Furthermore, he was responsible for the destruction of Havenrock with a nuclear weapon and the deaths of tens of thousands. He was opposed by Oliver Queen/Green Arrow and had frequent encounters with the emerald archer, in both identities until he eventually learned his "enemies" were the same person. He also forced Quentin Lance to aid him, threatening to kill his daughter Laurel Lance/Black Canary if he didn't comply and eventually did so when Quentin betrayed him. Just as Damien almost succeeded in his plan, his wife was murdered and his ark destroyed. He was opposed by the people of Star City who Oliver'd rallied together to stand up to H.IV.E.. Shortly after this, he was killed by Oliver in revenge for killing Laurel.

A version of Damien from 1987 met a time travelling Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash and learnt of his future death from Sara Lance/White Canary, and joined forces with Eobard and Malcolm Merlyn/Dark Archer, forming the Legion of Doom, and they began traveling through time to obtain the Spear of Destiny, a powerful artifact capable of altering reality, eventually managing to gather the fragments and rewrite reality to their whims, where Damien was the mayor of Star City and had killed many heroes. Eventually, the Legion was defeated by the Legends and Damien was returned to his own time with his memories erased by Sara, restoring the timeline and Damien's actions until his eventual death in 2016.

A year after his death, his corpse showed up in 1895 London. The Legends and Rip Hunter learned of this anachronism and arrived in 1895. However, they were not able to prevent a ritual performed by Damien's daughter Nora, from resurrecting him. Damien returned to life with his erased memories of his time battling the Legends as part of the Legion of Doom restored, as well as his magical powers fully intact without the need for the idol he'd previously used to access his powers. Eventually, after Damien Darhk traded places with Nora as Mallus's vessel; he died once again when Mallus freed himself, with the demon assuming his true form.

Biography

Leaving the League

At one point, Damien Darhk and an unnamed man were horsemen of Ra's al Ghul. The former thought himself worthy of taking the mantle, though the latter was the chosen one. Damien was to be killed but managed to escape, taking with him waters of the Lazarus Pit and some loyal followers. Damien founded his own organization called H.I.V.E. to continue the league's ways the way he saw fit.

Nazi Germany and Eobard Thawne

In 1942, Darhk was visited by Eobard Thawne who asked for his assistance in cooperating with the Nazis in order to obtain an artifact in his possession. He had him work with the Germans to kidnap Albert Einstein and create an atomic bomb to destroy New York. Darhk had gone to New York and met with the Nazis to inform them that he had acquired the Uranium needed for the weapon, but they still needed the proper expertise to weaponize it. The Nazis told him that they were working on kidnapping a scientist they needed to accomplish this. Unknowingly, he was being hunted by Sara Lance who had wanted to kill him in order to stop him from killing her sister Laurel in 2016. However, she had been pulled back from trying to assassinate him in order to find where the Nazis were keeping their bomb and Einstein.

The Germans managed to kidnap Mileva Maric to weaponize the Uranium into an atomic bomb. She demanded for Darhk to let her go but he wouldn't as they still needed her to make the bomb battle ready. He ordered for her to be brought onboard a submarine but the Legends arrived to stop him from taking her and the bomb. Darhk was then confronted by Sara Lance and he was able to recognize her fighting technique from the League of Assassins. She told him that she was there to kill him, to his confusion, but he managed to hold her off. The Legends managed to get Maric but couldn't get rid of the bomb and were forced to pull out. Darhk then boarded the Nazi submarine with the bomb and headed for New York. They detected the Waverider and he ordered for it to be fired on. When the bomb was fitted into a torpedo and aimed at New York, he commanded for it to be fired. However, the torpedo was intercepted by the Waverider and was stopped.

Darhk meeting with Thawne aboard the Nazi submarine.

Darhk was then met with the Nazi commander who was angry as Darhk promised there would be no trouble but Darhk calmly countered that he was promised competence from them. When the commander suggested to try again with another bomb, Darhk said there wouldn't be a next bomb as his partner was moving on to something else. The Nazis were ready to kill Darhk for his insolence, but Thawne arrived and killed the entire crew save for Darhk.

Murder attempt of Bernhardt Vogel

In 1962, a man named Bernhardt Vogel developed cold fusion, a powerful energy source that can replace fossil fuels. Darhk, who was known at the time as the world's greatest assassin, was hired by rich people from the oil industry to kill Vogal, because his invention was a threat for the industry.

Original timeline: Darhk successfully killed Dr. Vogal, thus putting an end to the cold fusion and saving the oil industry.

Current timeline: Darhk tried to kill Vogal, but Ray Palmer and Nora Darhk rescued him and escaped. The following day, Darhk tried to kill Vogal again but failed as Vogal was rescued by Damien's future version. Later, Damien kidnapped Nora and offered a trade: Nora for Dr. Vogal. His future version agreed, but Darhk tricked him and threw Nora out of the roof, but not before he shot Vogal. Future Darhk used his magic to catch Nora, and Damien tried to use the situation for his adventage. Darhk shot his future self, but future Darhk caught the bullets with his magic. The two started fighting, while future Darhk tried to catch Nora. During the fight, Darhk was impressed from his opponent's magic powers, and noted that he should study it in the future. Eventually, Nora finally got her powers from the Anansi Totem and defeated Darhk. Dr. Vogal later died from his injuries, but not before he gave Ray Palmer the secrets for cold fusion.

Sale of Vandal Savage's nuclear warhead

Damien in 1975.

In October 1975, Damien planned on buying a nuclear warhead from the possession of Vandal Savage, accompanied by two of his Ghosts. He put in an initial bid of $100 million, but was outbid by Martin Stein. When Damien met him, he suspected Stein wasn't as he appeared since Damien wasn't familiar with him or his organization, as he was aware of everyone. Stein's associate Mick Rory started to get angry with him, forcing Savage to intervene. As a fight ensued, Damien and his men left the premises of the Norwegian military storage facility.

Changing his destiny

In 1987, Damien was in the middle of a black market deal that the CIA had stumbled upon. Before he could handle the situation, Eobard Thawne arrived and killed everyone leaving only the two of them. Thawne told Darhk that he was looking for a partner but Damien told him that he preferred to work alone. Thawne told him that he knew what he was planning with his Ark and offered to give Damien actual power instead of symbols of power. Damien then went to the Nuclear Treaty being done in Washington D.C. and joined Ronald Reagan's administration as an advisor. He would go to be a key part of the disarming the nuclear arsenals of the US and USSR. This created an aberration which summoned the Legends. Darhk was in the White House when he was spotted by Ray and Mick who alerted the team. Sara then snuck off to try and kill Damien but she was spotted by the Secret Service and Darhk managed to get away.

Later that night, he met with an agent of the KGB, Boris, in order to negotiate a trade that would be held during the peace dinner at the White House. His meeting was stumbled upon by a young Martin Stein who was hoping to use Darhk's White House connections to pass his research proposals to the President but the young man realized what Darhk was doing in the park with the KGB agent. Damien then stabbed the young man to keep his position a secret. During the dinner, Damien took some of his HIVE ghosts with him and traded nuclear launch codes to the KGB while they gave him an artifact that they had in their possession. However, the Legends and Obsidian showed up to disrupt their meeting. Damien taunted them with the fact that he planted a bomb at the dinner to destroy all hopes of peace between the superpowers before he killed Boris and opened fire on the KGB to start a fight. He then shot Obsidian and was then confronted by Sara Lance who he remembered back from 1942. At first, he thought she was still young through the Lazarus Pit but she revealed that she was a time traveler. She then taunted Darhk about how his plans in the future were derailed and he was killed while he listened in both anger and shock. Before anything else could be done, he was whisked away by Eobard Thawne.

Damien Darhk in the time sphere as he joins forces with Eobard Thawne.

However, he discovered that the medallion had been swiped away from him by Sara during her revelations to him about his future. Damien tried to assure Eobard that he would get the medallion back for him but the speedster told him that the Legends had already left 1987 and it was now beyond his reach. With knowledge that all his plans and hopes for the future end in failure and in his demise, he asked for Eobard to take him along so that he could change his destiny. Eobard agreed to the alliance and showed Damien his Time Sphere. He went inside as Thawne activated it with his speed and the two went off into the timestream.

The Legion of Doom

Damien Darhk and Eobard Thawne meeting with Malcolm Merlyn in 2016.

