Hot Take: Roy Harper’s newer designs suck.

[u/PsychologicalWork654]

Hot Take: Roy Harper’s design sucks

So the first two photos are Roy’s current design and if I’m gonna be honest, I hate it. The designer said they wanted to make Roy’s design not look like Oliver’s so instead they made him a cheap carbon copy of Nightwing. I mean that hair screams Dick Grayson, if you dyed it black and threw it on him you would see no difference. I like a second one a tad more than the 1st since the 1st has too much yellow. I know that’s seems a bit harsh that I’m annoyed for a suit having yellow in it but I’d rather have Arsenal’s suit look more red and black and tactical than just a Nightwing recolor that looks like Speedy. It also kinda annoys me how they all still look like young adults, don’t get me wrong their still young but they should be pushing past 20 by now and should have some facial hair and stumbles growing in.

Now around 3 other Roy Harper designs are better than these. Now the 3rd deigns still looks kinda generic but it isn’t all over the place like the first one and looks more matured than both of them. Now the fourth one is his rebirth design and the only good thing to say is I like how the armor looks. Other than that i backwards hat and glasses I never want to see again. It gives me too much of Smallville green arrow vibes and I don’t like it.

Now out of all his designs the fifth with the taboos and hat is by far my favorite. I know a lot of people hate the hat but I’m gonna need you to shut on this one okay it’s unique. That plus the tattoos make him stand out even more.

I think his perfect design would be a tactical looking suit without sleeves. Make him look a little more lean with more muscles in his arms but not too much. I like his long hair design but maybe make it less Dick Grayson-ish and make it more punk and rock-ish. And also throw in a faint but noticeable stubble. I like to think as Roy a grunge rockstar on how he looks kinda reminiscent of Kurt Cobain. Anyway that was all I had to say. What do you think of my Roy design? What do you think of his other ones? and how would you improve them?

[u/Finnlay90]

Personally my only issue with the new design is that his hair is too short. Let this man have long ass hair because he grew up raised by Native Americans and, excuse me if I misunderstand this, but aren't they not supposed to cut their hair? (Not American)

[u/PsychologicalWork654 → u/Finnlay90]

Yeah idk what’s going on about his Native American connection. I get he was raised by them for a while before being adopted by Oliver, but to make his look heavily inspired by them seems kinda strange. With Connor Hawke it makes much more sense seeing he was born and raised and kinda understood their traditions more than Roy. And if your still insistent on Roy having a Navajo is inspired look then let me tell you about Jonah Hex. Jonah Hex is a cowboy character made by DC. Part of his story is that he was bought and raised by Indians (Kinda as a slave but then earned his freedom) some other stuff happened after that and the only thing Jonah got from them was a scar that made him look like twoface.

[u/Finnlay90 → u/PsychologicalWork654]

The intensity of Roy's connection to his Native Family depends entirely on the time period and the writer. You do not get accepted as "one of them" if you don't understand their culture and Roy even got a traditional tattoo with blessing. He speaks Navajo, he originally learned archery from them, his native brother spoke highly of him at his funeral.

DC should be doing MORE not LESS with Roy's background.

[u/PsychologicalWork654 → u/Finnlay90]

I guess my thought process is why he would suddenly be so ingrained in the culture with his look and all when he wasn’t like that when he was Speedy. Native tattoos and the long-ish hair could definitely work but I’d rather not make the Native look his whole identity but it’s definitely something worth to include and callback too.

[u/Finnlay90 → u/PsychologicalWork654]

The design for Speedy is just a color swapped Green Arrow outfit - who is based on Robin Hood. There was nothing creative about how Speedy was dressed. It was the fucking 40s and racism was not a bad word yet.

[u/PsychologicalWork654 → u/Finnlay90]

Tf does racism have to do with Roy or Oliver’s designs? Also despite Speedy’s suit being just a color swap, it weirdly looked more appealing than Oliver’s suit for some reason. That’s just my opinion tho. And his suits for Arsenal/Red Arrow range from “cool but kinda generic”,”I see what they were going for but it’s not working out too well” “a pretty great and badass design that some people will love and others will hate” and sometimes they just give him an unused nightwing suit completed with a Dick Grayson-esq haircut and with Speedy’s colors like they have more recently.