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    Golden Archer

    Character » Golden Archer appears in 67 issues.

    Wyatt McDonald is the finest archer of Earth-712, home to the Squadron Supreme. However, despite his brilliant skills, he has been removed from the Squadron for brainwashing his former girlfriend, Lady Lark.

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    Origin

    How Wyatt McDonald became so proficient with in archery is unknown, but it is known that he is a brilliant archer, possibly the greatest in his home universe of Earth-712. Early in his career, Wyatt was a British cab driver fighting crime in the guise of Hawkeye, using trick arrows much like many other archers in comic books. He had an on-and-off relationship with his fellow crimefighter Lady Lark (aka Linda Lewis), and the two fought crime in the fictional city of New Babylon for a while. Wyatt and Linda eventually gained enough fame to be invited to join the Squadron Supreme shortly after the team formed.

    Creation

    Golden Archer was created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema, and first appeared in Avengers #85, on the parallel Earth-712. Like the majority of the early members of the Squadron Supreme, Golden Archer was a homage to a DC character, in this case Green Arrow. In addition, Golden Archer has had a romantic history with Lady Lark, paralleling the relationship between Green Arrow and Black Canary.

    Character Evolution

    Silver Age

    When Wyatt McDonald initially appeared in Avengers, he had little character depth, his only original or unique feature being that he was British. Notably, however, the codename he took at the time was Hawkeye, a name previously used by Clint Barton (who at the time was in his Goliath guise).

    Later in the series, when the Avengers travelled to Earth-712 again, this time during the Serpent Crown affair, Wyatt had changed his codename to Golden Archer, presumably because Clint had returned to his Hawkeye guise. Again, at this point there was little outstanding about the character.

    Bronze Age

    During the Bronze Age of Comics, the Golden Archer started to show a slightly darker side. After Lady Lark rejected his offer of marriage, Wyatt used the recently developed behaviour modification ("B-Modding") process to make her love him. However, Wyatt did soon come to regret this, admitting his crime when questioned by the Squadron, and allowing himself to be expelled from the team. For the rest of the Squadron Supreme series, Wyatt joined Nighthawk's Redeemers, expressing extreme guilt and wanting to make up for his crime.

    Major Story Arcs

    Joining the Squadron  

    Wyatt's Hawkeye Identity 
    Wyatt's Hawkeye Identity 
     After Wyatt joined the Squadron, he presumably helped them fight crime on a fairly regular basis (much of the Squadron's early activities are not known), using his original identity of Hawkeye. He was one of the Squadron members present in the Squadron's mansion base when the Avengers initially traveled to Earth-712, and was able to hold them off until defeated by the Vision. As the Golden Archer, he later fought the Avengers again amongst the rest of the Squadron Supreme when they were taken over by their world's Serpent Crown. The third time heroes from Earth-616 traveled to Earth-712, Wyatt and the rest of the Squadron (minus Hyperion) were being controlled by Overmind. Fortunately, the Defenders were able to stop Overmind and his ally Null the Living Darkness, but the aftermath of the battle left Earth-712 in devastation, leading the Squadron Supreme to try and fix  it with their biggest idea yet: The Utopia Principle

    The Utopia Principle

     After Princess Power suggested creating a utopia on Earth for mankind, Golden Archer was one of the many members agreeing to the plan (with Amphibian and Nighthawk being the only two opposing). Initially, the Archer helped distribute food around America along with Doctor Spectrum and Tom Thumb. After that task was completed, he then helped dismantle gun and ammunition factories with the rest of the Squadron. However, during one of these dismantles, the Archer's force field belt short circuited, and Wyatt would have been killed by a rebel opposing the Squadron's plan were it not for the Whizzer saving him.

    This brush with death got Wyatt thinking about how he wasn't going to live forever,
    Lady Lark under the B-Modder
    Lady Lark under the B-Modder
    and so he decided to ask Lady Lark to marry him, since they had been dating for several years now. Unfortunately, Lady Lark had started to develop a crush on fellow Squadroner Blue Eagle, and was also well aware of the fact that could she lose her powers (which she looked at as a curse), Wyatt wouldn't be able to connect with her. Therefore, when the Golden Archer did ask her to marry him, she rejected him kindly but firmly. In his rage, and unable to accept that Lady Lark was starting to move on, the Archer used Tom Thumb's recently developed behaviour-modification ("B-Modding") treatment to brainwash Lark into loving him.

    However, a side effect of the B-Modding that Wyatt hadn't counted on was that Lady Lark now loved him too much - she refused to leave his side and wouldn't give him any space. To get away from her and perhaps think about his rash actions, the Golden Archer ran away from the Squadron without telling anyone. Unfortunately, this in turn led to the Institute of Evil, the Squadron's opposite numbers, capturing the Archer. After severely injuring him, the Institute found out about the B-Modder, as well as the location of the Squadron's headquarters, from the Archer, and used the information to seemingly B-Mod the Squadron. Luckily for the Squadron, it turned out that Tom Thumb had guessed that Wyatt had used the B-Modder on Lady Lark, and afterwards had built in failsafes to prevent the B-Modder from altering any members of the Squadron Surpeme. The Squadron were able to defeat the Institute of Evil, and Wyatt was lucky enough that Tom Thumb didn't reveal his suspicions.

    This didn't last long. Whilst the Archer was recovering in hospital, Blue Eagle accused him of using the B-Modder on Lady Lark, having gathered suspicions of his own.
    Black Archer's Death 
    Black Archer's Death 
     When brought before the Squadron, Wyatt admitted what he had done, by now having started to feel guilty about it. The Squadron then had a vote as to what to do with him, and whilst the numbers were close, the Archer was voted out of the Squadron Supreme.   

    Seeking redemption for his mistake, Wyatt changed his codename to the Black Archer, in addition to growing a beard (possibly to help disguise himself from the Squadron). He then joined Nighthawk's Redeemers, most likely being found with the crystal given to Nighthawk by Professor Imam, and participated in the final fight against the Squadron. During this fight, Wyatt initially paired off against his former friend Doctor Spectrum, saying that he couldn't let friendship get in the way of his redemption. Black Archer was successful in shattering Spectrum's power  prism with an arrow, embedding the shards in Spectrum's body. Despite what he had previously said, Black Archer saved Doctor Spectrum from what would have been an otherwise fatal fall. Shattering Spectrum's crystal had been seen by Blue Eagle, who flew up behind Wyatt and cracked his skull with his mace in revenge. This killed Wyatt, although his body was kept in hibernation in the hopes of reviving him somehow one day.

    Powers and Abilities

    Golden Archer was an excellent archer, able to shoot very accurately, even when he or his target was moving. He used the trick arrows customarily found in comic books often. Wyatt was also trained in hand-to-hand combat by Nighthawk, and was fairly skilled. He also used a force field belt designed by Tom Thumb for a short while, but after it broke, he didn't appear to fix or replace it.

    Alternate Realities

    An alternate Wyatt McDonald is seen in Earth-31916. When that world's versions of Emil Burbank, Nuke, Arcanna, Shape, and Hyperion accidentally travelled to their future, an African-American man referred to as Black Archer briefly appeared. 
     
    On Earth-616, an imperfect clone of Golden Archer was created by Project: P.E.G.A.S.U.S. Due to some experimentation with exotic energy, it and the rest of the Squadron Supreme clones were accidentally turned into zombies, and immediately set upon eating as many people as they could. They ended up being killed by Jack of Hearts before they could do too much damage, fortunately.
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