That red arrow suit clashes with your hair Roy....

[bob_dylana]

Oh Hal, its ok, just hug your regrets away. Regrets that involve abandoning a young drug addict that you've known for... well forever. No biggie. All's forgotten (somewhere in the background I hear Borat screaming NOT)
and as a side note, while I understand that yes Roy was an addict, and yes it was a big part of his past, does anyone else notice that this isn't the first time they've brought up the druggie past when he makes any sort of transition, whether its a new costume, or name, or just general change to his life.
Example:

though to be fair, they did only bring that up in a brief way

They also mention it in the new Titans issue when he decides to move into a bigger place for Lian's sake, and he's going through all his stuff and finds a picture of his band and then all of a sudden, we're waltzing down memory lane once more.

But I really like the first 2 scans and the art as well.

Comments

[foxhack]

Did Roy's jaw just unhinge in the third scan? Shit, that's a JOKER-level gaping mouth!

[tsunamiwombat]

Dinah too pretty, can't talk....

Glad to see Arsenal remembers who REALLY loved him back then. Go Canary.

[yaseen101]

Yeah but looking at it closely, Hal and Roy has the exact same facial structure and body shape, and huge bulging muscles to be exact. I wouldn't be surprised if those were tears of laughter coming out of Dinah's eyes and she is using her mad kung-fu skillz to stifle a laughter at Roy's ridiculous muscles.

[icon_uk]

They're ridiculous, but he's an archer, I'd expect him to be well muscled, it's someone who can turn his willpower into physical reality with a thought, being built like an outhouse who somewhat surprises me.

[yaseen101]

To be fair, Hal actually helped him after Ollie threw him out. He took him Dinah's for recovery and was with him for a while.

[thehefner]

Yeah, this.

Hal's "abandonment" of Roy was actually discussed at length before, with ashtoreth making the best analysis of the character and his role in Roy's recovery:

Hal didn't do much, but, after the person Roy loved most BEAT HIM UP AND THREW HIM OUT AFTER ABANDONING HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE, Hal is the one who goes looking for him. Hal is the one who finds him and doesn't screw up by picking a fight because he doesn't like what Roy did. He is kind and unselfrighteous and he insists on getting Roy to someone who does care about him and will help him. It also matters that Hal is Ollie's best friend (aside from Dinah and Roy). Him doing that was notice that Ollie was wrong when he said it was all Roy's fault.

My favorite follow-up to this is when Dinah's mother is dying. Ollie is there and tells Hal. Hal immediately goes to the Titans and asks them for Roy. When Roy shows up, he just says, "Dinah needs you." And thats it. Roy goes with him on the spot. Hal drops him off and the family huggles.

Hal isn't the guy to take care of you, but he is the best friend who'll back you up.

[yaseen101]

I agree and this is one of the things that made me like Hal in the first place, I didn't find him really endearing during John's run with the character but after reading the older stories involving the character, I actually started to like and knew why Johns wanted to bring back the character.

[jarodrussell]

"Before we had teleportation, we had Hal."

[ladymirth]

My favorite follow-up to this is when Dinah's mother is dying. Ollie is there and tells Hal. Hal immediately goes to the Titans and asks them for Roy. When Roy shows up, he just says, "Dinah needs you." And thats it. Roy goes with him on the spot. Hal drops him off and the family huggles.

I want to see scans of that, stat! Pretty please?!

[mad]

Aww, I remember this. What issue of JLA is it from?

[aaron_bourque]

Oh, God.

I can't look at Hal and Dinah tearing up at Roy in the Red Arrow costume without imagining them thinking "Oh, dear. That costume's so ugly. It's truly terrible. My God, I'm crying at how bad it is. Just, real tears, jeez."

[theanswer]

But it's Ollie's costume only red. O_o

[kenn_el]

Exactly. I think it's fairly attractive. And a guy who does what Roy does WOULD be built.

[theanswer]

Yeah, pulling bow strings isn't easy. lol I tried ._.

Even the ones with all the high-tech pullies and light-weight materials that are suppose to make it easy still require some force. o_o

[perletwo]

Yeah, that was the kicker at the end of that old Hawkeye miniseries - the bad guy got the bow away from Clint, "say goodbye sucker - bzuh?!?" and Clint is all, what, you can't pull a 400-lb. pressure line? *bops bad guy*

[thokstar]

It's an older idea than that: see the end of the Odyssey, where Odysseus is the only one who can use his bow.

[kamino_neko]

Mwahaha. Love it.

[aaron_bourque]

Yeah, pulling bow strings isn't easy. lol I tried

Heh. In Kevin Smith's introduction to the trade collection of Quiver, he mentions the only piece of real-world research he did for the story: trying to pull back a modern bow. Once.

[aaron_bourque]

Really? Ollie has those silly, useless arm strap things, and his gloves look like a jenga session, and he's got straps on his torso to keep his bulging biceps from ripping his clothes open?

And just because its "the same costume in a different color" doesn't mean it's good. Or the Batman of Zen-Ur-Arr would not look ridiculous.

[theanswer]

Ollie has similar straps, yes. And that Batman costume is kind of an extreme comparison.

