Tim Quinn
Tim Quinn’s father was Matt “The Mighty” Quinn, a middleweight boxer considered a contender for a national title. Matt Quinn raised his son alone after Tim’s mother died of influenza, the family too poor to afford medical care. Young Tim grew up in and around gyms and boxing rings in the Southside of Freedom City, watching his father’s matches when he wasn’t running around playing stickball or Cowboys and Indians.
The Mighty Quinn did well in his bouts—a little too well, in fact. When Tim was twelve, his father was up for a big title fight. The Freedom City Mob approached Matt with an offer he couldn’t refuse: throw the fight and make some money, or else. Matt found he just couldn’t throw the fight with his son cheering him on, looking up to him as an example. He fought hard and won, and the Mob lost a lot of money. They took it out of Matt Quinn’s hide. Even he couldn’t block a bullet, and was gunned down in an alley.
The battling Bowman took down the killers, although he couldn’t link the murder back to their boss. Upon learning that young Tim had no other family, Bowman “made arrangements” and wealthy newspaper publisher Fletcher Beaumont took Tim in as his ward. Sensing in the boy a tremendous drive and a thirst for vengeance, Beaumont revealed his secret identity to Tim and agreed to train him as his partner, channeling his anger toward constructive purposes. Tim became Arrow, the boy-bowman, and proved as handy with his fists as he was with a longbow.
Despite his youth, Arrow was a valued member of The Liberty League, and the envy of every boy in America. Among other things, it was Bowman’s junior partner who invented their famous “boxing glove arrow,” originally using one of his father’s gloves (later an inflatable capsule built into an arrowhead). He also became a capable pilot (before he was even old enough to have a driver’s license) and mechanic working with his mentor, Freedom Eagle, and Johnny Rocket.
Tim Quinn was in his twenties when Fletcher Beaumont retired as the Bowman following the HUAC hearings and the disbanding of the Liberty League. Unwilling to see the legacy of the Bowman die or to knuckle-under to paranoia and suspicion, Quinn adopted the Bowman name and costume with his mentor’s blessing. He eventually trained Fletcher’s son, Fletcher II, as the new Arrow.
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