Roy Harper has always been a team player, but when it came time for the Red Arrow to join the Justice League, the former partner of Green Arrow wasn’t sure he had what it takes. Roy is a fan-favorite hero with a fair share of experience when it comes to working with a team. But his own history with his mentor, Oliver Queen, made him more than a little unsure about taking the spot in the JLA under the Arrow Family name.

Having fought crime since he was a kid, Roy worked with plenty of groups before he officially joined the JLA. A founding member of the Teen Titans, Roy would go on to stay with the team in many of its different iterations. When the adult founders reformed as Titans, Roy leaped at the chance to rejoin as Arsenal. When that team fell apart after the death of Donna Troy, it was Roy who revamped the Outsiders alongside Dick Grayson.

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Roy is a natural when it comes to teamwork, so when Green Lantern and Black Canary need Arsenal’s help to track down the body of Red Tornado, he once again jumps at the chance while Oliver babysits his daughter. Roy even jokingly suggests the trio form their own League with Donna and Nightwing. Roy’s jokes aside, the adventure ends up with the League forming naturally on its own, with Arsenal and the others fighting alongside Superman, Black Lightning, Hawkgirl, and others. But when the time comes to make the team official, and Hal invites Roy to join the new League as Red Arrow, Roy isn’t quite so sure. While he’s more than willing to join the Justice League itself, it takes some convincing for him to don the Red Arrow suit Hal brings him. But when he finally accepts the invitation and puts on the suit, he realizes that what Black Canary said is true: this is exactly what Green Arrow was training him for.

While Roy didn’t hesitate to say “Yes” to joining the League, even when he thought Hal was joking, it says something that he was more hesitant to graduate from the Arsenal identity and take on the Arrow name. Green Arrow and his protégé haven’t always had the strongest relationship, especially after Roy’s struggles with addiction. Ultimately, it was Roy’s future League teammate and surrogate mother, Black Canary, who helped him get through those dark days after Oliver ran off to go road-tripping with Hal.

Roy – not knowing that Oliver was the one who secretly had the costume made for him – had the feeling that his surrogate father wouldn’t approve of the new look because of that strained history. Green Arrow is incredibly stubborn, and so is his former sidekick, so the two archers rarely have the easiest time sharing how they feel with one another without using humor to deflect. But Oliver was the one to believe in Roy, even if Roy didn’t entirely believe in himself.

This event marked not just Red Arrow’s growth as a hero, but Oliver and Roy’s growth as a father and son, even if Red Arrow didn’t realize it yet. During his time with the Justice League, Roy truly made his mentor proud. And to think he almost missed out on the opportunity just because he and Green Arrow don’t know how to communicate.

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