Both Damien and Eobard went to the year 2016, just after his death where they met up with Malcolm Merlyn. Damien wasn't too impressed with Malcolm as he was binge drinking and living in squalor though Eobard told him that the man used to be Ra's Al Ghul but had fallen on hard times. Merlyn was surprised to see Damien as he had just watched his final moments on television just seconds before their arrival which Damien told him that he was driven to change. The two of them then offered Merlyn his own chance to change his destiny along with their own and the man agreed.

Darhk, Merlyn, and Thawne meeting with Al Capone in 1927.

The newly allied trio then went off to Chicago in 1927 where they met up with Al Capone. They warned him of the impending arrival of the FBI led by Eliot Ness and offered their help in seeing that his empire didn't fall. This was a plan to create an aberration to lure in the Legends so that they could get the medallion they took from Damien back in 1987. Damien laid in wait at the docks and saw that it worked when the Legends arrived to save Ness from being killed by Capone.

Darhk was at Al Capone's night club where he bumped into the Legends as they were trying to find the ledger of Capone's dealings so that history could be placed back on track. Before they could do anything about him, Thawne arrived and incapacitated them and they managed to take both Martin Stein and Sara Lance hostage. After Malcolm Merlyn failed to cut a deal with them for the amulet, Darhk arrived to convince them a different way. He said that he would torture them for the amulet and Sara told him to do his worst. Darhk was amused that she thought he meant her and took Stein away. When the Legends arrived to save their friends, they barely managed to escape as Capone and his men tried to kill them. However, it was revealed that it was all theatre as Capone asked Damien if he was convincing enough. Damien told Capone that he sold it and that everything was going according to plan.

When Thawne and Merlyn regrouped with Darhk from their siege of the Waverider, they revealed that they had succeeded in getting the medallion. With the one that Thawne already had, he revealed to them that they were two parts of the same one. He told them that it was a compass that led to the Spear of Destiny and it had the power to rewrite reality itself. Thawne then revealed that their next step was to find someone that Damien had met before, Rip Hunter.

Damien Darhk and Malcolm Merlyn then went off to Los Angeles in 1967 to track down the Spear of Destiny. They walked through Hollywood before they went and killed two bikers that tried to rob them and stole their motorcycles. Their murders of these men caused a small aberration as one of them was supposed to go on and make a new engine for motorcycles which summoned the Legends. The two of them followed the trail from the medallion to a film set where they found Rip Hunter, going by the name Phil, where he was shooting a movie with George Lucas. They moved to try and take him captive but the Legends arrived and were surprised to see that Rip was there and fought against them to get him back. The fight saw that Rip was arrested and brought to the police station and also went on to cause an aberration which had George Lucas quit film school. Darhk and Merlyn tried to pick up Hunter at the station but the Legends managed to get him to the Waverider. The two of them saw that Rip didn't have the spear so they went on to question his film crew and learned that George Lucas had it. When they tracked him down, they found that Nate, Amaya and Ray were with him and surprised them before taking them prisoner. Nate found he didn't have his powers anymore and Ray didn't have his suit due to the aberration and the two also took Amaya's totem. Darhk then angrily interrogated Lucas for where the spear was and he quickly confessed that he thought it was a useless movie prop and threw it in the trash. He then asked Lucas where the city dump was located.

The Legion against the Legends.

Darhk and Merlyn brought the four to the dump and forced them to start digging through the trash for the spear. To motivate them, they turned on the trash compactor so that they would hurry and find it faster. The four found it but knew that Damien and Malcolm would kill them as soon as they got it. They inspired George Lucas to believe in the impossible again and he yelled that he wanted to direct which corrected the aberration and gave Nate his powers back and Ray his suit. They then managed to overpower Damien and Merlyn as well as take the medallion from them. Sara Lance and Jefferson Jackson also arrived and the two saw they were outnumbered. But Eobard Thawne showed up and tipped the scales back in their favor. Rip Hunter then showed up, dressed in his old coat and tried to pass himself off as his old self but the act was quickly seen through as they went and captured him. When 'Phil' asked if Eobard would torture him, he said he wouldn't before he pointed to Damien and Malcolm and said that they would.

They tortured Rip but they didn't manage to get any new information about the spear. Damien and Malcolm were then berated by Eobard for losing the medallion to the Legends and forcing them into this dead end. When Malcolm tried and failed to use hypnosis on Rip, Damien again recommended torture sparking up an argument between him and Malcolm. Eobard audibly chastised himself for trying to rely on the two of them before he sped off. Damien then complained to Rip about how Eobard was treating him like a henchman which he didn't like at all. He then noticed something about Rip and proceeded to pull out his tooth which had a barcode embedded in it. Damien analyzed it and saw that it was information about a security deposit box for a bank in Switzerland. Eobard then told him and Malcolm to secure it before he sped off again. Damien thought the best way to get the spear from the bank was to just go in and kill everyone but Malcolm argued that they should use Rip to get through security and easily leave the bank with the spear. Damien then mocked Malcolm, calling him soft, before Malcolm told Damien that he didn't find him threatening at all.

He relented to Malcolm's plan and took Rip to the bank where they had him go through security under their watchful eye. As they waited, Malcolm brought up the fact that Eobard was most likely hiding something given the fact that he never stays in one place. Damien then retorted that Malcolm shouldn't try making them start turning on each other as it could bring down everything but Malcolm heatedly shot back that Eobard didn't see them as equals but his lackeys. Rip got through most of the security but when asked to speak his vocal password, he froze as he didn't know it. Damien then moved in and killed the security official and he and Malcolm killed the other guards before they were forced to flee. Back at the hideout, Damien angrily told Malcolm that they failed because they followed his plan when they should've gone with his own. The two then engaged in a fight but stopped when Rip shouted at them that this is what Eobard wanted. Damien and Malcolm agreed and decided that they had to work together if they were going to get what they wanted without Eobard betraying them.

Merlyn, Thawne and Darhk hearing the cry of the speedster hunting Thawne.

Together, they infiltrated the bank following Damien's original plan to kill their way through and got to the box but inside wasn't the spear. Eobard showed up, having learned where they were from Rip, and explained that it was a device that held memories, presumably Rip Hunter's. They then locked the vault trapping them inside and revealed that they were tired of Eobard ordering them around and wanted to be treated as equals as he needed them as much as they needed him. Eobard tried to threaten them but grew scared when his watch alerted him. He then revealed that there was a dark speedster hunting him as he wasn't supposed to exist since his ancestor killed himself to try and erase him. The two agreed to help him escape if he agreed to treat them as equal partners and Eobard quickly agreed. They set a trap for the speedster which ended up working and trapping it in the vault.

They returned to the hideout where Eobard began to decode the device for Rip Hunter's memories and said that they could easily restore them by plugging it into his brain. Damien asked why they weren't doing that now and Eobard revealed that they could also alter his personality which they did to make Rip Hunter their newest ally.

Damien Darhk and Rip Hunter threatening the Legends in the castle of Camelot.

When Rip Hunter had his memory restored, he informed the Legion that the spear was in fragments entrusted to members of the Justice Society of America that he placed in three separate time periods. Damien went with Hunter to 507 A.D. where Stargirl was posing as Merlin in the legendary court of Camelot. Damien masqueraded as the Black Knight and abducted knights of the kingdom and had them turned into their puppets through advanced cyber mind control technology. Damien even crossed swords and brought down the legendary King Arthur himself. With Arthur under their control, they went into the castle where they ran into the Legends. Damien gave them an ultimatum: give them the spear by dawn or they'll unleash their brainwashed army on Camelot and destroy it.

Rip Hunter was getting tired of waiting and wanted to attack the kingdom that night but Damien told him to have patience as it was easier to attack out in an open field than lay siege to a castle. He then warned Rip to show him more respect as the tech may control the army but didn't control him.

Damien Darhk faces off against Ray Palmer in Camelot.

When dawn broke, Damien looked out onto the battlefield to see that Guinevere had assembled the knights to try and resist them. He also saw that Stargirl and Ray Palmer were there too. When the battle started, it seemed like their army would overwhelm Camelot's but the rest of the Legends arrived to turn the tide and even found a way to disrupt their control of the army. When Rip was brought down by the now freed Arthur, he called out to Damien for his help but he just sneered at the former Time Master and said that he didn't do rescues. He then tried to flee but Ray went after him. When they were far enough, Damien stopped to meet him face to face and mocked him, saying that he was a glorified nerd and not a knight. Ray then attacked him with the fallen Sir Galahad's sword that he charged with the energy from his suit and managed to knock him down, although Damien was clearly caught off guard. However, Damien quickly brought out a hidden blaster and shot Ray before he went and made his escape.

