Roy Harper

Arsenal

Roy Harper

## Biography

### Early Life

Roy Harper was born to Jim Harper and a woman Roy never met or knew the name of. Jim was a forest ranger on a Navajo reservation. When Roy was barely two years old, his father died helping the Navajo fight a forest fire. Out of gratitude for Jim, Chief Raymond Brave Bow adopted the boy and raised him on the reservation. But, Roy was never going to fit in with the tribe. He often made enemies with the other boys, but quickly picked up fighting skills because of it. On hunting expeditions, they learned of his mastery with the bow-and-arrow, and Brave Boy continued to help these skills grow. Roy's speed and bravery on these missions garnered him the nickname of Speedy.

Eventually, CPS came looking for Roy, and found him in the care of the reservation. Roy's adoption by Brave Bow was never legalized, so Roy was removed from his custody. They placed him in the care of his uncle, one John Diggle. John was recovering from PTSD from Operation Desert Storm, and the last thing he needed was to look after a kid, but he accepted. Roy liked living in Star City, particularly because he loved their resident superhero, but he didn’t fit into the city crowd either.

One day, while suspended from school for fighting, Roy tagged along on John’s job with Bowhunter Security, where John had become assigned to near 24/7 surveillance of Oliver Queen. Ollie took a liking to Roy’s tenacity, and the two bonded over their skill with a bow and arrow.

One night, John and Roy were sitting in the Queen Manor, keeping guard over a sleeping Oliver, when to their surprise, a bloody and beaten Oliver came through the front door, wearing his Green Arrow garb. And that was how John and Roy learned of Ollie’s nighttime escapades. Once he knew this, there was no stopping Roy, who begged Ollie to let him tag along on patrols.

### Speedy

One night, Vordigan led an attack on the Queen Manor, and Roy helped defend his adopted family from the archer, managing to get an arrow into his shoulder. When the villain retreated, Ollie finally decided to whip Roy into shape.

At this time, Ollie was already working with the Black Canary, and had been operating out of a Queen Consolidated warehouse not-so-cleverly known as the Arrowcave. Ollie and Dinah both took turns training Roy, beyond just being good with a bow, but in stealth, hand-to-hand combat, and analytics.

One weekend, Ollie decided to take Roy on a vacation back to the reservation he grew up on. There, they found Brave Bow near his deathbed. He called Roy over and thanked his son for allowing him to be a father. During this, Brave Bow once again called him by the nickname of Speedy. Roy took this and made it his codename. The following week, he accompanied Oliver and Dinah on his first patrol and did very well.

A few weeks later, Ollie and Dinah took him on what Roy thought was a random road trip, but turned out to be a setup by the League to introduce their sidekicks to one another at Mount Justice in Happy Harbor. There, Roy met Robin, Batgirl, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Supergirl, and all were stunned by the debut of Wonder Woman's own sidekick, whom Robin dubbed Wonder Girl. That day, the Titans were born.

The Titans started off as just sort of a clubhouse for the League's proteges. One day, while hanging out at Mount Justice, a wizard named Mister Twister began terrorizing Happy Harbor. The teens sprang into action and made quick work of the wizard, who turned out to be an android. While at first condemned for their actions, the League decided to allow the heroes to operate on their own as the Teen Titans.

After a few months of an unspoken attraction, Donna and Roy did end up having a romantic fling with one another, but they eventually broke it off for the greater good. One night in 2007, Roy returned to Diggle's house after patrol, and found that John was missing. He and Ollie began searching for John, searching up to down in Star City, with no luck. Unbeknownst to the Titans, Roy had begun experimenting with street drugs during this time. Robin started to notice with some unchecked aggression but believed it to be due to his missing uncle. After an altercation with Doctor Light nearly turned deadly, Roy was placed on leave from the Titans.

Roy struck out on his own, beginning a globetrotting hunt for his uncle. In this time, he encountered Cheshire, and they had a one night stand, with Roy hoping to get information from her. She did give him something, informing him of a warehouse in Bolivia registered to a scientific group called Cadmus. The last thing Roy remembers was arriving at the warehouse and being ambushed from behind.

### Arsenal

Roy woke up on February 28th, 2017 to see Cheshire, Wally West, a man who looked just like him, and another woman he didn't recognize. He was also missing an arm. Immediately after waking up, he collapsed and passed out yet again. He woke up once more in a hospital in Metropolis, where Oliver Queen stood by his bedside.

Oliver informed him that he had been missing for ten years, but it had gone unknown because a clone had taken his place. Roy, obviously enraged, flipped out on Ollie, who then retreated from the hospital room. Roy's Clone talked to Roy, and filled him in, telling him that his uncle had been found alive and experimented on by Cadmus, which they believed was run by Doctor Emil Hamilton. He stated they were gathering evidence and hadn't made a move on Hamilton yet. He also filled him in on a decade of history, of the death of Jason Todd, No Man's Land, Ollie's wedding, and even the birth of his daughter.

Roy kicked his clone out of the room and then escaped out the window. He went to a defunct Titans bunker, where he stole a bow, a costume, and several explosives. He broke into STAR Labs in Metropolis, found Emil Hamilton, made him confess to what he did and fired an arrow straight through his brain, before surrendering himself to the police.

Roy found himself in Belle Reve Penitentiary, looking like someone who had just spent a decade putting half of the prisoners away. Amanda Waller met with him, and offered in exchange for protection, he would serve on her Suicide Squad. Roy agreed and was outfitted with a new prosthetic arm (courtesy of President Luthor). He took up the codename of Arsenal, and went on a mission to find Red Hood, his former teammate who was at large for murdering the Joker. On this mission, Roy cornered Jason, but eventually let him go, not blaming him for what happened.

He returned to prison, and had his protection revoked, but he gained his own respect in the yard. In Belle Reve, he became addicted to heroin. A few months later, he would encounter Jason yet again, as they defended Gotham City from the Light's attacks. Jason deactivated Roy's Task Force X bomb and had him hop onto the back of his motorbike and they drove off into the sunset.

Arsenal and Red Hood went on the run together, ending up on a globe-trotting adventure that included yet another Superman clone, a rogue Amazon, and a trail of bodies behind them. After a bender, they were found by Green Arrow and Batman, who offered to get them the help they needed to get better or offered to turn them in to Waller.

Begrudgingly, they agreed and Roy got sober, and ended up getting to finally meet his daughter. He cleaned up his act and is now serving with the Outsiders.