Arrowette
Arrowette is a
fictional comic book character in the
DC Universe. She is the daughter of
Miss Arrowette, a brief sidekick to
Green Arrow.
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Bonnie King debuts as Miss Arrowette in World's Finest Comics #113. |
The first Arrowette (properly known as
Miss Arrowette) was
Bonnie King, a would-be
sidekick and general nuisance to
Green Arrow. She first appeared in
World's Finest Comics #113 (1960).
When Bonnie was a child, her mother Millie put her to archery training, controlling her progress all the time. She turned out to be very good and even went to the Olympic Games, where she won a Bronze Medal. Millie had expected Gold and froze on her daughter. After that, Bonnie abandoned both home and archery. She never talked to her mother again.
Alone in Star City, she eventually became inspired by Green Arrow and
Speedy and decided to use her skills in a way that counted. She made a costume for herself and officially became Miss Arrowette. After that, she helped both archers a few times, even when they did not want her to. Bonnie turned out to be too clumsy to become a hero and too vain to wear a mask. In addition, she carried trick arrows as fancy as the Powder Puff Arrow and other similar ones. Bonnie briefly dated Green Arrow in his civilian identity of Oliver Queen, as shown in
Justice League of America #7.
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The adult Bonnie King appears in Young Justice. |
At some point, she met journalist Bernell "Bowstring" Jones, who remembered her from the Olympic Games and was probably the only human being to consider her a star. She nicknamed him Bowstring because he was as thin as it and took him briefly as her sidekick so he would give her publicity in his journal. Finally, Green Arrow asked her not to help them anymore.
She had to permanently leave archery because of
carpal tunnel syndrome in her wrists, and also her job as a secretary. She talked Bowstring into marrying her and, one year later, she had a daughter named Cissie King-Jones. Bowstring died five years later from fish poisoning, and
Hal Jordan gave Bonnie and Cissie some money to make up for his death. Then, she decided to train her daughter to become a hero like herself. She was even harder on the kid than her mother had been on her. Cissie hardly had time to breathe between lessons of archery, judo, kick-boxing, gymnastics, ballet and others.
Forced by her mother to adopt a version of her old costume,
Cissie King-Jones became the second
Arrowette. Arrowette first appeared in the pages of
Impulse wearing a frilly costume and a bejeweled mask that aped her mother's old costume. Despite Arrowette's success as a heroine,
Impulse's mentor,
Max Mercury, was concerned by what he saw as Bonnie's exploitation of her daughter (who used a hidden microphone to give orders to Cissie and she often put her in danger). Welfare Services got involved, and Bonnie lost custody of her daughter, who was sent to Elias School for Girls, a
boarding school.
Arrowette next appeared in the pages of
Young Justice wearing a more practical costume. Acting alone, she battled the villainous Harm and was injured by him with one of her own arrows. However, she managed to escape and contact Young Justice, later joining the team, along with the second
Wonder Girl (
Cassie Sandsmark) and
Secret (Greta). The three quickly become close friends.
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Cissie King-Jones appears in her original Arrowette costume. |
After her school therapist - one of the few adults whom Cissie trusted - was brutally murdered, Cissie tracked down the killers in a violent rage. She would have killed one of them herself, if
Superboy had not intervened. Cissie was so shaken by the incident that she vowed never to be Arrowette again.
Despite leaving the team Cissie remained close friends with her teammates, and eventually reconciled with her mother, who convinced her daughter to try out for the "Summer Games" in
Sydney (a thinly veiled reference to the
2000 Summer Olympics, due to DC not being an "official partner" of the Games). With her battle-honed abilities, Cissie ended up taking home the gold, and became something of a celebrity, guest-starring on Superboy's favorite TV show,
"Wendy the Werewolf Stalker" (a parody of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and frequently being asked for autographs. She helped the
Red Tornado's daughter, Traya, adjust to life at Elias and later, when Secret was returned to humanity, Cissie helped to organise a placement for her at the same school.
Upon retiring Cissie has never expressed any desire to return to her life as a superhero, despite the best efforts of several of her former teammates. Cissie still remains committed to justice and compassion. During the
Imperiex war, she served as medical aid volunteer.
Cissie has made recent appearances in
Teen Titans (v3) #7 when Helen Sandsmark attempted to enroll Wonder Girl, into the Elias School (which seems to have expanded its student body to boys as well as girls). With Greta Hayes (formerly
Secret), the girls threatened to leave the school and take Cissie's celebrity status with her, if they did not allow Wonder Girl entry. The school of course gave in to her demands. Cissie then made a second appearance in
Teen Titans and Outsiders Secret Files 2005, when she joined Wonder Girl on a trip to
San Francisco, California. Cissie wished to give her best friend moral support as Cassie battled with the decision to tell her friends that her father was the Greek God,
Zeus.
Parentage
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Arrowette in her final costume on the cover of Young Justice. |
The theory has been put forth by a number of people that Arrowette's real father may in fact be Green Arrow himself, considering that her mother's husband conveniently died when she was so young. He may have been invented, or more likely, Bonnie King discovered she was pregnant and quickly dropped out of crime fighting, and hurried to find a husband so that the child would be considered his.
This theory is consistent with Oliver Queen's past behavior (she would not be his only illegitimate child) and with Cissie's natural excellency with a bow, her propensity for challenging authority, and her difficulty in fitting in with others. Even the incident that prompted her to drop from superheroing vaguely parallels a time in Green Arrow's own life, where he became enraged enough to kill. Even Cissie's costume during this incident is similar to Oliver's during that time. There's also a moment in the three-issue "Wendy the Werewolf Stalker" Young Justice story, in which the star of the show asks Bonnie jokingly, "Who's her dad, the Green Arrow?" Bonnie answers "Yes," but Cissie's embarrassed reaction makes it unclear whether we're meant to take her seriously.
Although Cissie has not completely fallen into Comic Book Limbo like so many others, her role is primarily as a cameo and it is unlikely that the issue of her own father will ever be resolved; Cissie's paternity remains unknown.
Powers and abilities
Cissie is a normal human with above average strength, stamina and agility for a girl of her age. She has exceptional hand to hand combatant ability with skills as an Olympic gold-medalist longbow marksman and possesses above average intelligence.
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