The Spear of Destiny

Damien was sent along with Merlyn to find the Calebros Manuscript and he had returned to the Vanishing Point to find that the Legends had infiltrated their headquarters and stole the spear fragments from under Eobard's nose. He blamed Eobard for their current problem but the speedster pointed out that it might actually be a positive development as now they didn't have to go after the spear piece by piece. Darhk was skeptical that they would be able to get the spear now as they were and told Thawne that they had to change their game. They went back in time and acquired Leonard Snart before he joined the Legends and informed him of his doomed future. He agreed to help them get the spear and already had a plan which involved Mick Rory. Learning of the Legends' plan to get the blood of Christ and destroy the spear, they surprised them at the grave of Sir Gawain in 1916. They ambushed them with World War I German soldiers and forced the Legends to retreat.

Darhk and Snart them waited at the site where the blood was on a battlefield. He thought it was impressive that the Legends managed to get a cease fire from the two armies and then demanded the spear be handed over or they would kill them. Rory then took the spear and joined back with his old friend but Sara Lance told them that she wouldn't let them get away. Darhk agreed and thought they could use a distraction so Snart re-sparked the fighting between the two warring sides with a grenade. Darhk, Snart and Rory were then picked up by Thawne who sped them off the battlefield.

Darhk with the rest of the Legion as they begin to use the spear to re-write reality.

Back at the Vanishing Point, Darhk admitted that he was impressed with Snart's plan to turn Rory against the Legends and get the spear for them. Merlyn then returned, having acquired the Calebros Manuscript which had the incantation needed to activate the spear. They then all grabbed hold of the spear as Merlyn read the chant and they all began to re-write reality to their whims.

New reality

Darhk admiring his trophies from fallen heroes.

When the Legion used the spear, Damien altered reality so as he was now the mayor of Star City and he also made it so that he retained his magical abilities. He also had it so Sara Lance and Amaya Jiwe were now his personal hitmen and were loyal to him though Malcolm thought his decision as well as Thawne's to have Stein and Jackson as loyal employees was foolish. Darhk had his two assailants go out and bring in a vigilante that was causing him problems who turned out to be this new reality's Felicity Smoak. He had her killed and then took her mask to add it to his collection of other masks from the various heroes and vigilantes that had stood against him and were now dead.

However, he and Malcolm were worried about the fact that Thawne had custody of the spear and had destroyed the Calebros so that he was the only one that could activate his power. They were worried that Thawne would use it against them and brought in Snart for an alliance to safeguard against him. However, the plans had to change as the Legends were starting to remember their former lives and Rory was starting to get second thoughts. Darhk had Sara and Amaya go and deal with Rory, Nate and Ray but the two of them managed to get their own memories back and rejoined the Legends. When they all learned through Rory that the Legends were going to try and steal the spear back from Thawne before he could destroy it, they felt that it would give them the opportunity to steal it first.

They went to S.T.A.R. Labs as the Legends got Jackson and were trying to get Stein back but were confronted by Thawne. They surprised Thawne and Darhk managed to grab the spear but it was taken from him by Sara. The spear was then given to Amaya by Rory and Darhk watched in horror as Amaya was about to use it to revert reality back to normal but Snart froze her and killed her with his Cold Gun before she could. However, his celebration was cut short when Thawne stole the spear back and then destroyed it with his new reactor. Thawne then warned him, Merlyn and Snart to not try to cross him again as they were no match for him.

Damien Darhk being attacked by the Waverider.

Darhk had returned to S.T.A.R. Labs in time to see that the Legends were there and were trying to steal back Ray's ATOM suit in order to revert the Waverider back to its normal size after Thawne shrunk it. He quickly held both Jax and Ray at bay with his magic and told them that he felt Thawne made a mistake letting them live back at the reactor. However, he was happy to now be the one who would kill the Legends. Before he could kill them, the Waverider flew into the room and Rip had Gideon fire upon him. However, the small ship's weapons hardly fazed Damien who was only amused by the attempt. Yet, the firing did serve as a distraction for Mick Rory to appear behind him and knock him out from behind.

Return to the timeline

The Legends realized that to stop the Legion from rewriting reality, they had to risk going back in time to 1916, just before they had acquired the spear from their past selves. Damien had just been joined by Snart after he visited Mick Rory and learned of the Legends' plan for obtaining the blood of Christ when they were suddenly visited by Eobard and Malcolm. Damien was confused as he thought that Malcolm was hunting for the Calebros and Eobard revealed that he was from their future. He told them of the other set of Legends and told him, Malcolm and Snart to deal with them while the speedster went off to get backup.

Damien with Snart and Malcolm as they attack the Legends in a final battle.

The three of them managed to find the Waverider and then used their weapons to attack it in order to breach its shields. They attacked it just as it tried to make a time jump when the ship was caught in a Time Storm and crashed. When the Legends emerged, Damien headed over for them with the others and fired upon them. He and Malcolm tried to shoot down both Ray Palmer and Firestorm but they were too fast and they found their weapons had malfunctioned. Malcolm then suggested to him that they go "old school" which Damien agreed as he felt that killing had been to "impersonal" lately.

Damien kills future Nate.

Damien moved to engage the Legends with a sword but was held at gunpoint by future Rory who had his Heat Gun aimed at him. He was then told to let Damien go by Snart but Rory wouldn't listen to him and then Snart killed him with a shard of ice from his Cold Gun. Damien then moved off and surprised future Nate from behind and drove his blade into him. He then engaged Sara in a one on one fight. The two fought evenly for a while until she managed to get the upperhand on him and had his neck at swordpoint. He taunted her to finish him off but she just smiled and said that death would be too kind for him. He was then knocked out from a hit by future Sara.

Damien Darhk is taken back to 1987 by Sara Lance.

When Eobard was defeated and erased from the timeline, Damien, Snart, and Malcolm were taken prisoner. Malcolm was returned to the present but Snart pointed out that he and Damien were already dead by 2017. However, Sara told them that they weren't going to 2017. Sara took Damien back to 1987, where Eobard had plucked him from, to resume his timeline. Damien pointed out to Sara that if he returned to follow his original path, it would lead to him killing her sister. Sara told him she knew that but has accepted and is okay with it, and so was Laurel. When Damien, confused, asked how she could know that, Sara just smiled and didn't answer as she used a device to wipe his memories of the future to keep the timeline in check.

Marriage to Ruvé

At some point, Damien met and married Ruvé Adams, who gave birth to their only child, Nora, on December 2, 2003.

H.I.V.E. operations

In 2011, Damien obtained the Khushu Idol, which gave him numerous powers and abilities and made him virtually unstoppable.

At some point after that, Damien became well-known and feared throughout the mystic world for his power. Even John Constantine considered fleeing whatever city Damien was in a preferable option than opposing him.

In early 2014, H.I.V.E. attempted to gain possession of Malcolm Merlyn's prototype earthquake generator, sending Milo Armitage to obtain it using Ben Turner/Bronze Tiger to acquire the device itself. Then gave Gholem Qadir safe haven in Markovia to purchase it from Armitage, presumably for Qadir to take the fall in case the plan was compromised. However the organization's plans failed when The Arrow and Roy Harper destroyed the device.

In late 2014 Damien hired A.R.G.U.S. operative Mark Shaw to steal a secret file from A.R.G.U.S. detailing a list of all their field operatives and their families, but this plot was foiled by John Diggle. In early 2015 Damien visited Starling City and stayed in at a hotel of which he had the entire top floor shut down and guarded by his operatives. It's unclear what his intentions were, though they were presumably related to Genesis, but Damien caught on early that Ra's was planning to destroy Starling City with the Alpha-Omega bio-weapon to kill him, and Damien left leaving behind his assistant to take the fall.

Attacks on Star City

Later in 2015 Damien returned to Starling City, renamed "Star City" now, with a mission to see the city destroyed and sent his operatives to rob banks and jewelry stores to build up enough wealth for the operation. After accomplishing that Damien had his men steal weapons and munitions mainly from Kord Industries and began a killing spree that saw many civilians killed. Damien also managed to force the co-operation of police Captain Quentin Lance, using his daughter Laurel as leverage should he disagree, to aid him wherever he needed.

As the surviving city leaders, Quentin included, held a private meeting to discus how to combat H.I.V.E. agents, known publicly as "The Ghosts", but Damien intruded and made his intentions clear to them. He and his organization intended to let the city die and told them all to call their loved ones and say goodbye, as they would all be dead soon and left. True to his word Damien organization coordinated attacks which left D.A. Susanna poisoned and the other leaders either shot or stabbed, but deliberately had his men leave Quentin alive but with a broken arm to take suspicion off himself. Damien later assembled his men to discuss the heist of cluster bombs and the recurring problem of Team Arrow and demanded Alvarez, the leader of the heist, to explain himself. However upon being unsatisfied with his excuse Damien killed him then Black Canary, Speedy and Diggle attacked but Damien was able to escape.

