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Lian Harper (Prime Earth)

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As a result of the New 52 in 2011, the entire line of DC characters was relaunched, incorporating properties belonging to the company's imprints: Wildstorm, Milestone, and Vertigo. As such, elements of this character's history have been altered in some way from the previous incarnation. For a complete list of all versions of this character, see our disambiguation page.

I've been pushed and pulled in a thousand directions. I've seen things that would make people twice my age sick. But I've made friends. There are people who watch my back, and I watch theirs. I made a home. All of which means, all these years later, I can sit here and say... $%/@ YOU MOM!
— Lian Harper src

Lian Harper is the daughter of Arsenal and Cheshire. When she was a child her death was faked by Amanda Waller and she spent years being unwillingly teleported across time and space. She eventually ended up living on the streets of Gotham City, using the name Shoes. As a teenager she adopted the vigilante identity Cheshire Cat and was Catwoman's sidekick for a time, before finally reuniting with her father and her family Team Arrow.

Origins

Lian Harper Prime Earth 001

Lian before her "death"

When Lian was five, she was apparently killed by The Electrocutioner, who blew up her house. Her father and the world at large believed that she was dead.[1] In reality however, Lian's death had been faked. She woke up in a laboratory with Amanda Waller and a mysterious archer. She heard them arguing and the archer said that her family could never be together, then she was teleported away from Waller's location. Lian spent years being randomly teleported across time and space.[2] During one of these jumps Cheshire rescued her from a band of ninjas and left her on the steps of a church in Gotham City. Lian would dream about it for years afterwards.[3]

Lian repeatedly tried to reach her father, but every time she got close to him she was teleported away, forcing her to watch from afar as he spiraled down without her, until she finally gave up trying. Eventually, she landed in Alleytown, a notorious neighborhood in Gotham's East End, years before her apparent "death". She decided to make a new life for herself there, repressing her real memories and adopting the identity of a Gotham street kid named "Shoes".[2] Unbeknownst to Lian her mother would occasionally visit Gotham to keep an eye on her, and killed street criminals who would have hurt her.[4]

Alleytown Strays

Cheshire Cat Prime Earth 001

Cheshire Cat

Shoes, by this point a teenager, joined a group of street kids known as the Alleytown Strays who survived as thieves and muggers living in "The Nest", a building which had once been the headquarters of Mama Fortuna. One day she and her friends attempted to rob a rich woman who wandered into Alleytown. Shoes stole the woman's watch only to find that it was fake and in the process the woman had pickpocketed her Gamekid. Later that day back at The Nest, Catwoman walked in and revealed she was the one they had attempted to rob and she had been gauging their skills. She announced that she had bought The Nest and intended to turn the Strays into a gang of thieves under her leadership.[5] The Strays helped Catwoman to bring down the organised crime groups operating in Alleytown and become the "Queen" of Alleytown.[6]

Shoes later became an amateur vigilante in Alleytown as Cheshire Cat wearing a homemade mask based on the one from her dream. Her first attempt at heroics went poorly as she was outnumbered and overpowered by her adult opponents. Catwoman arrived to save her and accepted her as a protégé.[3]

Fighting the Magistrate

Shoes accompanied Catwoman to rescue Poison Ivy from Siddhart Roy, a scientist working for Simon Saint.[7] The GCPD, supplemented by Saint's Magistrate forces, cracked down on Alleytown looking for Catwoman. They arrested the Strays and demanded they tell them everything they knew about her. Shoes told them they would never find Catwoman, recounting a story from Selina's own days as a Stray when she memorised the entire network of service tunnels beneath the city, allowing her to move about undetected.[8]

The Strays were released and retreated to Catwoman's secondary headquarters at an abandoned railway terminal. Shoes was sent out as Cheshire Cat to tap into the Magistrate's communications network, allowing the Strays to monitor the Magistrate's communications and talk to each other through undetected backchannels.[9] While doing that she realised that the signal being sent by "Oracle" announcing that Batman was dead was in fact a trap designed to lure out the Batman Family. Catwoman tried to leave Alleytown to answer "Oracle's" call and was intercepted by a squad of Magistrate soldiers, but Cheshire Cat arrived to help her fight them off and told her the signal was a fake.[10] Catwoman thanked Shoes for stopping her from abandoning Alleytown, and she replied that Catwoman had inspired the people of Alleytown to stand up and fight for themselves rather than run.[11]

