"You want a little of this while she's still got a face? After I'm done, she's gonna make you wanna puke."
Chien Na Wei/China White: Here. Let me show you something.
Hackett: What is that...? Is that something... alive... down there?
White: A slave. He tried to steal a patrol boat. That was seven months ago.
Hackett: Oh my God - are they...? They're eating him...
White: The rats were once small enough to slip in between the bars of his cage. As they fed, they grew fat. Too fat to escape. So now they breed. Remember that sound. He is trying to scream... Take the men. Scour the island. Bring me the head of Oliver Queen or end your days in the rat cage.
Hackett: What is that...? Is that something... alive... down there?
White: A slave. He tried to steal a patrol boat. That was seven months ago.
Hackett: Oh my God - are they...? They're eating him...
White: The rats were once small enough to slip in between the bars of his cage. As they fed, they grew fat. Too fat to escape. So now they breed. Remember that sound. He is trying to scream... Take the men. Scour the island. Bring me the head of Oliver Queen or end your days in the rat cage.
— Year One issue #4
The Emerald Archer and his allies have been protecting Star City and Seattle from a wide variety of threats for decades, leading to all sorts of particularly detestable villains taking their own shots at him.
This is for the comics only. Other examples for the franchise can be found elsewhere:
- Examples from the Arrowverse (including related comics) can be found here.
- Examples from animated works (including related comics) can be found here.
- Examples from video games (including related comics and animation) can be found here.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
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Pre-Crisis Only
Examples
- More Fun Comics:
- Issue #78's "The Black Raider": Captain Kilgore is the vicious leader of his pirate crew, responsible for a seaward crime spree. Introduced bragging about killing a watchman, Kilgore begins another heist, which results in his crew flooding a crowded tunnel. Making numerous attempts on the Green Arrow's life, including dropping him in the water with his feet encased in concrete, Kilgore then raids a cargo vessel, attacking the entire crew; when he's driven back, Kilgore tries to blow up the vessel with a missile with a child tied to it.
- Issue #87's "The Case of the Confident Crooks": Jagin is a ruthless crime boss who tricks all of his employees into killing themselves in order to protect himself. After telling all of his henchmen that he had escape plans for them, Jagin then sabotages all of them, ensuring that all of his men are gunned down by the police instead of rescued. With Green Arrow and Speedy forced to organize a prison break in order to protect them, Jagin then tries to massacre all of his former crew when they return to his hideout.
- Adventure Comics Vol. 1 issue #123's "The Man Behind the Mask" & issue #126's "The Master Arrow": The Mask is a mysterious assassin who specializes in making his kills look like suicides or accidents. In the span of just three days, the Mask has killed sixteen people through such methods as throwing them off of buildings and electrocuting them in their bathrooms.
- Green Lantern/Green Arrow:
- "Journey to Desolation!" note : Slapper Soames is the owner of a small town called Desolation. Soames lives like a king while the town lives in poverty, with the town's people having to work at Soames's mine. Soames has hired Nazis to beat up the miners or any townspeople who displease him. When a mine worker named Johnny writes a protest song against Soames, Soames has him convinced in a rigged trial and sentences him to be hanged. Soames secretly hires a worker named Jacob to stir up a rebellion among the workers, planning to have his Nazi paramilitary forces kill a third of the workers, in order to scare the rest into complete obedience.
- "A Kind of Loving, A Way of Death" note : Joshua is an evil cult leader with Mind Control powers, based on Charles Manson. After finding Black Canary injured at the side of the road, Joshua gives her medical attention, then brainwashes her into being his puppet. Joshua has kidnapped several people, mind-controlling them and forcing them to live on his compound. Joshua is a violent racist who wants to kill every nonwhite person in the US and orders his death cult to kill everyone at a Native reservation. After being defeated, Joshua orders Black Canary to kill Green Arrow.
- Vol. 1, written by Mike W. Barr: Cynthia "Cindy" Horton Sinclair is the greedy daughter of Abigail Horton who instigates the entire comic purely to secure her inheritance. Together with her husband Gerrold, Cindy leads an oil conspiracy seeking to ensure oil is never replaced, beginning by murdering her own mother before turning her attention to Oliver when he gets the money instead. Hiring someone to blow up Oliver's apartment and then killing her henchman to protect her identity, Cindy also tortures Count Vertigo to force him to protect her interests and has her mother's yacht attacked by Cap'n Lash, leading to the crew's deaths. When confronted by Green Arrow, Cindy attempts to murder her own husband to frame her subsequent killing of Oliver as a murder-suicide.
