Oh my gosh, readers! My last #DCTV Couch Club piece was about Titans (my all-time fave DC team!), and this one gets to be about Arrow (my all-time fave #DCTV show)! What a dream! The premiere show of this TV universe continues to soar past my expectations of what I expect an Oliver Queen story to be. I don’t know about you, but I can’t help but be amazed when I consider the evolutionary steps Arrow has taken since the premiere of the first season. One of those evolutions is actually what I’m here to write about today.
You might or might not remember, but when the New Age of DC Heroes comic books debuted, we made kind of a big deal about it here in the DC blog. There were a ton of cool reviews and think-pieces going up all over the place (including my own review of THE IMMORTAL MEN #1 that I heartily thank you if you took the time to check out). The reason is that we were as excited to see what this new brand of heroes was going to look like as you were. Although I didn’t have an opportunity to write about her (that responsibility fell to Tim Beedle, and you should absolutely check out his post on the first issue), THE SILENCER was both a character and an eponymous series I was very into. Fun fact: I am still reading the series! Issues are still coming out—put it on your pull list!
So, I was very excited when I learned that she was going to be on Arrow!
(Though it does beg a question for another time and another article: Which of the New Age of Heroes characters will get the live action treatment next...and why it should be Sideways?)
So, let’s get into it: Who. Is. Silencer?
Welp, her name is Honor Guest, and she was formerly an assassin associated with Leviathan and (dun dun dun!) Talia al Ghul. However, Honor now has a son and wants to get out of the game. She’s retired. In the wake of having created life, she is no longer interested in taking it.
You can probably guess how this plan of hers goes because this is comic books and we all know what’s up. Honor is not able to leave her deadly past behind her and, in order to protect her son, Ben, she not only has to defend her little family, but she has to put one foot back in the life.
This makes the Silencer one of the few superheroes we’ve ever seen running around doing her vigilante thing with a baby often strapped to her physical body. She’s not the only one, though. Shout out to Wonder Woman (the Brian Azzarello/Cliff Chiang New 52 series comes to mind), Black Canary (from the Injustice tie-in comic books) and Rocket (who did it in the Milestone universe as a teenager in the 1990s!), who also navigated the work/baby balance combined with the complicated trappings of a secret identity.
On Arrow, we don’t get much of this backstory, and it’s unclear if it even exists. To be fair, there’s still plenty of time—and the more personal aspects of Honor’s identity could definitely be informing her association with the Longbow Hunters (another name lifted directly from DC continuity and a damn fine Green Arrow storyline as well). What is most directly informing Miranda Edwards’ performance is Silencer’s metahuman abilities. Like in the comic book, the Silencer can essentially suck the sound out of the room. The fun thing about this? When you plop the Silencer into the present Arrow continuity, she can fight the no less than two (three if we want to count Sara) Black Canary-esque characters running about—characters whose superpowers are greatly reduced the minute the Silencer’s ability kicks in.
This correlation actually led to one of my favorite fights we’ve seen so far on Arrow this season. The first time Dinah and Laurel encountered Honor and they battled in complete quiet was nothing short of awesome! I’m hoping we get more of that, please!
For my money, I think the Silencer would make a rad addition to Team Arrow. The deck is pretty stacked—even with Oliver in prison—but we’re used to seeing Canaries populating the team. I think it would be fascinating to have the literal anti-Canary join their fighting ranks. In a real dream world, Honor will somehow find her way into the upcoming “Elseworlds” crossover, but I think that might be more of a pipe dream than anything else. There’s still so much to be tied up where the Longbow Hunters and Diaz are concerned.
With the Silencer being so obviously the most interesting of the three newly-introduced season seven villains, I’m confident we’re in store for more comic book Easter eggs and references, and I will be here with the Couch Club to scream about them in abject excitement! Join me in the comments section, won’t you?
Arrow airs Mondays at 8 p.m. (7 p.m. CST) on The CW.
Ashley V. Robinson writes about TV, movies and comics for DCComics.com and is a regular contributor to the Couch Club, our weekly television column. You can find her on Twitter at @AshleyVRobinson and on the Jawiin YouTube channel.
