Malcolm Merlyn

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Malcolm Merlyn
Arrowverse character
First appearance	"An Innocent Man" Arrow October 31, 2012
Last appearance	"Elseworlds, Part 2" Arrow December 10, 2018
Created by	Moira Kirland Lana Cho
Portrayed by	John Barrowman (2012–2019)
Information
Alias	The Dark Archer The Magician Arthur King Ra's al Ghul
Affiliation	League of Assassins (leader: disbanded) Legion of Doom (disbanded) Team Arrow (disbanded) Thanatos Guild
Family	Rebecca Merlyn (wife:deceased) Tommy Merlyn (son) Thea Queen (daughter) Roy Harper (son-in-law)

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Not to be confused with Merlyn (DC Comics).

Malcolm Merlyn, also known by his alter-ego Dark Archer, is a fictional character in The CW's Arrowverse franchise, first introduced in the fourth episode of the first season of the television series Arrow, going on to serve as the main villain of the season. He joined the cast of Legends of Tomorrow for its second season. The character is an adaptation of the DC comics character of the same name, first appearing in an episode written by Moria Kirland and Lana Cho.

John Barrowman has appeared as Malcolm Merlyn as well as his supervillain persona in crossovers with The Flash and Supergirl, as well as serving as one of the main villains of Legends of Tomorrow. Barrowman also co-wrote a comic series starring the character titled, Arrow: The Dark Archer.

Fictional Biography

Arrow

Season one

Malcolm Merlyn (born Arthur King) a wealthy businessman, a member of the League of Assassins, the father of Tommy Merlyn and Thea Queen. During season one, Malcolm plots the Undertaking, the destruction of the Glades using an earthquake device, after his wife Rebecca was murdered there. When Robert Queen earlier threatened the Undertaking, Malcolm arranged to destroy Robert's ship, Queen's Gambit, resulting in Robert's death and leading to Oliver Queen and Sara Lance becoming the Hood and the Canary. In the main story of season one, he uses Moira Queen to gain access to the resources needed for the Undertaking. He tries to reshape Tommy into a better person by cutting him off which works but causes tensions between them. When the Hood interferes with his plan, Malcolm becomes a vigilante called "Dark Archer" to oppose him and proves to be far more skilled. He suspects Oliver to be the Hood and is proven right after defeating him a second time. In the season finale, Malcolm is seemingly killed by Oliver though he manages to destroy much of the Glades, inadvertently kills Tommy, and is publicly exposed for his crime by Moira.

Season two

In season two, Malcolm returns to suborn the jury in Moira's trial to find her innocent of the Undertaking. He discovers that he is Thea's biological father, following Adam Donner's discovery of Malcolm's affair with Moira. In order to prevent Malcolm from getting to Thea, Moira informs Raʾs al Ghul of his survival, forcing Malcolm to flee Starling City. During Slade Wilson's attack on the city, Malcolm returns to save Thea from the Mirakuru soldiers and they leave the city.

Season three

In season three, Malcolm is revealed to have trained Thea to be a warrior in Corto Maltese. Despite being both the League's target and a fugitive of the law, Malcolm secretly returns to Starling City, using personal wealth and resources following the loss of his company. Under an alias, Malcolm purchases the foundry from Queen Consolidated, the site of Thea's nightclub, Verdant. It is revealed that his name in the League of Assassins is "Al Sa-Her" (الساحر), which translates to "The Magician". He continues to train Thea until she can defeat him in combat. Malcolm plots the death of Raʾs to eliminate his blood debt, and manipulates Thea into killing Sara so that Oliver will take the fall for her murder and challenge Raʾs to a duel; this plan fails and almost gets Oliver killed. Malcolm learns that crime lord Danny Brickwell was responsible for the murder of his wife, but Oliver persuades him to choose justice over vengeance for Thea's sake, allowing Brickwell to be tried for his crimes. Malcolm trains Oliver in swordplay in preparation of battling Raʾs together. When Oliver tells Thea that Malcolm brainwashed her into killing Sara, she betrays Malcolm to the League; he is captured and tortured but freed from Nanda Parbat when Oliver takes the place of Raʾs. After Thea is killed by Raʾs, Malcolm accompanies Oliver to Nanda Parbat to revive her but Oliver is forced to join the League. Malcolm secretly works with Oliver to cripple the League from within and stop the plan of Raʾs to unleash the Alpha/Omega bio-weapon on Starling City. Malcolm leads Team Arrow to save the city until Oliver's return. After Raʾs is killed by Oliver in a final sword fight, he passes leadership of the League to Malcolm, which Nyssa suspects had been Malcolm's scheme all along. Despite their renewed animosity, both Malcolm and Oliver harbor deep respect for each other: Malcolm regards Oliver as a surrogate son and Oliver himself remembers the man Malcolm was before the death of his wife.

Season four

In season four, Malcolm helps Laurel Lance resurrect Sara in order to settle his family's blood debt with Laurel, and helps Thea control her bloodlust. He provides information to Oliver and Barry Allen about Vandal Savage. To keep Darhk from learning Oliver's secret, Malcolm masquerades as Green Arrow. However, despite occasionally helping Oliver, Malcolm remains an amoral man and is despised by Oliver's team and their allies. Malcolm's aid to Oliver is either for protecting Thea or for his own agendas. Malcolm ultimately loses both his left hand and his power after Nyssa wins the League's leadership with Oliver's help, leading Malcolm to align himself with Damien Darhk for revenge against Oliver. In the process, Malcolm reveals Oliver's secrets to Darhk. As a result, Darhk makes Malcolm a H.I.V.E. member and provides a cybernetic prosthesis. In order to protect himself and Thea from Damien's plans, Malcolm steals Damien's idol, working with Andy Diggle, which results in Laurel's death. Malcolm remains a leader to disbanded remnants of the League, and with them he forms its splinter faction the Thanatos Guild. Malcolm allies with Team Arrow again when Darhk tries to destroy the world without the means to survive it.

