Oliver Jonas Queen (born May 16, 1985) is the main protagonist of the TV series, Arrow. A billionaire and a former playboy turned vigilante archer, Oliver is the son of Moira and the late Robert Queen, the older maternal half-brother of Thea Queen, the best friend of the late Tommy Merlyn, the ex-boyfriend and love interest of Laurel Lance, the boyfriend and close friend of Sara Lance, the former apprentice and a good friend of the late Shado and Yao Fei, the former apprentice and friend of Slade Wilson, the partner and good friend of John Diggle and Felicity Smoak, the ex-boyfriend and enemy of Helena Bertinelli, and an old friend and ex-boyfriend of McKenna Hall.
In 2012, Oliver returned to Starling City after being stranded on a remote island for five years, much to the surprise of everyone as he was assumed dead alongside his father and Sara Lance. On the island, Oliver learned to fend for himself and discovered the dark secrets his father kept and promised that once he had returned home he would atone for the secrets his father kept, and so upon Oliver's return, he became a green-hooded vigilante archer known by the Starling City populace as The Hood.
Following the events of The Undertaking, Oliver returned to Lian Yu for five months, only for Felicity and Diggle to come for him when things began to go worse for Oliver's family. Convinced into becoming the vigilante once more, Oliver is determined to "try a new way" in honour of Tommy, beginning his journey into becoming the hero called The Arrow!
In 2012, Oliver returned to Starling City after being stranded on a remote island for five years, much to the surprise of everyone as he was assumed dead alongside his father and Sara Lance. On the island, Oliver learned to fend for himself and discovered the dark secrets his father kept and promised that once he had returned home he would atone for the secrets his father kept, and so upon Oliver's return, he became a green-hooded vigilante archer known by the Starling City populace as The Hood.
Following the events of The Undertaking, Oliver returned to Lian Yu for five months, only for Felicity and Diggle to come for him when things began to go worse for Oliver's family. Convinced into becoming the vigilante once more, Oliver is determined to "try a new way" in honour of Tommy, beginning his journey into becoming the hero called The Arrow!
BIOGRAPHY
Early Life
Oliver was born May 16th, 1985 to Robert and Moira Queen. He was best friends with Tommy Merlyn from an early age, and had dated Laurel Lance during his early twenties. When he was 22 years old, Laurel broached the topic of them getting a place of their own, citing that they had been together even longer than their friends who were already moving in together. Oliver initially agreed, but later panicked and tried to run away from the responsibility, going so far as to destroy his relationship with Laurel by taking her sister Sara Lance with him when he left. Oliver has stated he has dropped out of four schools before being shipwrecked.
According to Tommy Merlyn, Oliver has been arrested four times, prior to his latest arrest by Quentin Lance. These incidents include assaulting a paparazzi, driving while intoxicated, stealing a taxi, and urinating on a police officer.
Oliver was born May 16th, 1985 to Robert and Moira Queen. He was best friends with Tommy Merlyn from an early age, and had dated Laurel Lance during his early twenties. When he was 22 years old, Laurel broached the topic of them getting a place of their own, citing that they had been together even longer than their friends who were already moving in together. Oliver initially agreed, but later panicked and tried to run away from the responsibility, going so far as to destroy his relationship with Laurel by taking her sister Sara Lance with him when he left. Oliver has stated he has dropped out of four schools before being shipwrecked.
According to Tommy Merlyn, Oliver has been arrested four times, prior to his latest arrest by Quentin Lance. These incidents include assaulting a paparazzi, driving while intoxicated, stealing a taxi, and urinating on a police officer.
APPEARANCE
Oliver is a handsome Caucasian male, with dirty blonde hair, blue eyes and about "6'1" in height. He is also well-toned, especially after his return from the island. Before the wreck Oliver had his hair just above the shoulders and with no facial hair. When rescued by fishermen, he is seen with longer hair and a long beard. After returning to civilization Oliver is seen to have a series of scars all over his body, along with a dragon tattoo on his left shoulder and a star tattoo of the Solntsevskaya Bratva Organization on the left side of his chest. Oliver typically dresses in a simple way, using shirts, jeans and boots, often putting on leather coats. While on the island he was seen most of time wearing stolen "soldiers" uniforms. He frequently uses tuxedos or suits for social events and for parties at Verdant. When dressed as The Arrow, his costume consists of a green leather vest with a simple green hood on a leather jacket of the same color, with details on The Arrow's arms and black gloves. He teams it up with leather pants with green details from the knees down and black boots. A Quiver is tied around the chest. He employs flechettes on his left forearm and a holster for knives is strapped to his right leg. He also dons eye makeup, to conceal his identity in lieu of his usual face mask. As of "Three Ghosts". Oliver now wears a green domino mask.
During his stay on Lian Yu, Oliver was attacked, beaten, and tortured by several different groups of men, resulting in scars on 20% of his body, as well as second-degree burns on his back and arms as well as twelve fractures throughout his body that never properly healed. Oliver also has a star on his upper left chest, signifying his role as a Bratva Captain. He also has a dragon tattoo on his upper left back similar to Shado's which was given to by Slade as a brand due to Shado's death.
During his stay on Lian Yu, Oliver was attacked, beaten, and tortured by several different groups of men, resulting in scars on 20% of his body, as well as second-degree burns on his back and arms as well as twelve fractures throughout his body that never properly healed. Oliver also has a star on his upper left chest, signifying his role as a Bratva Captain. He also has a dragon tattoo on his upper left back similar to Shado's which was given to by Slade as a brand due to Shado's death.
