Felicity Smoak is a fictional character appearing in comics published by DC Comics. Her first appearance was in The Fury of Firestorm #23 (May 1984), created by writer Gerry Conway and artist Rafael Kayanan. She was originally the manager of a computer software firm who opposed the superhero Firestorm because of his recklessness, eventually becoming the second wife of Edward Raymond and stepmother to Ronnie Raymond, one-half of the integrated dual identity of the superhero.
A re-imagined Felicity Smoak, portrayed by Emily Bett Rickards, featured in the television series Arrow and its extended universe of shows, collectively known as the Arrowverse. An I.T. genius and graduate from MIT, Felicity works alongside vigilante Oliver Queen/Green Arrow to help protect Star City (formerly Starling City), later operating under the alias Overwatch. The pair also become romantically involved, and eventually marry with Felicity giving birth to their daughter Mia 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 by The Hollywood Reporter in 2016.
A similar version of Felicity was introduced as the New 52 incarnation of the character in Green Arrow (vol. 5) #35.
Fictional character biography
The Fury of Firestorm
Portrayed as the supervisor of a New York computer software firm in her 1984 debut appearance, Felicity first meets Firestorm in the course of one of his battles with a villain, 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 and leads to a heated confrontation between Felicity and Firestorm where she threatened to organize a class action lawsuit against him. Felicity would make recurring appearance, 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, a frustrated Firestorm lashes out against Felicity's confrontational behavior by using his molecular transmutation powers to transform her clothes to soap suds, a tactic he previously used on the supervillain Plastique. Humiliated from being rendered nude in public, Felicity retaliates by filing a lawsuit against him.
At some point, Felicity develops a romantic relationship with Ed Raymond. She has no idea that Ed's son Ronnie is the other half of Firestorm. When Ronald 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 deeply in love and are married. After the wedding Felicity learns the truth about Ronnie's secret dual identity, but by this point she had forgiven him for his past transgressions, although she would still insist on reminding him about the importance of using his superpowers in a responsible manner.
The New 52
DC Comics rebooted its comic properties in 2011 as part of a relaunch entitled The New 52, which led to the character of Felicity Smoak being brought back in a fashion similar to the version seen on Arrow. The New 52 version of Felicity Smoak is introduced in 2014 in Green Arrow #35, the first issue of that book to be written by Arrow showrunner Andrew 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 the Green Arrow when she accepted the job. 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 extremely evil plans, she teams up with Green Arrow to track down her client's other target, a woman named Mia Dearden, who they soon discover is being pursued by the deadly archer Merlyn.