Damien later continued his plan to blow up the reopened train station by placing the cluster bombs on the train itself and destroyed the brakes after departure. A few miles away from their target Damien was unable to get a response from one of his men, Slater, but was confronted by an apparent impostor of The Arrow. However Damien was surprised and confused since Roy Harper/The Arrow was killed in prison months ago but regardless "The Arrow" demanded Damien stop the train. After Damien introduced himself to "The Arrow" he immediately tried to kill him but none of "The Arrow"'s shots made contact and Damien quickly subdued him, but before he could kill him Diggle intervened and knocked Damien out. However Damien vanished from the train before the two men blew it up. Damien later watched "The Arrow"'s public broadcast with him declaring his intentions to fight for the city and to be the symbol of hope the Arrow never was, and proclaimed himself the "Green Arrow". Damien later performed a blood ritual with a goblet, apparently to heal his wounds, as Quentin came to see him on his request and ordered him to make sure Green Arrow was dead before the rest of H.I.V.E. arrived.

Damien and H.I.V.E. later hired Lonnie Machin to stop Jessica Danforth from running for mayor of Star City and though Damien was impressed by his skills of masquerading, he was unimpressed by his sloppiness. However Lonnie begged for another chance to ensure Jessica did not run for mayor which Damien reluctantly agreed, but reminded him there would be no 3rd chance. However Lonnie kidnapped Jessica's daughter Madison and Damien was outraged that Lonnie had gone too far and terminated their partnership. Later Quentin barged in to tell Damien he was done with him but Damien reminded him of his daughter and provided him with Madison's location, but also reminded him the next time they meet to mind his tone.

Seeking to kill Green Arrow Mina Fayad, an operative of H.I.V.E., hired meta-human mercenary Jeremy Tell to kill him though Damien was skeptical of Jeremy's abilities, and ordered him to prove himself by killing an operative who was almost captured rather than kill himself. Tell then literally pulled a card out of the tattoo's on his arm and killed the operative and despite knowing to kill Green Arrow would be costly, Damien agreed. After Tell's first failure he scolded him and Fayad for being compromised on a mission of her own earlier and ordered Tell to kill him, as a demonstration, but Damien intercepted Tell's card and used it to kill Mina and gave Jeremy once last chance to accomplish his task.

Quentin then met with Damien in private, seeking advice on restoring Sara Lance's humanity after being revived in the Lazarus Pit. Damien gave Quentin father-to-father advice, warning him that he needed to put down Sara and send her back to the grave, the two not knowing Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak had discovered their alliance from a surveillance photo.

Damien then tasked Quentin with using a device that would delete the names of everyone H.I.V.E had a hand in assassinating, including Andy Diggle. After the task was finished, Quentin began to question Damien about Andy, which surprised and amused the latter, who wondered why Quentin was so interested in a crime lord but nevertheless giving him a classified folder about Andy.

Team Arrow soon learned that Damien had been holding Ray Palmer captive after intercepting his distress call to Felicity in order to use his technology for their plans, even threatening to harm Felicity if he didn't cooperate. Quentin met with Damien to request magic to help Sara after her recovery with a frustrated Damien saying that he would help but that it was the last time he would ever summon him. Quentin gave the directions to Team Arrow, who had John Diggle capture Oliver in disguise as a "Ghost". They managed to successfully rescue Ray, although Oliver barely managed to escape being strangled to death by chains under control from Damien's telekinesis.

As Oliver stepped up his mayoral campaign, Damien took a more active interest when Oliver announced his plan to restore the Star City Bay area. At a Police black-tie function, Damien approached Oliver and offered his financial and PR backing in exchange for Oliver scrapping his Bay restoration project but Oliver politely rebuffed him. The following evening Damien met with Quentin to question him about his supposed disloyalty, which Damien expressly warned him against. In the meantime, Green Arrow and his team continued to plague Damien's operations in Star City culminating in a surgical strike against the HQ of the Ghosts by Green Arrow and his team in an effort to rescue Andrew Diggle. Damien quickly became aware and sardonically confronted Speedy in a hallway, throwing her off with his magical powers before attempting to siphon the life out of her. To his horror, Damien's power had no negative effect whatsoever on Speedy and instead caused Damien to release her and double over in severe pain as dark patterns spread across his face before disappearing. Damien later stood in the crowd during Oliver's presentation where he didn't decline his previous proposal much to Damien's annoyance.

Damien later personally led a team of Ghosts to raid an A.R.G.U.S. facility to steal a chemical bomb, only to be confronted by Team Arrow, who disarm the Ghosts of their guns with a magnetic arrow. During the fighting, Damien was in the midst of draining Green Arrow's life-force when the vigilante was rescued by the Flash. He was both amused and confused about what just happened.

Attacking Oliver Queen

Damien would later send a drone to attack the Star City bay which was in the process of being cleaned by volunteers. However, due to his actions, Oliver Queen revealed his identity to the public as well as his connection to H.I.V.E. Much to his visitors from the organization's annoyance. In an act of revenge Damien attacked Oliver's Holiday Party, and abducted John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, and Thea Queen. Later, as he is speaking with the visiting H.I.V.E. agents he got a call from Oliver on his phone. Oliver attempted trading himself for his friends, but Damien decided to kill them in a gas chamber to take what Oliver had to fight for. However, Black Canary and Green Arrow (Malcolm Merlyn) interfered and saved Oliver's compatriots. Damien immediately left the scene and fought with Green Arrow, only to be attacked by Oliver. After almost killing Oliver, Damien was knocked out by Malcolm and presumed dead, after the latter destroyed the facility.

Damien celebrates Christmas with his family.

Damien, who escaped death, showed his associates an underground cornfield, and told them the air in it was pure and breathable thanks to the algae he engineered from Star City Bay. He then told the agents it was time for them to begin Phase Four of their plan, and sent Ghosts to kill Queen. While the attack was occurring, Damien returned home to his family for Christmas.

Damien confronted Green Arrow at his home, using his telekinesis to pierce Green Arrow with two arrows before learning from him that he helped rescue his wife and daughter from Lonnie Machin. Damien showed no gratitude towards this, only mentioning that he would spare the vigilante a few more weeks to enjoy time with his family. He then bought out the Fairmount Hotel for a month while he and Ruvé looked for a new home. Later that night on the way to Fairmount, Ruvé and Damien discussed their plans for H.I.V.E.'s endgame.

After the League of Assassins was disbanded, Malcolm met with Damien. Malcolm claimed he had information on who Oliver loved more than anything, to which Damien said he had already hurt Felicity Smoak. Malcolm retorted that it was not Felicity, it is his son William Clayton that he loved the most, leaving Damien surprised. Damien later tracked down William in Central City and kidnapped him, bringing him to Darhk's home.

In an effort to blunt Oliver Queen's campaign to clean up the city, Darhk convinced his wife Ruvé to enter the mayoral race against Queen. To help her, Damien hired the "Demolition Team" to stage an elaborate attack on a mayoral debate between Ruvé and Queen with the intention of killing Queen and leaving Ruvé as the only candidate. The Demolition Crew failed to come through for Damien once their activities were discovered and foiled by the Green Arrow and his team and Ruvé immediately fell behind Queen in the race.

Darhk met with Felicity and Oliver with Darhk showing Oliver a video of William playing at the Darhk residence and that he had kidnapped him by proclaiming he was a friend of Samantha Clayton. Green Arrow and Vixen later attacked Darhk at his home but were both overpowered until the remaining members of Team Arrow showed up. Darhk called Oliver and using William as leverage, forced him to suspend his campaign for mayor and endorse Ruvé, which he did but still found that Darhk hadn't given up William. Team Arrow learned that Darhk's source of power was a totem that Quentin had seen him praying over and attacked him at his home in order to retrieve William and destroy the totem. Vixen destroyed the totem by channeling enough strength from the animal spirits, rendering Darhk's powers useless and him easily overpowered by Green Arrow and knocked unconscious. Darhk was then promptly arrested by the SCPD.

