- For the Arrow episode, see "Star City Slayer".
- "Some people don't deserve to live."
- —Stanley Dover to Oliver Queen[src]
Stanley Dover is a psychotic serial killer who was incarcerated after committing several counts of murder and sentenced to Slabside Maximum Security Prison, being identified as Inmate 9922. There he developed an obsession for Oliver Queen, being inspired by his actions as the Hood before becoming Green Arrow.
After escaping from prison during a riot started by Ricardo Diaz, Dover went on a killing spree in Star City in order to prove to Oliver that he was the only one who truly understood him with his actions leading the media to refer to him as the Star City Slayer, a nickname that he despised. Stanley was subdued by Oliver, putting an end to his killing spree, and he was soon taken into custody by the SCPD and sent back to Slabside.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Stanley was born in Central City into a dysfunctional household, regularly being abused by his father, a doctor who gave him "medicine" and tortured him in order to "correct him" when he was behaving badly or didn't listen. His mother agreed and often took part to his father's "corrections" over Stanley, while his older brother tried to defend him and often offered to be punished in Stanley's place, something that only made matters worse for him.[1]
Becoming a serial killer and eventual incarceration[]
Overtime, Stanley's anger over his parents grew stronger and he gave them the same medicine that they'd given to him for years and "corrected" them for revenge, making them his first victims. When Stanley's brother found out about this, he tried to have Stanley sent to Arkham Asylum in order to potentially get help, but Stanley "corrected" him soon after as he "didn't have a choice".[1]
After this, Stanley murdered three other individuals, their friends and their families. His modus operandi being trying to be loved or impress someone he'd become obsessed with by murdering everyone he deemed harsh to that individual, and if it doesn't work, kill the individual he'd become obsessed with too.[1] After many investigations led by the CCPD (probably started before 2013 as Dinah Drake remembered taking part in it) under the supervision of captain David Singh himself, Stanley was eventually caught, arrested and convicted for mass murder, including some children, deeming to his incarceration to Slabside Maximum Security Prison,[2] but even during and after the trial, Stanley still believed himself to be innocent.[3]
Imprisonment and Oliver's "sidekick"[]
Stanley recognized Oliver Queen as the Green Arrow and attempted to join his gang for protection, but Oliver refused, stating that he wasn't in a gang, and told Stanley to leave him alone. The next day, following a fight where Oliver planted a shiv on Ben Turner, Stanley sat with Oliver at lunch, when Danny Brickwell and Derek Sampson showed up, still pushing for Oliver to join their three-man operation as a replacement for Turner. The two men beat up Stanley when Oliver continued to reject their offer, leaving Stanley at their mercy. Oliver soon apologized to Stanley as he was on the guard's radar and could not afford to have another strike to his name.
Stanley, angered that Oliver abandoned him, reminded him that he also had a family and insulted him for being a coward. Stanley later watched in the prison yard as Oliver beat up Brick and one of Ricardo Diaz's goons, the "Grim Reaper", seeming to have taken Stanley's words into account.[3]
Stanley then started following Oliver everywhere and considering himself his "sidekick".[4] After Oliver was released from a week of isolation due to what happened with "Grim Reaper", Stanley welcomed him back in the courtyard and complimented for his actions.
After Oliver asked where the "Grim Reaper" was, Stanley answered that he was sent to Level Two of the prison but, as for the information he gained asking around, the goon didn't know about Diaz's location. Oliver scolded Stanley for risking so much by questioning the others convicts, but he reassured him that nobody tried to hurt him out of fear for "the Green Arrow" since he was "friends with him". Stanley revealed to him that it was Brick who orchestrated Oliver's assault and asked him if he intended to torture him or gaining the information in a similar way, to which Oliver stated that he'd do it his way. When Brick asked Oliver to get rid of a guard, Peter Yorke, in exchange of information on Diaz, Stanley helped him to create a blackout near the showers in order to infiltrate the computer room to search for some dirt on Yorke and blackmail him. This proved pointless, forcing Oliver to stab himself and blame the guard in order to get Yorke transferred, while Stanley watched in admiration.[5]
The following day during lunch, Stanley complimented to Oliver for having stabbed himself and for his resilience. Brick, seemingly honoring his part of the deal, revealed to Oliver that an inmate known as "The Demon" was Diaz's inside man, claiming he can arrange a meeting with said individual.
