Who Is Damien Darhk, the New Villain in 'Arrow'? 

This past week, Arrow Season 4 premiered and unleashed heaps of new information about the future direction of the show. Sure, relationships are still tense, Olicity is still a thing, and people are still trying to destroy Star City, but what about the new villain in our midst?

Within Titans, connections do exist to the modern television adaptions, with characters like Roy Harper (from Arrow) and Wally West (coming in The Flash Season 2) members of the Teen Titans within Titans. Slade Wilson (Deathstoke) was also connected here, with his own son running into the Titans and dying due to his alliance with H.I.V.E. – this chained into a series of unfortunate events resulting in his wife Adeline, being injected with his serum-altered blood (the serum, also from Arrow) and then taken advantage of by H.I.V.E. for that same blood that made her immortal.

Sure, there’s plenty more down the rabbit hole too. However, the point here is: Damien Darhk was mortally wounded at the end of the Titans vs. H.I.V.E. storyline, but came into contact with Adeline’s blood through H.I.V.E. — thus allowing him to survive, be captured, locked up somewhere strange, and given the possibility of a return.

And make a return he has, as the new villain on Arrow.

In the context of the show, Darhk has a relatively clean slate — one which we can’t really connect to his past in the comics. He was mentioned a few times throughout Season 3, so we do know a few things about him in the television universe however.

Damien Darkh was revealed as one of Ra’s al Ghul’s horsemen towards the end of Season 3, working to succeed him as the leader of the League of Assassins. Beaten out by the competition, Darkh was set to be killed before escaping with waters of the Lazarus Pit (The Fountain of Youth) and some loyal followers. We now know he’s back in Star City as the leader of H.I.V.E. — and he’s brought some pretty crazy powers along with him.

One such power? Magic. Darhk is able to manipulate primordial energy to drain the life force out of his opponents, as well as use telekinesis to manipulate objects at will. Darhk is also trained by the League of Assassins, meaning he’s a master of hand-to-hand and weapon-based combat. When you combine these two with his prolonged life thanks to the waters of the Lazarus Pit and his super-human strength, he’s easily becoming one of the most dangerous threats we’ve seen on Arrow yet.

It’s going to be interesting to see how Darhk shapes up as a character within Season 4 of Arrow this fall, especially considering how much of a clean slate his character has in general. Here’s to hoping for more magic and hovering arrows in episode 2 next week.

Arrows airs on CW Wednesdays at 7|8c