Trial and Imprisonment

During his trial, Darhk listens on as Fitzmartin, Darhk's attorney, destroys the credibility of Diggle and Thea's testimonies by proclaiming Diggle helped her purchase $74,000 worth of cocaine with an affidavit signed by Thea's dealer. However, Fitzmartin loses the case when Quentin comes forward as a witness due to his credibility as a police chief and exposes that he had been helping Darhk commit illegal activity due to Laurel's life being threatened. Darhk is then imprisoned without bail or the possibility of release but after he is escorted into his cell, he casually pulled a ring from between his teeth and slid it into his finger before smiling, implying his plans were still in effect.

Malcolm visited Darhk in prison as the latter pondered why his resources aren't trying to help him escape prison. Malcolm informs Darhk that H.I.V.E. has turned against him due to his brutality and they are moving forward with Genesis without his help. In prison, Darhk is beaten up by Michael Amar and two of his gang members but Darhk managed to turn the tables by discovering the whereabouts of Amar's grandmother and threatening her life to turn him against his own men, who he stabs to death with a shiv in front of him, the two now working together.

Damien kills Black Canary.

Malcolm brought Darhk his idol (the same one previously owned by Baron Reiter on Lian Yu) but the stone to power it was still separated and Darhk ordered Malcolm to hunt it down. Darhk and Murmur organize a prison riot by Murmur slipping shivs to prisoners via books and stabbing the guards in order to lure Team Arrow to the prison. There, it is revealed that Andy had been a spy for H.I.V.E. and once he learned Team Arrow was in possession of the stone, all he needed to know was its' location. With his magical powers restored, Darhk restrained Diggle, Oliver, and Laurel, also revealing that he was aware of their secret identities. Oliver shot an arrow at Darhk but he stopped it with his telekinesis and responded by stabbing Laurel in the stomach to send a message for Quentin for turning against him as Darhk, Malcolm and Andy escaped. Laurel died of the injuries Damien afflicted upon her hours later.

Original timeline

According to Rip Hunter in the original timeline where Sara never left Star City to join his team and take on Vandal Savage in the future, Damien would have killed both her and Laurel as well as their father.

Executing Genesis

Placing a tracker on Diggle after he is kidnapped by Andy, Darhk is able to locate Lyla. Easily penetrating the secured truck with his magic, Darhk extracts the Rubicon from Lyla, a device capable of controlling any nuclear missile.

Having killed tens of thousands of people with a nuclear missile guided by the reprogrammed Rubicon, Darhk absorbed the dark energy channeled after their deaths, growing stronger than ever.

Darhk then used Felicity Smoak's ex-boyfriend and hacker Cooper Seldon to help him hack into Rubicon however he was opposed by Felicity, her dad Noah and Curtis who defeated him and sent a power wave through his computer which knocked him out. Later on he learned about his wife Ruvé's apparent death and the destruction of his ark Tevat Noah which were both caused by Anarky. Angry and Mad, he arrived at Felicity's apartment and stated that he needed a favor. She then told him to go to hell but he stated that he intended to bring hell to them.

Darhk then used his powers to throw Curtis aside and uses them to levitate Donna towards him. He then threatened to kill Felicity's mother unless she helps him launch the missiles and end the world. Luckily Team Arrow arrives and a brief fight occurs which results in Darhk escaping with Felicity's laptop and his daughter who Thea threatened to kill unless he released Oliver from the grasps of his powers.

First Death

Damien Darhk being killed by the Green Arrow.

After H.I.V.E.'s rampage through Star City while attempting to execute Operation Genesis, Damien was finally killed by Green Arrow, who was able to negate Damien's dark magic with Light Magic by drawing on the positive faith of the people of Star City and their belief in him, both as Oliver Queen and Green Arrow. Oliver then stabbed an arrow right into Damien's chest and looked down at him as he slowly died. His death was captured on someone's cell phone where it was televised for the world to see.

Resurrection

Darhk's corpse became time displaced as an anachronism and landed in 1895 London. There, it was taken by a cult in London that was led by one of Martin Stein's ancestors. The cult stole his body from where it had been buried and then set to work trying to preserve it for the upcoming blood moon. They procured fresh blood from people in order to begin the resurrection of Darhk but the deaths were labeled as vampire attacks. Nora Darhk arrived per the wishes of Mallus to prepare for the arrival of Rip Hunter and the Legends who were tracking their activities. When the blood moon had arrived, its and Mallus' power flowed into Darhk and brought him back to life. He then looked down and smiled at the sight of his now adult daughter as well as the gathered witnesses.

He then demonstrated that he had been restored with all of powers in tact without the need for his idol. He then effortlessly killed the members of the Time Bureau that had gathered to stop them. When Rip tried to kill Darhk himself, he easily disarmed him and told him that he knew who Rip was and remembered everything from when he had been part of the Legion. Sara Lance and Amaya Jiwe had arrived to save Rip and Zari Tomaz. Sara tried to kill him but he easily batted away her efforts. Nora told her father that they had to retreat and Darhk told the Legends that they would meet again before he vanished alongside his daughter.

He would travel to 1930, where he became Helen of Troy's agent, he used this to gain money. When the Legends arrived, he brought Nora and Kuasa with him. He met the Legends and had a one to one talk with Sara. He gave her a choice to either leave the anachronisms alone and return to 2017 or he will kill every member of the Legends, leaving Sara for last. Later on, he and his daughter encountered Martin Stein (in the body of Jefferson Jackson) and Hedy Lamarr. When he hears Jax speaking differently, he is thrown but falls into a fit of laughter when he finds out that the two had switched bodies. He eventually gets over it and chases them down with Nora. When he has Stein at his mercy, the Legends arrive in which Sara offers a sword to sword fight against Damien, with no powers used. Sara wins the fight but before she can kill him Nora stops her with her magic. Damien then formally introduces Sara to his daughter Nora and watches as she begins to kill Sara. She is stopped by Firestorm and steps in to help hold back his onslaught but he and Nora are over-powered. They decide to flee to fight another day.

Damien uses the power of Mallus to transport Gorilla Grodd from near death in 1967 to the present. Grodd angrily asks who he is and he tells the telepathic ape that he is his number one fan as he was impressed by his attempt to destroy Central City with a nuclear attack. Grodd then demands that Darhk send him back to Vietnam as he wanted to take the Waverider for himself. Damien then tells him that he doesn't need the time ship as he could give him the power to time travel through Mallus.

The Time Bureau sent scores of agents after Darhk and his daughter but they easily defeated and killed them many times and caused the Bureau to fear them to the point of not responding to their actions.

Damien Dahrk masquerading as Odin

Darhk took Nora to 1000 A.D., when the Vikings had come to the New World, and posed as the Norse god Odin. There he kept the Vikings from leaving and wanted to lead them in their conquest of North America. The Legends were also there but they pulled back as they were still reeling from the loss of Martin Stein. Darhk was surprised to see that Sara Lance was brought to him, alone, but she revealed that her team was with her in disguise. Zari tried to attack him with a gust of wind that he shrugged off and then tried to use his telekinetic hold on Nate but it proved difficult when he had made himself steel up. Sara then shot him with a crossbow but he caught the arrow before it hit him. He was about to retaliate on her but he sensed that Nora had been hurt and quickly moved to take her and retreat. Before he could, Sara managed to grab him and she was sent to Mallus's prison.

Second death

As Damien and his daughter continued causing changes to the timeline, Mallus's control over Nora became stronger. When they sent Grodd back in time to kill a younger version of Baraak Obama, Mallus momentarily broke free of his prison, but was then returned to his cage when the Legends stopped Grodd from killing Obama. This worried Damien, as he now realized that, because Nora was Mallus's vessel, if Mallus was freed, Nora would die. Darhk admitted to Nate that while he did want to remake the world in his image, Damien didn't want to lose the person he was doing it for. When Mallus was released at the cost of Nora's body, Damien allied himself with the Legends to stop the demon and save his daughter. His fate was taking Nora's place in Mallus's return, killing Damien.

Time in Hell

Neron later mentioned to Nora that Damien Darhk was going "Stark-raving mad" in Hell.

Legacy

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Laurel Lance and Havenrock were avenged when Damien Darhk died. His daughter Nora grew up an orphan who brought him back. But in the end he sacrificed himself for his daughter, and now is in Hell for his crimes in life. Nora still misses both him and her mother Ruve.

Personality

"Trust is an orchid. Beautiful but delicate. Requires ideal conditions in order to thrive. Without those conditions, it dies."

—Damien Darhk^[src]

Damien apparently used to be arrogant and overconfident, as he believed himself to be the worthy successor to the then-Ra's al Ghul, he was immensely intelligent, cunning and calculating; as he managed to stay ahead of Ra's for years, evading him every time his ex-best friend tried to kill him. According to his late assistant; he was not someone who can be caught off guard so easily.