That night, as all the cells in the block opened, Stanley asked Oliver what's going on and the latter claimed he supposed it was due to Brick's influence over the guards. Stanley chose to follow Oliver to the meeting as the former believed it would be the safest place for him. When they reached the supposed meeting place, they were ambushed by Ben Turner and two other men, but Oliver defeated them. Stanley, Oliver and Turner subsequently infiltrated Brick's clandestine fight club, where Stanley encouraged Oliver as he defeated Derek Sampson and later attacked a guard in order to get transferred to Level Two, where "The Demon" was incarcerated according to Brick's information.[6]
Weeks later, while he was talking to an unidentified old man during his visitation hours, Stanley recognized Oliver's wife Felicity after she was informed by the prison guards that Oliver's visitation privileges had been revoked. Stanley drew Felicity's attention to talk to her on the phone and introduced himself as Oliver's friend and sidekick, to which Felicity asked him to tell her husband that she got a lead on Diaz. Stanley subsequently told her about what happened and that he couldn't inform Oliver since he was transferred to Level Two. After Oliver returned from said place, Stanley welcomed him and told him he met Felicity, referring him of the message from his wife.[4]
Stanley revealing his true colors[]
Later, Stanley and Oliver were in the prison dining room having their meal, when they saw one of the guards, B. Dunbar, ostracize Brick and his group. Oliver, surprised, asked Stanley if Dunbar was no longer on Brick's payroll, to which Stanley explained that after the clandestine fight club was closed the guards were no longer on Brick's payroll and Dumbar had become even harder on everybody. After he finished explaining, Stanley watched as Oliver walked away with Dumbar to the visitation room to speak with DA Laurel Lance.[7]
Later that night, Stanley murdered Dunbar in cold blood near the shower room and framed Ben Turner by planting his shiv in the wall.[2][7]
The next morning a group of guards entered Stanley's cell, accusing him of the murder for being the last one who saw Dunbar alive and dragged him away to isolation while Oliver watched the scene, speechless. Oliver then visited him in the isolation cell and asked if he was okay, to which Stanley replied that the guards took turns beating him in order to get a confession as they had yet to find the murder weapon. As Stanley repeatedly stated that he'd never hurt anyone, Oliver asked Stanley how the guards said Dunbar's murder happened, prompting Stanley to tell him he was killed in the showers and to swear that he wasn't even close to that room when it happened. After Oliver reassured him that he would help him, Stanley told him that he knew that if anyone could prove his innocence, it would be the Green Arrow.
A few hours later, Oliver found Turner's shiv hidden in the shower room and turned in the weapon, leading to Turner being sent to isolation despite insisting that he was the wrong guy.
That evening during dinner, Stanley freshly released from isolation, thanked Oliver for what he had done by saying that if Oliver hadn't found Turner's blade he would have been stuck in "the hole" for the rest of his life. Shaken, Oliver suspiciously asked how Stanley knew it was Turner's blade since he was in isolation but Stanley answered by stating that he "must've heard it somewhere".[7]
Escape[]
The following day during the lunch, Stanley congratulated Oliver for being close to being released and asked if, once free, he could ask to his friend Laurel to do something for him too. But Oliver coldly refused, stating that he knew Stanley was Dunbar's real killer and that Slabside is where he belonged. Stanley tried to point that he was his "best friend" to which Oliver replied they "were never were friends". Upset, Stanley declared that he was simply doing what Green Arrow always does, leading Oliver to point out that he does not kill innocent people and Stanley to reply that he has hurt several of them since they met and that "prison changes people". Oliver firmly stated that it hadn't changed him and that as soon as he was freed he would assure Stanley faces justice for what he has done.
