By Mike Huntley
While we all know superheroes to be huge box office business at the
cinema, they have also been widely successful on the small screen of
television since the 1950s with The Adventures of Superman starring
George Reeves. From there, Batman became a pop culture phenomenon in
1966 with Adam West in the cape and cowl, punching out his famous group
of super villain rogues every week. Wonder Woman made her TV debut in
the 1970s with the lovely Lynda Carter. Even Marvel had success with The
Incredible Hulk on the small screen. Television also had successes with
The Green Hornet and the kid superhero Shazam!. A Superboy TV series
occurred in the '80s. We got an awesome yet sadly short lived TV series
for the fastest superhero out there with The Flash in 1990 starring John
Wesley Shipp as the crime lab specialist Barry Allen, who got struck by
lightning one night, giving him super speed and becoming the fast
running superhero after his police officer brother was murdered.
Superhero television found a hit with Lois & Clark: The New
Adventures of Superman starring Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher as the
iconic comic book couple, which lasted four seasons during the mid-late
'90s. During this time, superheroes became very popular in animation
with Batman The Animated Series, Superman The Animated Series,
Spider-Man, and the X-Men.
After Lois & Clark got cancelled on CBS in 1997, Warner Bros.
decided to go back to the Man of Steel's early years with Smallville on
The WB starring Tom Welling as the would be Superman, Clark Kent.
Smallville became so popular amongst superhero fans or non-comic book
readers that it lasted a total of 10 seasons, the longest running
superhero TV series to date. During Smallville's 10 year run, WB tried
other attempts at bringing popular DC Comics heroes to the small screen.
The first attempt was Birds of Prey in 2002 that played off of the
Batman mythos and characters by having it where Bruce Wayne/Batman and
Selina Kyle/Catwoman had a daughter named Helena Kyle/Huntress (The
Earth II Huntress. Earth 1 Huntress is Helena Bertinelli and was on
Arrow) who was taken in by Barbara Gordon after Catwoman was murdered by
a mysterious killer. Barbara Gordon who used to be Batman's sidekick
Batgirl had lost the use of her legs after Joker shot her. Then, a young
runaway teen named Dinah Lance (who's the Black Canary in the comic
books but was the Canary's daughter in that show) joins the team. Birds
of Prey only lasted 14 episodes due to fans not liking the show for not actually being a Batman series, and plus it was in a weird time
slot. WB's 2nd attempt was Aquaman, which starred Justin Hartley as the
king of Atlantis, but didn't make it past the pilot. But, this kinda
worked out since Smallville took in Hartley to play Oliver Queen/Green
Arrow to basically be Batman's replacement in the wider DC Universe they
were building in season 6 since they could not use Batman due to
Christopher Nolan not wanting Batman to be used outside of animation and
comics while he was making his Dark Knight trilogy.
Smallville closed its doors in Spring of 2011 with Clark's
destiny finally coming full circle and him becoming Superman, which also
brought an iconic foe back from the dead with Michael Rosenbaum coming
back to play the evil Lex Luthor. Before Smallville ended, The CW was
considering making a show dealing with Dick Grayson before he would
become Batman's sidekick Robin, but that was quickly squashed by Nolan
and Warner Bros. Pictures. Since The CW did not have the rights to use
Batman as the front runner for a TV series due to his popularity in the
cinema, they decided to take a character who had previously been
introduced to their viewers in Smallville and use the influence of
Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, which has been used as a blue print
for various superhero movies coming out now to bring The Emerald Archer
to the small screen in a much darker comic book reimagining known now as
Arrow.
Billionaire Oliver Queen used to be the spoiled
trouble making rich kid until he got stranded on an island out in the
China sea for 5 years after his father's ship sank, killing his
girlfriend's sister who he had been screwing around with. Queen is
finally rescued and brought back to his hometown of Starling City. To
his surprise, things have changed. His mother is now married to his
father's work partner and friend Walter Steele. His younger sister Thea
is now a troublesome teen who's into drugs and partying way too much.
His best friend Tommy Merlyn is now sleeping with his old girlfriend
Laurel Lance. But, Oliver has come back with a mission: to stop the
criminals who plaque his city and to honor his father's dying wish by
righting his wrongs. But, to do this, he must become something else.
