The Arsenal Theories

I mentioned some of them here but this topic has come back again.


To summarize the clues mentioned in the links:

• The oddness of Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow, being involved in the event since he does not fulfill the role as a detective.
• Roy's uncle Jim Harper, the Guardian, is in the Action Comics issues leading up to EL.
• The connection of Jason Todd, the Red Hood, in #2 a big deal is made about Jason mourning his friend's death.
• Apparently Titans past and present are going to be in this series? I only heard about this from the first link above.
• Leviathan takes out secret organizations and in old canon Roy was a member of Checkmate and left because he didn't approve of their methods and corruption.
• Original art had Leviathan wearing a necklace or clasp with a red arrow. 
• The messages Leviathan left to different members of the EL detective team might fit with how Roy would address them.
• Roy has had a talent for weeding out secret organizations in the months prior to his death. He did it in Titans and RHATO (although the Solitary might have allowed Roy to track them to get to Jason.)
• As far as motives for why Roy might do this in current canon there are a few (besides potential effects from a Lazarus Pit.) First has to do with what occurred in Titans with the Justice League taking control of the Titans and ignoring him when he warned them about a world wide threat.
• He was frustrated with the way the Titans allowed themselves to be controlled by the JL and the lack of communication once the team reformed without him. In Flash Wars he wasn't aware of what was wrong with Wally. Something that would have a terrible outcome.
• Seeing first hand how terribly Batman reacted to the news Jason shot Penguin (which I will expand upon more.)

The mishandling of Sanctuary that led to his friend Wally West losing control and accidently killing most of the patients (except Booster and Harley) including Roy himself.

The fact Roy Harper died in HIC isn't really much of a factor for theorists to overcome since he would have taken over Leviathan from Talia Al Ghul. This led many to believe the Lazarus Pit was used. One of the recent theories I've heard was that Roy somehow had the foresight to be working with Lex Luthor and created a clone that went to Sanctuary beforehand. I don't really like this idea since it makes it sound like Roy knew what was going to happen and still didn't try to stop it.

I did see a potential motivation for Roy being connected to him possibly becoming a father and wanting better for his kid. Which wouldn't be too bad if it was true since it sounds like Bendis wants to make Leviathan more sympathetic and someone you could understand. Having Roy call out all the superheroes on their failings as well as their own inablitiy to be good parents? That sounds fairly reasonable at this stage.

I saw other ideas online about Roy planning this for awhile given a bit in the RHATO Annual #2 Vol.2 where Roy claims he's working on a project (by himself) to save the world. Jason didn't see what Roy was doing and hasn't returned to the island since Roy's death. If this was the case he might have started then not just because of the events of Titan but also because of Batman's actions in RHATO.

Batman beat a barely resisting Jason and as we recently had confirmed it was all for nothing. Roy not only witnessed what Batman did but he knows how bad the damage was first hand since he helped Jason recover. More than that Roy is likely the only person that knows the full story: that Jason didn't actually try to kill Penguin and Batman never attempted to investigate this.

Jason has been accused of being Leviathan but he has never been this ambitious. Roy has been, RHA was about Roy coming up with a heroes for hire type of idea which Jason just kind of goes along with through most of the series. Roy has had this drive for awhile, his plans for the Iron Rule, his inventions and the need he has to be a better hero.

I don't want Roy to be a villain but if this is his effort to make the world a better place I could get behind it. At least he wouldn't stay dead from HIC.