Arrow My Dear

Here we are. 

In the future.  

Where Superheros are the main stream, computers are cool, and most of the tech in Star Trek exists in some form or another. 

Still no Teleporters though.  


So let’s rewind a few years, all the way back to October 2012 and the pilot episode of Arrow has just aired and I was both disappointed and excited. 

Disappointed because after having ten years of Smallville and watching a show go from “Scooby Doo staring Clark Kent” to “He wore the suit! He Wore the Suit!”   we are presented with “You have failed this Batman 90210”

I was excited though.  

 It was obvious from the production value that DC and the CW were throwing their weight behind the show.  The trip up, especially in those first couple of seasons of Arrow, was that you were watching twenty and thirty somethings playing twenty and thirty somethings having high school drama with a fully trained superhero.   The reason Smallville worked as well as it did was that it started in high school, showing Clark as a teenager dealing with high school problems while dealing with the monster of the week then gradually moving superhero antics to the forefront and replacing high school woes with the woes of having a job and paying bills and having mortgages.  

It was a natural progression and solid heroes journey told through the course of years  Instead a privileged white kid goes camping, is rescued by a government agency, comes home, literally gets away with murder and then is accepted as the hero of the city.   Then ends up getting all the money, looses the money, becomes the mayor, goes to jail for like a month? and then becomes a super police man?

But again I was excited. 

Because it was obvious that the folks making the show cared.  The actors were committed, the action was exciting, the writing was...well, it was written.

Then two years later we got The Flash. 
They embraced the wacky and humor and let the Flash be the Flash : earnest and always trying to help.  

I get it though, on a logical level that understands the ins and outs of the entertainment industry and why producers and money people get nervous if you stray to far from the safe bets. Why Arrow ended up being the way that it was. 

Arrow was a semi popular B-lister with a redemptive story arc that if done right could kick off a franchise.  

You know...Like Iron Man.  And the Cynical Side of me was so excited by this even if they were trying to give Batman a bow and make Oliver Queen Bruce Wayne. 

Misplaced as some of its initial production choices may have been it did pave the way for the Flash to punch a giant shark.  Yes!

After that each year another show was added to the, as it is known now, the Arrowverse.

After the Flash we got “The Devil Wears Prada with Aliens”, even if it was not part of the Arrowverse from the beginning. 

Which to be honest is exactly what I was looking for with a superhero show.

It was fun, quirky, and most importantly they put all the hams out there.  Giving full superhero throw downs and super powered brawls as much screen time as “does he like me? Do I like him?”.  Like a slice of chocolate cake washed down with some strawberry milk. So over the top and sweet that it should give you diabetes but you can’t help but enjoy it while it’s in front of you.

From girl power, we stroll into the Legends of Tomorrow.   Arguably the cheesiest of shows, but that is also what makes it an amazing show. 
Something silly, light, and fluffy.  Like a bit of cotton candy for the soul.   Not shying away from adult problems, but interestingly enough, spinning them so that they can be shared with the whole family.

Pulling heroes from the fringes of the Arrowverse and letting them play in some of the silliest story arcs super heroes can play in.  

So much fun.

Black Lightning came next.
Which this show spoke to my soul more than any of them.  A former vigilante turned educator, turned back to vigilante again when he saw the problems in his neighborhood.  So maybe I’m a little biased on this one. But even from an objective level it holds with the same quality of the rest of the Arrowverse, my only complaint being that the story was so serious all of the time.  Don’t get me wrong, they were dealing with some real issues in this show and they handled them well. But, a little light hearted episode from time to time I feel would have made the first season land a little better.

And now, we have Batwoman.  I can’t wait to see what ends up happening with this show. 
From her introduction I was on board.  And, is it set in the Nolan Verse? Or at least it seems to draw from some of that inspiration.  

 Regardless: I can’t wait to see a full season pulled together and where they go with the whole thing. 

The fact that they share continuity and have the crossover events makes it feel like comics. Allowing the writers to play with characters that they don’t usually write for, and actors to engage in superheroics that they typically don’t deal with in their own shows. 

And, I do need to point this out. The LBGTQ rep is there. From dealing with same sex couples in the same light as the more hetero normative relationships, to having a Transgender superhero. Who would have thought that the CW and DC would be the ones that would take Queer culture and make it seem, well, normal. I didn't see it coming. Hoped for it sure, but to actually see these shows..it makes me damned happy that the future, though not quite as idyllic as the Superheroes make it seem, is slowly starting to become so.

At the end of the day, the Arrowverse picked up the ball that Smallville kicked down the field and ran with it.

And I’m excited to see where they run with it next.