Red Arrow's History
Red Arrow is the current superhero identity of Roy Harper, Green Arrow's adopted son and former sidekick. He has also been known as Speedy and Arsenal during his long career. Though Red Arrow has no superpowers, his accuracy with projectiles is equaled only by his mentor.
The boy who would become Red Arrow was born Roy Harper, Jr.- the son of a forest ranger. Harper's mother died while he was an infant, and Roy, Sr. raised the child on his own for some time. Unfortunately, Roy, Sr. died while saving members of a Navajo reservation during a major fire when his son was barely two years old. The shaman of the reservation, Brave Bow, raised young Harper in gratitude for Roy, Sr.'s sacrifice. Under Brave Bow's care Roy Harper was raised as a traditional Navajo and treated as a member of the tribe.
Brave Bow recognized in Harper an early talent for archery, and he was trained in that skill throughout his time on the reservation. With few friends and a lot of time on his hands, Harper practiced extensively, eventually developing the skill of someone twice his age.
After Green Arrow's public debut, Harper developed an immediate hero worship and followed the hero's exploits avidly. When Green Arrow visited the reservation in order to judge an archery contest Harper was participating in, eager Roy did his best to impress his hero, and succeeded in doing so. However, in the final elimination of the tournament Harper was given a magnetized arrow and missed his last shot. When he helped to stop a robber by quickly drawing and firing an arrow, Green Arrow noted that Harper had been "speedier" than he, and offered to take Roy in as his ward. Though publicly the two were known as Oliver Queen and Roy Harper, benefactor and foster child, in private Queen trained Harper to be his partner in crime. Roy Harper was extensively drilled in the use of both standard arrows and the trick arrows that Green Arrow had created for use in crimefighting, and when Green Arrow judged him to be sufficiently skilled, he was presented with his own costume and the super-heroic identity of "Speedy." Shortly afterward, Brave Bow died, and Oliver Queen/Green Arrow became the only father figure in Roy Harper's life.
As Speedy, Harper assisted his mentor during many of his cases. Just as Green Arrow had become a member of the Justice League of America, so did Speedy find his own colleagues when he joined Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Wonder Girl to become the Teen Titans. While serving with the Titans, he and Wonder Girl (aka Donna Troy) began a semi-serious teenage relationship that later developed into a close friendship.
After his stint with the Titans, several events occurred that made Speedy feel increasingly rootless and abandoned. His relationship with Donna Troy failed to progress past the "teenage sweetheart" stage, the Teen Titans disbanded, and Ollie Queen, the closest thing Harper had to a father, lost much of his fortune and abandoned him to travel America with Hal Jordan (the Green Lantern of Earth) and Queen's girlfriend, the Black Canary. Increasingly alone and extremely depressed, Harper developed a heroin addiction. When Green Arrow discovered his addiction, rather than give Harper support or comfort, Ollie punched him and kicked him out, leaving him homeless. He was later found by Jordan, and with the help of Black Canary and others, Harper quit cold turkey.
Though Harper quit drugs entirely, partly in order to prove his strength to Ollie Queen, the latter's actions had already driven a rift between the two that would take years to heal.
Harper worked as a counselor for teens with drug problems following his recovery, while continuing to pursue a solo career as Speedy. He also joined a re-formed Teen Titans for a time, but the team once again disbanded and Speedy was left on his own.
While counseling teenagers and working as a superhero, Harper's obvious skills as well as his personal connection to the drug underground attracted the attention of the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), a clandestine government agency largely concerned with drug trafficking and terrorism. The CBI, led by Sarge Steel, trained Harper in undercover work, as well as the use of firearms (Harper learned he was as accurate with a gun as he was with a bow and arrow.) Harper became an official CBI drug enforcement agent.
On one undercover assignment, Harper was tasked with the job of gaining the trust of the sociopathic mercenary Cheshire. Though Harper was meant to eventually turn Cheshire over to the authorities, the two fell in love and had an affair. Harper could not bring himself to Cheshire in, but he was concerned that his continued presence would endanger her. That worry combined with his growing misgivings over Cheshire's disregard for life caused Harper to abandon her, unaware that she was pregnant with his child.
