Ruvé Adams

Ruvé Adams
Biological Information
Species	Human
Status	Deceased
Universe Information
Home universe	Earth-1
Current universe	Earth-Prime
General Information
Occupation	Mayor of Star City (formerly)
Affiliation	H.I.V.E. (in secret; formerly) Star City (formerly)
Family	Damien Darhk (husband; deceased) Nora Darhk (daughter) Ray Palmer (son-in-law)
Actor	Janet Kidder

"You have no idea of the power that you're up against."

—Ruvé Adams to Lonnie Machin^[src]

Ruvé Adams (died May 2016), also known as Ruvé Darhk, was the mayor of Star City and secretly a leading figure of the terrorist organization H.I.V.E.. Ruvé was also the wife of the late Damien Darhk and the mother of Nora Darhk. She was killed by Lonnie Machin in his vendetta against Damien.

Biography

Early life

At some point, Ruvé Adams met Damien Darhk, who promised her "a new beginning". They married, and on December 2, 2003, Ruvé gave birth to their only child, Nora.

Ruvé was privy to H.I.V.E.'s Genesis project, which planned to repopulate the Earth with their followers after destroying the rest of humanity. As part of this plan, H.I.V.E. needed to control Star City, where one of the magical nexus chambers was located.

Stonehaven

Ruvé celebrates Christmas with her family.

As a result, Ruvé moved to Stonehaven, a house in Star City, with Damien and Nora by fall 2015. Despite the nature of their project, they were happy as a family; that Christmas, Ruvé and Nora were decorating the tree together when Damien arrived home. He helped them put the star on top before the family embraced.

Ruvé and Nora taken hostage by Lonnie Machin.

In January 2016, Damien's former ally, Lonnie Machin, infiltrated his house, taking Ruvé and her daughter hostage to try to get to Damien, whom he saw as having betrayed him. Machin taunted a tied up Ruvé and Nora up about their connection to Darhk and thus, his condition. During his tirade, Ruvé tried to keep her daughter calm. Machin then decided to burn the two with a flamethrower, but Team Arrow arrived, rescuing Ruvé and Nora.

Ruvé and Damien discuss Genesis.

While being questioned by the police, Ruvé presented fake identification for her daughter and herself, diverting any suspicion from them. After being released, she and Nora reunited with Damien. The three of them immediately moved out of Stonehaven, planning to stay at the Fairmount Hotel for a month as they looked for a new place to live. In their limousine, during a private conversation on the way to Fairmount, Damien assured Ruvé that Machin would never come near her or Nora again. Ruvé criticized her husband for leaving the Green Arrow alive, and they discussed the progress of the Genesis project.

Standing for Mayor

As phase five of Genesis required H.I.V.E. to have political control of Star City, Ruvé was chosen to run against Oliver Queen in the 2016 mayoral election, despite not having a background in politics. She announced her campaign in early February, using the slogan "a better alternative". On hearing she was running, Oliver went to Ruvé's campaign office in Pennytown as the Green Arrow and demanded that she set up a meeting for him with Damien.

Ruvé warns Green Arrow not to follow her to get to her husband again.

Oliver was not able to make the meeting, but instead used the opportunity of meeting her again before the mayoral debate in mid-February to trail her, hoping she would lead them to Damien. Instead, Ruvé managed to ambush Oliver, warned him not to follow her, and sent about half a dozen Ghosts to attack him before easily escaping, leading Team Arrow to give up on this approach. Meanwhile, concerned that Ruvé might not win the election, H.I.V.E. hired the Demolition Team to destroy the venue while the mayoral debate was happening, with the intention to leave only Ruvé alive to make her a sympathetic figure to the voters. Team Arrow discovered this and evacuated the building, so Ruvé ordered the Demolition Team to change their mission and kill Oliver instead. Team Arrow managed to take out the Demolition Team and disarm the explosives, and the debate went ahead with Oliver being declared the clear winner by most pundits.

In late February, Oliver withdrew as a candidate for the mayoral election and endorsed Ruvé after Damien threatened the life of his son, William Clayton, whom Malcolm Merlyn had kidnapped on Damien's orders. Damien was arrested and imprisoned after this, but H.I.V.E. continued their plans for Genesis without him. By late March, Ruvé was looking for a new chief of staff in preparation for becoming mayor after the election and, despite Thea Queen trying to discourage him, Alex Davis (Oliver's former campaign manager) got the job. As the only candidate, Ruvé was elected mayor of Star City on April 6, despite 48% of the voters writing in Oliver Queen on their ballots. She made District Attorney Remz the deputy mayor and offered Laurel Lance the chance to take over as D.A., but Laurel was killed by Damien (who then escaped jail) before having a chance to respond.