Oliver was visited by Ricardo Diaz few hours before his release, who informed him that he was going to start a riot to kill him first and then his wife and friends. Oliver subsequently broke out from his cell by creating an improvised explosive with bath products. Stanley witnessed it and begged him to help him escape as well, but Oliver ignored him. Stanley was then freed alongside all the other prisoners when Diaz unlocked all the cells in Slabside. He quickly hid in the infirmary and as Oliver walked in, snuck up on him and used a sleeping drug to knock him out. Taping Oliver to a table in order to talk, Oliver woke up and tried to trick him by telling him that if he freed him, they could make a plan together and he would be his "sidekick". Stanley promptly replied that he already had a plan to escape through the morgue, and Oliver claimed that in doing so they would have left Slabside in the hands of Diaz. Stanley stated it doesn't matter since the prisoners deserved to be slaughtered by him.
After Oliver declared he couldn't leave all those people, Stanley started to become delusional, affirming that he never did anything wrong, that he just tried to impress him as he didn't want Oliver to think he was a monster like everybody said, and that all the people he killed, like Dunbar, had it coming. Realizing that Stanley was actually a serial killer, a disgusted Oliver freed himself from the tape, knocked Stanley unconscious and locked him inside the infirmary.
Later Stanley somehow managed to get out from the infirmary and, knowing that the morgue is the only way out of Slabside, he went there, running into Brick who had the same idea to escape from the prison. Stanley killed Brick by stabbing him in the side from behind, stating that he should have been nicer to him and escaped from Slabside.[2]
Star City Slayer[]
Sometime later, Stanley traveled to Star City and settled in an abandoned homestead on the outskirts, beginning to follow Green Arrow's accomplishments, as well as to stalk and retrieve information on the former Team Arrow members. Shortly after having moved, he started a killing spree, paralyzing and then murdering people with a rare drug known as "Mivacurium", leading to the media referring to him as the "Star City Slayer", a nickname he despised.[1] He also started sending threatening notes to former Team Arrow members, beginning with Laurel Lance (oblivious to the fact that she wasn't from Earth-1),[8] and then continuing with Dinah Drake, John Diggle and Rene Ramirez.[1]
One night, as former councilman Kullens (who previously worked for Diaz) was sleeping after being released from prison for a month, Stanley quietly broke into his room and injected him with the Mivacurium. Kullens awoke in shock and asked him what he wanted but Stanley sliced his throat without any response.
After recognizing the killer's modus operandi, Dinah asked Captain Singh to gave her the file regarding the investigation from years prior. Curtis Holt was able to identify the paralyzing drug as Mivacurium and, being a mix between Mercurium and other specific substances, to track down the killer's hideout by searching for large orders of the substances. At the abandoned homestead, Diggle, Rene, and Curtis found his old Slabside uniform and realized he was a former prison mate of Oliver's. Dinah had an encounter with him during which Stanley managed to sneak up on her and slice her throat (although she was later saved by Curtis' T-Spheres right before escaping).
Stanley then proceeded to Oliver Queen's apartment, paralyzing him, Felicity, and William Clayton by spreading Mivacurium through the ventilation system. He initially introduced himself to William as Oliver's best friend and claimed to be the only one who truly understands Oliver, stating that that's why they needed to be a team. He then started to tell them about his family history and how he despises being called the "Star City Slayer", gradually losing his temper. He finally stated his firm belief that "some people don't deserve to live", then shouted about how everyone had been so "mean" to him and that he had to kill everyone.