When Harper eventually learned that he was the father of Cheshire's daughter, Lian, he teamed up with his old friend Nightwing (formerly known as Robin) to track down Cheshire and prevent her from assassinating a group of diplomats. Speedy was captured by Cheshire but rescued by Nightwing, who brought the baby with him. Cheshire left Lian in Harper's care, and Roy assumed the duties of a single father.
No longer a member of the CBI or the Titans, and still estranged from Oliver Queen, Harper struggled for some time to find his place in the world. For a time, he relocated to Los Angeles, where he attempted a career as a private investigator. Though he assisted the latest incarnation of the Titans on several occasions, he declined to rejoin as a full member. Eventually, he resumed his working relationship with the CBI and then its successor organization Checkmate.
During this time, Speedy's old friends in the Titans were going through a crisis of their own. After being hunted by the Wildebeest Society, led by Jericho, the team had been shattered and reformed. The Titans Tower, their headquarters, was destroyed, and the Titans were rootless and mistrusted by the American government. After making a deal with harper's employer, Sarge Steel, to become officially supervised and sanctioned by the US Government, Nightwing voluntarily stepped down as leader. The obvious choice to fill the vacuum was Roy Harper, who had connections to both the Titans and the Federal government. Availing himself of Steve Dayton's technology, Harper decided at this point to abandon his identity as Speedy and become Arsenal. Now no longer simply using a bow and arrows, Arsenal's high-tech costume gave him several devices to use for crimefighting. He would soon abandon his original Arsenal costume in favor of a more streamlined one, but retained his new codename and leadership of the Titans. Unfortunately, the team suffered from a lack of commitment from its various members, and was dissolved yet again.
Arsenal took this opportunity to re-open a dialog with his mentor, Green Arrow. The two managed to forgive one another and bury their past differences, but the reconciliation was short-lived, as Oliver Queen died in an airplane explosion shortly afterward.
Soon, yet another team of Teen Titans emerged. This group consisted of a teen-aged Atom (de-aged by events in Zero Hour) and new heroes Argent, Risk, Joto, and Prysm. The team was funded by Loren Jupiter, once the benefactor of the original Teen Titans that Harper has been a member of.
Jupiter gathered together the original Titans (now going by the aliases of Nightwing, Tempest, Flash, and Arsenal) to combat the threat of his bitter, super-powered son Jarrod Jupiter (Haze). New and old Titans joined forces to defeat Haze, but at a price; Joto apparently lost his life, and Arsenal felt responsible for his death. Arsenal remained with this new group of Titans for a time, but eventually left the group before it, too, disbanded.
Arsenal later came into conflict with Vandal Savage. Savage had discovered that both Roy Harper and his daughter Lian were his descendants, and thus, their organs were suitable for him to harvest to prolong his life.
Arsenal was able to save his daughter from Savage. After this ordeal, he adopted a new look to reflect his Navajo heritage. Shortly after, the original five Titans decided to form yet another incarnation of the team. Arsenal served as a full-time member on the team, and chose to reside at the new Titans Tower with his daughter, Lian. He hired Rose Wilson to be Lian's nanny, and also attempted an adult relationship with Donna Troy, but broke it off when it became clear that Troy was dealing with an identity crisis of her own. Arsenal, who by that point had established a reputation as something of a "ladies' man," went back to his philandering ways.
At roughly the same time, Oliver Queen reappeared, having been resurrected earlier by Hal Jordan (in his identity of Parallax). After Queen sorted out his own issues, he and Harper's relationship resumed.
When a mysterious conglomerate known as Optitron offered to sponsor the Titans and Young Justice, members of both teams encountered a cybernetic girl from the future (known as Indigo) at their complex. The android attacked both teams and disabled nearly half of the group. Those members who could teamed up to track down Indigo, but instead encountered a rogue Superman robot that Indigo had somehow reactivated. The Superman robot made quick work of Lilith, killing her by snapping her neck, and then killed Donna Troy with a heat vision blast to her chest. Though Indigo returned to shut down the Superman Android, the rest of the Titans and Young Justice were left to mourn their fallen friends. Once again, the Titans were parted ways.
