Archer
Ethan Keller never knew his father and lost his mother when he was just ten years old to violence in the Lincoln neighborhood where he grew up. When the third Bowman met him a couple years later, Ethan was already involved with a Lincoln gang and tried to steal the hero’s car. He almost succeeded, too; Bowman was impressed by his talent and moved by his plight. Rather than turning Ethan over to the police and juvenile hall, he took him in and trained him as his partner, the third to use the name and costume of Arrow.
For a while, it was like a dream come true for Ethan: he went from being a poor orphan on the streets to the heroic sidekick of a superhero! He lived in a penthouse and had private tutors along with training in archery, martial arts, and criminology. For a few years, it was the best time of his young life, but then things changed.
Due to pressures in his personal and professional life, Fletcher Beaumont, Jr. (the third Bowman) relapsed into alcoholism. At first, Ethan tried to ignore it, then tried to get his mentor some help. Nothing worked, and the problems only worsened. Matters came to a head when Bowman’s drinking endangered both their lives and those of innocent civilians. That’s when Ethan decided he’d had enough: Fletcher could either own up to his problem, or they were through. In the end, Ethan walked away.
He operated solo as Arrow for a short while, then adopted a new name and costume to make a break from his past. He wouldn’t be the next Bowman; that name was tarnished and disgraced in his eyes. Instead, he called himself Archer and declared a one-man war on crime and corruption in Freedom City. Ethan felt he was getting back to his roots: fighting organized crime and gang violence in Lincoln, Southside, and The West End rather than going after costumed weirdos with crazy schemes for blackmail or world conquest.
When the Moore Act came down, Archer watched the rest of the so-called “heroes” of Freedom City walk away from their responsibilities, just like Bowman had done. But he wasn’t about to turn his city over to the criminals and corporate raiders. He sought out and recruited other outcast heroes—people willing to follow his leadership and do what was right, what was necessary, even in defiance of the law. Since then, FORCE Ops became both Archer’s new family to replace those he had lost, and soldiers in his cause to protect and clean up Freedom City, no matter what.
Ethan Keller survives the Terminus Invasion but the encounter with something as big and powerful as Lord Omega and his forces takes the fight out of him. After losing his surrogate family, witnessing The Centurion's sacrifice, and helping bring down the Moore government, Archer is grateful to quit the hero game with a whole skin, hangs up his bow, and retires. He currently works as a freelance security consultant with companies like Stronghold and Titan Security. He keeps up his skills, although not quite to peak level. Thus far, he has refused Duncan Summers’ offer to teach at the Claremont Academy, even after Bowman IV (Fletcher Beaumont III, his old mentor’s son) graduated and left the school.
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