Stanley was then distracted mid-conversation by Felicity, who insulted him by declaring he is even worse than his father since he was the Star City Slayer. Infuriated by this, Stanley tried to kill her but he was subdued and knocked unconscious by a still half-paralyzed Oliver, with Diggle and Rene arriving seconds later.[1]
Re-incarceration[]
Stanley was later taken into custody by the SCPD and subsequently sent back to Slabside.[1]
Personality[]
- "You're the Green Arrow, and you fight bad guys, and you think I'm a bad guy. And you just think that I'm what everyone says that I am."
- "How could I? I don't - I don't know what people say."
"That I'm a killer, that I'm a monster, that everything I did, everything I did - that whole Dunbar thing. It was just like the Dunbar thing. I... I didn't have a choice! I didn't haven't a choice! And all those people had it coming." - —Stanley Dover and Oliver Queen[src]
Even before Stanley's incarceration, he was already mentally ill as evidenced by the fact that he killed his parents due to how badly they abused him, he later killed his brother when he attempted to send him to Arkham Asylum to get help, he then began to kill several innocent individuals including some children which eventually led to Stanley's incarceration in Slabside Maximum Security Prison, his modus operandi is obsessing over an individual and then trying to gaining their admiration by murdering everyone he deemed an enemy of said person. If that didn't work, he would kill the individual that he was obsessed with as well. He also lacks any form of empathy, compassion, sympathy and remorse, as he believes that some individuals don't deserve life.[1]
As an inmate, Stanley prioritizes his own survival, relying on Oliver Queen as his one chance to stay alive in prison,[3][6] he is also afraid of powerful criminals like Ricardo Diaz and Danny Brickwell, Stanley persistently views himself as unjustly hated, telling Oliver that he was imprisoned for crimes he didn't commit when he was in fact a serial killer when his crimes were revealed, he refused to take responsibility and claimed his victims deserved to die, Stanley is also incredibly childish in nature, initially displayed through a timidness and somewhat wide-eyed inquisitiveness next to outright joy to being Oliver's "sidekick" in Slabside. This was also revealed to be a deadly trait of his personality as he murdered Danny solely for "being mean to him".[2]
Despite Stanley using Oliver for his own ends, he is still a big fan of the latter, often admiring his past actions as Green Arrow even saying his iconic quotes like "You have failed this city" and giving him nicknames like "G.A.".[3][5] Stanley's admiration was later revealed to be more of an outright obsession with Oliver's past tactics of killing others as the Hood.[1][2]
Stanley's time in prison (5 years in Slabside Maximum Security Prison) obviously did not reform him as evidenced by the fact that he killed B. Dunbar for no clear reason and then framed Ben Turner for the murder, as well as declaring that Slabside's inmates deserved to be slaughtered by Diaz, as he always attributed little to no importance to others' lives.[2]
Stanley lacks any form of logic for example, he fails to realize that no sane individual will ever be impressed by the fact that he kills innocent individuals for them. Even during his trial and imprisonment, Stanley still (delusively) believes himself to be innocent unable to understand that he deserved to be imprisoned for his crimes.
Stanley's main goal in Star City is to make sure that he "corrects" those who he deems to be a threat to Oliver's life even Felicity and William by killing them. He also threatens to kill anyone who calls him the "Star City Slayer",[1] as he can't stand individuals who don't listen to him.
Abilities[]
- High-level intellect/Expert tactician: Stanley is a very intelligent and calculating serial killer, with exceptional observation and investigative skills, as he is capable of learning everything about his victims. As a serial killer, his elusiveness and ability to cover his tracks is so great that he escaped capture at the hand of CCPD for years, and even Dinah Drake, John Diggle, Rene Ramirez and Curtis Holt have had difficulty in finding any sort of connection between his victims.[1]
- Expert of deception/Manipulator: Stanley is an exceptional liar, he was able to deceive Oliver Queen for months and lead him to believe that he was incarcerated for crimes that he didn't commit.[2][3] When he killed B. Dunbar and tried to blame it on Ben Turner, Oliver was initially fooled but due to a slip of the tongue made by Stanley regarding how he knew that the knife that was used to kill Dunbar belong to Ben, Oliver soon realizes that not only did Stanley actually kill Dunbar but he is also in fact guilty of the crimes (several counts of murder) that he was convicted of.
