BRAD MELTZER: Looking at JLA #7

About Arsenal becoming Red Arrow:

BM: Yeah – Roy’s identity for better or for worse has always been tangled up in Ollie’s , and I don’t think there was an astute reader out there who didn’t say, “Why didn’t Ollie go along with them?” and that was exactly the right question. Ollie, for all his jackass moves, I think this is the only way he knows how to say, “I love you” to Roy. He also knows his “son” well enough that the very best thing he can do for him is to know when not to be there for him. I think this is the best gift that Ollie could ever give Roy. It was always the plan to be that.

NRAMA: Why the name change, then?

BM: It’s like Roy said in the issue – if you’re going to be in the family business, you should wear the family name. I don’t ever want to slight Arsenal – I believe in Arsenal as a character – I don’t think that he was just a red Green Arrow. As it said in the issue, I want it to be clear that he can do more than Ollie can do. I just feel that this is the graduation point for the character. Roy started in red, and I really did want him to end up in that full red again.

And also, I think that if Roy is paying anything back, this is the best “thank you” that he can give Ollie. It’s a graduation day, not just for the League, and not just for Roy, but for Ollie as well. All of them are finding their identities in that moment. We’re seeing Ollie being loving and responsible and caring, and that’s the only way he can close that chapter for all the bad he did to that poor boy. Only a real and total ass would just take Roy’s spot on the League.

NRAMA: With a gruff, “Beat it kid.”

BM: Exactly.

About Geo-Force getting Terra's powers:

NRAMA: Moving on character-wise, then. We’ve got Vixen, and her joining up…a nice moment there. But mixed in with the other members…Geo-Force. What’s he got going on with his powers? Those are Terra’s powers he’s talking about…

BM: Can’t tell you on that one [laughs]. But I will say that there will be more on that in issue #12.

NRAMA: For you personally, then, what was the attraction to bring Geo-Force into the mix? A Batman and the Outsiders jones that needed attention?

BM: There’s a little bit of that, but it’s also a character that has a great history that was intertwined in some great parts of the DCU’s history, not just Batman and the Outsiders, but to me, one of the best runs ever on New Teen Titans. Geo-Force and Terra were brother and sister, it was a storyline that I felt could be explored that was never really touched. Why did they have completely different powers if they got their powers from the exact same spot? It was just a lingering question to me, and something that I felt was there waiting to be done with the character that gave him a different voice than everyone else around him, so he just became interesting to me.

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