Warning: major spoilers ahead for DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration #1 and Infinite Frontier: Secret Files #2!
DC has secretly resurrected the daughter of a hero/villain couple. The daughter of Roy Harper and Jade Nguyen is thought to have been dead since 2010. DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration #1 has now revealed otherwise.
Roy Harper, also known as Arsenal, is best-known as Green Arrow’s sidekick. He was previously involved in a relationship with Jade Nguyen, one of DC’s best assassins, who operates under the name Cheshire. The two had a daughter named Lian Harper, but she was supposed to have been killed by the Electrocutioner in Star City. DC’s newest continuity shift is proving to be making some big changes to that story though.
Infinite Frontier: Secret Files #2, created by Stephanie Phillips, Joshua Williamson, Inaki Miranda, Nick Filardi, and Tom Napolitano, focuses on Roy Harper. He recently came back from the dead and hasn’t made the move to get into contact with his old friends and teammates. However, his memory is gradually returning and this issue reveals that the death of his daughter still haunts him. Unknown to him, his daughter isn’t actually dead; she’s much closer in some ways than he could have ever thought possible. DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration #1 includes the story “Masks” by Ram V, Audrey Mok, Jordie Bellaire, and Tom Napolitano. In this story, Roy Harper’s former love, Cheshire is seen saving and abandoning a young girl. Two included bios in the issue confirm that Shoes, also known as Cheshire Cat, is actually Lian Harper – their long-lost daughter.
These bios reveal that Cheshire and Cheshire Cat actually have a mother-daughter relationship, though they don’t know each other at this point. In DC Festival of Heroes, Cheshire abandons her daughter at a church. Eventually this daughter, Lian, grows up to walk around the streets of Gotham’s Allentown as the sidekick of Catwoman. Going by the name “Shoes” and the codename Cheshire Cat, Lian doesn’t actually know how she is. Until now, no one else knew either. Cheshire Cat was inspired by the only memory she has of her youth, a heroic woman in a cat mask who is really her mother. This caused her to take on her own mantle and wear a similar mask. She was brought back in Convergence and in alternate universes, but never in main continuity for long, until maybe now.
Roy has suffered through lots of dark times. He has lost his daughter, gone through rehab, and died as a result of an accident caused by one of his closest friends. Roy has also had setbacks with his ex-girlfriend, Cheshire, which included the loss of their daughter, as well as her drugging him. It is currently not known how it is exactly that Lian survived or what Cheshire’s role was in her resurrection. This could be a point of drama between the two former lovers, causing further strain on their emotional lives that is exacerbated by their mutual loss, if Cheshire simply took Lian away and abandoned her without ever telling Roy.
However, Cheshire has had connections to the League of Assassins, who are led by Ra’s al Ghul. Ra’s has been known to resurrect others using the Lazarus Pit, which could be why Lian doesn’t have very many memories of her childhood. Lian’s return has happened rather quietly, though if Roy finds out his and Cheshire’s daughter is alive, it could finally give him a true purpose for living and help him heal – or it could make Arsenal more frustrated with all the opportunities he has lost over time.
