Emiko Queen Explained

Character Name:Emiko Queen
Real Name:Emiko Queen
Publisher:DC Comics
Debut:Green Arrow, Vol. 5 #18
(March 2013)
As Green Arrow:
Green Arrow, Vol. 5 #32
(June 2014)
As Red Arrow:
Green Arrow, Vol. 6 #15
(January 2017)
Creators:Jeff Lemire
Andrea Sorrentino
Species:Human
Alliances:Team Arrow
Teen Titans
Justice League
Ninth Circle
Aliases:Green Arrow
Red Arrow
Emiko Lacroix
Powers:
  • Expert archer and markswoman
  • Skilled martial artist, hand-to-hand combatant, and acrobat

Emiko Queen is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jeff Lemire and artist Andrea Sorrentino and debuted in Green Arrow, Vol. 5 #18 (March 2013).[1] She is the younger paternal half-sister and sidekick of Green Arrow. Emiko has been associated with the mantle of Green Arrow, but is more commonly known as the second Red Arrow.

Emiko Queen appears in Arrow, portrayed by Sea Shimooka.

Publication history

Emiko debuted in The New 52's Green Arrow, Vol. 5 #18 (March 2013), written by Jeff Lemire and designed by artist Andrea Sorrentino.[2] [3] The character was created as a parallel to Thea Queen, an original character to the Arrowverse and the younger maternal half-sister of Oliver Queen from The CW series Arrow.[4]

While Emiko originally addresses herself as the new Green Arrow before joining her brother's crusade, it is not until later during DC Rebirth that, after her apparent betrayal, Emiko would return and take on her own codename as Red Arrow, one previously held by Roy Harper during his membership in the Justice League in the Pre-Flashpoint era.[5]

Fictional character biography

The New 52

Emiko is the paternal half-sister of Oliver Queen/Green Arrow who is the illegitimate daughter of his father Robert Queen and the assassin Shado. Kept secret from the Queen family by her mother, as an infant Emiko was kidnapped by Simon Lacroix/Komodo, Robert's former associate. He raised her as an assassin, believing him to be her father. Upon her debut, Emiko watches as Komodo kills Green Arrow's associate Jax Jackson, and later reports that their other hostage Naomi Singh had managed to locate where Oliver Queen currently is.[6] She later meets Green Arrow when she decides to help protect her father.[7] Later, after Green Arrow rescues Shado from Count Vertigo, she confirms to him that Emiko is her daughter with his father Robert.[8]

Emiko then appears during the Outsiders War storyline where, upon hearing that Shado is accompanying Green Arrow, she asked Komodo if it was true that her mother is still alive and is upset for having been lied to, but he tricks her into thinking that Green Arrow and Shado are only coming to take her away from him.[9] Later, after Robert Queen was injured during their pursuit of them, Emiko begins to realize the truth that she is actually his daughter, something which Shado confirms, to which an angry Emiko exacts her vengeance by killing Komodo. Upon rejecting his position to become the head of the Outsiders Arrow Clan, Oliver offers that he'll take Emiko away from all of this for a fresh start, which Shado agrees as it is her choice to make.[10]

Emiko decides to follow her brother back to Seattle as she recognizes that, unlike the rest, her brother had never lied to her[11] and when he is attacked by the Longbow Hunters, she introduces herself as the Green Arrow.[10]

DC Rebirth

In 2016, DC Comics implemented another relaunch of its books called "DC Rebirth" which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to "The New 52". Together with her older half-brother Oliver, she infiltrated the docks to rescue kidnapped children. Black Canary appeared to help them and Emiko revealed she was a fan of Black Canary. All three then went back to Oliver's and Emiko's apartment where Dinah stayed for the night. Later that day, Oliver and the assassin Shado, the mother of Emiko, had a fight in Oliver's apartment with Oliver getting the upper hand. Oliver ordered Emiko to get out of the apartment but she instead, to Oliver's surprise, fired an arrow into his back. Emiko told Shado she had been waiting a long time for her mother to arrive. Together they got onto a boat, took Oliver's body with them, and drove away from the bay of Seattle out on the ocean. When in the middle of nowhere, they threw Oliver's body over the rail, deep down into the ocean. They then traveled to the base built on water called the Inferno, where Shado's masters, the criminal organization called the Ninth Circle operated. After Oliver turned out to be alive, Emiko conducted a plan for the Ninth Circle to capture Dinah, to stop them from going after her mother who had fallen on bad terms with the organization after her failed assassination of Oliver. They lured Dinah to the Inferno where Emiko managed to capture her. When Emiko and Shado were supposed to kill Dinah she instead rescued her revealing that she had been a double agent all the time. Moments later she met Oliver, who had infiltrated the Inferno, and told him she had been trying to help him all the time. She had slipped a homing beacon into his pocket when she dumped him into the ocean, thus helping Henry Fyff locate Oliver. She had also anonymously contacted John Diggle and had secretly revealed the location of the Inferno to Oliver. Furious over her daughter's betrayal, Shado took Emiko hostage, taking her with her in a helicopter as the Inferno exploded. Emiko returned to Seattle, now going by the name Red Arrow, and saved Oliver, Black Canary, and the Seattle Police Department from Scott Notting and the Vice Squad. Later she becomes a member of the Teen Titans.

