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| Arrowette | |
|---|---|
 Bonnie King debuts as Miss Arrowette inWorld's Finest Comics #113. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Bonnie King: World's Finest Comics #113 (November 1960) Cissie King-Jones: Impulse #28 (August 1997) |
| Created by | Bonnie King: Dave Wood Lee Elias Cissie King-Jones: Tom Peyer Craig Rousseau |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Bonnie King Suzanne "Cissie" King-Jones |
| Species | Human |
| Team affiliations | Cissie King-Jones: Young Justice Justice League |
| Partnerships | Bonnie King: Oliver Queen Roy Harper Cissie King-Jones: Tim Drake Cassie Sandsmark Bart Allen Conner Kent Greta Hayes Red Tornado Anita Fite Li'l Lobo/Slo-bo |
| Abilities |
|
Arrowette is asuperheroine that appears inAmerican comic books published byDC Comics.
The Bonnie King version of Arrowette appears inWorld's Finest Comics #113 and was created by Dave Wood andLee Elias.
The Cissie King-Jones version of Arrowette appears inImpulse #28 and was created byTom Peyer andCraig Rousseau.[1]
The first Arrowette (properly known asMiss Arrowette) isBonnie King, a would-besidekick and general nuisance toGreen Arrow. She first appears inWorld's Finest Comics #113 (November 1960).
When Bonnie was a child, her mother Millie put her through archery training and was very controlling of her progress. She does well and ends up competing in the Olympic Games, where she wins a bronze medal. However, her mother is not pleased as she had expected Bonnie to win a gold, and harasses her daughter over Bonnie's alleged failure. This ends up driving Bonnie to abandon both her home and archery and she never speaks to her mother again.[2]
Alone inStar City, she becomes inspired by Green Arrow andSpeedy and decides to use her archery skills in a way that counted. She makes a costume for herself and names herself "Miss" Arrowette. Like Green Arrow, she carries trick arrows but with a feminine slant (such as the "Powder Puff" Arrow). She attempts to aid both archers a few times, but they repeatedly rebuff her attempts. Despite her good intentions, Arrowette turns out to be too clumsy to become a hero and too vain to even wear a mask. Arrowette briefly dates Green Arrow in his civilian identity of Oliver Queen.[3]
At some point, she meets a journalist named Bernell "Bowstring" Jones, who remembers her from her Olympic Games and is probably the only person to consider her a star. She nicknames himBowstring because he is as thin as one and takes him briefly as her sidekick so he will give her publicity in his journal.[4] Eventually, however, Green Arrow convinces Arrowette to give up superheroism.[2]Oliver Queen described "Bowstring" Jones as a good investigative reporter who helped the cause with his exposes'.
She has to permanently give up archery due tocarpal tunnel syndrome in her wrists, and also due to her job as a secretary. She talks Bowstring into marrying her and, one year later, she has a daughter they name Cissie King-Jones.[4] When Bowstring dies five years later fromfish poisoning,Hal Jordan (working as an agent for the company that holds Bowstring's life insurance policy) gives Bonnie and Cissie the policy's beneficiary check; the money enables Bonnie to train Cissie into a superhero. Cissie hardly has time to breathe between lessons of archery, judo, kick-boxing, gymnastics, ballet, and many other fields, and comes to resent her mother deeply.[2]
Forced by her mother to adopt a version of her old costume,Suzanne "Cissie" King-Jones becomes the second Arrowette. Arrowette first appears in the pages ofImpulse wearing a frilly costume and a bejeweled mask that apes her mother's old costume. Despite Arrowette's success as a heroine, Impulse's mentor,Max Mercury, is concerned by what he sees as Bonnie's exploitation of her daughter. Child Welfare Services gets involved, and Bonnie loses custody of her daughter, who is sent to the Elias School for Girls, aboarding school.[5]
Arrowette next appears inYoung Justice #4 wearing a more practical costume.[6] Acting alone, she battlesHarm, who injures her with one of her own arrows.[6] She manages to escape and contact Young Justice, later joining the team, along with the secondWonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark) andSecret (Greta Hayes). The three quickly become close friends, although Cissie admits during a game of 'Truth or Dare' that, if put in a position where she had a choice to quit being a hero, she would ask her mother's advice and then do the opposite to establish herself as an independent person.[7]
After her school therapist—one of the few adults whom Cissie trusted—is murdered, Cissie tracks down the killers in a violent rage. She nearly kills one of them herself, but is stopped bySuperboy. Cissie is so shaken by the incident that she vows never to be Arrowette again.
Despite leaving the team, Cissie remains close friends with her teammates and eventually reconciles with her mother, who convinces her daughter to try out for the "Summer Games" inSydney (a reference to the2000 Summer Olympics). With her battle-honed abilities, Cissie ends up taking home the gold, and becomes something of a celebrity, guest-starring on Superboy's favorite TV show,Wendy the Werewolf Stalker (a parody ofBuffy the Vampire Slayer). She helpsRed Tornado's daughter, Traya, adjust to life at Elias and later, when Secret is resurrected, Cissie helps to organize placement for her at the same school.
Now retired from superheroics, Cissie never expresses any desire to return to her life as a superhero, despite the best efforts of several of her former teammates. They even involve her in a baseball game on an alien planet, with the fate of many innocents riding on the outcome. Cissie is enraged because they chose her instead of many other superhumans, but she participates as best as she can. Her team barely wins. Cissie still remains committed to justice and compassion. During theImperiex war, she served as medical aid volunteer, again working with Young Justice, although the team is again divided due to uncertainty about Robin's loyalty to them after the discovery of Batman'sfiles on the Justice League.[5]
Cissie made a brief appearance inTeen Titans vol. 3 #7 whenHelena Sandsmark attempts to enroll Wonder Girl into the Elias School. With Greta Hayes, the girls threaten to leave the school and take Cissie's celebrity status as a gold-winning archer with her if Wonder Girl is not allowed to enroll. The school gives in to her demands.[8] Cissie makes a second appearance inTeen Titans and Outsiders Secret Files 2005, joining Wonder Girl on a trip toSan Francisco. Cissie wishes to give her best friend moral support as Cassie battles with the decision to tell her friends that her father isZeus.[9]
Cissie was last seen hanging out withCassie andAnita inWonder Girl #2, now sporting short hair. She is seen again inWonder Girl #3 with Anita, as they help Cassie realize that she has truly gotten over Superboy's death. For the first time since 'retiring' from super-hero work in the pages ofYoung Justice, Cissie wears a new Arrowette costume that resembles the second one to aid Wonder Girl rescue her mother inWonder Girl #4.[10]
Cissie temporarily rejoins Young Justice debuting a new red hooded costume as part of a roster of back-up members alongsideAqualad (Kaldur'ahm),Spoiler, andSideways.[11][12] During theDark Crisis event, she reconnects with Cassie – who reveals her resentment at Cissie for abandoning the team and her friends – while Impulse, Superboy, and Robin are trapped byMickey Mxyzptlk. She joins her former teammates to assist the other heroes fightingDeathstroke's dark army in the series' conclusion.
During theDawn of DC era, Cissie is brought out of retirement once again afterAmanda Waller implants a bomb in her head. This led to her being recruited byArsenal,Red Arrow, and Red Canary to work alongside the Green Arrow family once again.[13]
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, being highly skilled injudo,jeet kune do, andkickboxing with skills as an Olympic gold-medalist longbow marksman and possesses above average intelligence.[2][14]
