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  • #16
    The one thing I didn't like, however, was a whiff of CW-scented soap. [SPOILER]Nyssa's Mom knows Merlyn's real name, and there's an unmistakable personal connection between them. I really, really hope Nyssa, Saracon (Nyssa's half-bro), and Thea don't end up being half-siblings.[/SPOILER]
    Hee! Now I want it. I want Merlyn to have REALLY gotten around. Ever season there should be a new sibling. In the final season, let's find out that Tommy had a secret twin that was given away to the monks of Netinyahu to raise in exchange for their blessing and then we can kill off MM and have his son take over as the Dark Archer.

    I am joking. Mostly.

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    • #17
      Just pointing this out: but a big argument for certain elements to not show up in Arrow has been that the focus has been primarily New 52 influences. With Barrowman and his sister including old DC canon (Merlyn's real name in this case) as a part of the show's canon (the showrunners are endorsing these comics), that erases this facet of the argument against a few things.

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      • #18
        Good point. Maybe they loosened up on the pre-New 52 stance when they saw all the Golden Age stuff being included on the Flash. Plus, Rip Hunter started in the Silver Age (59).

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        • #19
          I've read issue #3, and we either have a continuity glitch or a retcon coming...

          [SPOILER]In issue #1, the woman is established as Nyssa's mother. She's named in the show by Nable!Ra's as Amina Raatko, as per canon Nyssa's backstory. However, in #3, Malcolm addressed her as Lourdes. Something's wrong or retconned here. Also, Lourdes claimed Malcolm killed her.[/SPOILER]

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          • #20
            Originally posted by Raissa
            I've read issue #3, and we either have a continuity glitch or a retcon coming...

            [SPOILER]In issue #1, the woman is established as Nyssa's mother. She's named in the show by Nable!Ra's as Amina Raatko, as per canon Nyssa's backstory. However, in #3, Malcolm addressed her as Lourdes. Something's wrong or retconned here. Also, Lourdes claimed Malcolm killed her.[/SPOILER]
            Well, Malcolm isn't exactly his real name either, so it makes sense there would be more of the 'new names' thing in that. As for the other bit: [SPOILER]Malcolm once held the position of Ra's' horseman, the same position Maseo/Sarab held in Season 3. Ra's told Oliver the cleansing of Starling would be carried out by Sarab until the killer of Sara was handed over for justice. If Ra's believed Amina/Lourdes would take Nyssa and flee, he would have his right-hand stooge take care of her.[/SPOILER]

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            • #21
              Fair points.

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              • #22
                The rest of the Dark Archer comic arc is going to be interesting context/paralleling/foreshadowing given the events of "Sins of the Father."

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                • #23
                  Ok. I'm a lot less confused. The Barrowmans are giving us two separate ancient organizations and a separate set of characters. First, there's the League. Then, there's [SPOILER]The Hidden. They're the ones that date back to the Crusades, protecting the sacred and the dead from the ravages of War. Arthur King was recruited by the Hidden at 19, right out of the Air Force Academy. He met Lourdes, another member. They have a fling. Due to the intentionally not actually vague vagueness that is soap storytelling, I'm even more convinced that Saracon will be Merlyn's son. The Hidden and the League end up in the Hindu Kush at the same time. God love narrative economy. I'm now wondering if Lourdes becomes Nyssa's wet nurse/nanny after Amina Raatko dies, and that's how everything links.

                  *Edit* What bugs me, though, is that young Arthur King, Air Force Academy graduate and Hidden recruit, should not have been freaking out over going after the man he thought was Rebecca's killer. He would have been more sure of himself, more comfortable with weapons. Oh well.
                  [/SPOILER]
                  Last edited by Raissa; 02-24-2016, 08:41 AM.

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                  • #24
                    Originally posted by Raissa
                    Ok. I'm a lot less confused. The Barrowmans are giving us two separate ancient organizations and a separate set of characters. First, there's the League. Then, there's [SPOILER]The Hidden. They're the ones that date back to the Crusades, protecting the sacred and the dead from the ravages of War. Arthur King was recruited by the Hidden at 19, right out of the Air Force Academy. He met Lourdes, another member. They have a fling. Due to the intentionally not actually vague vagueness that is soap storytelling, I'm even more convinced that Saracon will be Merlyn's son. The Hidden and the League end up in the Hindu Kush at the same time. God love narrative economy. I'm now wondering if Lourdes becomes Nyssa's wet nurse/nanny after Amina Raatko dies, and that's how everything links.

