‘Arrow’: Who Is Chimera?

Arrow paid tribute to quite a lot of characters in its 150th episode — and it introduced a new one in the process.

Spoilers for tonight’s episode of Arrow, “Emerald Archer”, below!

The episode was structured around a documentary about Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and Team Arrow, and how their vigilante work has impacted Star City. As the documentary crew continued filming, Team Arrow stumbled upon a masked man who had been seemingly killing or attacking various other vigilantes and stealing their masks. Curtis Holt (Echo Kellum) quickly began to refer to the character as “Chimera”, a name that stuck as the episode went along.

This name has a pretty unique track record in the world of DC Comics, as several characters have adopted the alias over the years. The earliest iteration was a Batman villain with the ability to change his appearance, a tactic that he later used to kidnap Jason Todd.

The moniker then was used in some pretty creative ways, namely as an additional codename for Eve Eden/Nightshade when she went undercover for the Jihad. A second evil Chimera went on to steal that identity, which was then used again by an agent of Checkmate.

Even with such a unique track record, Chimera hasn’t always been associated with villains in the comics. The code name was used by two separate Teen Titans members – Sanjeet Bhatia, and a Durlan named Ra’ut L’lwer. The name was most recently used by King Chimera, a magical member of the Justice Society.

Even though Chimera has such a wide array of applications within the DC universe, it’s clear that Arrow’s version of the character was paving its own ground. As the episode went on, it became clear that Chimera was essentially using and borrowing the technology of different established characters, including gauntlets used by Deadshot (Michael Rowe) and some sort of WayneTech armor.

By the episode’s end, Chimera was apprehended by the SCPD, and it became clear that he wasn’t as malicious as he’d seemed. Apparently, Chimera was really Kevin Meltzer, a patient of a nearby psych ward who had gone after heroes’ masks as a way to show his appreciation of them.

So, while Chimera might not end up having the longest impact on the world of Arrow, he did prove to be a unique way for the show to look back at the vigilantes that have popped up over the years. And hey, there supposedly is a mysterious serial killer still afoot in Star City.

Arrow airs Mondays at 8/7c on The CW.