| Felicity Smoak | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Felicity Smoak as depicted inGreen Arrow vol. 5 #35 (December 2014). Art by Danial Sampere. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | The Fury of Firestorm #23 (May 1984) |
| Created by | Gerry Conway (writer) Rafael Kayanan (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Full name | Felicity Megan Smoak |
| Species | Human |
| Partnerships | Firestorm Green Arrow |
Felicity Smoak is a fictional character appearing in comics published byDC Comics. Her first appearance was inThe Fury of Firestorm #23 (May 1984), created by writerGerry Conway and artistRafael Kayanan.[1] She was originally the manager of a computer software firm who opposed the superheroFirestorm (Ronnie Raymond) because of his recklessness, eventually becoming the second wife of Edward Raymond and Ronnie's stepmother.[2]
A re-imaginedFelicity Smoak, portrayed byEmily Bett Rickards, featured in thetelevision seriesArrow and its extended universe of shows, collectively known as theArrowverse. An I.T. genius and graduate fromMIT, Felicity works alongside vigilanteOliver Queen/Green Arrow to help protectStar City (formerly Starling City), later operating under the aliasOverwatch. The pair also become romantically involved, and eventually marry with Felicity giving birth to their daughterMia Smoak. This interpretation of the character was placed at number 15 in a list of 50 Favorite Female Characters, in a poll of Hollywood professionals conducted byThe Hollywood Reporter in 2016.[3] The Arrowverse incarnation of Felicity serves as inspiration for the version of the character who appears inThe New 52 continuity reboot.[4]
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Felicity Smoak is introduced as the supervisor of a New York computer software firm. She first meets Firestorm in the course of one of his battles withBug andByte, where he inadvertently magnetizes and effectively destroys several of the computers storing the software programs in development. This results in millions of dollars in property damage, which threatens to ruin the software firm. Felicity confronts Firestorm and threatens to organize aclass action lawsuit against him.[5] Felicity makes recurring appearances, often taking an adversarial role against Firestorm and making a point of explaining what the collateral damage of his battles cost her and other civilians. On one occasion, Firestorm lashes out against Felicity bytransmuting her clothes to soap, a tactic he previously used on the supervillainPlastique.[6] Humiliated, Felicity retaliates by filing a lawsuit against him.[7]
At some point, Felicity develops a romantic relationship with Ed Raymond, unaware that Ed's son Ronnie is Firestorm. When Ronnie discovers that Felicity is seeing his father, he is uncertain how to treat her due to their past interactions. Over time, Felicity and Ed fall in love and are married. After the wedding, Felicity learns Ronnie's secret identity. By this point, she has forgiven him for his past transgressions, although she insists on reminding him about the importance of using his superpowers in a responsible manner.[8]
DC Comics rebooted its comic properties in 2011 as part of a relaunch entitledThe New 52, in which Felicity Smoak was revamped to be similar to her Arrowverse counterpart.[9] The New 52 version of Felicity Smoak is introduced in 2014 inGreen Arrow #35, written byArrow showrunnerAndrew Kreisberg. In #35, she is introduced in an end-of-issue cliffhanger as an assassin out to kill Oliver, but quickly explains that while she is a hacker-for-hire who has "done questionable things" in her past, "leading a hero to his death isn't one of them", explaining she did not know her target was Green Arrow when she accepted the job.[10] After proving her hacker credentials by explaining to him that she knows his secret identity, as well as highly specific details from his superhero, personal, professional and family lives, she offers to become a part of his team out of a desire to help him save the city. Surmising that whoever hired her to kill Oliver has evil plans, she teams up with Green Arrow to track down her client's other target,Mia Dearden, who they discover is being pursued byMerlyn.
Later in the same storyline, Felicity is arrested and placed in asupermax prison, where she shares a cell withCheetah; it is established that Felicity had once been hired todox Cheetah, putting the villain and her loved ones in danger. Oliver saves her from Cheetah with help fromSteve Trevor ofA.R.G.U.S. Ultimately, Oliver saves Mia from the man pursuing her and her father John King. Oliver also exposes him as a murderer who used bribery and corruption to control Seattle. Trevor invites Felicity to join A.R.G.U.S., but she rejects his offer in favor of working with Oliver.
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An alternate universe variant of Felicity Smoak appears inDC Comics Bombshells. This version is a member of theBatgirls.[11][12]
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Felicity Smoak appears in the Arrowverse, portrayed byEmily Bett Rickards. Introduced inArrow, this version is an I.T. genius, skilled hacker and computer expert, and graduate ofM.I.T. She joinsOliver Queen on his vigilante mission, and later founds her own company, Smoak Technologies. Oliver and Felicity begin a romantic relationship which eventually leads to their marriage and the birth of their daughterMia Smoak. The character was originally introduced in the episode "Lone Gunmen" as a one-off character.[13] Due to the positive reaction from Green Arrow actorStephen Amell and producerPeter Roth, the character was promoted to a recurring, later main, role.[14][15][16][17] The character also appears inThe Flash,[18]Legends of Tomorrow,[19]Vixen,[20] the crossover event "Crisis on Earth-X",[21] and the web seriesBlood Rush.[22] Rickards leftArrow at the end of itsseventh season,[23] but returned as a guest star for the series finale "Fadeout".[24]
Felicity features in the digital tie-in comics to the Arrowverse series,Arrow Season 2.5,[25]Flash Season Zero,[26] and inSmoak Signals parts 1 and 2.[27][28] She is one of the four protagonists of the two tie-in comics produced to accompany the Arrowverse crossover eventCrisis on Infinite Earths, released in December 2019 and January 2020 respectively.[29] She is also one of the protagonists in the Arrowverse tie-in novels,Arrow: Vengeance, written byOscar Balderrama and Lauren Certo,[30]The Flash: The Haunting of Barry Allen written by Susan and Clay Griffith,[31] and its sequelArrow: A Generation of Vipers[32] as well asArrow: Fatal Legacies, co-authored byMarc Guggenheim and James R. Tuck.[33] Felicity also features inBarry Lyga'sCrossover Crisis trilogy published in 2019,[34] in May 2020[35] and in March 2021.[36]
Felicity Smoak appears inLego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham as part of theArrow DLC pack.[37]
Gerry Conway, the writer who co-created the character with artist Rafael Kayanan in a 1984 issue ofFirestorm.
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