[lea_hazel]

How do I look?

Like steroids pumped your arms up to the size of your head and shrunk your balls.

I should make a list of the comics artists who can draw attractive men. All three of them.

[ladymirth]

The nineties Greg Land used to be one of them. *le sigh*

[404glitch]

Man, I went to an entirely different place with those first four panels.

[stig]

Arsenal is a stupid name anyway. It has 'Arse' in it.

[jarodrussell]

It also has "anal." Still, I think it's a cool name, especially since Roy's (as I understand, which may be wrong) supposed to be able to make anything into a weapon.

Still, if he doesn't want it, maybe we could give it to someone else.

[scottyquick]

Yeah, but why focus on something that makes Roy unique when we can make him an Ollie clone?

[nezchan]

He *is* friends with Dick, after all...

[theanswer]

I think his Red Arrow costume needs a hood or something.

[kenn_el]

I say a hat. Go Old School!

[theanswer]

Red Arrow in Kingdom Come had a hat and a beard. He looked too much like Ollie though.

I say since Ollie currently isn't using the hood look, Roy should use it.

[kingrockwell]

Ollie unfortunately is using that dumb dumb always dumb hood. No one should have to wear that ugly thing ever. Ever.

Now, maybe a looser collar thing and the outfit'd look fine.

[bob_dylana]

ehhhh i say no to the hood

[kingrockwell]

I kind of wish I had enough icons to bring over my Angry Bruce now, because the only proper response to that scan is AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[scottyquick]

So. Much. RAAAAAAAAAAAAGE.

Although at least you posted some of the Arsenal mini, that stopped my head from exploding :)

[thebigapricot]

'Roid Roy, but still ROY! And a very lovely Dinah.

Poor Roy, I think he's so far back on the DC burner that by the time he has a major storyline again Lian will be a second grader. Which, given her aging process, is at least 5 years from now.

Either that or they'll just kill him.

[uadlika]

Either that or they'll just kill him.

please don't joke about that. D:

[ceebee_eebee]

I love the Dinah-Roy relationship so much it hurts. It's probably my favorite relationship in comics.

As for Hal, it's moments like this that make me almost forgive him for being such an ass most of the time.

[bob_dylana]

Agreed! I love Dinah and Roy's relationship, she's like a cool mother/sister.

[ladymirth]

I love the Dinah-Roy relationship so much it hurts.

Me too!

I'll always like Arsenal best, though. It was a cool name.

Also, Roy m'darling, redheads should really never wear red.

[thehefner]

But he's an ass that means well! Unlike, say, Guy Gardner.

[jarodrussell]

I miss Gramma Canary.

[tsunamiwombat]

It's too bad Roy is like a son to Dinah. You know, her expression in the last panel when she's rubbing his musscles...

Hmm...maybe she can replace Ollie with a younger model...

SCREW YOU, DINAH IS SOOO A COUGAR!

[bariman]

Well, she did sleep with The Ray when he was barely 20 years old. So yeah.

[tsunamiwombat]

Rowr! I didn't know that. Didn't she have a fling with Dr. Midnite too?

[neuhallidae]

Mid-Nite II, yep. Then she dumped him when Ollie came back to life (I think. I might be remembering that JSA issue wrong).

[bariman]

Dinah slept with Ollie the moment he came back, and then she dumped Mid-Nite. Cripes, Dinah.

[redstar]

I'm pretty sure pre-Crisis Dinah was older than Ollie by a fair amount when they started dating, back when she was an immigrant from Earth-2 who had already been married once and, IIRC, been crime-fighting during WWII. Hasn't been canon for decades, of course, but still, she's got some history with the sexy younger men.

[ladymirth]

I remember her being very appreciative of Nightwing and asking Oracle to set her up with him in the very first issues of Birds of Prey. She was mostly saying that to get Babs to admit she liked him, but it felt very weird to me, seeing as Roy was like her son and Dick was one of his best friends.

[bariman]

Dinah's also seen Dick naked. Admittedly, she thought it was Babs in the shower (and felt perfectly comfortable walking in on Babs), but she still got to see Li'l Wing.

[uadlika]

You didn't include the part where it's revealed that it was Ollie that gave it to him and how proud he is of Roy!

(yes, Ollie is a douche, but he is still MY douche and he deserves props where they are due)

[3goodtimes]

Where are the first two scans from?

[zordboy]

The first two scans are from Meltzer's run of JLA (which is the current series). It's an issue really early in the piece, when the line-up is assembling for the first time.

I think it's about issue 5 or 6? Maybe 7? Somewhere at the beginning, right before the "Lightning Saga" which was the dreadful JLA/JSA/Legion team-up.

[3goodtimes]

Awesome, thank you!

[sistermagpie]

Leaving aside the costume that everyone's covered, it's probably not so unrealistic that the drugs would come up when Roy made a transition. It's something he would still be in recovery from for his whole life, and I imagine he probably would look back during transitions and think how he's still winning that battle.

Love the description of Hal above. I love stories that bring out the different personalities of characters and how they respond to emotional crisis and work together on it.

[intertobamf]

"Grown up" *TEAR* is dressing up just like your surrogate father figure, except in a different color. Noted.