Operation Genesis

John Diggle tries to kill Ruvé to send a message to Darhk.

As mayor, Ruvé moved forward with H.I.V.E.'s plans for Genesis; in late April, as a cover for building an underground bunker for the designated survivors, she claimed that the city was undertaking a massive upgrade of the sewer system. While looking for his brother, Andy Diggle, John Diggle attacked the mayor's limousine as Spartan, killing Ruvé's driver and bodyguard. Demanding to know where Andy was, Spartan struck Ruvé with his gun when she tried taunting him. He almost shot her before Green Arrow intervened and stopped him, allowing Ruvé to flee.

This led Ruvé to bring back the SCPD's Anti-Vigilante Taskforce. On live television, Ruvé announced that she had asked District Attorney Wallace to issue arrest warrants for Team Arrow, starting with the "Black Canary" (actually Evelyn Sharp). Ironically, Ruvé choose to dedicate this to Laurel, whom she knew had secretly been the real Black Canary.

A smug Ruvé is held at gunpoint by Evelyn Sharp.

Evelyn responded by attacking Ruvé at a gala for the Star City Women's Advocacy Association held at Star City Plaza Hotel. Ruvé insisted on staying despite her security detail advising her to leave, hoping to gain ammunition to tarnish the Black Canary's image. However, Green Arrow arrived and convinced Evelyn not to kill Ruvé like this. After Evelyn left, Ruvé tried to have Green Arrow arrested, but he escaped. Ruvé's plan to ruin Laurel's legacy as Black Canary ultimately failed when Oliver revealed Laurel's secret identity at her funeral.

By May, Ruvé had given Alex suggestion pills in order to brainwash him into become loyal to H.I.V.E., claiming that they were vitamin tablets to keep him healthy. She briefed Alex on Genesis and had him welcome their followers who were moving into Tevat Noah, the safe-haven town H.I.V.E built beneath Star City. H.I.V.E. eventually gained control of Rubicon and attempted to launch the world's nuclear arsenal. Team Arrow managed to stop all the missiles except one, which destroyed Havenrock.

Ruvé urges the citizens of Tevat Noah to kill Spartan and Green Arrow.

While H.I.V.E. attempted to launch the rest of the missiles through Rubicon with Cooper Seldon's help, Ruvé discovered Machin's presence in Tevat Noah. She monitored the facility and broadcasted a message welcoming its residents. Ruvé later took over from Malcolm Merlyn, who had been unable to capture Machin, and ordered him to take care of the Green Arrow and Spartan instead, who had also broken into Tevat Noah in search of Thea. After Malcolm failed in doing so, Ruvé broadcasted another message instructing the citizens to kill the two vigilantes on sight.

Death

Ruvé fails to reason with Machin.

Shortly after, Ruvé and Nora were captured once more by Machin. Ruvé fought back this time, but failed and was physically beaten. Machin took control of the command center with them bound to the columns. On a live broadcast, Machin threatened to kill Ruvé and Nora if Darhk did not show up. As they waited, Machin began taunting Ruvé over him taking her hostage again. She attempted to reason with Machin, pointing out that he was destroying the last safe place on Earth, but Machin simply let Ruvé know he was not rational.

A dying Ruvé pleads with Oliver to save Nora.

Green Arrow, Spartan, and Speedy showed up to save Ruvé and Nora but in the process, accidentally hit Tevat Noah's volatile power source. This triggered explosions, which caused the building to start crumbling. Machin then stabbed Ruvé in the heart with an arrow. The ceiling eventually began to collapse, with the rubble pinning Ruvé to the ground. Spartan freed Nora while Green Arrow went to check on Ruvé. Knowing she wouldn't survive her injuries, Ruvé's last act was to beg Green Arrow to save her daughter, which he did. Ruvé's body was destroyed as Tevat Noah collapsed.

Legacy

Ruvé's death had a huge impact on her family; following the destruction of Tevat Noah, Damien Darhk's first question was whether Ruvé and Nora were safe. After learning of his wife's death, Damien was absolutely distraught and heartbroken, causing him to give up on Genesis and instead destroy the whole world with nuclear missiles rather than try to rebuild it. Damien knew this would kill him and Nora as well, but claimed that he wanted to save his daughter the pain of growing up without her mother. However, Damien's plans of global destruction in Ruvé's name were ultimately foiled by Team Arrow.

