The Last Arrow In The Quiver....Or "how did Green Arrow become such a big deal?"

[DrNewGod]

Syfy did a neat article about Arrow's pending cancellation, and what it means for the future of the Arrow-verse. Who would have believed, back seven years ago, that Green Arrow would become the launchpad for what could be arguably called The Golden Age of DCTV?

I mean, this is DC's goofy Batman-knockoff. The guy who survived The Superhero Purge of the 1950s only by hiding out in the back pages of the book Superboy headlined. The character who didn't get an invitation to help form the original JLA, when even Aquaman made the cut (Aquaman for cryin' out loud - at the time, an even goofier knockoff character, that also survived by hiding out in Superboy's book).

So, looking back, what's your opinion? How is it that a theretofore B-lister (on his good days) became such an important multimedia presence for DC? What made Arrow, and the continuity that it spawned, the success it has become?

[Wiccan]

The show has been terrible for a while and it's not really that big of a deal.

[C_Miller]

I mean, they borrowed so much from Batman even going as far as to make the League of Assassins integral to Oliver's history. If the powers that be had been more interested in doing a traditional live action Batman show than they have shown, I have no doubt in my mind that Arrow would have been that.

It's kind of funny though. Arrow was created as a Batman knockoff and the show revived that aspect of him. Just rather than using the goofy 50s comics as a template, they used the modern comics.

[Captain Smith]

The initial shows and the ability of Steve Arnell were compelling enough to attract fans. I agree that the latest shows have descended into meandering multiple cast sob stories and boring villains. Diaz was the icing on the cake of a who gives a crap bad guy. The turn to be mayor - who cares. The vigilante law theme that comes and goes never should have came.

[DrNewGod]

Criticisms of the show are warranted, but that's no the question posed. Seven years is a pretty good lifespan for a TV show. What made it work?

[Jim Kelly]

Calling it a cancellation seems wrong. Would you say that SEINFELD was cancelled when it ended after nine seasons? My understanding is that Stephen Amell wanted to leave because of family commitments, so they decided on doing the short season so ARROW could end on its own terms, rather than having an ending imposed on it.

Semantics aside, it seems like they were already planning for this to happen when they did the Elseworlds crossover. I'm pretty excited to see how it all plays out for the several CW shows.

ARROW on the small scale for CW/DC turned out like IRON MAN on the large scale for Marvel Studios/Disney. Both were second tier characters that likely wouldn't have got their shot if the studios had the option to use bigger names. And then with their success, the studios were able to build a whole franchise around them. Even if Ollie and Tony leave their respective universes, they are the foundations for everything that follows.

[David Walton]

I hope that Amell is open to occasionally returning in some form or another.

Would love to see him get the chance to play the older, more confident Oliver with goatee, whichever earth that one might be found on.

At any rate, what an impressive run and legacy!

[Midvillian1322]

My mom was a huge Smallville fan and that why she gave Arrow a true and she loved it. I havent watche in a season and a half but the first 2 seasons were great. I mean season 1 and 2 I use to look forward to the flashbacks. Soon as we got past Slade that went away quick. This show has good talent but feels like they dont know what to do with it sometimes. Maybe Green Arrows not a character cut out for long format the way some other DC characters are.

[Wiccan]

Criticisms of the show are warranted, but that's no the question posed. Seven years is a pretty good lifespan for a TV show. What made it work?

- It was released exactly when superheroes were getting more and more popular thanks to the MCU and co.

- Yet at the same time it was the first superhero(Marvel/DC at least) tv show in a while.

- Flash, Supergirl and LOT were released on the same universe, that even got named "The Arrowverse", so it started being a part of a whole brand rather than just some normal separate TV show.

- There used to be quite some ship drama online, which is usually a must for CW shows.

- I think the first seasons were good. They told cohesive storylines, the flashbacks and how they connected to the present were interesting, and the characters showed promise. And people were a bit less used to comic book craziness and the show was pretty realistic, so it wasn't extra ambitious and experimental.

- CW's tolerance for not canceling shows is a lot higher than most networks. If it was on, say, ABC, it probably would have been over on season 5 or so(the only reason AOS managed to get past season 4 was that Marvel asked Disney, that owns both them and ABC, to not cancel it).

[Jim Kelly]

The sad thing is more character are dead than alive from the first couple of seasons. If Ollie bites the big one in the Crisis crossover, I'd like the last episode to be him returning to the island and meeting all those characters that have passed on--hopefully bringing back all those stars that I miss.

[jetengine]

Because like all good Dc series it started as a Batman show.

[Midvillian1322]

- It was released exactly when superheroes were getting more and more popular thanks to the MCU and co.

- Yet at the same time it was the first superhero(Marvel/DC at least) tv show in a while.

- Flash, Supergirl and LOT were released on the same universe, that even got named "The Arrowverse", so it started being a part of a whole brand rather than just some normal separate TV show.

- There used to be quite some ship drama online, which is usually a must for CW shows.

- I think the first seasons were good. They told cohesive storylines, the flashbacks and how they connected to the present were interesting, and the characters showed promise. And people were a bit less used to comic book craziness and the show was pretty realistic, so it wasn't extra ambitious and experimental.

- CW's tolerance for not canceling shows is a lot higher than most networks. If it was on, say, ABC, it probably would have been over on season 5 or so(the only reason AOS managed to get past season 4 was that Marvel asked Disney, that owns both them and ABC, to not cancel it).

Smallville literaly had just ended a year prior so it wasnt that long but smallville left a big hole at CW Arrow stepped up

[Powerboy]

Criticisms of the show are warranted, but that's no the question posed. Seven years is a pretty good lifespan for a TV show. What made it work?

Nowadays, shows generally call it at seven seasons. Was it really canceled or did they just choose to end it?

I loved the dark stuff at first but it started wearing thin after a few seasons. But that's typical. A show starts out as something new. After a while, it starts to wear thin.

I know people have issues with the CW shows and so do I but never to the point I didn't think they were decent and doing their best.

Regardless of a drop in quality as the seasons went on (in my opinion), the show was really good at first and deserved to be the lynchpin of a small television shared universe.

[Frontier]

The show has been terrible for a while and it's not really that big of a deal.

Well, four good seasons (1, 2, 5, 7) to three bad (3, 4, 6) seems to about balance things out, I think.

Although for good or ill I think Arrow had a pretty significant impact on serialized Superhero television, if only for the shared television Superhero universe it inadvertently ended up spearheading.

I hope that Amell is open to occasionally returning in some form or another.

Would love to see him get the chance to play the older, more confident Oliver with goatee, whichever earth that one might be found on.

At any rate, what an impressive run and legacy!

Amell has said the end of Arrow won't be the last time we see him, so I wouldn't rule it out .

[Somecrazyaussie]

The show worked because it came at a time when superheroes were becoming a big thing in Hollywood and seen as big money spinners (spurred on by The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises success the same year.)

There was also a lack of superhero shows on TV. So anybody into comics (or superheroes in general) tuned in to get a weekly fix. Plus, after what Smallville had become by the time it wrapped, Arrow was very grounded and gritty in that first season.

However, the show probably survived as long as it has because people became invested in the universe it had set up. The fact it borrowed heavily from Batman's mythology probably worked in its favor (as a huge Green Arrow fan, that irony wasn't lost on me.)

In the end, whether you loved it or loathed it, you can't deny that, without its success, we probably wouldn't have the vast majority of superhero shows that we do now. It convinced CW to take a chance and create a rich universe (which likely helped push Marvel into following suite with its shows.) That will be its legacy.