A band of villains seeking redemption, including Lian's mother Cheshire, joined Catwoman's fight against the Magistrate.[9] After the Magistrate was defeated, Cheshire approached Shoes and introduced herself as "Jade".[12] Lian realised that Cheshire suspected who she was but didn't know what to do. She considered admitting her true identity but decided not to because, as much as she loved her mother, she didn't want to be a part of Cheshire's dangerous life.[13]

Gotham Nocturne

Catwoman left Alleytown after the Magistrate was defeated, gifting the Nest to the Strays. In her absence Shoes continued to live in the Nest with her friends.[14] When Selina returned to Alleytown months later, the Strays joined her fight against Punchline and the Royal Flush Gang. They drove Punchline out of Alleytown, however, Selina ended up being arrested for murder and was sent to prison.[15]

The Strays were captured by mercenaries working for the Orgham Family and taken to an underground facility to be converted into monsters. Shoes escaped from the holding cell and fled into the tunnels, chased by the soldiers.[16] She ran into Solomon Grundy, who the Orghams had tried to control with a mysterious poison. Grundy was able to resist the poison and attacked the soldiers. In a panic they tried to kill him with a bundle of grenades, killing themselves and collapsing the tunnel behind them but leaving Shoes and Grundy unharmed. Shoes was able to calm Grundy down and get him to lead her out of the tunnels.[17]

With nowhere else to go, Lian and Grundy went to Cheshire's apartment in Gotham; which was an uncomfortable reunion for both of them. Lian explained what was happening and Jade told her to simply to flee; but Lian retorted that Gotham was her home, and that she had finally found a family on the streets of Alleytown after Jade had abandoned her. She confronted Cheshire for her failures as a mother and pushing away her and Roy because she felt like she didn't deserve them. For the first time in her life Lian asked Cheshire to help her, saying that she would go and save her friends with or without her. Cheshire agreed to help and Lian hugged her; after a moment of shock, Jade hugged her back. The mother and daughter returned to the Orgham's base and went down into the tunnels below to rescue the Strays.[4][18]

They freed the prisoners and fled into the tunnels, pursued by the Orgham's soldiers. Grundy lead them to the surface, smashing his way through walls, while Lian and Cheshire fought a rearguard action against waves of Orgham fighters. During the fight Cheshire was hit by the blast wave of a grenade and Lian ran over to help her. Cheshire told Lian that if more soldiers came after them to take the people and run. Lian told Cheshire she wouldn't abandon her, but Jade promised Lian she would be right behind her and hugged her, saying she wouldn't lose her again. They emerged back on the surface in the disused railway terminal the Strays had lived in during Fear State.[19] Lian returned to Alleytown and became a vigilante, protecting the people in Gotham which the police and even the Bats didn't notice.

Team Arrow

Family Reunion

Lian's father learned she was alive, but his mind was taken over by Darkseid and he was drawn away to Earth Omega before he could look for her.[20] Roy eventually returned and reunited with his old friends the Titans, who promised to help him find her.[21][22] However, he was sidetracked by first Red X's attack on Titans Academy,[23] and then by the Dark Crisis.[24]

Roy and Lian Harper reunion

Lian and Roy

Team Arrow chased a gang of unemployed henchmen into Alleytown, looking for leads on the missing Oliver Queen. Lian jumped in to stop one of them escaping and then tried to leave, but Roy recognised her even with her mask on. She tried to deny it but Roy said even if she could always come home even if she wasn't ready yet, and after a moment's hesitation she ran up and hugged him. However, as soon as she reunited with her family, she and Connor Hawke were teleported away. As she disappeared, she told Roy and Black Canary to find Amanda Waller.

Lian rematerialised in a futuristic city on an alien planet, where she was attacked by a Manhunter. Oliver Queen, who was also stranded on the planet, rescued her and destroyed the Manhunter with a chainsaw arrow. He led her to a teleporter and told her it brought them to the planet but, to her shock, he destroyed it and told her they could never go home.[13] He took her to his shelter in the woods and told her to stay put while he went on patrol in the city. However, she followed him and helped him fight off a Tamaranean bounty hunter called Troublemaker. Later back at the shelter, Lian asked him again why they couldn't go home and he refused to explain it to her. She told him that something was keeping their family apart and Oliver tried to tell her that was for the best, as them all being together was dangerous; but then admitted that he missed his family. He mentioned that he missed Roy, Dinah and Emiko, but not Connor, and when Lian asked Oliver about him, he didn't seem to know who Connor was. He suddenly remembered Connor when Lian told him that Hawke was his son, but as soon as he did so they were teleported away again.[25]

Legion of Super-Heroes

Lian Harper Prime Earth 005

Lian in the future

They rematerialised in New Metropolis in the 31st Century, where they were met by Connor and the Legion of Super-Heroes. Connor had told the Legion what was going on and Brainiac 5 had determined a way to track the teleporter's distinctive signature and bring them to the future. At Legion Headquarters, Lian told the others what had happened to her since waking up in the lab and how she knew Amanda Waller was behind whatever was keeping their family apart. Brainiac scanned Oliver and Lian and determined that, like Connor, they had teleporter devices implanted in their necks like the bombs used on members of the Suicide Squad.

