Artemis Crock

Artemis Crock: 1993 - 2007
Artemis Crock is the daughter of two members of the League of Assassins: Lawrence “Crusher” Crock (aka: “Alrriadi” or “the athlete”) and Paula Nguyen (aka: “Namira” or “Tigress”) and the half-sister of another assassin, Paula’s older daughter, Jade Nguyen (aka: “Yabtasim Alqat” or “Smiling Cat”).

Artemis herself spent the first six years of her life in League training camps, safehouses, and the like. When Artemis was still a child, her mother was injured while protecting Nyssa al Ghul and her infant son from an attack by the HIVE. Since Paula’s injuries left her paralyzed, the League allowed Paula and her daughter to travel to the United States where they would maintain deep cover and see to the upkeep of League safehouses.

When Artemis’ father would visit, Artemis could count on Jade and Lawrence butting heads. Usually their discord would be vocal, but other times it got violent. Eventually, this drove Jade to run away from home. Losing her sister was especially hard on Artemis as a young teen and would work out her aggression through physical training and martial arts.

One day, while Artemis was performing her weapons katas, the League instructor known as “the Magician” happened to be staying at the safehouse the Crocks oversaw. When the trainer saw Artemis, he took an interest in her and asked her to demonstrate her skill with bow. Apparently, the Magician had a hunch she would be a natural archer and what she demonstrated supposedly came to a surprise to Artemis herself.

The Magician gave Artemis a few lessons and techniques to work on and by the next time he visited. Artemis was said to have actually impressed the master archer to such a degree that he asked Artemis to return to the League training camp with him, to study under him as his personal apprentice. Artemis agreed and for the next sixteen months, she trained under Malcolm Merlyn full-time, even accompanying him on assignments as a support accomplice. It was on one such assignments in Gotham that Artemis was asked to prove her mettle to the League, by murdering the man who she had been told was responsible for her mother’s paralysis: the Batman himself: Bruce Wayne!

Speedy: 2007 - 2012
After she nearly killed Bruce Wayne, Artemis decided to spare the billionaire when his protest made her realize that he had not been the one to cripple her mother. After Bruce backed up his claims by showing her his own investigation into the attack, including evidence that the HIVE was behind it, Artemis realized she was being used. She didn’t like being used.

After she begged Bruce to take her in and being shot down as Bruce was in a dark place and had no interest in another “screwed up kid”, Oliver Queen decided to show Artemis some mercy, after all her mother had saved the life of the son he had never had the chance to meet. The way Ollie saw it, he was paying off a debt by protecting Paula Nguyen’s child.

Artemis’ training under the same mentor Ollie had meant the two worked almost perfectly from the start. Within months, Oliver fashioned her a costume with a similar color scheme to his own. Though he had originally intended to call her “Arrowette”, passing down Thea’s codename, when Oliver was misinformed that Roy Harper had been killed, Artemis decided to call herself Speedy to honor Roy’s memory. The gesture went unappreciated however as Oliver sank into a deep depression. Before he left the country on a “safari”, Olliver dropped Artemis off at Happy Harbor and asked Victor Stone to keep his cybernetic eye on her for him. Cyborg did just that, making her the sixth member of his “Young Justice” initiative. Almost immediately, Artemis was interested in Wally West, but Wally’s interest was on Cassie and M’Gann. Soured by Wally’s constant flirting with anyone but her, Artemis bickered with Wally constantly. The two butted heads so much that they just sort of wore each other down and in a mid-mission moment where they thought themselves doomed, they decided to get real with each other real fast and confessed their feelings for one another. The two survived and have been hot and heavy ever since, with Artemis not letting Wally get away with nothing.

In 2012, after graduating the Titans, Artemis decided to move to Keystone City to be with Wally. However, when she arrived, she found her sister in her dorm, bearing awful news.

Tigress: 2012 - Present
Artemis was juggling her commitments to college, Titans, Team Arrow, and Wally; and then her sister Jade came out of nowhere and confessed that she had discovered that they were only half-sisters, biologically, and had known for some time. Jade went on to tell Artemis that she needed her help with some ‘family business’. Jade had a son with Thomas Blake (aka: Catman). HIVE had learned of this child and kidnapped both father and son. HIVE did not know Jade’s father’s identity, but knew he was a politician in the League of Assassins’ pocket. As they were seeking to destabilize the League’s influence, HIVE offered the release of Cheshire‘s lover and son in exchange for the identity of Jade’s biological father.

