Her name may be Emiko Queen, but many fans of Arrow are wondering just who the new Green Arrow really is. While the new heroine has apparently been a part of the series since the start of the current season, viewers just recently learned her name and only know a fraction of her motivations and history.

The young woman known as Emiko Queen took up the mantle of the Green Arrow at the start of Arrow season 7, becoming the new protector of Star City after its other vigilantes were forced into retirement following Oliver Queen’s imprisonment. Her face was revealed in the Arrow season 7 midseason finale, as well as the fact that she was the daughter of Robert Queen, Oliver’s father.

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It wasn’t until the Arrow season 7 midseason premiere that a fan theory was confirmed and the new Green Arrow was officially recognized as Emiko, though it has yet to be explained how she was trained in the arts of archery, acrobatics, and urban tracking.

  • This Page: Emiko Queen Is The New Green Arrow & Her Comic History
  • Next Page: What’s Emiko’s Plan, Who’s On Her List, & Will She Replace Oliver?

Emiko Is Arrow’s New Green Arrow

As Arrow season 7 began, Star City was in dire straits. Oliver Queen was in prison, his secret identity as the Green Arrow exposed after he agreed to plead guilty to a number of federal charges involving his vigilante activities. In exchange for this, the FBI agreed to help Star City’s vigilantes take down crime boss Ricardo Diaz and not to prosecute the rest of Green Arrow’s allies, provided they retire from vigilantism afterward. Unfortunately, with Star City’s police department and local government reeling after the arrest of all the city officials and crooked cops on Diaz’s payroll, the city was ill-equipped to handle the sudden rise in crime as the criminal population became emboldened.

Enter a new Green Arrow – one who seemed to focus their activities upon the ghetto known as the Glades and had no ties to Team Arrow. With the exception of Rene “Wild Dog” Ramirez, most of the city’s defenders either ignored the new Green Arrow in favor of focusing on the hunt for the still-at-large Ricardo Diaz or were actively hunting the new Green Arrow, fearful that they might blow Team Arrow’s plea bargain and bring the FBI down upon them all. Unsurprisingly, the new mayor of Star City, who lobbied for the office on an anti-vigilante platform, made the capture of the new Green Arrow the top priority of the SCPD and was quick to blame the new hero for any major crimes that were committed in Star City.

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The mystery of the new Green Arrow’s identity was a major subplot in the first half of Arrow season 7. She was first revealed as a woman in the opening scene of episode 8, “Unmasked.” By the episode’s end, she was revealed as an unknown daughter of Oliver Queen’s father, Robert, as the final scene showed her talking to Robert Queen’s tombstone and addressing him as “Dad.”

Emiko Queen’s Comic Book History

With the revelation that the new Green Arrow was Oliver Queen’s sister revealed, fans of the Green Arrow comics immediately suggested that this mystery woman must be the Arrowverse‘s version of Emiko Queen. In the current timeline of the DC Comics’ universe, Emiko Queen is Oliver Queen’s half-sister and currently fights crime as the Red Arrow. This theory was confirmed when it was announced that the mid-season premiere would be titled “My Name Is Emiko Queen.” First appearing in Green Arrow #18 in 2013, Emiko was the daughter of Robert Queen and Shado. She was not raised by either of her biological parents, however, having been abducted as an infant by Simon Lacroix – a former business associate of Robert and, secretly, the assassin known as Kodomo. Kodomo raised Emiko as his own daughter and trained her in the arts of killing, honing her into a tool of his revenge upon both Robert and Shado.

Oliver would learn of Emiko’s existence during The Outsiders War – a storyline in which Green Arrow was dragged into a feud involving a secret society of clans known as the Outsiders, who devoted themselves to the mastery of a single ancient weapon. Emiko learned of her true heritage and Kodomo’s treachery during the war and killed Kodomo for what he had done. Afterward, she elected to follow Oliver Queen back to Star City, as she had nothing left for her in the society of the Outsiders and he was the only person involved in the whole incident who hadn’t lied to her or tried to manipulate her towards his own ends. She threw herself into helping her half-brother with his crime-fighting activities, despite his insistence that she focus on trying to live a normal life. Oliver ultimately relented after she saved his life and Emiko took up the name of the Red Arrow.

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There is some irony in Emiko Queen being introduced into the world of Arrow, as the character was originally created so as to give the comic book version of Green Arrow a teen sidekick and half-sister like Thea Queen, who was created as an original character for Arrow. Adapting Emiko for the Arrowverse would require some changes, however, as the Arrowverse version of Shado was not an assassin. There was also no feasible way of this version of Shado having had an affair with Robert or a daughter who would now be old enough to be a teenager.

Page 2 of 2: What’s Emiko’s Plan, Who’s On Her List, & Will She Replace Oliver?


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About The Author


Matt Morrison
(1835 Articles Published)

Matt Morrison has been writing about comics since before the word
“blogging” was coined. He got his start writing for the
legendary DC Comics digital fanzine Fanzing,
before receiving his own column, The Mount. Since then he has gone on
to write for over a dozen websites, including 411
Mania, Comics
Nexus and The Cult of Nobody. He holds both an MS in Information
Science from the University of North Texas and a BFA from the
University of Texas at Arlington. Known as a font of comic book
history trivia, he has delivered lectures on the history of American
Comic Books, Japanese Manga, Doctor Who, and Cosplay at over a dozen conventions
and served as an Expert In-Residence for a course on Graphic Novels
for Librarians at the University of North Texas. In addition to his
work for Screen Rant, Matt is currently the Editor In Chief of
Kabooooom.com and writes reviews for No
Flying, No Tights – a graphic literature and anime review site
aimed at teachers and librarians. He also maintains a personal blog –
My Geeky Geeky Ways –
which hosts his extensive episode guide for the television series
making up The Arrowverse as well as his
comedic Let’s Play videos. What little spare time he has is
devoted towards acting, role-playing, movie-riffing and sarcasm. You
can follow his adventures on Twitter, @GeekyGeekyWays.

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