| “ | I'm not going to kill him... I'm gonna make him wish he was dead. | „ |
| ~ Prometheus telling Evelyn Sharp that he's going to torture Oliver Queen. |
| “ | 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? You're not a hero. You're a killer. And I'm going to show them that. I'm going to show them how everything you touch dies. Four years I've waited to make you answer for your sins. I told you, Oliver. Everything you touch dies. | „ |
| ~ Prometheus to the Green Arrow, while tricking him into killing Billy Malone. |
| “ | I'm always ten steps ahead of you. | „ |
| ~ Prometheus' most famous quote. |
Simon Morrison, better known as Prometheus and by his alias Adrian Chase, is a major antagonist in the TV series Arrow, serving as the main antagonist of Season 5, and a posthumous antagonist in subsequent seasons.
He is the former district attorney of Star City and a close collaborator/friend of Oliver Queen/Green Arrow as mayor, until it was revealed that he was also a serial killer driven by revenge, having harbored a deep hate for Oliver since the vigilante killed his father Justin Claybourne. Prometheus made it clear on multiple occasions that he will kill everyone who tries to kill the Green Arrow, as he does not want Oliver to die but wants to mentally destroy him to have Oliver live the rest of his life a broken man, thus becoming one of Oliver Queen's most dangerous and hated adversaries.
He was portrayed by Josh Segarra. When disguised, he was voiced by Michael Dorn.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
In General/Past[]
- Even before becoming a villain, it’s implied Simon Morrison was already a disturbed individual, with even his father of all people being disgusted with him and planning to disown him for that reason.
- He stalked the vigilante known as the Green Arrow for years to discover his true identity as Oliver Queen, eventually training with Talia Al Ghul to get revenge on Oliver for killing his father. He even stole Oliver’s discarded arrows from the Star City Police Department to forge them into his own weapons.
- Taking on the name of Adrian Chase, he became the district attorney of Star City simply to spy on Oliver when he became the mayor.
- He killed numerous innocent people just to torment Oliver for his past mistakes as their names formed anagrams of the individuals on the List.
- Though his backstory is somewhat tragic, if barely, it still doesn’t justify his actions, as Oliver killing his father was justified and Adrian knew his father was a criminal/bioterrorist. Furthermore, Adrian was far worse than his father, and he was unbelievably hypocritical. Adrian condemned Oliver for killing criminals, when he himself murdered scores of innocent people in cold-blood, including a mother of two children and his own wife, whereas Oliver only killed when it was necessary. Even when Oliver apologizes for killing his father, Prometheus admits he doesn't care, proving that his motivations were a sham and just an excuse for his sadistic nature. He also proudly embraced “Prometheus” as his true self, which only adds to his sadism and hypocrisy.
- Even though the Arrowverse has high Heinous Standards, Prometheus still stands due to being a regular human with relatively few resources. He worked alone for half of the season and only had Black Siren, Evelyn, and Talia along with a few of her students at his disposal. At best, he had brief access to chemicals his father had to cause a tuberculosis outbreak which was only for one episode. This contrasts with the superpowered metahumans, aliens, and magical beings that serve as villains in the Arrowverse. Even in Arrow, Prometheus doesn't have as many resources (compare to other Arrowverse villains such as Malcolm Merlyn who used his wealth to create several earthquake machines, Slade Wilson who was biologically enhanced along with having an army of bio-enhanced soldiers through Mirakuru, Ra's Al Ghul who was the leader of the League of Assassins and had access to the Alpha-Omega bioweapon, and Damien Darhk who had magic powers and HIVE at his disposal). Prometheus has very few resources for an Arrowverse Big Bad, especially since he only appears in one season unlike most Arrow Big Bads, and considering his crimes, he definitely passes the standards. Ultimately, he stands out for being Oliver Queen’s most personal enemy, being the only villain in the series to emotionally break him and brings out the worst in him. He was such a big threat to him personally that Oliver was willing to work with two of his sworn enemies, Malcolm and Slade, to defeat him for good. Notably, he is the only Big Bad in the show Oliver did not respect at all, who at least had a friendship with Slade and viewed Ra’s Al Ghul as an “honorable man”, showing nothing but pure hatred towards him for his actions.
Season 5[]
- He brutally killed Lieutenant Sam Conahan of the SCPD by throwing a knife at his leg and killing with a katana when Conahan tried to run away. Even worse, Conahan was one of the few clean cops in the city and Adrian didn’t care that Conahan had a wife and son to provide for.
- He killed two bodyguards of crime lord Tobias Church, threw an axe into his shoulder and slammed him into the pavement, threatening to kill him if Church tried to kill Green Arrow again, as Prometheus wanted to deal with him personally.