Using her mother‘s old costume, Artemis became Tigress and worked with Jade in targeting the League of Assassins’ safehouses. Eventually, they got what they were looking for when they kidnapped Ra’s al Ghul himself. In exchange for his release, Ra’s told Cheshire the identity of her father and even told her that if she killed him herself so HIVE could not interrogate him, he’d tell give Artemis the location where the HIVE were holding Catman and his son so she could rescue the father and son. To sweeten the deal, Ra’s told Cheshire she’d be welcomed back into the League of Assassins. Before Artemis could even reason with her sister, Jade knocked Artemis unconscious and fled. When Artemis recovered, Ra’s was gone, but true to his word, he had left Artemis a note with the coordinates she needed to enact the rescue. Artemis called in the Titans to help and they rescued the hostages from the HIVE.

Visiting Jade in Belle Reve a few days later, Artemis told her sister that her son was officially listed as a casualty but was, in fact, actually alive and well, being taken care of by a friend who would take care of the child as their own. Jade was upset at first but she eventually realized that Artemis had done this out of the child’s best interests and forgave Artemis.

Nowadays, Artemis still uses the Tigress moniker as a member of ‘The Team’ and likes spending her freetime at the park accompanied by a young preteen boy named Tommy Spivot.

Abilities

 * Assassin Training: Artemis was raised as an assassin by both her mother and father, making her an impressive archer and combatant even before she was privately mentored by Merlyn.
 * Fitness: Artemis' physicality and training gives her above-average human conditioning. Having undergone an evidently vigorous and intensive training regimen, Artemis has demonstrated impressive physical feats for a human of her age and size although she is not quite as resilient as Conner, agile as Emiko, or strong as Roy, she can hold her own and has a certain stubborness and interal drive that often sees her past the point of exertion.
 * Speed: Artemis is shown to be able to run at above-average speed for someone her age in combat situations. One of Oliver's fastest proteges on foot and with a bow, Artemis may have never matched Roy Harper's uncanny arrows per minute speed but she definitely earned her title of 'Speedy' by beating Roy, Thea, and Oliver's timed three-mile run.
 * Endurance: Artemis appears able to maintain her stamina during long combative situations.
 * Agility: Artemis has proven to be at a high level of human agility, able to move, dodge and react to dangers with impressive agility.
 * Strength: Artemis's physical strength is above most young women her age, as she is able to strike out full grown adults with a single blow and hold up people who are considerably heavier than her. She is capable of pressing her entire body weight. She can also do front flips holding all her weight on one arm. She has the strength of someone who engages in intensive exercise.
 * Ambidexterity: Artemis is known to be ambidextrous, as she draws her bow with her left and right hand.
 * Marksmanship: Artemis is an impressive marksman, able to hit assorted targets with assorted projectiles with ease and accuracy. She prefers using archery based weapons such as a compound bow or a crossbow. She has mastered the longbow, the shortbow, the crossbow, and a myriad of trick arrows. She can also shoot 3 arrows at a time and have them all hit their mark simultaneously. Her skills are such that she is able to hit targets inches in size from dozens of yards away.
 * Tracking: Artemis is capable of hunting down opponents who attempt to evade capture.
 * Acrobatics: Artemis is proficient in acrobatics.
 * Martial Artist: Artemis is a skilled martial artist. She is able to take out multiple attackers with relative ease. Her favored style is a blend of Thai style kickboxing, Krav Maga, and Capoeira. She prefers to fight with her legs in close quarters so she can maintain her grip on her bow and/or arrows.
 * Intellect: Her intelligence is above average. She was granted a full Wayne Foundation Scholarship to the acclaimed Papp Academy in Star City where she graduated with honors. She is now a student at Midwestern University where she is studying Journalism.
 * Multilingualism: Artemis can speak fluently in English, Vietnamese, French, and Spanish. She also speaks conversational level Atlantean and Martian. She is also pretty good at deciphering Wally's "quick-speech" when he gets rattled.
 * First aid: Artemis has demonstrated some skills in emergency medicine.

