Artemis

On Earth-16, super-heroes have been around for less than a decade, but the Justice League already has sidekicks. Yearning to be considered as real heroes, these teenagers form “the Team”. The Team specializes in covert missions and reconnaissance.

The show’s tone was a healthy blend of teen angst, humour, and action. Throughout the series, the plot remained fresh while respecting the source material.

At this stage, our Young Justice profiles cover the first 10 episodes of Season 1.

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Background

Powers and Abilities

Artemis is an extraordinary young woman who has undergone intensive training, which has augmented her natural athleticism and transformed her into a capable crime-fighter and a devastatingly effective archer.

Her father ensured that Artemis’ training regimen covered a vast range of skills including but not limited to: hand to hand combat, stealth, fletchery and most prominently archery.

While a benchmark for her skills have not yet been set, it is clear that she is an archer of the same pedigree as both Green and Red Arrow. Her marksmanship is something to behold. She rarely misses a shot and is capable of unleashing a fusillade of arrows simultaneously from her custom made compound bow while running, tumbling or jumping.

Artemis builds and designs her arrows and arrow heads herself, each one distinct from those used by other archers. In combat, she uses trick arrows (much like her mentor). In the past she has been seen using arrows with explosive heads and arrows that unleash a cloud of sleeping gas upon impact.

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History

[This is an abridged version of the history that can be found in the Young Justice (Main Article) writeup. See said article for a more detailed description of the Team’s History]

One would think that the young woman named Artemis Crock was fated to become a villain. Both of her parents were career criminals, and Artemis was exposed to an ethically questionable environment from the moment of her birth.

Despite this, her parents attempted to shield her from that portion of their lives until her mother was crippled during one of their crimes. Ms. Brooks kept her mouth shut, took the fall for her husband Lawrence, and went prison.

With their mother gone, Artemis and her older sister were left to the tender mercies of a solitary life with their father Lawrence. It didn’t take long for their circumstances to wear on Artemis’ sister, who ran away to find a better life.

The loss of his oldest daughter hit Lawrence hard, and he decided that he would not lose Artemis. He immediately went to work on creating a gruelling training regimen for his youngest daughter, in order to give her the tools she would need to take her mother’s place at his side.

Six years later, Paula was parolled from prison and returned to the small non-descript apartment that she shared with her family. Their reunion was less than happy, Lawrence hadn’t visited her at all while she was gone, and to make matters worse she had reformed while incarcerated.

The couple had a bitter argument which ended up with Lawrence leaving the small family for good, but not before the argument was overheard by a bitter Artemis.

Deciding to rebel against her father’s wishes, Artemis put on the costume that the pair had designed for her. She then entered the gloomy night of Gotham City looking for trouble. Gotham has plenty of trouble to run into, and in nearly no time Artemis intervened in several criminal situations.

Her actions prevented the loss of life and property with a minimum of risk to herself. To her own surprise, the rush of fighting crime combined with the freedom of being a vigilante gave her a sense of euphoria and even more, a feeling of control over her fate.

Straight arrow

On the third of August, while patrolling for crime, a teenaged boy hurtled through the sky over Artemis’ head and crashed into Gotham Academy. Curiosity overwhelmed Artemis and she moved to investigate the strange occurrence. It took her only minutes to arrive, but by then a tense battle was already in full swing.

She immediately recognized the costume-clad forms of Robin and Kid Flash, but didn’t recognize the young man wearing a black T-shirt with Superman’s emblem emblazened brashly across his powerful chest. The three were battling an obviously powerful machine-like man that was overwhelming them with sheer power.

Before she could think of a course of action, Artemis was ambushed by several robotic beings resembling monkeys. In a display of unbridled passion, agility and tenacity, Artemis destroyed the robots before turning her attention back to the battle at hand. When she did, she saw Kid Flash being crushed within the clutches of the awesome android.

Artemis reflexively shot an arrow at the android, which responded by briefly going intangible to avoid damage. As it did, Kid Flash dropped free from its clutches. With that, Artemis watched as the desparate teens gathered their wits about them, and eventually disabled the robot. With the euphoria of their victory behind her, Artemis returned to her home.

To her shock, her mother and a pair of visitor’s were waiting for her. The Batman and Green Arrow were standing within the confines of the small living room that she and her mother shared. Artemis immediately bristled and assumed that they were there to tell her to stop her activities. Her anger and frustration boiled over as she declared her pride in herself and her choices.

Welcome to the fold

All of those negative feelings disappeared though, when instead of castigating her over her actions the Batman offered her a spot on his covert team. He had been observing her actions over the last few weeks, and approved. Artemis joyfully accepted, but under one condition: no one would be allowed to learn of her true parentage.

The heroes agreed to her terms and on the 8^th of August, Artemis joined “The Team.”

She was introduced to the others as the niece of Green Arrow, but despite this story, was still met with a mixture of skepticism and resentment. This was due to the perceived ease with which Green Arrow had replaced Roy Harper and the fact that most of the youths seemed to doubt the veracity of her familial lineage.

Before the team could decide upon whether or not they would accept the young woman, Roy (now calling himself Red Arrow) entered the team’s Mount Justice headquarters with news of a League of Shadows plot to assassinate Dr. Serling Roquette.

Serling was a world renowned software developer whom the League of Shadows had coerced into developing a super-weapon and now planned on removing her before she could device a countermeasure.

Artemis joined the team in protecting Dr. Roquette, and endured some initial friction with most of them (only Superboy and Robin seemed exempt). Kid Flash in particular was excessively vocal of his dislike of the “new girl” until Robin pointed out that they had crossed paths with her only 5 days into the past.