Post-Crisis (May Also Include Pre-Crisis)
Examples
- The Longbow Hunters, written by Mike Grell:
- Issue #1—"The Hunters": The Seattle Slasher, real name Budry, is a former Vietnam veteran who became consumed by bloodlust. Coming to enjoy the killing he faced, Budry was thus recruited by the government for black ops assassinations, but was cut loose when he became too unstable to be controlled. Returning to the states, Budry began murdering prostitutes in every city he visited, wracking up sizable body counts in Atlanta and Chicago before coming to Seattle. He then kills 19 women before he's found by Green Arrow, attempting to burn him to death before attacking his 20th victim.
- Issues #2-3—"Dragon Hunt" & "Tracking Snow": Jankowski, despite his brief appearance, proves to be a surprisingly vile foe. Having once served in the Japanese internment camps, Jankowski was responsible for the torture of Shado's mother, torturing her so severely that even her equally dangerous husband gave up his secrets. Decades later, as part of a heroin smuggling ring, Jankowski serves as the group's torturer, mutilating and killing Dinah's contact before kidnapping Dinah herself. He then horrifically tortures Dinah before offering her to the other men in the room, advising them to take their turn before he gets to her face.
- Vol. 2 issues #1-2—Hunters Moon arc: Al Muncy/Muncie is the heir to a bootlegging fortune. A sadist with a penchant for children, Muncie stalked the streets of Seattle to kidnap multiple children, hold them captive and torture them for days on end until death. Only his last victim, young Annie, survived. Eighteen years later, Muncie manages to gain a new trial with Annie as the only witness. Muncie proceeds to torture Annie mentally with letters and by stalking her, before trying to murder her. When he is discovered, Muncie attempts to murder the police lieutenant hunting him after taking the man's daughter hostage and revealing he never intends to let her live anyways.
- Vol. 3 issues #1-10—Quiver arc: Stanley Dover Sr., aka the Star City Slayer, is the secret main villain. A kindly-seeming old man who has moonlighted as a Satanist since the 1950s, Stanley's wife left him when he suggested they sacrifice their first-born infant to a demon to gain immortality. Decades later, Stanley tried to bind the Beast With No Name to himself, only for the Beast to bond with his grandson instead. Stanley Sr. kidnapped his grandson and began to torture and starve him to force the Beast out, even murdering kids to feed their blood to his grandson. Stanley Sr. eventually planned on transferring his soul into Green Arrow's body to further his power-mad quest. Stanley Sr. also plans to rape Mia Dearden, a former teenage prostitute Green Arrow had recently rescued.
- Connor Hawke: Dragon's Blood, written by Chuck Dixon: Peng Li Zhao and Edison Hoon are a duo of businessmen who seek to awaken a dragon purely for their own power. After bringing together the world's greatest archers in the name of friendly competition, Zhao begins having them eliminated to weed out the strongest, eventually settling on Connor and kidnapping Shado's son to force him to cooperate. Zhao then proceeds to wake up the wrong dragon, unleashing an indestructible beast on the population of Shanghai. When the dragon is killed, Hoon betrays and kills his boss, revealing that he intends to bathe in the dragon's blood to gain the power to Take Over the World, no matter who stands in his way.
- Year One, written by Andy Diggle: Chien Na Wei, aka China White, is chronologically the first villain Oliver faced, as well as one of the worst. Already a drug baroness controlling much of the Asian market, White seeks to expand her empire by any means necessary. Placing Hackett within Oliver's company to embezzle from the company, White then set up a base on the Fiji island, massacring the village present before enslaving all of the survivors to work the fields. After executing one of her own henchmen, White threatens a pregnant slave for Oliver's location, later having a disobedient slave fed to rats to threaten Hackett. When she finally corners Oliver, she tells him that he can either surrender and be enslaved, or kill her and be gunned down in response.
- Vol. 4 issues #13-15: Reverend William "Billy" Miggs, despite his claims of being God's sword, is in truth a selfish Attention Whore who seeks only his own gratification. Corralling his worshippers into launching a series of terrorist attacks on locations he deemed sinful, Miggs corrupts his worshippers into being willing to die for his cause, letting nine of his followers as well as a child burn themselves to death, even killing a potential recruit himself when he deems her a sinner. Knowing that Green Arrow is tracking him down, Miggs decides to go out in a blaze of glory by attacking the Capitol Building directly, willing to blow up the entire building in order to ensure he would be worshipped.
New 52
Examples
- Issues #17-31: Komodo was once Simon Lacroix, a power-hungry man from the slums who rose to become a continental threat. After learning about the Outsiders from Robert Queen, Komodo became greedy and thanked his former mentor by seemingly murdering him, later on stealing his daughter Emiko from her mother Shado, giving Shado to Count Vertigo, and raising Emiko as an assassin. In his mission against Oliver, Komodo quickly frames him for murder; kills dozens of his employees before bankrupting him; kills dozens of cops; and straps a bomb to Naomi Singh. After plotting with other Clans to have him take over, Komodo murders his master before using the power of the Clans to pour Sarin gas all over Europe, causing a continental catastrophe just so he can sweep in and take control. When Robert and Shado interfere once more, Komodo attempts to kill his own daughter Emiko just to spite him one more time.