Arsenal took this opportunity to accept Optitron's offer and formed a new team: the Outsiders. Harper conceived the team as professional and proactive, with none of the "family" connections that seemed to doom various incarnations of the Titans. He began by buying a massive secret underground headquarters beneath New York City. Roy outfitted the shelter with state-of-the-art equipment and began recruiting members for the new team. He successfully coaxed the veteran Metamorpho, as well as Grace (a superhuman bouncer whom Harper had a physical relationship with) and Thunder (daughter of Black Lightning) into joining the team. He also decided to accept Indigo as a member. Even though she had been responsible for activating the Superman android, and ultimately for Lilith's and Donna Troy's deaths, her memory had been wiped clean, and she convinced Arsenal that she wanted to atone for what she had done.
Indigo's presence would prove to be a major sticking point for Arsenal's last recruit: Nightwing. The Titans' former leader was completely unwilling to renew his involvement in a team after such a devastating loss. Arsenal argued that the Outsiders were the next logical step for them beyond the Titans, and that perhaps a team of strangers would operate more efficiently than a team with so many emotional attachments. Nightwing, while still reluctant, agreed to join and became field leader of the Outsiders shortly after the team defeated Gorilla Grodd.
On a later mission, Arsenal was shot in the chest while attempting to stop Brother Blood from activating a global network of sleeper agents. He survived, but was sidelined for months. In the interim, he assigned the Huntress to be his replacement. He was hesitant to resume active duty, feeling afraid of his own limitations, but returned with encouragement from Nightwing.
Not long after his recovery, the Outsiders took on a case which involved a child-slaver and molester named Tanner. One of Tanner's informants recognized Harper from years prior, and led Tanner to Lian Harper. Lian's nanny was killed and the girl was branded with Tanner's mark. The Outsiders arrived just in time to save Lian and other children from being flown out of New York.
Oddly, Arsenal's near-death from gunshot wounds later saved his life when he met Deathstroke. The villain, Arsenal discovered, had been posing as Batman and feeding him information since the Outsiders began. Deathstroke and Arsenal fought, with Deathstroke intending to kill him, but when the mercenary discovered the bullet scars on Arsenal's chest, he figured Arsenal had suffered enough and gave him a "pass." About the same time, Arsenal was also kidnapped by Green Arrow's nemesis Constantine Drakon. Drakon was working with the Riddler, and slit Arsenal's throat so that he would have to apply constant pressure to the wound or die. The Outsiders helped search for Arsenal and rescued him.
During the period of turmoil known as the Infinite Crisis, Indigo was revealed to be a plant of Brainiac's, and almost succeeded in destroying the team. Later, Arsenal and the Outsiders were among the heroes gathered to defend Metropolis from an invasion by the Society. After the disappearance of Batman, Robin, Superman, and Wonder Woman, the Outsiders continued to operate, but found themselves handling low-level criminals and making little difference in the world. When Nightwing and Red Hood discovered that Black Lightning, former Outsider and father of Thunder, had been arrested for a crime he didn't commit, the Outsiders attempted a rescue. Ultimately, they failed in their attempt, and ended up believed dead by the outside world. Though the team saw this as an opportunity to operate covertly, Arsenal soon realized he was not made for the life of a cloak and dagger hero and left the team, returning full command to Nightwing.
Nearly a year later, after their return to active duty, the heroes Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, decided to reform the Justice League of America, which had been disbanded during the Crisis. In a sign that he had finally "made it," Arsenal was asked by the three to join the latest incarnation of the team. In their first mission as teammates, Hal Jordan referred to Harper as "Red Arrow" (attempting to cover for the fact that he almost called him by his real name). Though Harper was surprised by this new nickname, he soon embraced the identity with the help of a new costume, given to him by his former mentor, Green Arrow. His new name and costume became symbolic of his "coming of age" and the end of his troubled relationship with Oliver Queen.
Red Arrow continues to serve with the Justice League.
