Starkville’s House of El Podcast

This week we are back with a look at Green Arrow’s sidekick  Speedy. Unlike last week, this character has a long rich history that involves both a male and female taking on the name of Speedy. I really enjoyed learning more about this character and I think there are some storylines that I am interested in because of it. Speedy is a character we can really sink our teeth into, and  is a prime example how art imitates life, and how comics are used for addressing various social issues that still ring true even today.

Roy Harper Jr. was the name of the original speedy.He first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 (Nov 1941)and was created by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris.  Roy was the son of a forest ranger who died saving a Navajo Indian chief named “Brave Bow” from a fire. Brave Bow raised Roy as his own and taught him to be a skilled archer. This was a thrill for Roy, since he idolized the super-hero archer known as Green Arrow . When Roy was still a teenager he was permitted to participate in an archery competition that was to be judged by Green Arrow himself. During an attempted burglary, Roy assists Green Arrow and helps him to foil the burglary. Proving that he is even a faster shot than Green Arrow Himself. When Brave Bow passed away Green Arrow asks Roy to be his sidekick, which he happily accepts under the name of Speedy. Much like Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, Roy becomes the ward of Green Arrow’s alter-ego Oliver Queen.

Roy quickly befriends a few of the younger Hero’s and Roy joins Robin, Kid Flash , Tempest, and Donna Troy aka Wonder Girl to form the Teen Titans. This is where Speedy begins a long friendship with Dick Grayson. While a member of the Titan’s, Roy begins dating Donna Troy. Just when things were really going good for Roy his life began to take a turn. He broke up with Donna, the Titans disbanded, and Oliver began to neglect him. Roy runs off to join a band call “Great Frog” and becomes addicted to heroin. Many people including comic creators of the day think that there was simply not enough reason for Roy to drop all of his beliefs and become a drug addict. Although for the time this was groundbreaking stuff. Green Lantern #85-86 (September & November 1971) dealt with Oliver discovering what had become of Roy. Oliver had just lost his fortune due to a scandal and was away with Green Lantern and Black Canary until he became aware of what Roy was up to. Oliver punched Roy and kicked him out on to the streets. Green Lantern later found him and put him under the care of Black Canary to rehabilitate him. Once the withdrawals were over Roy had a confrontation with Ollie and they went their separate ways.

Roy later worked with a newly formed Titans ( of the 1980’s) and became a government agent with the CBI (aka Checkmate). Roy also went on one mission with the Suicide Squad. During his time with the CBI he became a spokesman and counselor for anti-drug use. He was also a Drug Enforcement agent. Roy was given a mission of going undercover and was to gain the trust of a villianess Cheshire. Who he was to bring in to the authorities. Unexpectedly the two fell in love and Roy was unable to bring her in, and left her, thinking that he was endangering her. He was unaware that she was pregnant with his child. He learned that he was the father of Cheshire’s child and went after her with the help of Nightwing to stop her from carrying out an assassination of a group of diplomats. Roy was captured and later freed with the help of Nightwing. Roy’s daughter Lian left with them as well, falling under the care of Roy.

Roy returned to the titans and was made the leader. However he had taken on the name Arsenal. He strayed away from using only arrows and employed a vast array of high tech weaponry. Roy gathered new members for the Titans’ since all the founding members had left the team. The financier of the the Titans (past and present), was a man by the name of Loren Jupiter. Loren was able to gather the original founders to help the Newer Titans defeat his son, Haze.  In the battle, Joto, a young memmber of the titans died. Roy felt responsible for his death and after some time left the Titans again.

Arsenal later came in contact with Vandal Savage who had discovered that Roy and his daughter Lian where descendants of his and that their organs would help Vandal to continue his immortality. Lian was kidnapped by Vandal but rescued by Roy. Roy then brought back the original members of the titans and remained on the team for quite a while, living at Titan’s Tower with his daughter. Around this time Roy changed his appearance somewhat to reflect his Navajo heritage.

