- For The Flash: Season Zero issue, see "Black Star".
- "I need to find out the truth about everything... about who our family really is, what I'm meant to do with my life. I can't be held back anymore. I need to forge my own path."
- —Mia Smoak[src]
Mia Smoak (born 2019) is the daughter of Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak, the younger paternal half-sister of William Clayton, the granddaughter of Donna Smoak, Noah Kuttler, the late Moira, and Robert Queen, and the niece of the late Emiko Adachi and Thea Queen.
In a possible future, she is an undefeated cage fighter in Star City known as "Blackstar", later becoming a vigilante and fighting alongside the Canaries.
Biography
Early life
Mia was born in 2019 to Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak.[1] In order to protect her from the Ninth Circle, Oliver and Felicity moved into a small suburb on the outskirts of Star City until the threat had passed.[2]
Possible future
After Oliver passed away in the Crisis of 2019, Felicity decided for them to continue to live in secrecy, believing it to be the safest option for Mia. In doing so, Mia never discovered that her mother and father were formerly vigilantes or that she had a half-brother. In turn, no one from her parents' old lives knew she existed, aside from John Diggle and Laurel Lance.
Throughout her childhood, she was trained to fight by Nyssa al Ghul at the behest of her mother. By the time she reached her late teens, she was told by Nyssa that her training was complete, and was gifted with a compound hunting bow, similar to her father's, to celebrate her success.[2]
Mia Smoak as a baby with her parents.
In 2040, Mia found out that her mother had secretly been acting as a vigilante so she ran away from home and went to Star City. Shortly after arriving, Mia got involved in underground cage fighting as a "stress release". [3] While in Star City, Mia met Connor Hawke and the two began to have a romantic relationship together. Unknown to Mia, however, was that Connor was an agent of the peacekeeping agency Knightwatch and John Diggle's adopted son.
Also at some point, she came into contact with her mother again and sold her technology to trigger bombs—although it’s unknown if this is actually true or just a cover so as not to reveal her true identity. When she first reveals this information to William Clayton, Dinah Drake, and Zoe Ramirez, she claimed that she had no knowledge of Felicity's plan, but it’s later revealed that she does.[3]
One night, Mia found a copy of and watched Emerald Archer: The Hood and the Rise of Vigilantism, a documentary about Oliver Queen that had been banned sometime before 2040. When Connor Hawke asked how she got a copy of it, she said she stole it. She then led Connor to the old Arrowcave.[4] After arriving at the Arrowcave, they were interrupted by Roy Harper, Dinah, William, and Zoe. They tied them all up, while Mia interrogated the latter two as to why they were there before she sought codes to activate the Archer program.
They were joined by Connor, who was supposed to be watching the others. Dinah and Roy entered the room, causing a fight. Mia got the upper hand on Dinah and held a knife to her throat. William then pulled a gun on her, threatening to shoot, before Mia revealed her identity as Oliver and Felicity’s daughter and his half-sister.[5]
After revealing her identity, she tried to get the group to help her find her mother, but when they wouldn’t, she got upset and left to go find her mother on her own.
Later, William showed up at her office in the underground fight club. He and Mia talked about their parents and then Mia found a clue to finding Felicity in William’s Rubik’s cube: a mini-cassette tape. William then told Mia they would find Felicity together.[6]
Mia and William went to get a mini-cassette player to play the tape Felicity left them but ran into some trouble when William was swindled. They managed to get the player back after William faked a ”Canary sighting” to distract the SCPD. Mia and William struggled to decide whether or not to listen to the tape, but ultimately decided they would do it together. In the message, Felicity gave them coordinates of a location in the Glades. Felicity also told them not to come looking for her, but the siblings decided to ignore her and go to the Glades anyway.[7]
Destiny
According to Mar Novu, Mia's fate is tied with the fate of the world, suggesting that she will one day become a great hero, much like her parents.[1]
Personality
Possible future
- "My mom once told me that all the starlight we see has so far to travel that the stars might not even exist anymore. Eventually, they all just fade to black, erased. That's where I want to be."
- —Mia Smoak[src]
As noted by her brother and her mother, Mia shares many similarities with her father; she is tough and not afraid to use force or violence to get what she wants. When she first met William and Zoe, she was nothing but aggressive and distant, showing no sign of interest or respect in what they had to say.[3] She can also be quite stubborn and single-minded at times, which has led her to make rash decisions.[8] This is likely due to her not being able to trust others easily after feeling betrayed by her own mother.[2] After mending fences with Felicity, Mia has begun to show more compassion and consideration for her teammates, particularly with William.[1]
Abilities
Possible future abilities
- "I don't lose."
