From Evernote:

DC Universe Presents: Arsenal (#17) Review

5 / 5

I'm too satisfied. This is the first issue of DC Universe presents that I've actually picked up. As someone who read the initial run of Red Hood and the Outlaws before dropping it and moving on to other series, I was excited to get some more Roy "Speedy" Harper than what I've gotten recently, and I got it in spades. This issue does a lot of things really well. 

First, the story: Like the other DC Universe Presents books, this is a one-shot story revolving around Roy who has been captured by the Triad in Hong Kong. Todd and Starfire are appropriately unconcerned / unaware of his dilemma, leaving him to run the show for the whole story. We get a fun progression from his initial interrogation in which he monologues thoughts about his teammates to the conclusion in which he shows back up on Starfire's ship rather nonchalantly. We get a good point A to D kind of story with some nice touches of his motivations. 

The other really great thing the issue did is addressing the famous history that Roy has in the DCU. So many details are murky currently because of the early timeline established by the editors for the entire universe. Regardless of whether or not we understand how things have come to pass from a timeline perspective, we do know that Roy's bad times and falling apart from Oliver Queen did happen. In the same section that this is established, we also get a flashback to him and Killer Croc, which ties into the conclusion and helps establish the growth the character has had from his low point to today. 

The final really fun part is that because this is a Roy story, we get a lot of good examples of why his name is now Arsenal. I'll not elaborate further, but it's fun as hell. 

These kinds of books are just plain clever. They get me interested to try Red Hood and the Outlaws again, but they also make me really hope for a solo Roy Harper series. Regardless, this is a great book for anyone who likes that little corner of the DCU already.