Damien was a perfectionist carefully planning out all his schemes and expects his subordinates to follow through without any mishaps. He will ruthlessly kill them for such failures if he believes they have not performed their duties to an adequate standard. Although he demanding good manners and respect from others, he was not above mocking people and their suffering.

Damien believes that the world was resistant to change and sees himself as one who brings about progress. He views his attacks on Star City as an act of mercy comparing it to putting down a dog on the street. He believes that to build something new and great the old must first be torn down first. Despite being marked for death by his old allies in the League of Assassins he has continued to follow the philosophy of the league and carries on with his own interpretation of it through his organization, H.I.V.E.. Despite his supposed good intentions, Damien has shown that he loves killing and torturing for his own amusement and it would give him great joy to watch the world burn regardless if he thought it was for the betterment of humanity.

Like many assassins, Damien was cold, cruel and ruthless, but he does have a sense of honor and good morals; for example, Damien has morals against torturing innocent children and says it was a line he would never cross, he became disgusted with Lonnie Machin for kidnapping Jessica Danforth's daughter Madison, part of this might be related to Damien having a child of his own and understanding the pain of having a child in danger. Although he threatened William's life to get Oliver to give up his mayoral campaign and his attempts to fight Damien, displaying that he feels only if he was justified in carrying out such an action whereas he was angry at Lonnie for doing the same thing (albeit he still didn't cross the more line; regarding kidnapping or torturing innocent children) and Malcolm was the one who technically kidnap William, Damien chose not to release him from his captivity and would never have done so had Oliver not followed his instructions, and would not have harm William even if Oliver had refused to not followed his instruction; due to Damien being a parent himself. He also advised Quentin Lance to put his daughter back to her final rest as he believed that was more merciful than her enduring the consequences of her resurrection from the Lazarus Pit. He advised Quentin to do this as "one father to another".

Despite normally being serious and cruel, Damien was shown to have a definite (if sick) sense of humor, he grinned while mocking an A.R.G.U.S. guard whose life-force he was draining, declaring that it was fun and he could do it all day. Though confused when the Flash saved Green Arrow, as it happened so fast he had no idea what happened, he was also amused. His demeanor can be described as charmingly demented, as he is often quick to make light of whatever situation he is in, such as throwing in quips or comical references, regardless of the danger or gravity of what is occurring. This trait typically manifests through his smiling and jovial tone of voice at times that most people would consider inappropriate or unusual. It was a rather unnerving trait that intimidates his enemies and befuddles his allies on a regular basis. Upon his resurrection, he annoyingly asked "who stole my watch?", when he found that it was missing while all the witnesses were shocked or in awe to his revival.

Damien's ruthlessness was reserved for his enemies and keeping his men in place, and did not extend to his H.I.V.E. associates or family, he had protected his associates from Green Arrow, and weathered their sarcasm during setbacks without violent outbursts, such as when Oliver Queen showed his photo to the public. Where possible he will use persuasion to force his enemies to back down, only resorting to violence if they persist in getting in his way - though his methods of persuasion can themselves be quite violent.

Damien had little tolerance for disobedience, failure and disloyalty, as multiple times he threatens to kill Quentin Lance's daughter Laurel, if he ever betrays him, eventually going through with his threat after the latter betrays him, even killed Phaedra Nixon and Milo Armitage high-ranking members of his organization for their treachery; for allowing him to rot in prison.

Despite these negative traits of his, Damien was a loving husband and father; he cares about his wife Ruvé Adams and his daughter Nora Darhk, as he will kill anyone who dares try to harm them, he also had no tolerance for those who disrespect members of his family, as he killed Tomas for disrespecting his wife. Ultimately, once learning of his wife's death and the possible demise of his daughter, Damien lost all care for a better world, seeking to destroy it, regardless of who dies.

Ruvé's death and the destruction of Genesis had wracked all of Damien's hope for humanity, gaining a nihilistic and misanthropic perspective on everything. He truly believed that humanity was diseased and lacking in strength, unity and conviction, believing that Genesis was the only opportunity for the human race to restart through a peaceful utopian society (which ironically, most of its civilians are controlled through mind control) by starting anew. Damien still believes in what he was doing, claiming his goal to "cleanse (the world) of a millennia worth of rot" but now views the world as beyond saving, and its annihilation was a mercy. His grief over Ruvè had allowed himself to be engulfed over his insanity, as he was willing to kill himself and his daughter with the rest of the world but claims in the end the two would see Ruvé again.

Though he despises being treated as an underling or henchman, Damien has also displayed a willingness to work with others instead of a leader position to gain what he wants, displaying that he can work without his pride getting in the way especially the greater the self-benefit for him. Even though he hated working under Eobard Thawne's control of Damien tolerated it for the sake of his own survival in the future though with prompt from Malcolm Merlyn he forces Thawne to treat him as an equal partner. Similarly, Damien has a sense of gratitude as he devoutly followed the time demon, Mallus after he resurrected him, even giving the demon his precious daughter and following out his orders with ruthless loyalty.

Due to his work with Eobard Thawne, Damien had developed a notable dislike of speedsters, this can largely be attributed to his negative interactions with the Reverse-Flash, as Eobard was often arrogant and condescending, this can also be seen in his contempt for Wally West when Kid Flash rescued Ray Palmer from being executed by Damien.

However, Damien proved that he did have a heart as he loved his daughter, Nora very much. When Ray had fatally shot her with a special gun designed to work against dark magic, he was immediately willing to trade Amaya's totem, which Damien had stolen, for a cure Ray had concocted, as Ray didn't want to be responsible for killing Nora. Although, when Nora immediately began to recover, he quickly double-crossed Ray, taking him prisoner. His love for his daughter was also shown when he, realizing that Mallus's freedom would be the death of his daughter, willingly allined himself with the Legends to keep Mallus imprisoned by preventing any further anacronisms, releasing Grodd in 1992 Zambesi to destroy the village only in an effort to stabilize the timestream. He was even willing to sacrifice himself for her, taking her place as Mallus's vessel after realizing that his host would die and that he loved Nora and he did not want to see her become a "monster" like him.

After being resurrected by Mallus with the failure of his lifelong ambition "the Ark", Damien has displayed an even more sadistic and chaotic nature by reaping destruction across the timeline with his cabal to free his master, Mallus only to watch the world burn and rebuild it for the future, however, Damien would show that he regretted his actions as he selfishly allowed his daughter to be corrupted so he could be revived, even sympathizing with his hated enemy, Sara as he now understood the true agony of losing someone you love admitting that if he could take back murdering Laurel he would. Despite being enemies with the Legends, Damien has admitted that he liked Raymond because of his care for Nora (however misguided) and could sympathize with Nate with his problems even whilst Damien was torturing him.

Powers and abilities

Powers

• Dark magic: Damien's powers came from the Khushu Idol, a mystical totem he acquired in 2011 that channels and harnesses primordial energies; specifically energies that come from death, destruction, and fear. The more Damien kills the more powerful he is at that moment, but gradually the power that he gains from that death will fade soon afterwards thus he must continue to kill in order to continue to use his magic. Damien's skill with dark magic is proven to be considerably advanced, as he is well known for his power among the world of occult and he is so skilled in dark magic that even John Constantine, a master sorcerer in his own right, did not dare face him; implying that Damien is far more powerful than John. After causing the deaths of tens of thousands of people through the nuclear bombing of Havenrock, Damien's powers grew exponentially to a level even he wasn't aware of causing him to exercise more focus and control on using his powers. After being resurrected, Damien Displayed the ability to use his magic powers even without the aid of the idol.
  • Accelerated healing: Damien gains advanced regenerative abilities. He was shown to be able to heal after being shot at by bullets and arrows. His healing abilities also seem to prevent him from suffering from fatigue and has been able to quickly recover from the effects of sedatives.
  • Enhanced endurance: Damien gains inhuman levels of resilience, to the point where he could be shot repeatedly and be completely unfazed by it.
  • Enhanced strength: Damien's physical strength becomes far greater than a normal human. Damien was strong enough to effortlessly lift a fully grown human over his head with a single hand, send a Time Bureau agent flying with a single kick, snap Oliver Queen's steel arrows with one hand, and throw Oliver with enough force to deform a metal pole.
  • Life-Force absorption: Damien can siphon the life-force from people and kill them through physical contact. According to Damien the process is quite painful, in addition it allowed Damien to take the darkness of the person he absorbs to add to his powers at the moment. After causing the destruction of Havenrock, Damien's power was strong enough to try and absorb the life-force of Oliver, despite his use of Light Magic.
  • Telekinesis: Damien can move and otherwise exert force objects and people with his mind. This notably allowed him to could stop and launch multiple projectiles or to crush objects, such as a TV or an armored truck, without physically touching them. He could also use his abilities to physically attack people from a distance, even if they are in different country, seen only through a video screen. He notably was able used this ability to immobilize, choke, strangle, levitate, and send people flying across rooms through mental effort and gestures alone. After causing the destruction of Havenrock, Damien could use this power to disintegrate objects with his mind such as steel arrows and lead bullets. Damien also demonstrated the ability to contain and miniaturized an explosion with this power.
  • Teleportation: Damien can instantly transport himself to another location, allowing him to catch his enemies off-guard or leave an area without a trace. The range of this power is unknown, but he could teleport himself with at least one other person.
  • Electrokinesis: Damien can control and generate electricity.
• Longevity: After leaving the League of Assassins, Damien stole water from the Lazarus Pit, allowing him to live far longer than normal human without aging while maintaining his health, vitality, and appearance. With the waters, Damien has lived for at least as long as his former friend, Ra's al Ghul, making him well over a century old. Given how Damien did not have access to all of the waters of the Lazarus Pit and that they gradually lose their potency over time, it is possible that Damien's life-force absorbing abilities granted to him by his idol also allow him to maintain his youth.
• Temporal awareness: After being resurrected, Damien showed that the mind-wipe that Sara Lance has performed on him wore off, allowing him to remember his time travel adventures as a member of the Legion of Doom.