After him and his buddy Tommy are kidnapped by some masked thugs, Oliver
manages to kill them while his friend lays unconscious. He tells
Detective Quentin Lance that a man in a green hood saved their lives.
Queen dons a green outfit he had from the island and uses his bow and
arrow as his weapon to take down the rich crime lords, drug dealers, and
psychopaths that rein the city at night. Things take a turn when his
mother hires ex military man John Diggle to be her son's body guard and
driver.
Oliver soon brings on Digg as his ally to help him clean up Starling
City. Queen battles various villains from the DC Universe such as
Deadshot/Floyd Lawton, Count Vertigo, The Royal Flush Gang, China White,
and the Dark Archer who will be Oliver's greatest foe yet. He will
also have a complicated relationship with another vigilante named Helena
Bertinelli/The Huntress who will stop at nothing to kill her mob boss
of a father for having her fiance' murdered. Felicity Smoak who works at
Queen Consolidated also becomes an ally for Oliver as his computer
hacker and gadget maker. While The Hood puts out many fires, the biggest
threat is yet to come. A threat that will forever change Oliver and the
citizens of Starling City.
Meanwhile, we see what happened to Oliver on the island
while flashing forward to the present. On the island, Oliver meets Yao
Fei who teaches him how to survive. It turns out that mercenaries are on
the island ran by Edward Fyers. Fyers has Queen tortured by a man named
Deathstroke and constantly torments him physically and psychologically.
Oliver also meets a member of the Austrailian Secret Intelligence named
Slade Wilson who teaches Oliver how to fight like a warrior and trains
him. Joining Oliver and Slade on the island is Yao Fei's daughter Shado
who teaches Oliver how to shoot a bow and arrow. But, just when Oliver,
Slade, and Shado think that Fyers is the end of their problem, they
realize that there's more to this island than they ever thought.
I absolutely love the first season of Arrow! This has become
my favorite show on television besides the animated Cartoon Network
series Beware The Batman. I think the thing I love most about this
series is that it took a very realistic approach with the character. I
do remember originally being upset when I found out that this was not
going to be a spinoff of Smallville, but I am so happy that they decided
to reboot the character into a heightened real world. There's no super
powered characters on this show, but we all know that will change in
season 2 with The Flash coming to Starling City, yet the producers are
still taking that in a very grounded way in the vain of Man of Steel
where we got to see what this world would be like with super powered
people in it. But where Smallville was a telling of a superhero before
the costume, this is the telling of a hero who wears a costume and lives
a dual life. We do get characters in masks like Huntress or Black
Canary. Granted, the hero isn't going by his superhero name yet, but
we're getting there. I love that this series makes us comic book readers
think one thing due to our knowledge of the characters and yet
surprises us by not going that way. It creates its own mythology much
like Smallville did, yet doesn't drag things out as much as that series
had done. Arrow hits the ground running. Our hero has allies. He does
have a complicated love life. He does have enemies both as himself and
as the vigilante. His journey as a vigilante has had huge consequences
on his family's life, on his friendship with Tommy, on his past
relationship with Laurel, and even on his alliance with Digg and
Felicity.
Another thing I love about Arrow is seeing the DC villains make their
first live action portrayals. We get Batman baddie Deadshot in the 3rd
episode! And the whole thing of him lacing his bullets with poison was
genius! We get Count Vertigo who was totally reimagined to fit this
series. Instead of being a guy in a cape and wearing a device over his
eye that distorts visual perception to make his victims feel dizzy and
sick, he's a psychotic drug dealer named The Count and his drug is
called Vertigo, which gives people the dizzy effect. We also get
another Batman baddie with Firefly/Garfield Lynns. Instead of being an
arsonist dressed in a fire proof bug suit, he's a scarred ex fireman who
sets other firemen on fire in revenge for them leaving him to burn to
death. The Royal Flush Gang who are popular DC baddies. Instead of a
rich family literally dressed as playing card characters who have flying
cards to get around on, they are a family that lost their home and have
to steal to survive and wear masks that have playing cards painted on
them. Deathstroke who in the comics is Slade Wilson but here is Slade's
partner Billy Wintergreen who betrayed him to work for Fyers. That's not
to say that Slade won't still become Deathstroke and end up betraying
Oliver and lose an eye. And then we have the Dark Archer/Merlyn. Many
fans know that Merlyn is Green Arrow's arch nemesis. He's the yin to
Oliver's yang. Batman has Joker. Superman has Lex Luthor. Green Lantern
has Sinestro. Spider-Man has Green Goblin. Professor X has Magneto.
