Warning! Spoilers ahead for Infinite Frontier #1
In DC Comics’ new Infinite Frontier series, the dead DC hero Roy Harper has come back to life with brand new cosmic powers. While this new series sees the DC universe grappling with a reborn multiverse and the greater omniverse, characters have also returned in its wake after DC’s Death Metal. As such, the resurrection of Roy Harper seems to have come with a major change to his personal status quo now that he’s back among the land of the living, gaining new powers he didn’t know he had and can’t seem to control (at least not yet).
In prior issues from DC Comics, Roy had been killed by an inadvertent energy surge caused by Wally West’s mental breakdown at Sanctuary, as seen in Tom King and Clay Mann’s Heroes in Crisis. However, the final battle of DC’s Dark Nights: Death Metal (Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo) against the Darkest Knight had Batman resurrecting a massive army using a Black Lantern ring, and Roy was one of those brought back to fight for the multiverse. However, the new Infinite Frontier era of DC Comics has revealed that Roy was seemingly back for good, though keeping a low profile and choosing to keep his return secret for the time being.
However, it doesn’t look like Roy is going to be able to lie low for very much longer, as he’s apparently become a high-value target as seen in Infinite Frontier #1 from writer Joshua Williamson and artist Xermanico. While eating at a diner, Roy is attacked by the multiversal bounty hunter known as X-Tract. However, she and her team are blasted out of the diner thanks to a giant black energy fist. Back inside, Roy was thanking whoever it was that saved him, only to realize that he saved himself with surprising new powers as a Black Lantern.
Apparently, it seems as though Roy isn’t as alive as fans thought (or Roy himself for that matter). Not only that, but it seems as though he’s inadvertently created constructs of himself from different eras of his life such as Speedy, Red Arrow, Arsenal, and even when he was just Roy, working with Red Hood and the Outlaws. While it no doubt has to be the result of Batman resurrecting him in Death Metal, what is it about Roy that allows him to wield a Black Lantern ring?
In any case, it looks as though Roy is being set up to be a major player in the multiverse as Infinite Frontier continues, and it’s a pretty safe bet that he’ll probably end up joining the ranks of the multiversal Justice Incarnate seeing as how they don’t yet have a Lantern-type hero on the team. However, it seems as though X-Tract was just the beginning. The issue strongly implied that Psycho-Pirate and Darkseid are trying to manipulate Flash into helping them find Roy as well, seeing as how his new Black Lantern status would make him an extremely powerful asset, despite the fact that Roy Harper doesn’t appear to have any idea how to control the new powers he’s somehow gained in the DC Universe.