                    *Edit* What bugs me, though, is that young Arthur King, Air Force Academy graduate and Hidden recruit, should not have been freaking out over going after the man he thought was Rebecca's killer. He would have been more sure of himself, more comfortable with weapons. Oh well.
                    [/SPOILER]
                    I will say one thing is with Arthur King the man is an actor and Malcolm has used those skills more than once, Season 3 being a prime example of it. Which it might have been Malcolm was purposely acting like that so the mugger wouldn't expect anything.

                    Plus it was the first time Malcolm had killed so that's bound to have shifted a few things for him.

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                    • #25
                      Originally posted by Raissa
                      Ok. I'm a lot less confused. The Barrowmans are giving us two separate ancient organizations and a separate set of characters. First, there's the League. Then, there's [SPOILER]The Hidden. They're the ones that date back to the Crusades, protecting the sacred and the dead from the ravages of War. Arthur King was recruited by the Hidden at 19, right out of the Air Force Academy. He met Lourdes, another member. They have a fling. Due to the intentionally not actually vague vagueness that is soap storytelling, I'm even more convinced that Saracon will be Merlyn's son. The Hidden and the League end up in the Hindu Kush at the same time. God love narrative economy. I'm now wondering if Lourdes becomes Nyssa's wet nurse/nanny after Amina Raatko dies, and that's how everything links.

                      *Edit* What bugs me, though, is that young Arthur King, Air Force Academy graduate and Hidden recruit, should not have been freaking out over going after the man he thought was Rebecca's killer. He would have been more sure of himself, more comfortable with weapons. Oh well.
                      [/SPOILER]
                      Did he actually kill anyone during that time period? Or not? Also, as Haggard said, Malcolm is a very good actor. Perhaps he reinvented himself as Malcolm Merlyn to escape whoever he had become, including lying to himself until he believed he was that person that confronted the mugger.

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                      • #26
                        I'll go with that.

                        Here's my main concern, though, having had some time to think. The Barrowmans have very likely invented a third child for Malcolm in the course of this comic. That child will likely not survive as this is set prior to S4 and the two seem locked in a death struggle over Jr's beef. If Jr. doesn't survive this arc, that doesn't bode well for Thea. Malcolm will be 2 for 3 in the dead child department and Thea will be next (by S5 if not the upcoming grave) or Thea breaks the cycle by committing patricide as Malcolm's swan song. Either way, things won't be good for Thea.

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                        • #27
                          I just finished Issue #5, and the Barrowmans are going exactly where I thought they were going with a neat twist...

                          [SPOILER]It's looking like Saracon is Malcolm's kid. He and his Mom were conscripted into the League for 10 years, before The Hidden rescued them. during which time Saracon was given the moniker Al-Sa-Her. Unlike Malcolm, however, Saracon earned the name, as he is an external meta-human with magic based powers, fitting season 4's theme. His ability is interspecies telepathy. He can talk to animals. He gained this ability in utero after Lourdes was attacked by mystical twin snow leopards on a mission for The Hidden. I hope he survives to meet Vixen.

                          What's interesting is there is another parallel between him and Malcolm. Oliver chopped off Malcolm's hand, and Saracon chopped off his own pinky finger to send an initial message to Malcolm.

                          As I've posted before, though, Saracon's fate will determine Thea's (thematic parallels could be a *****) even if she isn't in the upcoming grave.
                          [/SPOILER]

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                          • #28
                            [SPOILER]We got a cool cameo from Nable!Ra's in flashback, and some expositional mythology about the magical snow leopards that granted Saracon his powers. We also found out that The Hidden specifically protect magical artifacts and someone is bankrolling this particular expedition, probably the finance Lourdes is cheating on with Arthur King, Arrow being a CW show. Overall, issue #6 was transitional.[/SPOILER]

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                            • #29
                              Here's some context from JB and CB before I give details...

                              CraveOnline: What was your inspiration for this story?

                              John Barrowman: Our inspiration came from questions I’ve always had about Malcolm from the beginning of the series. The main one was where did all his wealth come from to begin Merlyn Global? We know Rebecca Merlyn was wealthy, but Malcolm had to have had some money of his own. And it had to be from something shady and mysterious, right?

                              Carole E. Barrowman: When we started our research, we couldn’t find much at all about Malcolm’s background in the DC canon. And that was actually great for us. It gave us more room to play around with possible story lines.

                              Where do the two timelines in the story fall in Arrow continuity?

