'Arrow': Who Is Blackstar?

Arrow's flash-forwards have introduced fans to a pretty bleak version of Star City, and they could have just introduced a major player in the process.

Spoilers for tonight's episode of Arrow, "Due Process", below!

The episode's flash-forwards saw William Clayton (Ben Lewis), Roy Harper (Colton Haynes), Dinah Drake (Juliana Harkavy), and Zoe Ramirez (Andrea Sixtos) trying to figure out the mysterious message that brought them all together. It eventually took the group to Felicity Smoak's (Emily Bett Rickards) former office, where they found a series of plans and schematics that hinted at the desolation of Star City.

The plans essentially illustrated a way to blow up all of Star City except for the Glades, adding another layer to the whole uprising of sorts that occurred in the city. The computer also featured a message of sorts from some figure named Blackstar.

For DC fans, this might raise an eyebrow or two -- albeit in wildly different ways. The moniker has been used in several different instances over the course of the DC Comics mythos, which makes it hard to tell exactly what Arrow is going for with this mention.

The most popular character associated with Blackstar is Rachel Berkowitz/Blackstarr, a Supergirl villain who was raised as a Nazi. After uncovering a scientific mystery of sorts, Rachel became affected by the universe itself, which gave her the power to manipulate matter and energy as she liked.

The Blackstar name has been used in sporadic ways in the decades since, also being used by different villains of the Blackhawks, Seven Soldiers of Victory, and Firestorm. An alternate version of Blackstarr then appeared in the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity, where she briefly appeared as a member of the Suicide Squad.

With all of this in mind, it's unclear how Arrow will be factoring this use of Blackstar into its flash-forwards, and whether or not it will be anything like the various comic-accurate versions. There's a chance that this could just be a name-only hacking moniker, similarly to how the show uses Helix, or some sort of metahuman who has a role to play in this post-apocalyptic Star City. Seeing as Felicity appeared to be in contact with them soon before her death, Arrow fans will be excited to find out either way.

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