Brainiac showed them a teleporter similar to the one which Oliver had destroyed on the alien planet, and which had appeared with Connor. Oliver said he knew what it was and told Lian that he believed the person Waller was talking to in the lab that night was him. He touched the teleporter and activated a video message from what appeared to be an elderly future version of himself. The future Oliver warned his younger self that in his timeline, Team Arrow caused a "Great Disaster" that killed billions of people and he has travelled back in time to prevent that. He told Oliver that their family could never be together, and he could never go home.

Lian refused to believe what the older Ollie said and told the present-day Oliver that they could beat whatever this was together, and reminded him how much he missed the others. After a moment, Oliver agreed and said it was time to go home through the portal. However, before they could, they were attacked by Parallax,[2] who kidnapped Oliver and teleported away.

The Legion were able to track Parallax's energy signature but told Lian they could not follow him as time travel was illegal in the 31st Century. They also refused to tell her is the recording was telling the truth or any details of her future except that Oliver Queen would die a hero defending his family. Lian pointed out that whoever was behind everything that had happened to them was meddling in time and breaking the Legion's laws.[26] Brainiac was able to track Oliver's location using the time machine but warned Lian and Connor that he could only send one of them through after him. Connor insisted that Lian stay behind while he went to find Oliver.[27]

Despite Brainiac and Connor's warnings, Lian insisted on going through the teleporter after him. She emerged in the Timestream, just in time to catch an arrow fired at Oliver and Connor by Malcom Merlyn, who had been posing as the future version of Oliver. They exited the timestream and emerged back on Earth in the present on Starfish Island, where Black Canary was waiting for them. They all happily reunited, but Lian suddenly realised Roy was not there and asked where her father was.[28]

Absolute Power

Lian Harper Prime Earth 009

Lian's new look

Lian went back to Alleytown and returned to being a vigilante while Oliver and Connor searched for Roy.[29] She fashioned a new costume for herself based on her father's, and switched out her original mask for a black half-mask.

Oliver and Connor eventually discovered that Waller had forced Roy to join the Bureau of Sovereignty by holding Cheshire hostage. Waller captured Oliver and informed him that Roy had disappeared on a mission to recover files from Sanctuary. She sent Oliver to find Roy and the files and he reluctantly agreed. Oliver; along with Connor, Emiko Queen, Mia Dearden, Red Canary and Arrowette, rescued Roy and obtained the files. However, Oliver refused to give them to Waller unless she delivered Merlyn to him. In response, Waller sent Oliver to a post-apocalyptic future to face Merlyn.[30]

Roy and Lian Harper reunion 2

Together Again

In the future, Merlyn used the Sanctuary files to create hard-light holograms of the Arrow Family and use them to attack Oliver. However, Oliver activated the implants and used them to summon all of Team Arrow, including Lian, to the future. They battled their holograms until Oliver defeated Merlyn in an archery duel. John Diggle teleported to the future and took Merlyn away; he also informed Team Arrow that they would be able to teleport one last time and then their implants would permanently shut down. Oliver returned them to Starfish Island in the present. Roy and Lian finally reunited for good, and he promised her that nothing would ever keep them apart again. Team Arrow celebrated on the beach and then spent the night at a secret vacation home which Oliver had built on the island.[31] The next morning, Team Arrow woke up to find that Oliver had disappeared.

Forty-eight hours later, John Diggle told Roy and Lian that Cheshire was being held in a secret prison in the mountains known as "Belle Reve North" and they went to free her. They successfully snuck into the prison and got Cheshire out of her cell, but triggered an alarm and had to fight their way out. The three of them reached the rope ladder that Roy and Lian had used to get in and Cheshire and Lian began to climb down, but before Roy could join them he was stopped by Oliver, who was now working for the Bureau of Sovereignty. Roy tried to convince Oliver to come with them, but he instead kicked him out of the window. As Oliver expected, Lian and Cheshire caught Roy, preventing Peacemaker from capturing him.