Abilities

"The reason you've never heard of Bernhardt Vogel is because the most ruthless and efficient assassin the world has ever known made sure that no one ever did... me."

—Damien Darhk to Ray Palmer^[src]

• Peak of human physical condition: Even without his physical strength, durability and healing augmented by his idol, Damien is still in outstanding physical form due to centuries of training and experience as well as being kept in peak physical condition by the Lazarus Pit's waters, although due to his reliance of magic, it has reduced considerably, as shown by how Oliver was easily able to defeat Damien, until he seemingly had retrained himself, regaining enough of his physical finesse to take on Oliver equally and even at times gain the upper hand in their final fight even without his magic. At his prime, Damien could easily overpower Sara even when she had her staff, able to block her strikes with his forearms without suffering any damage.
• Master hand-to-hand combatant/Martial artist: Due to his training as a former "Heir to the Demon" and having centuries of combat experience and training, Damien was a combatant of outstanding, almost unrivaled skill, having been the equal of Ra's al Ghul himself. As a former member of the league, Damien was trained in all of their ways with his skills far surpassing most members due to his former status as an "Heir to the Demon" and thus having received the highest level of training a League of Assassin member could have. His combat skills has allowed him to go toe-to-toe with and even defeat the likes of Malcolm Merlyn, Oliver Queen and Sara Lance. However, once Damien became a sorcerer, he developed an over-reliance on his supernatural powers granted by the Khushu Idol, causing his prowess as a combatant to noticeably decline; this was perhaps best highlighted in his younger 1987 version, who proved to have much more combat-finesse than he will be in the early 21st century, as his younger-self has yet to acquire the idol and it's mystical benefits at the time, at which point he was able to quickly gain the upper hand with Sara in hand-to-hand combat and even dominate Sara using her signature weapon as well as eventually defeating Malcolm in their duel. It appears that while magic gave him full access to his original level of skills, losing it can briefly deprive him of his combat skills, as while he proved to be able to easily defeat Oliver after he received League of Assassins training while he was rusty from months of not fighting and remain on equal footing with Oliver after he got back in shape as well as overpower Malcolm, once deprived he was swiftly beaten. In spite of that, Damien appears to have retrained himself after getting out of prison as while his magic was unable to be used against Oliver, due to Oliver's light magic, he was still able to fight him on equal footing and even at times dominate and knock him down twice and disarm him of his bow, only barely losing. Damien was also one of the most deadliest combatants in the entire multiverse.
  • Master swordsman: As a former member of the League of Assassins, especially as a former "Heir to the Demon", Damien has received extensive training in swordsmanship. Although not often used since he left the league, his training and years of experience had allowed him to keep his skills with a sword. He displayed immense skills in swordsmanship, able to easily match Malcolm Merlyn in their duel and even briefly push him back. He also has twice been able to fight equally against Sara Lance after she was retrained by the league but was eventually defeated in both duels.
  • Master marksman: While not his preferred method, Damien's extensive training as a former "Heir to the Demon" and his long lifespan has made him quite proficient in marksmanship, although not quite as skilled with firearms as he is with a sword or archery as he himself admits, displaying great accuracy and precision with a laser gun, able to single-handedly easily take out many guards in a firefight and even shot one at broad sunlight
    • Master archer: Although not his favorite style, due to his training as a former "Heir to the Demon", Damien has received training in archery and has displayed a high amount of skill, being able to fire an arrow from Oliver's bow accurately, hitting the latter in the shoulder at point blank range and would have incatipated him had it not been for Oliver's armor.
  • Master knife wielder/Knife thrower: As seen from his method of stress-managing, Damien is very accurate with knife-throwing. He is also capable of skillfully using knives in single combat, evidenced when he fought Malcolm.
• Genius-level intellect/Master tactician/Leader: Damien, due to his extended lifespan, was able to gain the wisdom from many ages and has proven himself to be highly intelligent, having a quite extensive knowledge of various subjects such as criminal enterprises, politics and science. As a sorcerer, Damien possessed vast knowledge of mysticism including details on his idol, the Lazarus Pit and the Anansi Totem. Using a blood ritual, Damien was able to maintain his sanity while using the Idol's powers. Damien was also collector of rare occult and historical artifacts even before attaining his powers. He was a very capable leader, as he was the founder of H.I.V.E. and was able to lead it in secret so effectively that he was able to completely hide the organization's existence from the world at large and was clever enough that he was capable of both leading and keeping his organization's secretive nature while simultaneously avoiding capture from his former friend, Ra's al Ghul, for over a century. Damien is also very perceptive, able to tell that Speedy was trained by Malcolm and Sara's fighting style was of the League of Assassins. He was also able to deduce all the other identities of Team Arrow; once learning Green Arrow Spartan's identities respectively.
  • Master interrogator/Torturer: Damien was a highly skilled torturer due to his training with the League as well as his psychopathy and genuine pleasure in inflicting pain. His skills proved valuable in extracting vital information from an amnesiac Rip Hunter which lead to the restoration of his memories and conversion to the Legion of Doom. As a sorcerer, Damien had built up as fearsome reputation so much that a noted sorcerer like John Constantine feared facing him.
  • Multilingual: Damien was capable of fluently speaking English, German, Russian and presumably Arabic; due to his former status as an "Heir to the Demon".
• High tolerance for pain: Even without his magical powers, Damien has demonstrated a high threshold for pain due to his training with the League of Assassins; he was able to pull out arrows from his chest and still continue to remain physically active with little effort.

Weaknesses

• Light Magic: Due to the fact that Damien's magic comes from the absorption and manipulation of dark energy, if one can focus their natural life energy into positive sources of strength (i.e. hope and joy), Damien's magic will ultimately prove ineffective against the target and even physically repel him from trying to absorb the said person's life-force. It was this weakness that allowed Oliver to finally defeat him.
• Emotional instability: Damien's greatest flaw was his temper; he didn't hesitate to kill his followers and allies if they failed or even annoyed him. Due to his arrogance, Damien often refused to listen to his partners' input regarding his plans, no matter how logical they were. This negatively impacted his leadership skill, as after Damien was arrested, his partners at H.I.V.E. were fully prepared to continue Genesis without him.

Former weaknesses

• Khushu Idol: The very source of Damien's dark power was also his key weakness. If the idol is destroyed, Damien will lose his powers, becoming a normal human again. If the idol can be reassembled and the sacrifice ritual is performed, it will restore Damien's powers. Damien will also lose his powers if he does not regularly absorb negative energy from others. As the idol normally corrupts all near it, to keep his sanity, Damien regularly performed a blood ritual before it. As revealed by Mari, Damien must remain in close-range to the idol to remain empowered. The idol still has a great range, as Damien still had his powers from several city blocks away. Also, the idol must be near one of the Earth's so-called magical "lee-ways", which are essentially specific locales where concentrations of raw magic could be tapped into, with the idol itself as a mystical conduit for Damien to access that power. If it the idol were to be destroyed, he will lose his magic completely. After his resurrection, he apparently regained his powers without the need of the idol.
• Thea Queen: For reasons unknown, but because the Lazarus Pit's effects in making one emotionally and morally unstable, Thea was immune to Damien's life-siphoning power. When he used this power on her, he instead found his own life force depleting, severely weakening him. However, since Thea has been cured of the Lazarus Pit's effects, notably the insanity, she is likely no longer immune to Damien's ability to drain the life force of others.