- Issues #35-40—Kingdom arc: John King is a "philanthropist" whose good deeds hide his desire to conquer any city he can. Having racked up a laundry list of crimes that were then discovered by his wife, King murdered his own wife before chasing his daughter Mia Dearden to silence her as well. Tracking her to Seattle, King grows disgusted when Green Arrow non-lethally defeats a mugger and decides to take the city himself. Torturing his way through thugs and Oliver's employees alike, King uses his power to make the Green Arrow public enemy number one, simultaneously having a doctor cut the power to the hospital to euthanize the sick en masse. Declaring his intent to continue such heinous acts in other cities for as long as he can, King's honeyed words do nothing to hide the murderous fascist underneath.
- Issues #41-43—The Night Birds arc: Aaron Zimm is the creator of the Panopticon drone who seeks to kill anyone he deems unfit for society. Having the drones horrifically kill multiple people in order to justify his actions, Zimm also creates several crime rings himself, including a prostitution and arms trafficking ring, just to fan the flames of unrest. He then has the drones released on the public, where they begin killing anyone they deem aggressive; even stealing a burger or being outside with a hoodie becomes a death sentence, eventually sparking a riot that kills twenty people. Zimm goes so far as to rip apart his own henchman when the latter questions his motives, fully admitting to purely classist motives as he tries to force Oliver to give him enough money to spread his drones across the country.
DC Rebirth
Examples
- Dante is the leader of the Ninth Circle and is responsible for countless atrocities across the globe. Financially backing various terrorist and criminal organizations, Dante enforces his cruel regime through his Burners, trafficked slaves whom he burns alive until they're in so much agony they can focus on nothing but supporting him. Alongside brutally killing anyone he believes can't repay their debt, Dante financially backs Moira's brutal takeover of Seattle; forces an island tribe to become an opium farm by burning their leader's face; releases a Computer Virus that compels people to attempt suicide; and threatens to burn a man's daughter to death to force him to railroad Oliver's trial against him. Even killing his own allies when they've outlived their worth, Dante is one of the worst villains Oliver has ever faced in his decades-long career.
- Moira Queen is Oliver's mother and the architect of his most brutal downfall. Acting through her second-in-command Cyrus Broderick, Moira ruins Oliver's life by framing him for a series of murders, first targeting his secretary Wendy Poole, then having the Dark Archer assassinate Green Arrow's critics. Moira also hires the sadistic mercenary Eddie Fyers to conduct a scheme designed to restart a Middle Eastern war, intending to exploit the conflict for the purpose of boosting her company's profits. When that fails, Moira systematically has hundreds of people killed and Seattle's economy crashed as part of a gambit to take over the city. After her plans are disrupted by Green Arrow, Moira tries to appease her superiors by scapegoating Broderick, before re-entering Oliver's life to manipulate him into feeling sorry for her. In a last-ditch attempt to evade her bosses' ire, Moira tries to kill her own son several times, taking sadistic pleasure when one of these attempts almost kills Emiko instead.
- Eddie Fyers is the psychotic mercenary hired by Moira and Broderick to reignite a Middle Eastern Civil War. Infiltrating the train in which peace discussions are happening, Eddie assassinates the leader of the peace talks, taking great pleasure in knowingly endangering thousands of lives. When this leads to Green Arrow and Black Canary chasing him, Eddie first kills the train's conductor, then floods the tunnel to kill everyone inside and cover his escape. Later resurfacing as one of Broderick's horsemen, Eddie helps crash the city's economy to leave it primed for the Ninth Circle's takeover, gloating to Oliver that he can hear Seattle's "death rattle" while blowing up cars stuck in traffic.
- The Auctioneer is the leader of the Underground Men and their Human Trafficking ring. Constantly kidnapping people whenever he can, particularly preying on Seattle's homeless population, the Auctioneer then auctions off his victims to anyone who wants them, knowing they'll be tortured and experimented on by whoever takes them. In particular, he has a monthly deal with the Ninth Circle, giving them slaves once a month for Dante to convert into his loyal Burners. The Auctioneer will also personally keep slaves he wants, keeping Wendy Poole as a prisoner for several months and traumatizing her to the point that she doesn't speak for weeks when she's rescued.
- Issues #12-16—Emerald Outlaw arc: Sgt. Scott Notting is a cruel police officer who becomes even worse after Green Arrow "humiliates" him. Upon being suspended for his actions, Notting forms the Vice Squad, a group of murderous vigilantes who proceed to gun down entire drug houses and biker bars, eventually escalating to the point of massacring an entire prison of people even when their offenses were incredibly minor. Even willing to kill fellow cops when they disagree with his methods, Notting makes several attempts to kill his former police chief, first trying to run him down and later planting a grenade on a hostage to kill them both.