ABILITIES
- Peak of human physical condition: Oliver is shown to be in top physical condition from his intense exercises both in the Arrowcave and from his time on the island. His training regimen seems to be inspired by his mentors on the Island and possibly others. Due to his youth, Oliver is faster than Malcolm Merlyn and is not only strong enough to break a man's neck in a matter of seconds, but is even stronger than the formidable Helena Bertinelli. Like Malcolm, Oliver is able to dodge an arrow, his reflexes also allowed him to catch a flechette (thrown at him by Roy Harper in 2x02), and possibly an arrow!
- Honed senses: Oliver has repeatedly demonstrated being able to sense danger before anyone else near him does. His keen powers of perception offer aid in otherwise detrimental situations.
- Master archer: Oliver is extremely experienced and has outstanding archery skills. He has extreme accuracy with the bow and arrow, allowing him to shoot 6 bouncing tennis balls without missing, shoot small objects off of people without harming them and shoot with deadly accuracy even while he is moving. His archery skills extend even to throwing of improperly weighted kitchen knives and even a rusty pole. Oliver has also demonstrated enough skill in archery to fire three arrows at once while disorientated from the effects of Vertigo. While two missed, the third hit its target. His archery skills are at near-superhuman levels thanks to the help of Yao Fei and Shado.
- Master stick fighter: Oliver is shown to be a master stick fighter. He knows the Filipino martial art, Kali (also known as Eskrima or Arnis), and shows his skills practicing on a training dummy or sparring with Diggle. In Season 2 Episode 1 "City Of Heroes" A flashback showed Oliver and Slade sparing with bamboo sticks, Oliver was able to defeat Slade. In Season 2 Episode 4 "Crucible", he was able to take down three of The Mayor's thugs simultaneously, while he was using Sara's bo-staff, stating that it wasn't his first time using a bo-staff.
- Master hand-to-hand combatant/Martial artist: Oliver excels in advanced hand to hand combat, being a master martial artist. He is proficient in various types of fighting, and can more than hold his own against his opponents, whether with his signature bow and arrow or completely unarmed. He styled his fighting styles of self defence, offence, grappling, and take-down after his mentors, Yao Fei, Slade Wilson, and Shado. The fighting form seems to be a combination of Wing Chun, Hapkido, Jujitsu, and Eskrima, as Oliver has been seen regularly training with sticks, knives and has even used his bow as an improvised weapon. Oliver has also learned several hand-to-hand combat techniques from Yao Fei, Shado, Slade, and possibly others he's met on the island and has learned several useful techniques from them. One example being Oliver's ability to put people in a death-like state to fool people and can bring his victims back to life later with a mere touch to the chin (A trick Yao Fei used to saved Oliver's life in Season 1).
- Free running/Acrobatics/Stealth: Oliver has shown himself capable of scaling buildings and running from rooftop to rooftop easily. On one occasion he scaled a building using the window ledges of the building to retrieve a bullet. On another occasion, he leapt over a rooftop to land on a lower one. It allows him to sneak in and out of almost any unguarded building without being detected. His impressive stamina coupled with his free running skills almost allows him to outrun and capture Helena Bertinelli, who is riding a Motorbike, after shooting Paul Copani. Additionally, Oliver has shown being able to conceal his very presence in order to spy on or get close to his intended target(s) without them knowing he is close.
- Skilled detective/Tactician: Oliver has been shown to have great detective skills when searching for information about the people on his list. While he is no expert in anything outside his physical skills, he has shown to have extensive knowledge in various fields, including computer engineering, toxicology, combat medicine, weapons and so on, all of which he uses to effectively aid in his investigation while maintaining discretion, often without needing aid from anyone else. Occasionally when things are more than he can handle, he is also shown to be resourceful enough to acquire assistance from his network of contacts, whether they are willing to help or not. His deductive thinking allows him to think ahead of his enemies and is capable enough to devise an elaborated plan to shake off suspicions of him being Arrow.
- Multilingual: Oliver is capable of fluently speaking English, Russian (Courtesy of Anatoly Knyazev) and Mandarin (Courtesy of Shado). He can speak Mandarin so perfectly, that he was able to fool a blinded Triad member into believing he was actually Chinese
- First aid/Toxicology: It has been shown that Oliver is educated in various types of medicine and first aid. He was able to provide medical attention to himself and John, as well as determine the type of poison (Curare) that the bullet contained from his blood, compliments of Deadshot. He has been shown to be able to give first aid on himself or others, and going so far even to treat bullet wounds completely without having to go to the hospital. He apparently keeps stocks of his own blood in his hideout, storing them for future use.
- Indomitable will/Tolerance for pain: Oliver has shown to be very stubborn, and is nearly fearless. Under no situation would he ever give up. Even on the island while he was untrained and in no shape to fight anyone, he was shown to be quite resistant to pain. Oliver was able to injure Malcolm Merlyn's leg with a flechette arrow, before knocking him out cold with a single punch, despite being badly injured by his arrows and having 3 broken ribs. He also came back from being shot by his mother, despite the fact that he was only given time to recover overnight. In his final encounter with Malcolm, Oliver was able to take Malcolm down by summoning all his residual strength into a single blow, immediately after he stabbed himself through the shoulder with one of Malcolm's arrows.
- Expert driving skills: Oliver has the ability to drive multiple vehicles, and appears to be skilled at it. He is able to pursue enemies in various ways using different vehicles, known of are a car and a motorcycle.
- Master at subterfuge: Oliver also possesses considerable skills at lying and deception, having once bested a lie detector test where only a "slight flutter" was detected coming off of him. He uses these attribute to hide his double life as a wealthy club owner and vigilante.
- Custom weapons and Equipment developer: As The Arrow, Oliver is well adept at crafting his own weapons and gadgets which he uses for his cause. Among his many innovations include his customized trick arrows, bows, and Voice filter.