- He threatened to torture Sergio Espinoza as District Attorney, only failing since Church’s men started to raid the SCPD.
- He tried to kill Church with an arrow for kidnapping a member of Team Arrow and threatening to destroy his operation to destroy Team Arrow, only failing due to Church’s bodyguard shielding him from the attack.
- He slaughtered the entire police escort transporting Tobias Church and brutally kills Church with a katana to the neck, even after Church told him who Green Arrow was (though unbeknownst to Church, Adrian already knew), and mockingly stating that they were "cool" when Tobias asked if they were.
- Called Green Arrow and Spartan just to tell them that his rampage has begun.
- Killed Peter Meld and Gay Eked, even though the latter was a mother of two children who begged him not to kill her because of that. He did this just because their names formed anagrams with the List.
- He subtly admits to Oliver that he liked the moniker "Throwing Star Killer" that the media had given to his alter-ego.
- Tried to kill a train driver whose name was an anagram of the List and leaves a bomb to kill Green Arrow and Artemis when they defeat him.
- Cut open Quentin Lance's arm and left behind one of his shurikens in his apartment while he was passed out to frame him as Prometheus. This led Quentin to believe he was actually Prometheus as he was blacking out due to his alcoholism, briefly quitting his duties as Deputy Mayor out of guilt.
- He manipulated Evelyn Sharp to turn against Team Arrow and work for him as a double agent.
- He broke into the Pipeline in Central City and broke Black Siren, the Earth-2 counterpart of the late Laurel Lance, out of her cell, wanting to use Black Siren in his plans to torment Oliver. While he promised to spare the life of Quentin Lance in exchange for her loyalty, Adrian was just lying to get her to comply, given he planned to kill Quentin alongside Oliver’s other allies.
- He revealed to Evelyn that he didn't want to kill Oliver but rather make him wish he was dead, foreshadowing his plan to break Oliver Queen on an emotional level.
- Attacked Team Arrow member Curtis Holt and his husband at their Christmas party, poisoning Curtis and revealing to Team Arrow that he knew their identities. Even worse, this would expose Curtis’ secret to Paul, resulting in their divorce.
- He kidnapped Felicity's boyfriend detective Billy Malone when the latter went to investigate his father’s company.
- He led Oliver back to AK Desmond Group just to make him relive all the people he killed when he took down the criminal organization, even murdering random individuals, who were likely just innocents who had nothing to do with the death of his father, to recreate the crime scene.
- He taunted Oliver over a wireless speaker, threatening to kill everyone he loved just to “prove” that everything he touched would die.
- He manipulated Oliver into killing Billy, having gagged him and dressed him up in the Prometheus outfit, which forced Oliver to remorsefully admit to Felicity that he had inadvertently killed her boyfriend.
- Imitated Lyla's voice to trick John Diggle into thinking his kids were in danger and coming back to his home, where he was rearrested on false charges by the FBI who were tipped off by Prometheus.
- He sent Black Siren to manipulate and psychological abuse Oliver and his allies by pretending to be her Earth-1 counterpart, who was murdered by Damien Darhk the previous year.
- When Black Siren blew her cover and questioned his plans, Adrian strangled her and threatened to kill her if she refused to follow his orders, forcing her to fearfully fall back in line.
- He taunted Oliver by forcing him to choose between capturing him or saving Felicity from Black Siren, then kicking him through a wooden wall before disappearing.
- After Oliver went to his mother to find out who Prometheus is, Adrian framed Green Arrow to get an arrest warrant for killing Billy Malone and leaked the details of Oliver's administration's role in covering up his death, threatening to end his administration.
- He nearly killed Vigilante and threw him off a roof when he tried to kill Oliver Queen.
- Pressured Oliver into publicly discrediting the Green Arrow for Billy's murder to "save" his adminstration.
- Kidnapped Oliver's girlfriend Susan Williams and held her in an apartment filled with explosives. It’s implied that he tortured her off-camera, given that he holds a knife to her throat, taunting the terrified woman to scream for him.
- After Oliver learned his identity. Adrian taunted him and forced Oliver to let him go under threat of Susan dying of starvation and dehydration.
- He tipped off the police when Green Arrow went to talk with Adrian's wife, framing him as a kidnapper and forcing Oliver to give Green Arrow 24 hours to turn himself in or the SCPD would hunt him down.
- He rejected his wife's attempts to redeem him and killed her, even though he genuinely cared for her. Afterwards, Adrian repeatedly blamed Oliver for her death, even though he killed her.
- Kidnapped Oliver when Talia knocked him out.
- Threatened to send Oliver back in pieces if Quentin and Susan tried anything.