Arrow has Merlyn. I'm just so happy that they didn't go with the Merlyn
that I was thinking they were going to. Great set of villains.
I do appreciate that Oliver and Laurel's relationship
didn't take the rocking chaiir routine like Clark and Lana's did on
Smallville, or Peter Parker and Mary Jane's did in the Spider-Man
trilogy. In the comics, Dinah Laurel Lance is the vigilant crime fighter
Black Canary and has a passionate relationship with Green Arrow. But,
it turns out that the producers of Arrow are going a different direction
with Laurel being in love with Tommy and someone else being the Black
Canary who is connected to Laurel's past and to me actually makes
perfect sense and I hope they make her the one for Oliver in season 2.
Felicity also has a crush on Oliver, which is obvious. She sorta reminds
me of Barbara Gordon with being a computer genius. Barbara Gordon, known
best as Batgirl, ended up becoming Batman's computer hacker when she
lost the use of her legs, becoming the wheel chair bound computer
technician Oracle. But, Oliver does have a brief romance with another
vigilante. That vigilante being Helena Bertinelli aka Huntress. In this
show, Helena is after her father who was a major mob boss. In the
comics, Helena is after the man who murdered her father. I'm not the
biggest fan of making Huntress a straight up psychotic Fatal
Attraction-esque villain to Oliver. But, then I remembered Faith on
Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel, who began as a villain but then
reformed herself into becoming a heroine. Hoping that happens with
Huntress in maybe season 2. She sorta reminds me of Catwoman/Selina
Kyle, which is funny because the Earth II Huntress is Catwoman and
Batman's daughter. With Huntress and Black Canary on the same show, a DC
fanatic like myself could only hope we'd get Oracle so they could form a
Birds of Prey team, but that won't happen due to CW not being allowed
to use Barbara Gordon and due to the fact that the Birds of Prey series
from 2002 failed. They do mention Dick Grayson/Nightwing's new home of
Bludhaven, but I doubt they will use him for the same reason, which is a
damn shame. I'd love to see this televised DCU be able to do what
Smallville couldn't. You never know, with Fox picking up Gotham, maybe,
just maybe they could reach a deal to use Barbara Gordon or Dick
Grayson. Don't think it'll happen though sadly.
The introduction to Green Arrow's future sidekick Roy
Harper, aka Speedy, or Red Arrow, was good. In the beginning, I thought
they were going to make it where Oliver's sister Thea would become his
sidekick due to her nickname being Speedy but I'm glad that's not the
case. Personally, I couldn't stand Thea in this first season. She was
the typical whiny rebellious teenager who is into drugs and using her
wealth to just party. But, I do like that they took her in a better
direction towards the end of the season. Her relationship with Roy
changed things. Roy starts off as the street kid who steals to get by.
He lives in the Glades, which is the poor side of Starling City in the
same way that the Narrows was the poor section of Gotham City in Batman
Begins. Roy kinda reminds me of Jason Todd who was the 2nd Robin to
Batman. After Arrow saves him from a psycho who is killing off people in
the Glades, Roy decides he wants to fight the criminals and make a
positive difference.
Detective Quentin Lance's crusade to take down "The
Hood" became a little repetitive after several episodes, but I dug that
he started to mellow out and became more of an unlikely ally to Green
Arrow, so much so that it almost costs him his job as part of the
Starling City Police Department.
Overall, Arrow- The Complete First Season is a must
watch for superhero fans especially if you love characters like Batman.
Oliver Queen may have began as a Bruce Wayne ripoff in the comics, but
thanks to shows like Smallville and now with Arrow, Oliver Queen/Green
Arrow is his own hero who starts out as a lone vigilante who kills and
steals from the richly corrupt and transforms into the hero that was
laying just beneath the surface of that Hellacious island.
I definitely recommend you buy this season on Blu-Ray/DVD or through iTunes. You can also stream the first season on Netflix.
I definitely recommend you buy this season on Blu-Ray/DVD or through iTunes. You can also stream the first season on Netflix.
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