Roy is one of DC's most longstanding characters, originating in 1940s comics as Speedy, the teen sidekick of the superheroes Green Arrow and Black Canary.

In addition to continuing to serve on occasion as one of the Titans, Roy has had leading roles in the superhero groups the Seven Soldiers of Victory, the Outsiders, Checkmate, the Justice League, and the Outlaws.

[2] The character has been adapted for video games and animation several times, and was portrayed in live action by Colton Haynes on the Arrowverse television series Arrow.

The character first appeared as Green Arrow's teenage sidekick Speedy, a name by which he was known for over fifty years, in More Fun Comics #73 (November 1941) and was created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp.

When his father died in a forest fire when Roy was a baby, he was rescued by a man named Brave Bow, a Navajo medicine chief.

Roy began learning about the superhero Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) and started idolizing him, seeing him as a hero alongside his father and Brave Bow.

Speedy became a founding member of the Teen Titans along with Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Wonder Girl, a group they formed so they as sidekicks could come out of their mentors' shadows and become their own.

Trying to find some comfort, he started taking drugs and developed a heroin addiction in the award-winning "Snowbirds Don't Fly" story.

As he sought a calmer place to learn how to raise Lian, Roy left the CBI and briefly moved to Northern Ireland, where his birth ancestors came from.

At Checkmate, Roy became friends with a fellow agent, Martin Santos and his wife Erika and their family, who helped him with Lian in her early years.

With some help and technology acquired from Steve Dayton (whose mansion the Titans have been using as an HQ), Roy built new gear and a new costume, now officially calling himself Arsenal.

Because of what happened at the wedding, Sarge Steel turned on the deal he made with Roy, demanding that he take leadership of the Titans himself, or else the government will shut them down.

Eventually, with help from Wally and Garth, Roy managed to turn the situation on the government and take away anything they had on the Titans, making it so they operated on their own terms.

[8] To honor Ollie after his recent death, Roy embraced this and took on the red Green Arrow suit fully and went back to using a bow as his primary weapon.

Roy, with help from Tim Drake, managed to reprogram Indigo, who arrived and shut down the Superman android, leaving Arsenal and Nightwing to mourn the fallen Troia.

Shaken by these losses, Nightwing decided to officially end the Titans as he did not want to put the people he loved in the face of danger anymore, despite Roy's protests against this decision, saying they had to honor what the five of them started.

[15] Mourning Donna's death, Roy shaved off his hair and donned a new, more advanced suit[16] and got to work assembling a new team of heroes called the Outsiders, this time full of strangers instead of loved ones, in an effort to convince Dick to rethink his decision.

During a team up with Dinah Lance and Hal Jordan to help Red Tornado, Roy found himself fighting Amazo alongside several other heroes.

Big Bow was killed in mysterious circumstances, and for several years Roy believed he was the culprit, as during that time he was so heavily intoxicated his memories were unclear or forgotten.

The report establishes that some aspects of Roy's pre-Flashpoint history have been restored to continuity, most notably the birth and apparent death of Lian Harper.

[27] It is revealed in DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration that teenage vigilante and Catwoman supporting character Cheshire Cat is Lian Harper, alive and apparently suffering from amnesia.

[28] After stopping an argument at a diner, the building came under attack by soldiers led by X-Tract (Cameron Chase of Earth-2) seeking to capture Roy only for a beam of dark energy to blast them away.

Roy ended up defeating Hammond and his army and was nearly in Darkseid's control until the missing members of the JSA led by Jade showed up for help.

Once President Superman managed to open the cracks of the multiverse, the source of the ring's power became depleted allowing Roy to free from it completely.

Reunited with Dinah and Connor, the three began searching for Green Arrow, who became lost in the timestream during the League’s battle with the Dark Army.

He also has the ability to take virtually any object and use it in combat as an effective weapon, a martial art he mastered known as Moo Gi Gong, which itself is a branch of Hwa Rang Do.

Roy can also use acupressure as a means of temporarily disabling an opponent's muscles by hitting them at very specific points in their bodies, something that comes in handy with his precise aim.

[32] Before Flashpoint, after the loss of his right arm, Roy Harper received an advanced prosthetic, built by Vic Stone, designed to loop around his damaged nerve endings and restore his usual degree of hand-to-eye coordination, albeit with the price of a constant phantom limb pain.

He has been known to carry around a crossbow, throwing knives, a staff, laser heat sidearms, billy clubs, a boomerang, an electrified bolas amongst a wide array of non-lethal weapons.

Roy and Jade had a relationship that was rekindled several times throughout the years, with both of them wanting to be there for their daughter and their love for each other, despite constantly being pulled away due to their different loyalties.