- Tortured Oliver for 6 days, waterboarding him, shooting arrows into him, threatening to kidnap Oliver's son, and pretending to snap a "redeemed" Evelyn's neck all to force him to confess that he supposedly killed people because he wanted to and he liked it.
- Burned Oliver's Bratva tattoo to serve as a reminder for his "confession".
- Rejected Oliver's attempt to apologize for killing his father and admitted he didn't care, revealing his motivations were a sham and he is just a sadistic psychopath.
- Once exposed as Prometheus, he throws a pen into his officer/bodyguard's eye and strangled the other one to death. He then beat the first guard to death with the pen, still being covered in blood while escaping.
- Lured Team Arrow and the SCPD to an arcade, blowing it up which caused the deaths of countless of SCPD officers.
- Caused an EMP explosion in the Arrowcave, trapping Oliver and Felicity, nearly killing them through suffocation/starvation.
- Kidnapped Oliver's son William and his mother Samantha Clayton.
- Enlisted Derek Sampson's aid to recreate his father's tuberculosis outbreak via bioweapons.
- Ruined the memory of Robert Queen, Oliver's father by exposing his role in killing councilman Henry Goodwin.
- Trapped Oliver and John in a crate that filled with cement to kill them in the exact same way Henry Goodwin died.
- Rigged a device to disperse tuberculosis across Star City to kill thousands.
- Had Evelyn break Black Siren out of prison and together with Talia, he had them kidnap every single member of Team Arrow and take them to Lian Yu.
- Forced Oliver to break him out of prison by showing him a video of a captive William.
- Once on Lian Yu, he rigged the island with explosives to detonate them all to kill Team Arrow without telling his allies.
- He tried to goad Oliver into killing him in order to set off the explosives on Lian Yu to kill his friends and family.
- He’s indirectly responsible for the death of a redeemed Malcolm Merlyn as Merlyn was forced to sacrifice himself to save Thea and Team Arrow from Prometheus' forces.
- He sabotaged Team Arrow's escape plane to leave them trapped on the island.
- Gave Oliver an ultimatum, either he kill Prometheus which would blow up the island and kill Team Arrow or spare him and he would snap the neck of Oliver's son.
- Once outsmarted by Oliver, he commits suicide to blow up Lian Yu even though his own allies were still there.
Season 6[]
- Even after death, he would have a profound impact on the next season as William's mother was killed in Lian Yu's explosion, Diggle was severely injured, and Thea was in a coma. Oliver would have to raise William with Felicity which caused profound problems especially initially.
- He’s indirectly responsible for the events of the season, as Felicity Smoak only helped Helix break Cayden James out of A.R.G.U.S. custody so they would help her locate Prometheus. This would later allow Ricardo Diaz to use Cayden’s resources to take over Star City. Black Siren, who Prometheus broke out, would aid Cayden and Diaz in their crimes.
- His corruption of Evelyn, along with Rene planning to testify against Oliver, is what caused Oliver to mistrust Rene, Curtis and Dinah Drake, leading to the team fracturing and John Diggle later joining A.R.G.U.S. out of guilt to his Oliver treated the new recruits, which in the long-run gave Diaz an advantage against Oliver. This is something Chase would later taunt Oliver over via a hallucination, admitting it’s something he would’ve done himself.
- After Councilman Kullens drugged Oliver with Vertigo, Chase returned as a hallucination to continue tormenting Oliver, taunting Oliver over his impending impeachment, his wife and son apparently leaving him and the death of Earth-1’s Laurel Lance, ultimately culminating in Oliver nearly taking on Diaz and dozens of police officers.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- He cared about his parents as he wanted to avenge his father's death at the hands of Green Arrow and relocated his mother to a safe place so Team Arrow couldn't use her as leverage against him when they found out his true identity.
- He genuinely loved his wife Doris and even though he killed her, he felt remorse for doing so. Later on, when Oliver asked him why he kidnapped Oliver's son, Prometheus said it was revenge for involving Doris and exposing his identity to her and "forcing" him to kill her.
Trivia[]
- His Earth-X doppelgänger doesn't count as Near Pure Evil due to his minimal screen time and mostly for being a separate character. More than that, that Prometheus is Tommy Merlyn and is a member of the New Reich, but was raised in a world of Nazi rule and cares for Dark Arrow, which doesn't make him remotely heinous in comparison to his Earth-Prime counterpart.
External Links[]
- Prometheus on the Villains Wiki
- Prometheus on the Entertainingly Detestable Wiki
- Prometheus on the Arrowverse Wiki
- Prometheus on the DC Database Wiki
[]
 Near Pure Evils
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