Season five

In season five, an illusion of Malcolm appears in the Dominators' dream world and opposes Oliver, Thea, John Diggle, Ray Palmer, and Sara when they try to leave, but is swiftly killed by Thea. Malcolm appears in flashbacks working with Konstantin Kovar, giving him Sarin gas in exchange for the means to acquire information on Unidac Industries to build the earthquake device. Malcolm returns in the final two episodes of season five, offering Oliver his assistance in saving his friends, most importantly Thea. After Malcolm frees Thea, Felicity, Curtis and Samantha, Thea accidentally steps on a landmine. As Digger Harkness approaches them, Malcolm takes Thea's place, telling the others to run. As they run, the landmine is seen exploding in the distance, killing both Malcolm and Harkness.

Legends of Tomorrow

Malcolm Merlyn first appears in the episode "The Chicago Way" where he is recruited into the Legion of Doom by Eobard Thawne and Damien Dahrk. Malcolm goes to Los Angeles, California and kidnaps Rip Hunter to interrogate him for the location of the Spear of Destiny. However Rip had lost his memory so instead the Legion brainwash him, corrupting him to their side. Malcolm alongside the Legion went after the Spear of Destiny. Ultimately they were successful and rewrite reality creating Doomworld. However the Legends go back in time in an effort to stop the Legion, they succeed and Merlyn is returned to Star City.

Creation and development

According to Arrow producer Marc Guggenhiem, said that the reveal that Malcolm had a second child was allways planned, however I was not until season 2, where it was decided that the child would be Thea and not Oliver.

On August 15, 2012, it was announced that John Barrowman would be playing an unspecified role in Arrow. The character served as the main villain of Arrow season 1, Barrowman played the character in a reoccurring role for the first two seasons before being promoted to a series regular for season 3 and 4. Between the fourth and fifth seasons John and Carole Barrowman wrote a supplementary comic book miniseries focusing on the character. The miniseries ran for twelve issues and were later released as a graphic novel. Entering the fifth season of Arrow, Barrowman signed a deal allowing him to appear across all Arrowverse shows. Through this deal he appeared as one of the main villains in Legends of Tomorrow season 2. Malcolm Merlyn was killed off in the Arrow season five finale, "Lian Yu", prompting Barrowman to exit the show remaining absent in the sixth season. He returned for a guest appearances in the final two seasons in the episodes "Elseworlds, Part 2" and "Starling City" respectively.

Other versions

• In the crossover episode "Duet" Barrowman portrays an alternate universe version of the character named Digsy Foss.
• In the season eight episode "Starling City", an Earth-2 version of Malcolm Merlyn appears also played by John Barrowman. This version was married to Moira Queen and was not the Dark Archer.

Reception

Malcolm Merlyn is considered one of the best Arrowverse villains and was unanimously praised by both critics and fans. In a CBR ranking of all of Arrow's main villains Matthew Sonnack placed Merlyn at 3, while WhatCulture's Lee Clarke placed him higher at one. In a Screen Rant ranking of the top ten Arrowverse villains the character landed at number 9 above Batwomen's Alice Kane.

When the character became Ra's Al Ghul in the season three finale many were excited and spectated on what that would mean for the character. This led some to believe that he would once again serve as the primary villain. When the character was killed off in the season five finale, "Lian Yu" there was speculation on how he could potentially return.

In a CBR article written by Sam Stone, he described the character as a wild card naming him the most memorable Arrow villain. Stone noted that while Malcolm began as a threat his character began to grow and evolve into a more heroic role. He praised the transformation of the dynamic between Oliver and Malcolm from enemy's to allies while still keeping Malcolm as a potential threat. He ended his analysis with hope on the characters return despite his season five demise.

In other media

• Malcolm Merlyn is an adaptation of an established comic character Merlyn.
• Malcolm Merlyn also features in the tie-in novel Arrow: Vengeance and Arrow: Generation of Vipers which were released on February 23, 2016, and March 28, 2017. The novel focuses on events from the first, second, sixth and fifth seasons of Arrow respectively.
• Malcolm Merlyn has made multiple appears in LEGO games, first in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham via the Arrow DLC as well as its spin-off Lego DC Super Villains. The latter of which features John Barrowman reprising his role. The character is part of the main story line of Lego DC Super Villains as a member of the Legion of Doom.
  • Malcolm Merlyn while not appearing in the game, is alluded to in Lego Dimensions. When Green Arrow interacts with The Doctor he says that The Doctors companions, Captain Jack Harkness, seems familiar. This is due to both characters being played by John Barrowman, who does reprise his role as Jack Harkness in Lego Dimensions.
• Malcolm Merlyn is the lead character of the supplementary comic book series, Arrow: The Dark Archer. The series was co-written by John Barrowman and his sister Carole Barrowman. The series focused on fleshing out the character and writing his backstory.

Merchandise

Malcolm Merlyn has received a total of 5 figures.

• Two from DC Collectibles, with one as the Dark Archer and an unmasked variant.
• One POP! vinyl from Funko released as a 2016 San Diego Comic-Con exclusive POP! vinyl figure.
• One Gamestop exclusive Dorbz vinyl figure, released October 9, 2016.

Further reading

• D'Andria, Nicole (2015-10-09). "Arrow: 15 Facts You Didn't Know About Malcolm Merlyn". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2023-06-13.

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