H.I.V.E.

H.I.V.E.
Information
Location(s)	United States
Use(s)	Terrorist organization
Leader(s)	Damien Darhk (formerly)

"Merely a drone. A piece of a larger entity. We exist as one organism. As you might say, a hive."

—Mina Fayad to Floyd Lawton^[src]

H.I.V.E. is a mysterious terrorist organization that was led by Damien Darhk. They carry out the ways of the League of Assassins but through Damien's personal agenda. Their current goal is an operation known as "Genesis".

History

Founding

After escaping from Ra's al Ghul when he failed to become the leader of the League of Assassins, Damien Darhk founded H.I.V.E. with a group of his most loyal followers.

Arms Deal

In 1975, Damien and two of his Ghosts went to a weapons sale held by Vandal Savage, planning to buy a nuclear warhead from him. H.I.V.E. put in an initial bid of $100 million, but were outbid by Martin Stein. Damien later met Martin and told him he suspected Martin wasn't as he appeared as Damien wasn't familiar with him or his organisation, and he was familiar with everyone. Stein's associate Mick Rory started to get angry with Damien and threatened him, forcing Savage to intervene. As a fight ensued, Damien and the Ghosts left the premises of the Norwegian military storage facility.

Early plans

After Floyd Lawton was incarcerated for threatening the lives of his family, Mina Fayad approached him as a representative of H.I.V.E., convincing Lawton that a normal life was not possible for him anymore after the events that had transpired. Fayad offered Lawton money to assassinate Andrew Diggle, though - unknown to Lawton - Diggle survived the attempt as H.I.V.E. had secretly replaced Lawton's bullets with non-lethal rounds. Diggle himself ended up becoming an agent of H.I.V.E., serving as one of its Ghosts.

One of the organization's heads, Milo Armitage, attempted to obtain Malcolm Merlyn's earthquake device, as well as a nerve agent from Gholem Qadir after the organization granted him safe passage to Markovia. Armitage also hired Mark Shaw to steal classified A.R.G.U.S. files, but all three of these attempts resulted in failure.

In 2015, Darhk visited Star City, presumably as part of an early phase of operation Genesis. He had been tracked to the city by Ra's al Ghul, but managed to evade both Ra's and Oliver Queen's attempts to find him. The two instead encountered Darhk's assistant in one of H.I.V.E.'s various hideouts, and the man was subsequently killed by Ra's.

Attacks on Star City

After Ra's failed attempt to destroy Star City and Damien Darhk, H.I.V.E. soldiers began attacking the city in waves, with the media nicknaming them Ghosts for the way they quickly disappeared after executing a successful mission. Damien soon personally threatened the city's leadership and had many of them killed when they failed to bow to his command. During a secret meeting, Damien killed one of his men, Alvarez, for disobeying orders, but the meeting was soon disrupted by the intervention of Team Arrow. They later stopped H.I.V.E.'s attempt to blow up Star City's central train station.

H.I.V.E. later hired Lonnie Machin to stop Jessica Danforth from running for mayor of Star City, but once Damien decided Machin had gone too far by kidnapping Danforth's daughter, he terminated their partnership.

Agent Mina Fayad later came to Star City in order to take care of the Green Arrow under orders from H.I.V.E.'s leadership. She hired Jeremy Tell to kill the vigilante, though when he was ultimately unsuccessful, Darhk murdered Fayad in order to teach Tell a lesson.

Darhk soon sent Quentin Lance on a mission to erase the names of people whose deaths H.I.V.E. had faked before recruiting them into their organization. However, Darhk wasn't aware that Lance was secretly working as a mole for Team Arrow. Lance went through with the operation, but managed to convince Darhk to tell him about Andrew Diggle, whose name had been on the list given to him.

Team Arrow soon learned that H.I.V.E. 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 Darhk to request magic to help Sara after her recovery with a frustrated Darhk saying that he would help but that it was the last time he would ever summon him, beginning to grow suspicious of him. Quentin gave the directions of H.I.V.E.'s base to Team Arrow, who had John Diggle capture Oliver in disguise as a "Ghost". Diggle brought Oliver to Damien and they fought while the rest of the team fought the Ghosts guarding Ray. Team Arrow managed to successfully rescue Ray, although Oliver barely managed to escape being strangled to death by chains under control from Darhk's telekinesis.

H.I.V.E. soon took a more active interest in Oliver Queen's mayoral campaign when he announced his plan to restore the Star City Bay area, which was a key area of their Genesis project. At a police black-tie function, Darhk approached Queen and offered his financial and PR backing in exchange for Queen scrapping his Bay restoration project but Queen politely rebuffed him. The following evening Darhk met with Quentin to question him about his supposed disloyalty, which Darhk expressly warned him against. In the meantime, the Green Arrow and his team continued to plague H.I.V.E.'s operations in Star City culminating in a surgical strike against the HQ of the Ghosts by the Green Arrow and his team in an effort to rescue Andrew Diggle, who the team had found out was alive. The Ghosts fought Team Arrow but were overpowered and the team escaped with Diggle. 

