The Arrow season 6 finale, “Life Sentence,” name-dropped a group called The Longbow Hunters. Just who are they in the DC Comics?
Ricardo Diaz tells Anatoly that he’s made some new friends: The Longbow Hunters. Anatoly replies that he thought they were myths. Oliver says the League of Assassins was even wary of this group.
Outgoing EP Marc Guggenheim tells TVLine, “I will say that the reference to the Longbow Hunters is us planting a flag, much the same way we referenced Damien Darhk in the Season 3 finale. We would be [not nice people] to name-drop the Longbow Hunters and not see them in Season 7.”
So, who are these fearsome assassins in the DC Comics?
‘Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters’
Originally, Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters was a 1987 three-issue prestige miniseries written by Mike Grell that features Oliver Queen moving to Seattle, the hometown of his girlfriend Dinah Lance. This series was a darker turn for Oliver, as he trades his trick arrows for traditional archery.
The darkest turn, however, came when Oliver killed a criminal who had tortured and nearly killed Dinah when she tried to infiltrate his drug ring. Oliver is long haunted by killing this man, preventing him from finding peace.
Longbow Hunters also introduced Shado as the daughter of a Yakuza agent who was held captive during World War II. American soldiers forced him to reveal the location of Yakuza gold, and the agent killed himself because of the dishonor. Shado’s mission since coming of age has been to track down and kill the soldiers who dishonored her father.
The miniseries was nominated for a 1988 Eisner Award for Best Finite Series.
Richard Dragon and the Longbow Hunters
In 2014’s Green Arrow (Volume 5) #31, writer Jeff Lemire introduced a group of Green Arrow villains and named them the Longbow Hunters in a nod to the 1987 comic. Led by Ricardo Diaz’s comic book counterpart Richard Dragon (Ricardo Diaz, Jr.), the team consists of Count Vertigo, Clock King, Brick, Red Dart and Killer Moth. Their purpose is to take down the Green Arrow.
Of his choice to use these characters for the Longbow Hunters, Lemire told USA Today, “I’m a firm believer in taking goofy old Silver Age ideas and making them modern. There’s so much material out there in the past with Green Arrow that is so great and that I love. It seems like a shame to let it waste away or disappear. It’s fun to take some of that stuff and dust it off.”
In this story, Diaz’s father was a drug kingpin who was killed by John Diggle (yes, inspired by the Arrow character) posing as the Green Arrow. Upon learning that his father had been killed by the Green Arrow, Diaz swore revenge. He joined the League of Assassins and trained under the original Richard Dragon before killing him and taking his name.
Diaz/Dragon places a $30 million bounty on the Green Arrow’s head, which Brick, Killer Moth, and Red Dart intend to split. Green Arrow, with the help of his half-sister Emiko, defeats them and is reunited with Diggle, and the two fight Diaz. Diaz seriously wounds both men but is eventually defeated.
‘Arrow’
Perhaps surprisingly, Diaz survived the Arrow season 6 finale, though he lost the empire he built in Star City because Oliver got his hands on Diaz’s ledgers detailing all the officials he was paying and turned them over to the FBI. He also realized that Anatoly’s loyalty had shifted back to Oliver.
Though Diaz had taken control of the Quadrant through sheer force of will — and violence — his lack of power after the finale likely means he’s lost that measure of power. However, we should expect Diaz to return for revenge in season 7 with this group of assassins so fierce that even the League of Assassins feared them.
Several members of the comic Longbow Hunters (Brick, Count Vertigo, Clock King) have already appeared in the Arrowverse. Danny “Brick” Brickwell, for instance, was responsible for Rebecca Merlyn’s murder, and later teamed up with Damien Darhk but was defeated by the Green Arrow.
Count Vertigo was killed by Oliver when he attempted to kill Felicity, though Werner Zytle took over the name. He, however, was also defeated by the Green Arrow. Meanwhile, Clock King, aka William Tockman, was last seen evading capture, though he suffered from a terminal illness.
It remains to be seen whether any established members of the Longbow Hunters will be used; considering their reputation, however, it seems likely Arrow will draft its own roster in season 7.
Arrow returns for season 7 on Mondays at 9:00 p.m. ET this fall on The CW.
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