‘Arrow’: Are the Flash-Forwards Adapting A Famous Story From the Comics?

Tonight on Arrow, William Clayton had to follow a trail of bread crumbs left behind for him by Felicity Smoak — picking up various intel and equipment along the way on what seems to be a mission to save Star City.

Watching the episode, it was difficult not to imagine that the Arrow writers could have had Brad Meltzer’s “Archer’s Quest” in mind when they came up with the idea.

Last week’s episode saw the older William in a flash forward find his way to Lian Yu, reunite with Roy Harper, and pick up his father’s bow buried under the ground. He stopped along the way to visit the grave of his grandfather — someone he never knew, but whose impact on Oliver was a central focus of one subplot in tonight’s episode.

This week, he headed to Smoak Tech’s ransacked and abandoned offices, where he found a Rubik’s Cube hidden away in a wall. The correct pattern on the cube revealed an interactive map of the Glades, complete with access tunnels underground.

While Oliver was being warned that one day his son would turn out to be just like him in the present day, Future William seems on the road to doing just that.

But what is arguably more interesting is the elaborate set of clues leading from place to place, which feels a lot like one of the first stories that took place following Oliver’s death and resurrection in the comics.

“Archer’s Quest” was a six-issue story-arc published from 2002-03 in issues #16-21 of Green Arrow (Volume 3). The storyline centered around Oliver Queen and his journey to locate various memorabilia that he had acquired over the years. Along the way, the reader learned something shocking about Green Arrow and his son, Connor Hawke. The story was written by Brad Meltzer and featured artwork by Phil Hester and Ande Parks.

Oliver had died when an eco-terrorist group he was a part of tried to attack Metropolis and he blew himself up rather than letting others die. At that point, Connor took over as the Green Arrow for a time, and Oliver stayed dead for a while, until Hal Jordan — who at that time was the host of The Spectre — raised him. Since he had been dead for a while, a lot of his stuff had been scattered around, and the titular “Archer’s Quest” created a mystery out of putting together seemingly random pieces of equipment and stories from the past.

Could that be where William and Roy are headed? It does not seem so farfetched…!

Arrow airs on Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT, before episodes of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow on The CW.