H.I.V.E. later raided an A.R.G.U.S. facility to steal a chemical bomb, only to be confronted by Team Arrow, who disarmed the Ghosts of their guns with a magnetic arrow. The Ghosts fought the team but before an outcome could be revealed, The Flash whisked the Team away to deal with problems in Central City.

Attacking Oliver Queen

Damien's partners soon arrived in Star City and this caused Damien to grow anxious to stop Oliver Queen's interference. During one of Queen's campaign clean-ups of Star City bay, H.I.V.E. sent a drone to attack the bay. However, due to this, Oliver revealed that Damien was the leader of H.I.V.E. to the press, much to the annoyance of his partners. In an act of revenge Darhk personally led a squad of Ghosts to attack Oliver's Holiday Party, and took John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, and Thea Queen. Oliver attempted to trade himself for his friends, but once he surrendered and went to their base, Damien attempted to kill them anyways as a demonstration for his partners and to take away Oliver's resolve. However, Laurel Lance and Malcolm Merlyn interfered and saved Oliver's compatriots. Darhk immediately left the scene, sending his partners to a safe location, and fought with Merlyn while the rest of Team Arrow fought Darhk's Ghosts, resulting in Damien's near death when Merlyn blew up their hideout. Darhk, who escaped death, later showed his associates an underground cornfield, and told them the air in it was pure and breathable thanks to the algae he collected and 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. They attacked Oliver's limousine, firing upon him and Felicity and leaving Oliver injured and Felicity unresponsive.

After the League of Assassins was disbanded, Malcolm Merlyn met with Damien, revealing that Oliver had a son. Malcolm was then initiated into the organization and tracked down William, bringing him to Damien's house.

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 Crew" to stage an elaborate attack on a mayoral debate between Ruve and Queen with the intention of killing Queen and leaving Ruve 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.

Damien's Fall

Darhk met with Felicity and Oliver, showing Oliver a video of William playing at the Darhk residence, revealing that he'd kidnapped him. 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 Darkh's powers useless and him easily overpowered by Green Arrow and knocked unconscious. Darhk was promptly arrested by the SCPD.

While in prison, Malcolm met with Darhk and informed him that because of his brutality, H.I.V.E. has turned their backs on him and are going through with Genesis without Darhk's assistance. 

Overview

In contrary to the more traditional ways of the League of Assassins, H.I.V.E. uses advanced technology and modern military tactics to get the job done. Their members use modern weaponry and high-tech equipment. Their operators wear bulletproof vests and use advanced firearms and grenades. They are highly trained and able to overwhelm both the police force and Team Arrow. Their members are highly devoted to their leader and are trained to commit suicide when in risk of being captured.

Known members

Current members

• Milo Armitage (partner)
• Phaedra Nixon (partner)
• Ruvé Adams
• Slater
• Malcolm Merlyn
• Andy Diggle

Former members

• Damien Darhk's assistant (deceased)
• Alvarez (deceased)
• Mina Fayad (deceased)
• Quentin Lance (secretly a double agent for Oliver Queen)
• Tomas (partner, deceased)
• Damien Darhk (founder and leader)

Known allies

Former allies

• Floyd Lawton (deceased)
• Mark Shaw (incarcerated)
• Gholem Qadir (deceased)
• Lonnie Machin
• Jeremy Tell (incarcerated)
• The Demolition Team (incarcerated)
  • Rosie (leader)
  • Hardhat
  • Jackhammer

Appearances

Arrow

Season 2

• "Tremors"

Season 3

• "Corto Maltese"
• "Suicidal Tendencies" (flashbacks)
• "My Name Is Oliver Queen"

Season 4

• "Green Arrow"
• "The Candidate"
• "Restoration"
• "Lost Souls"
• "Brotherhood"
• "Dark Waters"
• "Blood Debts"
• "Code of Silence"
• "Taken"
• "Broken Hearts" (mentioned)
• "Beacon of Hope" (mentioned)

The Flash

Season 2

• "Legends of Today"

DC's Legends of Tomorrow

• "Pilot, Part 2"

Behind the scenes

• In the DC comics, H.I.V.E. stands for the Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Extermination, led by Queen Bee. The H.I.V.E. organization appears mainly in comic books featuring the Teen Titans, having orchestrated several of the team's greatest threats, most notably Deathstroke and Ravager, the son of Slade Wilson.
  • In some versions, notably the Teen Titans cartoon version, H.I.V.E. is led by Brother Blood; they also frequently contract Deathstroke for work, and in the aforementioned Titans cartoon were contracted by Slade Wilson.
• Mina Fayad, when giving Floyd Lawton his job, told him she was just a drone, a piece of one larger being. This is a reference to how scientists consider bees to be part of a hive and prioritize their hive over their lives. As such, the bees are considered part of a superorganism known as their hive.