Archer heroes have been popular for centuries, so popular that just using a bow really well means you can rub shoulders with gods and monsters. Green Arrow inspired a lot of people in the DC universe to pick up their bows for fighting crime. Let’s learn of a legacy hero who doesn’t get much talk or attention these days, the mother then daught set of heroes, Arrowette!
Bonnie King
Bonnie King was pushed by her mother into archery, she’d spend her youth practicing all the time. When she grew up she make it all the way to the Olympics and get the bronze medal in archery. This was not good enough for her mother so Bonnie left to strike it out on her own. She noticed that Star City had two archers running around stopping criminals. She decided she could do the same and donned a costume and named herself Miss Arrowette, determined to join Green Arrow and Speedy on adventures.
While Bonnie may be a world class archer, she lacked the grace and skill to be a costumed adventurer and was often too clumsy for such acrobatic endeavors. She would catch the eye of Green Arrow and they would date for a short time. While Green Arrow was adamant she quit crime fighting for her own safety as well as those around her, Bonnie would end up teaming up with journalist, Bernell “Bowstring” Jones as her own sidekick and they’d fight crime together until she finally decided to retire and marry Bernell to start a family eventually having a daughter, Cissie. Sadly, 5 years after Cissie is born, Bernell dies leaving the two together.
Cissie King-Jones
History repeats itself somewhat when Cissie is born because now Bonnie does to Cissie what her own mother did to her. The key difference is it’s not just archery that Bonnie pushes onto Cissie but heroics as well. From a young age Cisse is forced to follow in her mother’s footsteps and fight crime. She would eventually cross paths with the young speedster Impulse whose own mentor, Max Mercury, calls child services on Bonnie for forcing her daughter into heroics against her will. Cissie is taken to the Elias School for Girls while she is away from her mother and eventually joins Young Justice.
Though Cissie loves her friends on the team, it is clear that she is not really into the life of an adventurer like most of the others are. She wants a normal life more than righting wrongs. After her school therapist, one of her favorite people, is murdered, Cissie goes on a rampage nearly killing the criminals at fault for the death. Superboy is able to talk her down but she is left shaken and realizes it’s time to retire from heroics before it eats her alive or gets someone else killed.
No longer an active member of the team, Cissie would still hang out with her friends that were on the team. She’d even go on to compete in the Olympics as well and win the gold medal in archery giving her celebrity status worldwide. When other members of Young Justice needed places to stay, she’d use her pull at the Elias School for Girls to make sure the team had a safe place to call home.
Just because she didn’t consider herself a member of Young Justice anymore didn’t mean the team didn’t still think of her as such so when the team would get whisked off to some strange adventure, they’d often accidentally bring her along such as the time they played baseball against aliens because they knew they wanted her on their team. She often played support roles for the team such as first-aid during the Imperiex War. She also would show up to help her friend Wonder Girl on multiple occasions when her friend needed her most.
Bonnie and Cissie had similar upbringings but while one was striving and never quite achieved what she wanted, the other succeeded and still found a way to make her own place in the world without losing herself or hurting anyone she loved in the process. Two sides of the same coin when you get down to it. I hope Cissie makes a come back some day, that’s what I want with all the Young Justice members, really. I kind of liked this archer path we took, maybe next time another DC archer to spotlight. See you then!
Suggested Reading
Young Justice
World’s Finest #113
Impulse #28
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