- Toxicology: Due to Stanley's family history he is very proficient in toxicology as evidenced by him being able to create homemade Mivacurium (a paralyzing drug) by mixing Mercurium and other substances.[1] He is also able to recognize and use a sleeping drug in Slabside's infirmary.[2]
- Expert knife-wielder: As the "Star City Slayer", Stanley uses small blades to kill his victims. He was able to kill the much larger Danny Brickwell although it should be noted that Stanley only managed to kill Brickwell while he was not looking.[2] He even managed to slash Dinah Drake's throat.[1]
- Stealth: Stanley has great skills in stealth, he was able to sneak up on Oliver and put a drug in him to knock him out during a prison riot start by Ricardo Diaz although it is also noted that Oliver's honed senses weren't in good condition at the time.[2] He also snuck up on Dinah Drake[1] without her noticing him.
Weaknesses[]
- Predictable: Despite the fact that Stanley is an elusive serial killer, he is also proven to still have a degree of sloppiness as he was eventually caught and arrested by the CCPD and imprisoned in Slabside Maximum Security Prison. After Stanley escaped during a riot that was started by Ricardo Diaz, he went on a killing spree again. Although Dinah Drake, John Diggle, Rene Ramirez and Curtis Holt had difficulty in finding any sort of connections between Stanley's victims but due to the mistake that he had made by leaving his prison uniform in his hideout, they were not only able to discover his identity but also that his next target was Oliver Queen proving that Stanley did not learn from any of his previous mistakes.
Equipment[]
Former equipment[]
- Knife: Stanley carries a knife with him and as the Star City Slayer.[1]
- Gas mask: Stanley wore a gas mask when attacking Oliver Queen's home.[1]
- Syringe: Stanley used a syringe in order to inject a paralyzing poison, known as "Mivacurium" into his victims so that he can slash their throat without them fighting back.[1]
Appearances[]
Arrow[]
Season 7
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Trivia[]
- Stanley's codename is similar to Richard's "Starling Slasher", a villain based on the otherwise unnamed serial killer "Seattle Slasher" from the comics who had victimized prostitutes and encountered Oliver Queen and Shado in the mini-series Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters.
- The character of Richard was also loosely based on the DC comic book version of Stanley Dover, murdering his victims with a ceremonial dagger.
- Stanley's signature weapon as the Star City Slayer being a knife is a reference to the ceremonial dagger used by his DC comic book counterpart.
- Stanley is similar to Carrie Cutter both are murderous, delusional, obsessive and mentally unstable.
- Considering Stanley's threat, it's strange that he was never given the death penalty.
Behind the scenes[]
- In the main DC comics continuity, Stanley Dover is an amateur occultist who hunted and murdered young children to use their blood as a means to attract a demonic entity, revealed to be the same creature from Stanley and his Monster, eventually coming to be known as the "Star City Slayer". He crossed paths with Oliver Queen who's body he had hoped to take over in order to further his cause. Ultimately the man was killed by the demonic beast in revenge for the torture he had inflicted on his own grandson, the creature's best friend, Stanley.
- Stanley Dover was included in the original pitch for Arrow, then titled The Hunter. His original role was similar to Felicity Smoak's, described as "brilliant but a bit eccentric. Our computer and technology savant. We'll learn that Stanley has a history with Oliver's father, Robert Queen which explains why he is the first individual Oliver recruits for his crusade".[9]
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 "Star City Slayer"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 "The Slabside Redemption"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "Inmate 4587"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "The Demon"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "The Longbow Hunters"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Crossing Lines"
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Due Process"
- ↑ "Past Sins"
- ↑ Marc Guggenheim (@mguggenheim) - Twitter