Prometheus (Arrowverse)

"I studied you, Oliver Queen, I know everything. Who you love, who you trust, who you've hurt! Do you know how easy it was to turn Evelyn against you? How easy it will be to turn them all against you? You're not a hero. You're a killer! And I'm going to show that. I'm going to show that everything you touch dies!"

- Prometheus to the Green Arrow

Prometheus is the main antagonist of the fifth season of the TV series Arrow.

He is driven by revenge, having harbored a deep hate for the Green Arrow. Although the reasons for this are yet unknown, it is implied that Oliver Queen's actions in the past are responsible for Prometheus' creation. Thus far, Prometheus made it clear on multiple occasions that he will kill everyone who tries to kill the Green Arrow - claiming that honor for himself.

Watching from the shadows
After having been kidnapped by Tobias Church, Star City mayor Oliver Queen creates a special force team of trusted police officers. When one of these officers leaves the precinct through a backdoor, he sees a figure looking like Green Arrow on the roof above him. Believing the person to be Green Arrow, the policeman asks whether Green Arrow wants something from him. The person, however, is not Green Arrow but Prometheus who shoots an arrow into the man's chest. Panicking, the man draws his pistol and shoots at Prometheus who easily dodges and evades the bullets. With a throwing knife, Prometheus disarms the policeman, who runs off, but is brought to fall by another of Prometheus' throwing stars. Prometheus approaches him and tells him that he is most certainly not Green Arrow before finishing off the policeman with a Katana.

After Church has almost killed the Green Arrow in a fight, Prometheus confronts Church. After killing two of Church's henchmen with arrows, Prometheus hurls an axe in Church's back. To the injured Church he reveals that he will kill Church should Church murder the Green Arrow, claiming that the Green Arrow belonged to him alone.

After Church has clashed with the Green Arrow again, having kidnapped and tortured his protegee Wild Dog, Prometheus pays Church a visit again. He shoots an arrow at Church which is dodged by Church's guard Scimitar. Prometheus tells Church to consider this as his second warning, also stressing that there will not be a third one. After Church ignores Prometheus' warning once more, having been ambushed and defeated by the Green Arrow and his team while trying to carry out his big plan, Prometheus attacks the convoy transferring Church to Iron Heights prison. After murdering every policeman guarding the convoy, Prometheus opens the door to the truck that holds Church. Church tries to bargain for his life, even telling Prometheus that the Green Arrow is Oliver Queen, but Prometheus kills him nonetheless by hurling a blade into his throat.

Revealing himself to the city
By having killed Church, Prometheus has made his presence known to Oliver. By using Church's cellphone, he lures Oliver, who is accompanied by John Diggle, into a warehouse where he has left a message for Oliver. Once the two enter the warehouse a paste on the floor ignites, forming the words "So it begins".

In the next days, Prometheus starts killing citizens of Star City with throwing stars. The public eventually finds out and starts referring to Prometheus as the "Throwing Star Killer". The city starts panicking and when Prometheus is presumably spotted near a fair, a panicked riot ensues. Oliver and his team find out that the names of Prometheus' victims are anagrams to people whose names were on 'The List'. From these anagrams, the team deduces possible future victims of Prometheus and starts observing them. When Evelyn Sharp covers one of the targets in a metro, Prometheus indeed appears. Evelyn shoots at him but the arrow bounces off his armor. Artemis attacks him in close combat and is able to make him bleed but is then beaten down by Prometheus, who turns around and almost murders his victim. Before he can do so, he is shot in the knee by an explosive arrow fired by the Green Arrow. Before the arrow explodes, Prometheus rips it out and hurls it into the train's ceiling. Prometheus escapes the train in the resulting explosion, leaving a bomb to take down Oliver, Evelyn and the team. The three escape the train before it can go off.

By analyzing the throwing starts Prometheus used, Felicity finds out that the throwing starts are made out of remelted arrows used by Oliver throughout the years. The same moment, alcoholic Quentin Lance wakes up at home, bearing the same wound Evelyn dealt to Prometheus. He also finds a throwing star next to himself.

Later, Prometheus meets up with Evelyn Sharp who tells him "they don't suspect a thing", implying that Evelyn is actually an infiltrator for Prometheus.

Using Claybourne
On a later night, Prometheus is visited in his lair by Artemis who hands him photos of every person close to Oliver, basically the entire Team Arrow. When Prometheus doesn't reply, Evelyn reminds him of the deal they struck - in exchange for intel Evelyn would be allowed to be present when Prometheus strikes down Oliver. When Evelyn stresses the point that she wants to be there when Prometheus kills Oliver, Prometheus claims that he won't kill Oliver but that he will make Oliver wish that he was dead.

The same night, during the mayor's holiday party at City Hall, Prometheus attacks Curtis Holt, member of Team Arrow, and his husband Paul when they leave the building. When Curtis tries to defend the two of them, Prometheus knocks him down the stairs and hurls a blade into his chest. Prometheus disappears immediately afterwards. Curtis survives and describes the attack to Oliver, causing Oliver to realize that Prometheus knows that Oliver Queen is the Green Arrow. At the hospital, the doctors find out that the blade Curtis was attacked with was smeared in a drug. The drug is a drug the Green Arrow encountered before, while taking down the corrupt CEO of a pharmaceutical company. Oliver believes that the drug on the blade was a message from the CEO, Justin Claybourne, who was supposedly killed by Oliver, and believes Claybourne to be Oliver.

