Queen Industries

Queen Industries is a fictional business organization in the DC Comics universe. It is owned and run by Oliver Queen who is Green Arrow. Oliver reluctantly inherited the company after his parents, Robert and Laura Queen, were killed on safari. It was founded by Robert Queen.

Fictional history

In the early days of Oliver's ownership, Queen Industries made much of its profits from the sale of weapons and munitions. In "Peacemakers", written by Dennis O'Neil, Oliver discovers some of the disastrous impacts that the weapons he is making his money from are having in other countries. As a result, Oliver decides to sell off what is left of the company, giving all of the proceeds to a war relief effort. (This was a widely accepted retelling of the original story of how Queen lost his remaining fortune to a man named John Deleon).

For many years following, Queen Industries was without its namesake ebullient owner, as Green Arrow traversed the countryside, to discover the true America. During this period, he formed strongly liberal values (in stark contrast to his frequent conservative traveling partner, Green Lantern) which he was never shy about espousing, and which defined and motivated his later career. The strength of his convictions indeed became one of his most indelible characteristics, and was a primary influence in the new treatment of social issues as a valid theme for mainstream superhero comics.

Eventually, Oliver Queen was able to reassert his control of Queen Industries, now divested of its weapons contracts. He used the income from it to secretly fund his superhero activities. Originally, much of the money was funneled into bankrolling the fledgling Justice League of America. However, this ended when Oliver quit the JLA, having decided that they were only interested in fighting the big battles with the supervillains, and weren't looking out enough for "the little guy." Since then, the income from Queen Industries has gone to charitable donations and to funding his own crime-fighting activities.

The company had changed hands several times. A recent story arc involved it being bought by the villainous Isabel Rochev, also known as "The Queen".

In the New 52 continuity, Oliver Queen is based in Seattle, and using a subsidiary of Queen Industries called Q-Core as a front for his operations as Green Arrow. In addition to masking the research and development of his trick arrows, Q-Core had developed several very successful products like the Q-pad and Q-phone, making Oliver a billionaire mogul. Following the buy up of Queen Industries by Stellmoor Industries and their CEO, Simon Lacroix, followed by his destruction of Q-Core, the fate of the company is unknown.

In other media

Television

Smallville

Queen Industries has been mentioned in Smallville, a television series based on the early life of Superman, several times and is an electronics company in the series.

In the season 8 episode "Requiem", it is revealed that Tess Mercer sold controlling interest in LuthorCorp to Queen Industries.^[1] However, in the series finale and the comic book continuation, after Lex Luthor regained control of LuthorCorp (later renaming it LexCorp), Queen Industries immediately dissolves its partnership with the Luthors after Lex Luthor's return.^[2]

Arrow

Known as Queen Consolidated in the Arrow television series, the company is headquartered in Starling City, with Walter Steele serving as the company's chief executive officer even before marrying Moira Queen (Oliver's mother, still alive in this version). The company experiences serious trouble after Moira Queen reveals her role in the Undertaking (a plan to destroy the Glades, an area of the city where crime was particularly predominant, with an earthquake machine create by Unidac Industries which is a subsidiary of Queen Consolidated). Unidac created the Markov Device, which uses seismic infringement to cause a man made earthquake that levels much of the Glades, but Oliver manages to retain control of the company by enlisting Walter's aid - Walter having divorced Moira the previous season and moved on to a position as financial manager of Starling City Bank - to buy enough shares for Oliver and Walter to retain a controlling interest in the company, resulting in the Queens owning half of Queen Consolidated with Isabel Rochev, the Vice President of Acquisitions at Stellmoor International, buying out the other half. Oliver continued to face a subtle power struggle with Rochev over the control of the company for most of the season, which culminated in him learning that she was allied with his enemy Slade Wilson only after he had temporarily handed full CEO control over to her, prompting her to take steps to make her position permanent so that she could buy out the company. It is also revealed that Rochev was Robert Queen's mistress and held a grudge against Oliver and his family after his father abandoned her, which led her to ally herself with Slade in plotting revenge against the Queen family. Although Wilson injected her with the Mirakuru drug to save her after she is shot by Diggle, she ultimately dies fighting Oliver Queen, Sara Lance, Nyssa al Ghul and the League of Assassins after receiving the antidote. In the show's spin-off, The Flash, a newspaper under the possession of S.T.A.R. Labs CEO Harrison Wells, apparently from the future, reveals that Queen Incorporated merges with WayneTech in 2024.

Video games

Queen Industries is referenced in Batman: Arkham Origins, the logo is featured on a tool box in the official trailer. ^[3] The logo later appears on a shipping container in the actual game located on the Penguin's ship. Also in Penguin's office, there are lists of companies such as AmerTek, LexCorp and Queen Industries.^[4]

References