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Throughout the eight seasons of The CW’s Arrow, Oliver Queen was put through the wringer in terms of his mental and physical well-being. The job of protecting an entire city naturally comes with its own set of challenges, but as the Arrowverse expanded, it introduced new and out-of-this-world threats that Ollie may not have been fully prepared for. As such, the Emerald Archer found himself in a number of near-death situations, in which he was either saved at the last minute or revived after dying.
Let’s break down each time the Green Arrow cheated death, focusing specifically on moments in which he was either presumed dead by the world at large or actually died and came back.
The Queen’s Gambit Sinks
Oliver Queen’s journey from spoiled playboy billionaire to deadly vigilante is kick-started by an incredibly traumatic near-death experience, as depicted in Arrow‘s pilot episode. In 2007, Oliver joins his father Robert onboard their family yacht named The Queen’s Gambit, bringing Sara Lance with him. Unbeknownst to anyone onboard, however, the Gambit had previously been sabotaged by Malcolm Merlyn, and it goes down in the middle of a huge storm.
Oliver, his father and the ship’s captain make it to a lifeboat, while Sara is presumed dead. Robert ends up killing himself and the captain so that Oliver will be able to survive. Eventually, Oliver washes up on the shores of Lian Yu, and proceeds to spend the next five years training to become a killing machine, all while being presumed dead by the world at large.
Moira Shoots Oliver
One of Oliver’s closest brushes with death came at the hands of his own mother, Moira Queen. In the Arrow Season 1 episode “The Odyssey”, Oliver is shot by Moira after confronting her as the Hood. With the help of Felicity Smoak, Oliver escapes back to the Arrowcave but is in need of serious medical attention. At times things get dicey, with Oliver even suffering a seizure that causes his heart to stop, but John Diggle and Felicity manage to restart it with a defibrillator unit. Eventually, they are able to patch Oliver up, and Felicity is recruited as an ally after he awakens, setting the stage for their long and complicated romance.
The Amazo Is Destroyed
Arrow Season 2’s flashbacks feature Oliver facing off with a Mirakuru-empowered Slade Wilson on Lian Yu. Midway through the season, Slade takes over Anthony Ivo’s ship, “Amazo,” using it to imprison and torture Oliver. In Season 2’s finale, Oliver and Slade engage in a climactic battle that ends with Oliver stabbing Slade in the eye with an arrow, shortly before the Amazo crashes and begins to sink. A.R.G.U.S. secretly swoops in to save Oliver at the last minute, but he is presumed dead for years afterward by Sara and Slade, the only other survivors of the Amazo.
Oliver Duels Ra’s Al Ghul
The midseason finale of Arrow Season 3, entitled “The Climb,” follows Oliver’s attempts to take his sister Thea’s name off Ra’s al Ghul’s kill list. In doing so, he engages in a duel with the Demon’s Head atop a snowy mountain. Despite his skill and training, Oliver is no match for Ra’s al Ghul, who stabs the Emerald Archer through the chest and kicks him off the cliff. Fortunately, the near-dead Oliver is discovered and saved by Maseo Yamashiro, with his wife Tatsu using a variety of herbs to nurse the vigilante back to health.
Vandal Savage Destroys Central City
Despite starting off as a more grounded and realistic superhero show, Arrow had embraced the more fantastical elements of its comic book source material by the time its fourth season rolled around, opening the door for crossovers with fellow DC heroes. This led to the “Heroes Join Forces” event, which features Green Arrow and the Flash teaming up with several other heroes to defeat Vandal Savage.
In the second part of the event, Savage manages to gain the upper hand on the heroes, using a powerful staff to destroy all of Central City. Right before this happens, Oliver encourages Barry to run back in time and change the past so that they can defeat Savage. Barry does so, erasing the destruction of Central City (and everyone in it), and allowing the heroes to beat Savage.
Crisis On Infinite Earths
The Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover was by far the Arrowverse’s biggest event, bringing together heroes from across the multiverse to stop the Anti-Monitor. “Part 1” of the crossover ends with Oliver and his fellow heroes trying to evacuate Earth-38 before it is destroyed by anti-matter, with Oliver staying behind to hold off the Anti-Monitor’s shadow demons while the other heroes are sent to Earth-1. After all the citizens of Earth-38 are successfully evacuated, Oliver is transported back to Earth-1 and dies from his injuries.
The Spectre Sacrifices Himself
Even death isn’t enough to keep Oliver Queen down, as he is reborn as the Spectre in “Part 4” of Crisis on Infinite Earths. After being imbued with supernatural powers by Jim Corrigan, Oliver contacts the Paragons and convinces them to help him recreate the multiverse. At the Dawn of Time, the Paragons fight the Anti-Monitor’s forces while the Spectre confronts the monstrous being himself.
Although they are locked in a stalemate for much of the battle, the Spectre eventually overcomes the Anti-Monitor and unleashes a massive burst of power that kick-starts the rebirth of the universe. Unfortunately, this proves to be too much for Oliver, and he dies again after sharing some final words with Barry and Sara. Despite this, Arrow‘s series finale reveals that Oliver is still alive in some form, existing in some sort of pocket dimension or afterlife where he is finally reunited with Felicity.
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