Will Harper

Red Arrow (real name Roy Harper) is a superhero archer from Star City. His alias was Speedy whilst partnered with Green Arrow, but became Red Arrow after his defection from his former mentor. He is currently a solo crime fighter, and an associate of Young Justice. Despite not being part of the Young Justice team, he has access to Mount Justice. He paticularly likes to stop the League of Shadows.

Personality
Red Arrow is a fiery teenager with a short fuse. He always sees himself as Green Arrow's partner and detests being called a sidekick to the point that he snaps at anyone who calls him one. Out of the original four teenage pupils, Roy is the most brash and outspoken who demands respect, despite his own inability to show respect to anyone else. This attitude and arrogance alienates him from most people, even those who refuse to give up on him. He is also shown to be extremely impatient and gives little thought to the consequences of his actions.

Roy also seems to hold grudges against those who he feels have betrayed him, speaking dismissively and rude towards his friends when they attempt to convince him to join their team. Despite this, he is also protective of them, warning Artemis not to hurt them when he realizes that she is lying to them about her background.

Characteristics
Speedy's costume resembles his original design from the comics. A yellow sixteenth century hat complete with the feather, yellow gloves, boots, belt and a red suit. He later abandons the hat after quitting as Green Arrow's partner.

After re-branding himself as Red Arrow, the suit itself is redesigned. It is now predominantly black, with a red chest and collar. His quiver (red) is now attached with two grey shoulder straps connected across the chest, and his gloves (black) are fingerless.

Early Life
Speedy joined Green Arrow three years prior to taking a "tour" of the Hall of Justice.

Present
He quickly came to see himself as Green Arrow's partner rather than a mere sidekick. When the day came for the four pupils to take their first step into becoming full fledged members of the Justice League, Speedy became infuriated when it turned out to be little more than a 'glorified backstage pass'. He revealed that Green Arrow had told him all about the League's real base, the Watchtower and tried to get the others to see his point of view. When this failed Speedy quit, throwing down his hat and walking out of the Hall of Justice to become his own man.

He subsequently returned to Star City and continued fighting criminals on his own (and without his hat). However, some criminals, such as Brick, continued to believe that he still worked for Green Arrow, even telling Speedy that "Green Arrow shouldn't send boys to do a man's job". When Aqualad, Robin and Kid Flash came to try to convince him to join Young Justice, he refused, claiming that the team was a joke and a means by which the Justice League could keep the sidekicks busy and in their place.

Speedy subsequently renamed himself Red Arrow and began wearing an updated, darker costume. After Serling Roquette of the Royal University in Star City was kidnapped by the League of Shadows, Red Arrow travelled to Infinity Island to rescue her. On August 7, 23:49 ECT, he successfully rescued her, but by this time she had already created the Fog for the Shadows. The following day, he recruited the team to protect Dr Roquette from Shadow assassins, and encountered Green Arrow's new protégé Artemis for the first time. Artemis and Green Arrow both claimed that she was Green Arrow's neice, although Red Arrow realized this was not true. On the morning of August 9 in Gotham City, Red Arrow accosted Artemis about this, but said that he would not reveal her secret since Batman and Green Arrow probably had good reasons for the deception. Nevertheless, he threatened her not to hurt his friends before leaving.

Powers & Abilities
Like his former mentor, Green Arrow, Speedy is a master with a bow and arrow.


 * Expert Marksman: With an archer's main weapon being the bow and arrow, the aim of the marksman can mean the difference between life and death. Speedy is a highly skilled marksman as can be seen in his battle with Icicle.
 * Hand to Hand Combat: Green Arrow undoubtedly trained Speedy in the basics of hand to hand combat should his bow ever fail him.
 * Stealth: Roy has shown some level of stealth. Most notably in Infiltrator, where he snuck on to Infinity Island without any guards noticing him.
 * Acrobatics: Roy has proven himself to be a vastly above average acrobat. Thought not in Robin's league, he is shown to use flips while evading enemy fire.