Using the facts that the arrow they had retrieved was completely unlike those used by Green or Red Arrow, and that they had both denied any involvement during their battle with Amazo, Robin deduced that Artemis had fired the arrow that saved their lives.

Battling bowwoman

With that realization in hand, much of the initial razzing died down and the teens got down to the business of protecting Dr. Roquette from the League of Shadows. Conflict eventually broke out between the two Leagues; Artemis easily pulled her weight during the various encounters and she eventually single-handedly cornered Cheshire, the lead assassin on the mission.

Despite Cheshire’s greater skill, Artemis got the better of her and had her dead to rights, when she got a glimpse of the assassin’s face. Artemis’ heart dropped as she looked into the eyes of her older sister.

Much like her namesake, a large and sly grin spread across Cheshire’s face. She threatened to reveal Artemis’ “secret” to her teammates unless she let her escape. Artemis, unwilling to risk the consequences of the truth, allowed Cheshire to go before the rest of her teammates could arrive and stop her.

Despite this, the other members of Young Justice felt she handled herself admirably on her first mission and welcomed her to the group. That night, upon her return to Gotham City, Artemis found herself confronted by Red Arrow, who told her flat out that he didn’t believe she was who she said she was. Without menace, bravado or emotion, he warned her not to hurt his friends.

On September the 4^th (on her third mission with the team), Artemis’ memories of the last 6 months were temporarily erased. During this time, she had no recollection of her teammates, Green Arrow, or her heroic identity.

Instead, she thought that she was being tested by her father once again and that the goal of the test was to murder her teammates. Thanks to Miss Martian, Artemis’ memories were fully returned and she managed to keep the truth of her identity safe from her teammates.

Description

Artemis is a teenaged girl with a gorgeous mix of Caucasian and Vietnamese ancestries. She is tall and slender with long blonde hair and piercing dark eyes. She normally wears her hair pulled back into a long ponytail, both in costume and in her civilian garb.

Her costume slightly resembles Green Arrow’s in that it’s green. She wears a green opened headed cowl that exposes her hair and her lower face. The top of her costume is made up of a tight green tube top with a lighter green arrow in the centre of her chest. The top exposes her midriff in a throwback to the nineties.

Her legs are covered by a pair of tights, that are made up of two distinctive shades of green; a darker green covers the front while a lighter green runs up the back of the leggins. Her lower body attire is completed by a pair of dark black shoes and knee pads.

Not surprisingly, Artemis carries a green quiver on her back (filled to the brim with custom-made arrows) and a custom-made green compound bow.

In her civilian garb, Artemis usually can be found wearing a white top underneath a brown denim jacket, a pair of dark jeans and black knee high boots.

Personality

Artemis is a capable, professional and passionate young woman who takes herself and her job very seriously. It is clear from her demonstrated level of skill that she will remain focused and doggedly pursue any task that lies ahead of her.

She is extremely opinionated (but then again what 15-year-old isn’t) and is always ready to confront anyone who would dare to challenge or belittle her. Her tongue is a sharp one, and always seems to have a witty or sarcastic remark armed and ready for fire.

Despite this, she isn’t unapproachable and is able to make fast friends with those who surround her. She was able to win over the rest of the team within a few short weeks, despite the cold shoulder upon her arrival.

One would be remiss to mention her relationship with the team without speaking specifically about her relationship with Kid Flash. It is clear that the two share some form of mutual attraction which manifests itself as immature teasing/taunting and arguments that most immature teens engage in when they don’t know how to express their true emotions.

Artemis mercilessly irritates Wally (and he returns the favour twofold) every chance she gets and argues with him constantly.

Finally, Artemis is desperately holding back a secret from her teammates that she feels would ruin any chances she has with them. From her actions with Chesire and the statements that she made while her memory was erased, it is clear that she is not Green Arrow’s niece.

She will go to great lengths to hide one simple fact; that she was trained by her father, Lawrence Crock a.k.a the Sportsmaster, to be an assassin, not a heroine.

Quotes

Red Arrow: “Can she even use that bow ?”
Artemis: “Yes, she can.”

(While leering at Superboy and joined into a telepathic link with the team)
Artemis: “Mmmm… that boy.”
Miss Martian: “He can hear you, we can all hear you.”
Artemis: “I know.”

Miss Martian: “Must you challenge everyone ?”
Artemis: “Where I come from, that’s how you survive.”

(While pointing her bow at Chesire) “Don’t. Move.”

M‘gann: “You know who would make the cutest couple ? You and Wally. You are so full of passion and he is so full of … uhhh…”
Artemis: “It ?”

(To her mother after receiving a Wayne Scholarship to a Gotham Prep school) “Yeah, I’m not switching schools. All my friends are at Gotham North.”

(Talking to Kid Flash and trying to reconstruct her memories of the last six months)
Kid Flash: “So, do you know how to use that bow ?”
Artemis: “Yeah, my dad taught me … Dad ! He must have done this. Another of his stupid tests.”
Kid Flash: “What kind of test ?”
Artemis: “He probably wants me to kill you.”

DC Universe History

The events of Young Justice are canonical and take place on Earth-16 within the DC Universe. Any travel through the DC Multiverse could potentially bring the player characters into contact with this version of Artemis Crock.

By Bryan Gittens.

Source of Character: Young Justice television series, Episodes 1-9 (voiced by Stephanie Lemelin).

Helper(s): Darci, Sébastien Andrivet, Azrael.