In a battle the resulted in Donna Toy’s death, Nightwing disbanded the Titan’s (AGAIN), which opened the door for Arsenal to form an underground unit of hero’s known as The Outsiders. After spending a considerable amount of time with the Outsiders, having to rescue his daughter from being abducted for a child-slave organization, and surviving a near fatal gunshot wound to the chest, Arsenal’s time as a member of the outsiders was drawing to an end. After the events of Infinite Crisis, The Outsiders felt as though they were not making a difference, mostly dealing with low level criminals and threats. Roy tried to keep the group together but felt he  was not cut out the underground cloak-and-dagger type stuff. He left the Outsiders and gave command of the group to Nightwing.

Roy was brought up to the Major League when he was asked by Hal Jordan to join the Justice League. In the middle of a battle Hal called him “Red Arrow” while trying to not call him by his real name. Roy adopted the name and joined the league. This was a turning point for the character as he was no longer a sidekick or running an underground group of heroes. He had outgrown his troubled relationship with Green Arrow , and even had a short relationship with Hawkgirl. His status with the league is up in the air depending on what you might be reading in the comics.

Roy Harper as Speedy has appeared in a number of cartoons and animated series over the years, due to the length of this article and the fact that I haven’t even mentioned Mia Dearden yet, I chose not to list those appearances

Mia Dearden is the second person that Green Arrow has taken on as a sidekick with the name Speedy. Her first appearance was in Green Arrow (vol 3) #2 in May of 2001. She was created by Kevin Smith (yes THAT Kevin Smith) and Phil Hester. In her introduction, Mia is a teenage runaway who had an abusive father and took to the streets. Unable to survive in this environment on her own, she fell in love with a man who offered her food and shelter in return for her involvement with a child prostitution ring. Mia was taken out of this life by  Oliver Queen, who had recently come back from the dead. He told her that he was under orders from Green Arrow, but Mia was wiser than that and saw through his disguise. She soon became the ward of Oliver Queen and continuously petitioned him to be his sidekick, but not wanting to put another youth in harm’s way, he turned her down time and again. Oliver’s true son Connor Hawke, secretly trained Mia in archery and combat skills.   When Judd Winick took over the writing for Green Arrow comics in 2004, he added that as a result of Mia’s prostitution past, she was HIV-positive. This was really a big deal for comics in general as I don’t know her to be the first, but definitely one of a few characters who were HIV positive.  She told Oliver, which only made her resolve stronger that she become his sidekick. Green Arrow finally gave in and allowed her the mantle of Speedy. Oliver thought it would be best for her to attempt to join the Teen Titans . He believed that being around a group of super teenagers would be good for her. She was to face off against Robin to test her skills and earn a place on the team. Robin won, but her skills were enough to impress the rest of the team and Speedy was the newest member of the Teen Titans. Shortly after her first mission she told the rest of the team that she was HIV positive.  Feeling a closeness with the new Speedy, Arsenal gave her a a bunch of his old arrows. One of which was a special arrow that he told her to only use in an emergency. Roy didn’t even know what this arrow would do. She would find out later  while trying to use it on Superboy Prime that it was in fact a Phantom Zone arrow that Roy had stolen from the Fortress of Solitude when he was Speedy.

Mia was recently kidnapped by Jason Todd (the second Robin), because he believed her to have many of the same qualities as him as they both used to live on the streets.  Mia was able to escape, but some of what Jason talked to her about made sense. In the months following this event, Mia has had quite a lot to deal with. Ollie proposed to Dinah (Black Canary), Ollie was kidnapped, Dinah married an Oliver imposter, Connor was shot in the chest with a bullet meant for Ollie and left in a vegetative state, and Mia falls in love with a mercenary named Dodger. Dodger was from England and after Mia moved to London to be with him, she found out he had an affair with a woman named Emma Watson.

Smallville has brought this character to our living rooms in the form of Mia. From what we’ve seen so far (which isn’t much), the writers are  following closely to her comic history.  As she is scheduled to appear in 3 episodes this season, I can only hope that we will see her don a Speedy costume before her episodes are up.

I hope you have found this informative and entertaining, I know I learned a thing or two. Please visit our forums to discuss all things Speedy and of course all things Smallvile. I would love to some comments on what our readers think of these character histories. I have tried to give a full history of the character even if it does not pertain to Smallville while i have left some things out, I feel it’s a fairly accurate history that you can become familiar with. Would it be better if I just stuck to the Smallville related stuff or does everyone like reading more of a full history?  Leave a comment below! (Just be nice to one another)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Character History. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.