The New Golden Age

In the pages of "The New Golden Age", Emiko learns about her brother and Roy Harper's visit to the Golden Age and how he was part of the Seven Soldiers of Victory and the loss of Crimson Avenger's sidekick Wing. They are then visited by the Jill Carlyle version of Crimson Avenger who states that Lee Travis needs their help. When the surviving Seven Soldiers of Victory are gathered in Myrtle Beach, Jill takes Green Arrow, Shining Knight, and Vigilante on the mission while leaving Red Arrow and Stargirl behind due to them being too young for the mission. Red Arrow finds out that the adults are going after Clock King. Later that night, Red Arrow and Stargirl find the grown-ups fighting Clock King on the shipwreck that Lee died on. After Clock King was defeated and Lee's body was finally found in the past, Red Arrow was among those that attended his funeral. Later that night, Red Arrow visits Stargirl informing her that she has a lead on where Wing is.[12]

Red Arrow and Stargirl visit the house of Dan Dunbar and find that he has been researching where the Lost Children have disappeared to. Using a boat to get to the Diablo Triangle where Dan Dunbar was last seen, Red Arrow and Stargirl end up shipwrecked on an island where Red Arrow is abducted by the egg-shaped robots called Child Collectors. When locked up in a cell, Red Arrow encounters the Childminder and also discovers that her neighboring prisoner is Flash's daughter Boom. As Childminder is using Boom and the treadmill that she's chained up on to power the Time Warp device, Red Arrow advises her to overload it. After Boom successfully creates a sonic boom, she proceeds to free Red Arrow as they also free Sparky, Pinky the Whiz Kid, Secret, and Dan the Dyna-Mite. When Red Arrow and those with her run into Stargirl and those that didn't get "nested" by the Child Collectors, the Childminder arrives where the Hourman android subdues everyone but Stargirl. While claiming that Red Arrow is a Lost Child, the Hourman android claims that he is trying to save them from "complete obliteration". When the Hourman android's master in the form of an adult Corky Baxter called Time Master arrives, Emiko helps to fight the Child Collectors. Upon the reprogrammed Hourman android taking the Lost Children to Stargirl's time, Emiko and Courtney join the Seven Soldiers of Victory in remembering Wing's sacrifice.[13]

Powers and abilities

Under the tutelage of Simon Lacroix, Emiko became a skilled archer and a disciplined fighter. She has the power to be quite dangerous and potentially murderous.

In other media

Emiko Queen appears in Arrow, portrayed by Sea Shimooka.[14] This version is the adult daughter of Robert Queen and Kazumi Adachi and the leader of the terrorist organization, the Ninth Circle, who recruited and trained her after Robert abandoned her. Throughout the seventh season, she seeks to destroy Robert's legacy as well as revenge on his son and her half-brother, Oliver Queen. In pursuit of this, she initially operates as the Green Arrow and assists Team Arrow in protecting Star City while Oliver is imprisoned before her true allegiances and goals are exposed. After failing to destroy Star City, the Ninth Circle's council betrays her and she is mortally wounded. Before she dies, she reconciles with Oliver. After Oliver sacrifices himself to save the multiverse and due to changes made to it during the events of the crossover, "Crisis on Infinite Earths", Emiko was resurrected off-screen as of the series finale "Fadeout", during which she attends Oliver's funeral and is welcomed into the Queen family.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Cowsill . Alan . Irvine . Alex . Korte . Steve . Manning . Matt . Wiacek . Win . Wilson . Sven . The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe . 2016 . DK Publishing . 978-1-4654-5357-0 . 240.
  2. Web site: The 8 Greatest Green Arrow Allies Ever. Comicbook.com. Magnett. Chase. March 9, 2018. December 4, 2018.
  3. Web site: COMICSReview: 'Green Arrow' #18. Bloody Disgusting. BigJ. March 7, 2013. December 4, 2018.
  4. Web site: Green Arrow Comic is Cutting Ties To Arrow TV Show. Screen Rant. Morrison. Matt. January 3, 2018. December 5, 2018.
  5. Web site: Emiko Queen Returns, Becomes [SPOILER] in Green Arrow #15]. Comic Book Resources. Manning. Shaun. January 27, 2017. December 5, 2018.
  6. Green Arrow Vol. 5 #18
  7. Green Arrow Vol. 5 #19
  8. Green Arrow Vol. 5 #22
  9. Green Arrow Vol. 5 #29
  10. Green Arrow Vol. 5 #31
  11. Green Arrow Vol. 5 #32
  12. Stargirl: Spring Break Special #1. DC Comics.
  13. Stargirl: The Lost Children #1-6. DC Comics.
  14. Arrow recap: The new Green Arrow is unmasked!. Entertainment Weekly. Agard. Chancellor. December 3, 2018. December 3, 2018.