Equipment
Speedy utilizes recurve bows and many types of Trick Arrows much like his mentor Green Arrow. He has been shown using
 * arrows that can "punch" an opponent,
 * arrows that explode on impact,
 * arrows that can release a high-density polyurethane foam to engulf and incapacitate its targets,
 * arrows that can electrocute and knock-out armoured soldiers,
 * arrows that can overwrite the feeds from security cameras, and
 * arrows that carry a zip-line, which he can slide down.

While saving Dr. Roquette he also used a Red Boat to escape from Infinity Island.

Green Arrow
Green Arrow was Speedy's mentor and who he apparently had a large amount of respect for he looked at him as a partner rather than a sidekick. Green Arrow apparently returned his respect and was the only one of the four mentors who actually thought that his pupil might be ready to join the League. However, when Batman and the rest of the mentors disagreed, Green Arrow was forced to back down, which led Speedy to feel betrayed by his mentor claiming "I thought I was his partner. I guess I was wrong."

Nevertheless, he continues to live in Green Arrow's shadow: even when operating solo, his enemies such as Brick continue to believe that he is little more than Green Arrow's sidekick. He later expressed anger when Green Arrow so quickly took on Artemis as a new protégé, saying that Green Arrow believed he was "replaceable".

Green Arrow typically refers to him as "Roy", even in front of members of the Justice League and Young Justice.

Artemis
Artemis replaced Red Arrow (aka Speedy) as Green Arrow's protégé. On their first meeting, Red Arrow derisively asked Green Arrow whether she could even use the bow, and she responded, "Yes, she can." Red Arrow immediately knew that Artemis was not Green Arrow's niece, as she and Green Arrow claimed, and later confronted her about this. He said that he would not reveal her secret, since he assumed Green Arrow and Batman had a reason for the lie, but he threatened her not to hurt his friends.

Robin, Aqualad & Kid Flash
Roy's relationship with the other three original "sidekicks" is questionable at best. It's been implied that Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash and Roy are friends of sorts, having worked together on several occassions. But while the other three do their best to show friendly dispositions towards Roy, he does not necessarily return those feelings in a conventional sense. Roy has demonstrated annoyance at the others for not following his lead and for being more accepting of their positions in the Super-hero community. He doesn't seem to appreciate the high opinion the others have for him, and is even dismissive of the fact they have formed their own team. Still, on some level, Roy does consider them his friends, and is intent on protecting them, particularly from their new teammate Artemis, who he considers a threat due to her mysterious origins.

Comics background

 * In the comics, Roy is considered one of the founding members of the first teen hero teams, the Teen Titans. However, in truth, he was a late-comer to the team, first only acting in a guest star to the team before he officially joined the team in issue 19 as a replacement for Aqualad (Garth) who quit the team for a period.
 * In the comics, Roy was in a romantic relationship with assassin Cheshire, which resulted in them having a child together, Lian Harper. Lian unfortunately was killed recently in the highly controversal mini-series "Justice League: Cry for Justice".


 * Roy has had three codenames: Speedy, Arsenal and Red Arrow. He took the Arsenal identity during his time as a member of Checkmate. Roy later assumes the identity of Arsenal before becoming Red Arrow as a means of honoring his family "legacy" upon joining the Justice League. After the death of his daughter, he retook the identity of Arsenal, this time in an anti-hero/villain capacity.


 * Roy Harper is particularly famous in comics for a storyline in which it was revealed that he had become addicted to drugs. Although he recovered from his initial addiction, he has recently regressed into a full-blown addict following the death of his daughter.

Production notes
This is the fifth animated iteration of Speedy, who debuted in the 1967 The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure's Teen Titans segments. Later, between 2004 and 2006, he was featured on six episodes of Teen Titans and in 2006 on one episode of Justice League Unlimited. More recently, Speedy appeared in two Batman: The Brave and the Bold episodes. This is, however, Red Arrow's first animated debut.

Roy's Red Arrow costume appears to be a combination of various Arsenal and Red Arrow costumes that Roy has used in the comics.