- —Mia Smoak[src]
Mia is like her father in many ways; she is athletic, intelligent, highly skilled in martial arts, weapons, and archery.
- Peak of human physical condition: Due to being trained since childhood, Mia is in top physical condition, able to withstand Dinah Drake's Bo-Staff strikes and even managed to briefly overpower several of Keven Dale's Zeta Soldiers.
- Master hand-to-hand combatant/Martial artist: Having been trained by Nyssa al Ghul in hand-to-hand combat since childhood, Mia would go on to become an undefeated cage match fighter, skilled enough to beat bigger opponents.[3] While training with Nyssa, Mia has proven to be evenly matched with her. Mia was able to fight on par with and even briefly overpower an older Dinah Drake in a duel. She is a scrappy yet stealthy fighter, as she was able to defeat a room full of Keven Dale's armed security. Mia has even proved skilled enough to fight evenly against John Diggle, Jr. Mia's fighting style appears to include Boxing, Karate, Taekwondo, Kickboxing, Kung Fu, and Krav Maga.
- Expert knife-wielder/Knife thrower: Mia is highly trained at using a knife in combat as seen in her fight with Dinah, and can also improvise an arrow as a stabbing weapon. She once accurately threw a knife into a Zeta soldier's head.[1]
- Expert stick-fighter: Mia is accomplished at wielding sticks and staffs and similar weapons in combat. She was prepared to improvise a loose pipe as a weapon against an enemy and readily used one of the Canaries' staffs against an attacker, Like her father, Mia often uses her bow as a blunt weapon in close combat.
- Expert markswoman: Mia is highly proficient with firearms, managing to shoot several of Keven Dale's security guards.
- Expert archer: Nyssa trained Mia to be a highly proficient archer, like her father, Oliver Queen. Once, while practicing, she managed to cleanly split an apple in two with an arrow.
- High-level intellect: Mia was able to find the abandoned Arrowcave from hints in the documentary, Emerald Archer: The Hood and the Rise of Vigilantism. Felicity Smoak raised her to be an intelligent person, so smart that she could quickly solve a Rubik's Cube to demonstrate a cube within a cube within a cube, whereas her genius half-brother could only do a cube within a cube.
Equipment
Possible future equipment
- Oliver Queen's bow and quiver: Gifted to her by her brother William and Roy Harper, Mia used her father's bow and quiver to destroy the wall that separated the Glades and Star City.
- Knives: Mia pulled a knife on Dinah Drake during a fight with her.
- Recurve bow: Mia uses a black recurve bow gifted to her by her trainer, Nyssa al Ghul.
- Hunting arrows: Mia uses standard hunting arrows to fire from her compound bow or as an improvised melee weapon.
- Trick arrows: Mia uses trick arrows while using her father's bow. She was seen using the grappling hook arrow to lift herself up and down the wall that separated the Glades from the rest of Star City.
Appearances
Arrow
Season 7
Season 8
|
Gallery
Trivia
- Mia was named after her paternal grandmother, Moira Queen.[7] Thea previously used the name Mia as an alias while in Corto Maltese.
- It is implied Mia and Connor Hawke were in a romantic relationship at some point.
- Mia sports several tattoos much like Oliver, but they have a meaning. They include a bee on her right back shoulder, that references her father's surname Queen, and a key with the black star on her right inner arm.[2]
Behind the scenes
- In the comics, the name "Blackstar" has been used by several different characters (both male and female), but most notably by Rachel Berkowitz, a girl from Poland who was raised by Nazis and grew up to be a brilliant scientist. She is an enemy of Supergirl.
- The name Blackstar also resembles Nightstar, the daughter of Nightwing and Starfire in the Kingdom Come series set in the DC Universe's future.
- In the Kingdom Come comics series that are set in an alternate future reality, Oliver Queen does have a daughter named Olivia Queen. Her mother is Dinah Lance and Olivia is the second Black Canary in her universe.
- Her name, Mia, is a reference to Mia Dearden, the second Speedy and Thea's comic book counterpart.
- When her character was originally announced in the press, she was called Jessie Bowden, although this was later changed to Maya. The character was initially only referred to as "Blackstar", leaving her real name then-unknown.
- "Jessie Bowden" was initially going to be "the rookie recruit in the Star City Police Department and is both athletic, comedic and intelligent. But underneath her youthful attitude, lies a woman who has had enough of vigilantes in Star City and is willing to get rid of them no matter what it takes.".[9]
- "Maya" was later described similarly as "A scrappy street fighter and thief from Star City who is a rookie recruit in the Star City Police Department. She is athletic, comedic and intelligent. But underneath her youthful attitude, lies a woman who has had enough of vigilantes in Star City and is willing to get rid of them no matter what it takes."