Within days, Ruvé was reported missing, presumed dead, and her deputy mayor, Remz, attempted to call for calm. Soon after her death, Oliver Queen succeeded Ruvé as mayor of Star City. It is currently unknown if Ruvé's involvement with H.I.V.E. and marriage to Damien were exposed after her demise.

Five months after Ruvé's death, her killer, Lonnie Machin, was finally brought to justice when Green Arrow took him down during his attempt to use a bomb to destroy half of Star City. Oliver knocked Machin out and left him for the police.

Nora was deeply haunted by her parents' deaths, which soon led to her being possessed by the demon Mallus. Under emotional manipulation by Damien, Nora became associated with the Order of the Shrouded Compass and grew into a hardened criminal, determined to bring back her family through any means necessary.

Personality

Much like her husband, Damien Darhk, Ruvé was cold, cruel, smug, and ruthless. However, she was also intelligent, manipulative, and unlike Damien, very calm, patient, and levelheaded, rarely losing her composure. Ruvé strongly believed in H.I.V.E.'s goal of "a new beginning" and with her charismatic nature, ensured many others' loyalty to this cause. While running for mayor of Star City, she maintained a graceful demeanor of a charitable politician to mask her deceitful, often sociopathic nature.

Ruvé couldn't care less about the consequences of her, Damien, and H.I.V.E.'s actions on innocent individuals, having no regard for anyone other than herself and her family; for example, Ruvé ordered the Demolition Team to destroy an entire building to kill all the other occupants and portray herself as a sympathetic survivor in order to win the mayoral election and was fully supportive of H.I.V.E.'s inhumane Nazi-esque experiments on their followers, such as testing gas chambers and suggestion pills. Even with her allies, Ruvé was not above patronizing or even disposing of them if she felt they weren't pulling their weight or if it was simply beneficial to H.I.V.E.'s endgame.

Ambitious to the point of being immoral and unethical, Ruvé was always eager to use other's tragedies for her own ends; after John Diggle's attack on her and Evelyn Sharp's attempted murder of her chief of staff, Alex Davis, in the wake of Laurel Lance's death, Ruvé took advantage of this by issuing an arrest warrant for Team Arrow. She had the audacity to dedicate her actions to Laurel's memory, essentially flaunting her murder at Damien's hands. Ruvé even silently mocked Evelyn when the latter aimed to kill the former to avenge her dead parents, expressing no sympathy for the teenager who was orphaned because of H.I.V.E., only caring about tarnishing Black Canary's legacy.

Ruvé had a very low opinion of Team Arrow, despising them for trying to get in the way of Genesis; compared to her husband, Ruvé felt she owed nothing to Green Arrow after he saved her and her daughter, Nora Darhk, from Lonnie Machin and even criticized Damien for sparing the vigilante archer's life because of this instead of killing him when he had the chance. Ruvé also immediately ordered for Green Arrow's arrest when he talked down Evelyn from killing her and tried to drag Black Canary's legacy through the mud out of sheer spite. She also underestimated Machin and arrogantly believed him to be nothing more than a "juvenile annoyance", ignoring the fact that unlike Team Arrow, Machin doesn't have any code or morals that would stop him from harming her. This mistake resulted in Ruvé's capture and death.

Ruvé's only redeeming trait was her love for her husband and daughter; both times when Machin kidnapped them, Ruvé's main concern was Nora's safety. Even on the brink of death, Ruvé showed no fear for her own life, only worrying about her daughter. In her final moments, she requested Green Arrow to not waste time trying to save her and instead protect Nora.

Abilities

• High-level intellect/Expert tactician/Great business acumen: Ruvé was very intelligent, as she had enough confidence to run for mayor of Star City against Oliver Queen. She was a capable tactician, as Ruvé ordered the Demolition Team to destroy the debate building to wipe out everyone except herself; to make herself look like a sympathetic survivor.

Appearances

Arrow

Season 4 "Dark Waters" "Blood Debts" "Unchained" "Code of Silence" "Taken" (mentioned) "Beacon of Hope" (mentioned) "Eleven-Fifty-Nine" "Canary Cry" "Genesis" (mentioned) "Monument Point" (mentioned) "Lost in the Flood" "Schism" (mentioned) Season 5 "So It Begins" (mentioned)

DC's Legends of Tomorrow

Season 2

• "Compromised" (mentioned)

Season 3

• "No Country for Old Dads" (mentioned)

Season 4

• "Tender is the Nate" (indirectly mentioned)

Season 5

• "Mr. Parker's Cul-De-Sac" (indirectly mentioned)

Behind the scenes

• The wife of Neal McDonough, the actor who portrayed Damien Darhk, is also named Ruvé.