They returned to the island and told Team Arrow what had happened. Roy also told them that he was certain Oliver was not under mind control. Emiko said they should abduct Oliver and bring him home, then figure things out from there. However, the news suddenly reported that superheroes were launching attacks on civilians around the country and Roy realised that Waller was responsible.[32]

Batman and Nightwing called the island and not only confirmed that Waller was behind the faked footage, but had also launched a full-on attack by an army of Amazos that had left most heroes depowered and imprisoned with only a few survivors in hiding. Roy asked how they could help but Batman told them to remain on the island, as Team Arrow had been spared from attack by the Bureau of Sovereignty so far and should be kept as a last reserve in case the other heroes failed to stop Waller. However as soon as the call ended Roy said he wouldn't just sit back and that they were going after Professor Ivo, the original creator of Amazo, as he may known of a weakness that the new Amazos had.

Cheshire's criminal contacts informed her that Ivo was holed up at a secret lab in Death Valley and the entire team flew there to confront the mad scientist. When they breached his lab Ivo revealed that he had not been involved in creating the Amazos, but also had no intention of destroying them. He activated the Tomorrow Woman and ordered her to attack Team Arrow while he escaped. Roy sent Jade and Lian to chase after Ivo, while the rest of Team Arrow attempted to fight the Tomorrow Woman. However, by the time they caught up to him, Ivo had already been captured by Bright, one of Waller's agents.[33]

Cheshire and Lian snuck aboard the Bureau of Sovereignty personnel carrier to extract Ivo. Ivo offered Cheshire money to betray Team Arrow and help him get away and she immediately agreed, to Lian's disapproval. However, Bright came in and easily overpowered them. Bright carried Lian and Cheshire onto the roof of the carrier, when Arsenal and Team Arrow were fighting a squad of Bureau agents. He ordered Arsenal to surrender or he would murder them both in front of him. Cheshire broke free and Bright said he would kill Lian, but suddenly Green Arrow swooped in with a jetpack and shot Bright, ordering him to let Lian go.[34] Team Arrow defeated Bright and his guards, but to their shock Oliver then handed them over to the Bureau of Sovereignty to be imprisoned, telling them they should have stayed on the island.[35]

Oliver eventually turned on Waller and the Bureau of Sovereignty, revealing that his apparent betrayal had been a deep cover operation to bring the Bureau down. He helped to destroy the Amazos and return the stolen powers. The members of Team Arrow were freed from prison when the Bureau was dissolved. They ultimately forgave Oliver, but he asked for some time alone to recentre himself.[36]


Abilities


Transportation

Weapons


  • Lian's hair is naturally black, but she dyes it blue. She also wears blue lipstick and nail polish.

Related

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Infinite Frontier Secret Files #2
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Green Arrow (Volume 7) #3
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration #1
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Detective Comics #1077
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Catwoman (Volume 5) #25
  6. ↑ Catwoman (Volume 5) #28
  7. ↑ Catwoman (Volume 5) #30
  8. ↑ Catwoman (Volume 5) #32
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Catwoman (Volume 5) #33
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Catwoman (Volume 5) #35
  11. ↑ Catwoman (Volume 5) #36
  12. ↑ Catwoman (Volume 5) #38
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 Green Arrow (Volume 7) #1
  14. ↑ Catwoman (Volume 5) #49
  15. ↑ Catwoman (Volume 5) #50
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Detective Comics #1069
  17. ↑ Detective Comics #1070
  18. ↑ Detective Comics #1078
  19. ↑ Detective Comics #1079
  20. ↑ Infinite Frontier #2
  21. ↑ Infinite Frontier #6
  22. ↑ Teen Titans Academy #9
  23. ↑ Teen Titans Academy #10–Teen Titans Academy #15
  24. ↑ Dark Crisis #2–Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths #7
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 Green Arrow (Volume 7) #2
  26. ↑ Green Arrow (Volume 7) #4
  27. ↑ Green Arrow (Volume 7) #5
  28. ↑ Green Arrow (Volume 7) #6
  29. ↑ Titans: Beast World Tour: Star City #1
  30. ↑ Green Arrow (Volume 7) #7–Green Arrow (Volume 7) #11
  31. ↑ Green Arrow (Volume 7) #12
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 Green Arrow (Volume 7) #13
  33. ↑ Green Arrow (Volume 7) #14
  34. ↑ Green Arrow (Volume 7) #15
  35. ↑ Green Arrow (Volume 7) #16
  36. ↑ Green Arrow (Volume 7) #17


Team Arrow member

This character is or was a member of the Green Arrow family of vigilante super-heroes, who fight crime using archery and martial arts. They are a loose connection brought together through family bonds and shared experiences. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Team Arrow members."

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