                              John Barrowman: Ok. So the present day storyline takes place between season 3 and 4 and the flashbacks are set in 1985, a few months before Malcolm meets Rebecca, his wife, and Tommy’s mother. In the present day storyline, he is still Ra’s al Ghul.

                              Who came up with the idea of Malcolm's real name and backstory?

                              John Barrowman: We found a reference to Malcolm’s given name, Arthur King, in a back issue of a DC comic from ages ago when we were doing our homework. I keep a copy of the DC Encyclopedia on my bedside table and used it a lot for research while we were planning. We loved… and this is a tease for chapter 8… that his given name explains something about Malcolm’s character.

                              Carole E. Barrowman: The idea that Malcolm is a member of a group of “ethical” tomb raiders called The Hidden developed out of us binge watching random Malcolm episodes last fall and realizing in the TV show, ARROW, Malcolm owns lots of art.

                              John Barrowman: Another tease for this chapter… in the secret room at his house and in his office where Malcolm keeps his Dark Archer suit, he has a lot more than cool weapons in the room…

                              http://www.craveonline.com/entertain...bzrQfim690P.99
                              I skipped a couple of chapters for the purposes of this thread, because they were largely set up and exposition. Chapter 8 is where we get back to what's relevant to us...

                              [SPOILER]A lot of the misgivings I had about continuity have been resolved with the revelation that Malcolm/Arthur has been lying even more than we thought. It turns out that Arthur knew about the tomb all along and allowed himself to be recruited by The Hidden after Lourdes stole the Book she'd been using to research the tomb from HIM. Arthur and his father Jasper were major collectors of arcana and art and have been searching for tombs plural for years. The one at the center of this narrative is near Corto Maltese. There's another one in Asia, and the two civilizations that developed around the tombs are linked by descent from one "being." My first thought here was Vandal Savage, but the DCwU version of him is too young to allow for that, so we have a mystery.

                              The second very salient point is that the tomb houses A SECOND Lazarus Pit, which automatically explains why Ra's is interested in finding and accessing the tomb as well, and it leads to the natural conclusion that there's a third Pit in the Asian tomb. All of this leads to interesting possibilities for S5, given that Malcolm will be the Alpha-Villain logically. JB and Sis are tying him retroactively to that mythology, and I'm wondering if water from the second Pit will eventually restore his hand.

                              We also learned how Lourdes will eventually be bitten by the mystical leopards turning Jr. into a magical meta. Arthur turns on Lourdes, trying to sacrifice her in order to appease the leopard spirits so he can get out of the tomb...CLIFFHANGER!
                              [/SPOILER]

                              All in all, this is a much cooler story line than the one on screen at this point, and I hope we get this stuff on screen.

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                              • #30
                                Issue #10 is where we find out the following...

                                [SPOILER]It's in the wake of escaping from the tomb that Arthur King became Malcolm Merlyn and formed Merlyn Global Group. While he was doing that, Nable!Ras carted off Lourdes and she became his concubine after being attacked by the mystical snow leopards that gave Jr...I mean Saracon his powers. Based on the fact that Lourdes called Nyssa "my Nyssa," Lourdes probably became Nyssa's wet nurse. That'll be confirmed or not in the remaining two issues. Also, Nable!Ras wasn't simple after the Lazarus water in the tomb. He was after more power in the form of the hearts of the twin Ashkiri gods which the leopards guarded. Jr. considers himself the heir to those Ashkiri gods because the leopards were their avatars and transmitted some of their powers to him in utero.

                                There's more, though. Malcolm has been an eager beaver. He had the sample of Lazarus water he stole from the tomb R&D'ed for decades and combined the results with drone technology. The results were so unapologetically not grounded, no pun intended, that it was wonderful. Best I can figure, Malcolm's people found microbial life forms in the magic water and super-sized them -- green, multiple eyes, multiple appendages. I swear the art was balls to the wall worth it. The Creature From The Pit emerged from the drone casing with LAZERS FIRING, which allowed Malcolm to escape Lourdes and Jr. Jr. retreated from the scene in pain because he could feel the bats around him die when the drone killed them. The existential shock was enough to temporally neutralize him as a threat.
                                [/SPOILER]

                                I realize the mystical stuff isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I'm happy as a clam. The Barrowmans comprehend that it's go big or go home with these elements. My issue with Arrow is they haven't gone big. If they're going for Mysticism, we need to see the equivalents of Gorilla Grodd or King Shark, or why even bother.
                                Last edited by Raissa; 05-19-2016, 08:48 AM.

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