Oliver and his team head to the abandoned Claybourne factory where Oliver is easily able to overcome all security measures. Olive realizes that Prometheus is letting him inside. Eventually, Oliver enters a room where he is awaited by Prometheus. Oliver addresses Prometheus as Claybourne, claiming that he failed the city. Prometheus replies that he did not fail it as much as Oliver, to which Oliver replies by shooting an arrow at Prometheus but Prometheus splits it perfectly in half by throwing a throwing star. Oliver and Prometheus start fighting, both displaying similar tactics during their fight. Prometheus eventually overpowers Oliver, drawing a sword and claiming that he waited four years for this. The same moment, Artemis and Wild Dog enter the room and Wild Dog shoots Prometheus' sword out of his hand. Evelyn then reveals her true colors by disarming Wild Dog as well. Evelyn then shoots an arrow to the floor, creating a bright explosion in which Evelyn and Prometheus escape. Later, ashes from the facility are analyzed and are revealed to be Claybourne's, revealing that Claybourne is not Prometheus after all.

When GCPD officer Billy Malone, who is also the boyfriend of Felicity Smoak, later searches Claybourne's former office for information, he finds a picture of a baby in Claybourne's desk. He sends it to Felicity but is confronted and abducted by Prometheus immediately afterwards. Analyzing the picture, Felicity finds out that the child on the picture is Claybourne's son, who would be in his thirties now. Claybourne's son, whose name the team does not yet know, becomes the team's next suspect. Oliver also reveals to the team that Prometheus used a specific move during their fight, something Oliver was taught in Russia. Oliver suspects that Prometheus was trained by the same person Oliver learned the move from.

Remembering where he encountered and killed Claybourne in the past, Oliver heads there. Prometheus awaits Oliver on the same spot Oliver killed Claybourne. When Oliver arrives, Prometheus asks whether Oliver hesitated even for a moment when he killed Claybourne or whether Claybourne was just another name for him. The two then battle again, with Prometheus fleeing into the building. Oliver follows him and while he searches the abandoned rooms for his enemy, Prometheus taunts Oliver about how he knows everything about him. Prometheus promises Oliver that he will prove to the world that Oliver is a killer and that everything he touches dies. At the same moment the lights go on and, spotting a figure behind him, Oliver shoots three arrows into the chest of whom he believes to be Prometheus. However, he is shocked when he sees that he did not kill Prometheus. Instead, Oliver has killed a tied and gagged Billy Malone whom Prometheus forced into the Prometheus suit. This, however, does not lead to the results Prometheus expected as Felicity does not blame Oliver but Prometheus for Billy's death.

Personality
Not much is known of this individual though he appears to have an obsession on Green Arrow for deeds he has performed in the past. His fixation runs deep enough that only he wants to harm Green Arrow so much that if anyone else tries to kill him, he'll kill them as he threatened Tobias Church with death if he killed Green Arrow, and later kept his promise when Tobias refused to stop pursuing the Green Arrow. He is also ruthless as he mercilessly killed police officers. He is bound on torturing Oliver Queen by hurting the ones around him. He put in massive amounts of effort by leaving clues behind for Oliver and even killing people just to recreate entire crime scenes to remind Oliver Queen of what he has done.

Prometheus likes to inflict terror on his victims, injuring Curtis just to leave a clue. When killing Conahan he drew out the kill and inflicted multiple injuries before performing the killing blow.

Killed Victims

 * Lt. Sam Conahan
 * Tobias Church
 * Peter Meld
 * Gay Eked
 * Billy Malone (Caused)
 * Two unnamed bodyguards
 * Numerous SCPD officers
 * Numerous unnamed people

Trivia

 * Although he shares his name with a DC villain, it has been explained that the two villains are not the same and the the Arrowverse-Prometheus is an original villain. It is also implied that Oliver Queen's actions in the first season are responsible for Prometheus' creation.
 * He seems to share some traits with Jason Todd/Arkham Knight as both are vigilantes who wore suits identical the hero they loathed but with a full mask and using a voice filter.
 * The suspects for Prometheus' identity are Tommy Merlyn and Roy Harper.
 * Roy is suspected given the previously mentioned resemblance Prometheus shares with Arkham Knight. It should also be noted that Jason also hated Batman because he thought he'd simply replaced him with Tim Drake as Robin, and Prometheus made his debut as soon as Oliver began recruiting a new team.
 * Tommy is primarily speculated as the season is about legacy both Oliver's desire to maintain his and honor Laurel's, and having the embodiment of his greatest failure, his inability to stop the Undertaking, would make it more emotional. However, Tommy was already aware that Oliver was the Green Arrow and would thus not needed the information from Tobias Church. However it's greatly implied that Prometheus already knew his identity prior to Church telling him.