Paraphernalia

 * Bow: Like her mentor, Green Arrow, Artemis uses a bow and arrows in combat. Her bow is a customized compound bow fashioned by Green Arrow himself. When she is not using it, Artemis has been shown to be able to fold her bow inwards, and quickly snap it back into place when she needs it. She has occasionally used her bow to strike her opponents if she did not have time to shoot an arrow.
 * Trick arrows: Artemis has a various trick arrows that she can use. She tends to usually stock her quiver with exploding arrows, knock-out gas arrows, grappling hook arrows, bola arrows, adhesive arrows, impact arrows, cluster bomb arrows, foam snare arrows, smoke screen arrows, fire arrows, net arrows, sedative arrows, and tracker arrows. Most of these also come in bolt form which she will use when armed with a crossbow.
 * Crossbow: Artemis also uses a collapsible crossbow. She keeps the crossbow in the pouch on her leg while in uniform. It is pre-loaded with bolts.
 * Handheld telescope: She uses it to scout long distances, and to make-out details.
 * Rebreather: She uses it to breathe underwater, after nearly drowning two missions in a row.
 * Armored Costume: Made of armored weave and kevlar sheeting, Artemis' uniform is also designed to incorporate Stealth-Tech.

Weaknesses

 * Traumatic Upbringing: During her adolescent years, Artemis's personality was a product of her unusual upbringing. In the kill-or-be-killed culture in which her parents raised her, Artemis had to constantly fight for her life, resulting in her considerably aggressive nature and willingness to solve problems with force. She was also protective of her secrets, and constantly lied to her friends out of fear of being discovered as the child of criminals and killers.
 * Temper: For the most part, Artemis is a very passionate and opinionated girl. Always ready with a witty and biting remark, she is intent on proving herself to anyone who questions her. Artemis conceals her defensive nature with an aggressive attitude, exhibiting a wild temperament that is apparent when people argue or belittle her. She readily involves herself in confrontations with little to no hesitance.
 * Family First: Though she has gotten better, Artemis has shown a certain degree of leniency toward her family and friends in the League of Assassins, even outright letting them escape. She once even clocked Wally across the back of the head to allow Cheshire a chance to escape. This has caused her to usually be benched or put on reserve status when dealing with the League of Assassins, much to Artemis' ire.

Trivia

 * The aliases of the League Members are translated from "League Arabic".
 * When Artemis first joined "Young Justice" she was shunned by the rest of the members as her parentage was not a secret.
 * Artemis has a pen name she uses to write editorials to Central City's Picture News. This name is Linda Park, apparently derived from the name of the actress starring in her favorite action movie of all time and her favorite place to go when she needs to clear her head.
 * Artemis is prone to clicking her tongue when worried.
 * Artemis' favorite movie is Terminator II: Judgment Day.
 * Artemis absolutely despises professional sports and major sporting events.
 * Artemis enjoys city parks and spends much of her free time at the one down the street from her apartment. Whether she is jogging, feeding the ducks, or just watching the children on the playground enjoy their childhood in a way she never did.
 * Helena Bertinelli claims to have had a hand in helping Artemis design her Speedy suit when Artemis stayed in Gotham with Helena for about a week while Oliver Queen made arrangements to move Artemis to Star City. Helena claims to have refined and carried over some of these ideas into her Huntress suit. This explains the bare midriff, I guess.
 * Artemis is prone to grunting when annoyed.
 * Even though a professed atheist, Artemis has a profound respect for religions and spirituality as a whole. She once made an inappropriate joke while the Team were questioning a monk whose monastery had been burglarized and when the monk called her out on her lack of reverance, Artemis actually seemed ashamed and even weirder than that, she actually... apologized. The rest of the Team were stunned into silent reverance themselves for several seconds.

Note

 * Artemis' adress is a nod to her first appearance in the comics: Infinity Inc. #34.
 * Her appearance is inspired by the Young Justice tv series, but she is blonde in the series.
 * She's a composite character with Linda Park.

Links and References

 * Appearances of Artemis Crock
 * Character Gallery: Artemis Crock