Equipment

• Lazarus Pit water: Damien used the Lazarus Pit's waters to live well beyond the natural length of his lifetime and run H.I.V.E..
• Time stone: Damien uses a mystical stone that he obtained from either Nora or Kuasa, allowing him the power of teleportation and time travel.

Former equipment

• Khushu Idol: The Khushu Idol is a mystical totem and the source of most of Damien's powers. However, after being resurrected, Damien has been shown to be able to use his powers without the idol.
• Laser pistol: Damien has a laser gun he uses and supposedly he got it from Eobard Thawne. It's unknown what became of the pistol following the disbandment of the Legion of Doom.
• Saber: Damien wielded a saber during the time he became a member of the Legion of Doom, until he was restored to his normal timeline.
• Death Totem: Damien wielded this lost totem in order to defeat Mallus and save his daughter Nora. While only having this item for a short time, it acted as a booster for his Dark Magic.

Gallery

Damien Darhk as the Black Knight in 507 A.D.

Appearances

Arrow

Season 2 "Tremors" (mentioned) Season 3 "Al Sah-him" (mentioned) "My Name Is Oliver Queen" (mentioned) Season 4 "Green Arrow" "The Candidate" "Restoration" "Beyond Redemption" "Haunted" "Lost Souls" "Brotherhood" "Legends of Yesterday" (mentioned) "Dark Waters" "Blood Debts" "A.W.O.L." (mentioned) "Unchained" (mentioned) "Sins of the Father" "Code of Silence" "Taken" "Broken Hearts" "Beacon of Hope" "Eleven-Fifty-Nine" "Canary Cry" (mentioned) "Genesis" "Monument Point" "Lost in the Flood" "Schism" Season 5 "Legacy" (mentioned) "The Recruits" (mentioned) "A Matter of Trust" (mentioned) "Human Target" (mentioned) "So It Begins" (mentioned) "Invasion!" (dream) "Who Are You?" (mentioned) "Bratva" (mentioned) "Spectre of the Gun" (television) "The Sin-Eater" (mentioned) "Dangerous Liaisons" (mentioned) "Underneath" (mentioned) "Missing" (mentioned) Season 6 "Next of Kin" (mentioned) "Doppelganger" (mentioned) "The Thanatos Guild" (mentioned) "Fundamentals" (mentioned) "Shifting Allegiances" (mentioned) "Docket No. 11-19-41-73" (mentioned) Season 7 "Inheritance" (mentioned)

The Flash

Season 2

• "Legends of Today"

DC's Legends of Tomorrow

Season 1 "Pilot, Part 2" "Legendary" (mentioned) Season 2 "Out of Time" "Compromised" "Outlaw Country" (mentioned) "The Chicago Way" "Raiders of the Lost Art" "The Legion of Doom" "Turncoat" (mentioned) "Camelot/3000" "Fellowship of the Spear" "Doomworld" "Aruba" Season 3 "Aruba-Con" (indirectly mentioned) "Return of the Mack" "Helen Hunt" "Welcome to the Jungle" "Beebo the God of War" "Daddy Darhkest" "Here I Go Again" (mentioned) "The Curse of the Earth Totem" "No Country for Old Dads" "Amazing Grace" (mentioned) "Necromancing the Stone" (mentioned) "I, Ava" "Guest Starring John Noble" "The Good, The Bad and The Cuddly" Season 4 "The Virgin Gary" (mentioned) "Tagumo Attacks!!!" (mentioned) "Tender is the Nate" (mentioned) "Lucha de Apuestas" (mentioned and depicted on a card) "The Eggplant, the Witch & the Wardrobe" (mentioned) "Terms of Service" (mentioned)

Supergirl

Season 3

• "Crisis on Earth-X, Part 1" (mentioned)

Trivia

• Damien was aware that Malcolm Merlyn was Ra's al Ghul and that his ex-best friend is dead. This implies that he had some remaining connections within the League of Assassins before the organization fell, or at least kept tabs on the League as much as possible since a target of them for over a century. This is further shown when Damien was already aware of Malcolm's loss of power over the League just a day after its disbandment.
• During their first confrontation, Damien immediately realized that Speedy had been trained by Malcolm; implying that he knows Malcolm (or at least his fighting style) well, outside of their time together in the Legion of Doom (which was erased from Damien's memory).
• During an argument at an arms auction in 1975, Damien was derisively nicknamed "The Master Race" by Mick Rory because of his blond hair, blue eyes and Nazi-esque uniform. Ironically, Damien himself has stated that he personally despised the Nazis but admired their scientific pursuits.
  • However, Damien wasn't above working with them as he planned to blow up New York in 1942, though showed little concern when Eobard Thawne slaughtered them all after they tried to kill him.
• Damien is the second main antagonist to directly be responsible for the death of a main character (Laurel Lance), following Slade Wilson (who killed Moira Queen).
  • Interestingly, Damien referenced Slade to Oliver on how the latter spared Slade before himself being killed by Oliver.
  • Damien is also one of the two main antagonists besides Ra's al Ghul to not have a history with Oliver and the second main antagonist after Ra's al Ghul to be killed by Oliver and be a recurring character on the show.
• Damien is the first antagonist to directly kill a member of Team Arrow when he killed Laurel Lance.
  • Thea killed Sara Lance before him, but was drugged by Malcolm into doing so and thus unaware of her actions.
• The incantation Damien says when he uses the idol, and when he nearly died in "Dark Waters"​ is "Kanjigar Septum Vohostrum". 
• Damien states on more than one occasion that he hates when Eobard superspeeds, which sometimes makes him frightened. He states this in "The Legion of Doom" and "Aruba"​​.
• His favorite red wine is malbec.
• Damien is a fan of the song Return of the Mack, making it the alarm on his watch.
• Damien was the second "Heir to the Demon" killed by Oliver, with his ex-best friend as the first. Damien and the former Ra's al Ghul were both heirs at the same time, as well as being killed by the same person.
• Damien's interest in magic, and by extension his powers, may be the result of a time loop. This is due to the resurrected version of Damien interacting with the 1962 version of himself, and also showing his magical abilities to his former self while fighting him, which piques his younger self's interest in magic.
• Damien stated in "No Country for Old Dads"​ that he is 257 years old.
• Damien is one of the few to ever defeat Oliver Queen in combat, a feat that he shared with his ex-best friend Ra's al Ghul. Unlike Ra's however, Damien was unable to defeat Oliver in their last duel and eventually outfought while Ra's always proved to be the superior fighter.

Behind the scenes

• In the DC comics, Damien Darhk is an enemy of the Titans responsible for reforming H.I.V.E. into a more cohesive terrorist organization, as opposed to being a generic robe-wearing cabal. He had no magical powers like in the show, but was instead a business savvy manipulator, glued to his cell phone. However, Darhk gained immorality after receiving blood from Deathstroke's ex-wife, Adeline Kane.
• Damien Darhk shares similarities to DC's Ares, The God of War, as their powers feed on the psychic energies that come from death.
  • Unlike Ares though, Darhk cannot naturally channel the dark energies caused by death and requires his Khushu Idol to do so.
    • However, after being resurrected by Mallus, Damien can use all of his powers without the idol.
• Darhk's using his telekinesis to choke people and how he can kill people with telekinesis by knowing where they are and seeing them through a video screen is similar to Darth Vader's powers, as well as his using them to intimidate and punish others.
• In the DC comics, a character named Dr. Ebenezer Darrk was the first person other than Ra's al Ghul to lead the League of Assassins.
  • Ironically, Dr. Darrk had a falling out with Ra's al Ghul, similar to the show's version of Damien Darhk, making it possible that the character is actually an amalgamation of the DC comic versions of Damien Darhk and Doctor Darrk.
• Darhk is the first main antagonist of Arrow​​ to be credited as a "Special Appearance".
• After Ra's al Ghul, Damien is the second main antagonist on Arrow who returned in DC's Legends of Tomorrow after his death on Arrow.

References

Other versions of Damien Darhk
To see other versions of this character, click the Earth name below for that Earth's counterpart of Damien Darhk.
New multiverse
Earth: Prime
Original multiverse
Earth: 1 • 2
Transmultiversal multiverse
Earth: