Roy Harper

Arrow
Speedy
Red (His friends aren't very creative people)

Red Arrow

Early Twenties

Yes
Male

_{Does 'sexy' count as a short written description of his appearance? No? Okay.}

Roy Harper stands at five feet eleven inches tall and weighs approximately one hundred and eighty five pounds. His hair is bright copper red, creating a striking contrast with his sharp emerald eyes. Roy has spent almost his entire life honing his body to the peak of human conditioning. Because of this, Harper possesses a lean, muscular figure, tainted only by the occasional beer and that one time he tried weed in high school.

Expert Marksman: Red Arrow is one of the best archers in the world. He's trained with a bow since the age of seven, traveling the world to learn from the greatest marksmen alive. He's studied every piece of ancient literature on the craft, and spent countless hours at the range. He considers himself second only to Oliver Queen, though there are some who would dispute Roy's claim. He can consistently hit a moving target at 200 yards. He is able to hit human targets based solely on the sound of their breathing. He's also practiced a number of different firing techniques, such as holding a certain number of arrows in his draw hand to allow for quicker reloading, instead of reaching around to pull from his quiver. Roy is able to fire with the bow in either hand, and can fire off three arrows in less than .5 seconds, hitting all of his targets with ease.

Skilled Martial Artist: While Roy is no Nightwing, Green Arrow made sure his sidekick could handle himself if he ever lost his bow. To that end, Harper trained with legends such as Ted Grant and Black Canary for a number of years. Red tends to rely a little too heavily on boxing when he's unarmed but is well versed in the arts of Judo and Tae Kwon Do. He's also a verifiable master of Moo Gi Gong, a fighting style based entirely upon the use of conventional and improvised melee weapons.

Other Notable Skills: Roy can speak English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Mandarin. He's a proficient hacker, a skilled driver and a novice pilot. He knows how to traverse an urban environment thanks to a handful of acrobatic lessons from Nightwing while they were on the Titans team together. Roy studied Guerrilla Warfare in Indochina, learning the arts of stealth, sabotage, interrogation, subterfuge, intelligence gathering, counter-intelligence and many other tactics fighting alongside rebels against hostile governments.

Roy Harper was born on a Navajo reservation to two loving and very wealthy parents. They had been visiting a business partner on the reservation when Mrs. Harper unexpectedly went into labor two and a half months ahead of schedule. The family returned to that same reservation for their honeymoon a year later, where they were caught in the midst of a forest fire and lost their lives. Roy was then raised by medicine man known only as Brave Bow, who was listed to be Roy's legal guardian in his father's will. Despite Roy's young age, Brave Bow put Roy through the wringer. He trained Harper to be sharp in both body and mind. The Navajo man tutored the Harper child in conventional classes such as mathematics, various sciences and history, as well as in less traditional disciplines such as archery, tracking, hunting and even knife fighting. At first, Roy loved the lessons. Brave Bow was an excellent teacher and an even better man. But as Roy's twelfth birthday approached, he began to wonder why his life was so different from other children his age. He presented the question to Brave Bow, who, at first, refused to tell him. But after a number of argument, Brave Bow relented.

Roy Harper's father, Jim Harper, was the superhero known as Guardian. Brave Bow was meant to be the first of many teachers Roy would live with to learn all of the skills (and more) that Jim had used to fight crime. At first, it sounded preposterous. But all of Roy's investigating and digging only proved to confirm his mentor's story. In the dead of night, Roy left the reservation and headed for his family's private residence in Star City. There, he uncovered a secret safehouse containing all of his father's old equipment from his time as Guardian. Roy took up residence there for a time, spending every waking hour training himself to be the very best he could be. It was on Harper's first night on patrol that he encountered the Emerald Archer. Roy had gotten a little in over his head, trying to fight an entire gang on his own. If it weren't for the Green Arrow's timely arrival, Harper's story would've ended there. The two fought side by side to finish off the gangsters. Oliver was impressed by Roy's skill with a bow, while Roy was completely enthralled by the older hero. It didn't take long for Oliver to offer to further Roy's training. He accepted, and thus, Speedy was born. It was also during this time that Brave Bow died, leaving Roy's guardianship up to the court. Oliver was quick to adopt his sidekick's alter ego, allowing them to live together without anyone getting suspicious of their nightly activities. _{That sounds so very wrong.}

The next few years were a bit of a blur for the boy. He assisted Queen in taking down any number of villains who reared their ugly heads in Star City and beyond. He fought everything from ninjas, to cyborgs, to even zombies on one occasion. The battles he recalled most vividly, however, were the ones alongside the Justice League. Seeing Superman on TV was one thing. Talking to him, fighting aliens alongside him, that was a whole different ballgame. It was during one such team-up that Speedy became acquainted with Batman's sidekick, Robin. The two exchanged contact information in case an emergency ever arose where the other would need assistance. Training was temporarily replaced by field experience. Oliver didn't have enough hours in the day to keep up the extensive regime he was putting Harper through while simultaneously protecting Star City from the League of Assassins.

Life took an ugly turn for Roy when Oliver started dating Dinah Lance, the Black Canary. The two ran off to Seattle together, dragging Harper around for months as their third wheel. Speedy hated the way Green Arrow was treating him. He practically forgot Roy existed whenever Dinah was around; and whenever the two of them were alone, Oliver showed little interest in the boy who looked up to Ollie as his adopted father. Filled with anger and contempt, Roy abandoned Arrow and struck out on his own. He spent a few weeks running around Chicago, fighting small-timers and cleaning up the streets the old fashioned way. One day he got a call from Robin. He and a handful of other young heroes were stuck in Kahndaq, Roy pulled out all the stops to stage a rescue mission. Of course the plan went awry and the 'team' barely made it out of there in one piece. Robin asked Harper to stick around, pointing out that he could put his abilities to better use helping the Titans than beating up street thugs in Chicago. Roy reluctantly agreed. The team had a hard go of it, especially in the beginning. Nobody took them seriously. The league had even left them with a Kryptonian babysitter. The Teen Titans had to quite literally move heaven and earth by stopping an alien invasion to get the world to recognize them for what they were.

Good things never last forever. The team disbanded after a couple of years and everyone went their separate ways. Roy returned to Green Arrow, who had since apologized a thousand times and made a thousand promises to be better. And to Queen's credit, he really was better. But Roy had outgrown his mentor. The two didn't see eye to eye on anything any longer. Speedy stuck around with Oliver until he was eighteen years old and no longer under his adopted father's legal guardianship. Roy took up the identity of Red Arrow and moved to the neighboring Gem Cities, the home of the Flash families. Red Arrow made a name for himself. He worked out of the darkest, crime-infested parts of Central City and Keystone City, slowly but surely wiping out various mob families and widespread gangs with the help of Wally West, his former Titan partner and close friend. Roy made similar moves across the United States. He would settle in the worst part of a city and spend six months to a year fighting its organized crime. Once he deemed a city cleaned, Roy would move on. This led to a disproportionate number of team-ups, which in turn led to the name 'Red Arrow' getting around the superhero community. During this time, Roy also continued his training by travelling the world and working with various martial masters, assassins, rogues and rebel leaders to improve his already diverse array of skills and abilities.

Roy Harper knows that the world needs heroes; the League especially. Without the likes of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman to wage war against the forces of darkness, villains would grow more bold. Crime would systematically rise everywhere. It was likely that Justice League's disappearance would inevitably lead to wide spread panic and rioting. People don't know just how much they rely on figure heads like the Justice League until that image of hope and good is torn away from them. Red Arrow knows that the League needs to exist for the world to continue to spin, so he's volunteered his talents to hopefully fill the void.

Roy can't lift a mountain. He can't evaporate a building with his eyes. He can't even breathe under water and talk to fish. But just because Red Arrow is a man doesn't mean he doesn't have something to offer to the new Justice League. Aside from his extensive combat expertise, Red Arrow is a master strategist (having literally lead soldiers into battle during his time in Indochina) and excellent field commander (he assisted Robin as a bravo team lead while he was a Titan-Even if his lone wolf tendencies disqualify him for a more serious leadership role). He sees his more grey morality as a strength to be used by the League. He's willing to do things others might not be. Every squeaky clean army has its black ops unit, and the JLA is no exception.

Red Arrow has numerous safe houses scattered throughout the United States and beyond.
He thinks Luthor Jr.'s robo-arm is cool.
Doesn't like stupid Trucker Hats.