Arsenal (1998-) #3

Arsenal #3

by Devin Grayson

Single issue: December 1998

Arsenal continues his quest to save his daughter from a fatal disease! Even during the good times, Roy's luck has never been very good, so with time running out for his only child, he has no choice but to take whatever Vandal has to offer

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics

24 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 16, 2015

About the author

Devin Grayson is an avid gamer, former acting student, and enthusiastic reader fortunate enough to have turned a lifelong obsession with fictional characters into a dynamic writing career. She has a B.A. from Bard College, where she studied creative writing with novelist Mona Simpson. Best known for her work on the Batman titles for DC Comics, Devin has been a regular writer on Catwoman, Nightwing, and The Titans, and contributed to the award-winning No Man’s Land story arc. With the publication of Batman: Gotham Knights in March of 2000, she became the first (and, sadly, only as of 2020) female to create, launch and write an ongoing Batman title.

Additional career highlights include the launch of the critically acclaimed series Omni for Humanoids, Doctor Strange: The Fate of Dreams, an original novel featuring Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme, and USER—a highly personal three-part, creator-owned miniseries about gender identity and online role-playing, originally published by Vertigo and newly available as a collected edition hardcover through Image. Devin is also the creator of Yelena Belova, a Marvel character staring in the upcoming MCU Black Widow movie (played by Florence Pugh), Damien Darhk, a DC character now appearing regularly in CW’s Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow (played by Neal McDonough), and Catalina Flores, a DC character recently featured as the super-villain Tarantula in The Lego Batman Movie.

Frequently cited for compelling character development and nuanced exploration of complex themes, Devin’s work has been showcased in mainstream media such as USA Today and Working Woman as well as in alternative press such as The Village Voice, The Advocate, and Curve magazine. Over the years, she has written in several different media and genres, from comic books and novels to video game scripts and short essays. She is currently working on an original graphic novel for Berger Books.

Devin lives in Northern California with her husband, step-son, devoted Early Alert Canines Diabetic Alert Dog, and somewhat less devoted cat. Openly bisexual, she is a passionate advocate for the GLBTQ community, as well as being a committed environmentalist, and a public speaker for T1 Diabetes awareness and Diabetic Alert Dogs. She is always happy to take on a new challenge, especially if it involves making some new fictional friends.

Reviews

[cauldronofevil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Green Arrow (Conner) and Arsenal fight some nurse mooks until Vandal Savage shows up. Vandal info-dumps that he is using a daughter to clone brainless babies to supply Vandal with the body parts he needs to stay immortal.

That face you’re making? Arsenal and Green Arrow made the same face.

Vandal hints that maybe Roy’s daughter will need something similar to save her. Roy asks him how he knows Lian is in danger. Vandal says cause he arranged it. Then he uses a magic doohickey to disappear.

Some trick arrow shooting later they get away from the nurse mooks. Arsenal to run home to Lian.

Lian is okay, but shortly Vandal teleports into their home and grabs Lian. It takes some fancy fighting and some training they’ve already given Lian to distract Savage so Canary can grab her and go.

But Vandal then grabs Roy and teleports him away. Offering him the ‘favor’ of letting him use one of the brainless babies for the kidney transplant Lian needs (she’s a heavy drinker) in exchange for Roy finding a way to save the lab from the police.

Otherwise Roy will have to just roll the dice that Lian can be saved some other way.

This triggers a flashback in Roy to when he was abandoned by his father, who died trying to save others from a forest fire because he was a forest ranger. Indians kids picked him up and raised him but later sent him away because he wanted to start dating and they are not good with his whiteness.

So they dump him with Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) who trains him to be his sidekick Speedy.

Then he does heroin. Then he meets Cheshire Cat.

Cheshire, huh? Then how come I’m the one grinning?

Then he gets promoted to leading the Titans. Then Green Arrow is killed in a plane crash. And then someone named ‘Joto’ dies and Roy is blamed for it. [I missed that story].

So they are now at the Lab and Savage tells Roy that Conner took his nurse mooks away but called the police to shut down his lab. If Roy prevents it, Savage will use the lab to save Lian’s life.

What will he choose!?!

This issue also has the second part of an “interview” with the writer and Roy Harper himself. This story goes into much more detail about Roy’s origin story (which was all a little fuzzy — as all origin stories were back in the day).

Batman had Robin, and Ollie wasn’t one to be outdone. {Laughs}

And the worst part, the absolute worst part is knowing how stupid you are. You’re in HELL and you purchased the TICKET with your own hard-earned cash.

Actually the book is great stuff. Even the interview is very good.

I’m giving this 5 stars too. Art+Story+Heart. That’s all it takes.