Harper Row grew up in the Narrows of Gotham City with her younger brother, Cullen. They both had a rough life due to abuse, abandonment and the lack of money. She later became the vigilante Bluebird.
History
Harper's father had a habit of breaking things, then would disappear for stretches of time. During this time Harper would fix the things her father broke. Harper claims that her earliest memories are of watching the building super strip and graft wires, and fix things that seemed beyond repair. Harper soon developed a talent for fixing things herself. Her relationship with her father is stated to have been abusive, as she lists herself and her brother among the things he would break. Eventually Harper applied for emancipation. After achieving this, she moved out, taking her brother Cullen with her, and applied for a job with the city electrical engineer, and gets a job doing maintenance on the city's electrical grid.
Harper and Cullen moved into the narrows, and broke contact with their father. Unfortunately some of the local bullies began targeting Cullen, seemingly because of his sexual orientation.
The Wayne Gala
After rewiring her landlady's apartment, Harper is paid with a ticket to the Wayne Gala where Bruce Wayne was to announce his revitalization project that will result in their home being demolished. She was initially hesitant to go, feeling she wouldn't fit in, and would look ridiculous. Cullen, however, managed to convince her to go, citing his desire for her to court Tim Drake (she denies any interest in one of Wayne's pet orphans, but Cullen reveals his own designs on them). As Cullen helped with her hair and make-up, she noticed a bandage on his wrist, which he tells her not to worry about. Cullen soon convinces her to go, citing his desire for her to have a night without having to worry about him, or the rent, or their father finding them.
After Wayne's presentation is done, Harper begins raiding the dessert tray, planning to leave as soon as her backpack is full. As she does so, she is spotted by Wayne's butler who tells her she's making a serious error, by not taking the brownies with her, claiming they're an old family recipe.
Harper asks if he knows the way out, as she needs to get home. As he escorts her, the butler asks if she's the girl who won the lottery for a ticket to the Gala. She answers that she didn't win it herself, but was given the ticket by her landlady in lieu three hundred dollars she was owed.
Harper is then asked what she thinks of Bruce Wayne's revitalization project, to which she responds that she doesn't think much of anything, as she "can't get her hopes up whenever some rich guy whose probably never set foot in the narrows, says he's going to fix it up". The butler seems amused by this and claims that she'd be surprised, but she dismisses this claiming Wayne's doesn't know the Gotham she and her brother live with everyday.
On her return home, she discovers that the apartment has been broken into, and Cullen has been assaulted, his hair cut into an uneven mess and the word FAG shaved into the back of his head. Harper comforts him before getting out the clippers. Cullen claims that she's wasting her time as if she fixes it, they'll only do it again. She agrees, but claims that's not what she had in mind, before taking the clippers to herself, and giving herself a matching haircut.
Encounters With The Bat
A few days later the same gang of bullies attacks them both as they're on their way home. Harper initially tries to defend them with a taser that she'd super charged, but this soon becomes useless after more bullies show up. Fortunately they are both saved by Batman, who tells the bullies that things won't go as nicely if he sees them at it again. Both are starstruck, and begin to seek ways to honor, or repay Batman for his aid.
Though Cullen simply plans to get a bat symbol tattoo, Harper goes much further. She begins looking up videos of Batman online, and soon discovers that he's been sabotaging city security cameras, to avoid any clear footage being found of him. Knowing due to her job, that he can't access the cameras from remote, she becomes curious as to how he achieves this. She soon discovers Batman's private enhancements to Gotham's electric grid and uses it to track her new hero. She also begins working on a way to improve the boxes, hoping to repay the Batman. Later she sees part of the grid go offline, assuming something is wrong, she investigates and finds herself in a position to assist him in capturing Tiger Shark. Batman subsequently visits her at work shortly after, and tells her to not to get herself involved in his activities again.
Later, when Batman was nearly completely defeated by the Court of Owls, and escaped into Gotham river, Harper spotted him near a hole in the ice and fished him out. Batman briefly flatlined, but she managed to help him with a makeshift defibrillator.
Batman and Bluebird
Powers and Abilities
- Electrical Engineering: Row has gained impressive experience with electronics having to fend for herself most of her life. Her skill is so great, she actually improved one of Batman's gadgets: the Batbox.
- Gadgetry:
- Computer Operation:
- Survivalist: Harper and her brother barely have a family. Despite having the odds against them, the two manage to survive in the concrete jungle of Gotham.
- Firearms:
- Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic): Mostly self-trained, Row is a skilled unarmed combatant, able to beat most thugs.
In other media
- Young Justice: Bluebird made her first animated appearance in the episode, "Another Freak".