My name is Oliver Queen: An Arrow retrospective

My name is Oliver Queen. For five years I was stranded on an island with only one goal: Survive…

It’s hard to believe we are closing in on almost ten years of the DC television program Arrow. The show premiered in 2012 and instantly gained a large audience, becoming the cornerstone of what would later be known as “The Arrowverse”.

But alas all good things must come to an end and Arrow is just about to begin its eighth and final season. So let’s take a journey back to the beginning and look at what makes Arrow special and what its enduring legacy will be going forward.

In the beginning…

Arrow was very much a child of the Nolan era of DC films. Coming hot on the heels of The Dark Knight Rises, it was somewhat controversial at the start, mostly due to the fact that the titular hero was rather dark and Batman-like – when the comic-book hero is more akin to a cavalier buccaneer who wears bright colors and sports a goatee.

In the TV program, however, Oliver Queen was portrayed as dark, brooding and living in a Gothamish world of dark colors and vicious criminals – a popular concept due to the recent mammoth success of Nolan’s extremely dark and foreboding Batman trilogy. While this was a bold choice, many people liked the change and embraced the “Batman” look and feel of the world of Starling City.

Today there is a slew of superhero TV shows but when Arrow began there was only one other, Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD – which began the month before. While SHIELD was connected to the greater MCU, Arrow was a disconnected program that had a whole world to play with, and indeed began with the pilot episode – teasing a greater world of heroes and villains to come (remember that Deathstroke mask on the beach?).

It’s hard to remember back when Oliver Queen was fighting drug dealers and thugs, as he now crosses swords and bows with all manner of aliens and metahumans regularly, but Arrow aired on The CW – home to the much-loved TV show Smallville about a young Superman.

While certain elements of that show may not have aged well for some, it was very much ahead of its time, so the arrival of Arrow and its dark brooding hero marked the beginning of a very different era for TV superheroes. For starters Oliver Queen had no qualms about snapping a baddie’s neck or turning him into a human pin cushion, and this was somewhat shocking when the show premiered.

For better or for worse…

Arrow was many things but it was not afraid to change up its style and status quo. For example, many expected Deathstroke to be slowly worked into the story, with him turning into a villain later on in the series, thus it shocked viewers when Slade was revealed to be the main villain of Season 2 – in much the same way the show introduced many Batman-style stories into the universe, including Ra’s Al Ghul and the Lazarus pit.

For the first two seasons, Arrow was riding a high, with both seasons being very well-received and two fan-favorite villains in The Dark Archer and Slade Wilson garnering praise. They then decided to switch things up for Seasons 3 and 4 by delving into the world of magic. This was a bold choice to move away from the street level crime from before, but the move meant that an entire world of characters and stories could be introduced into Oliver’s life.

The shift, however, was not terribly well-received mostly due to awkward casting (Ra’s was cast with an Australian actor who had a strong accent) and poor storylines that saw Oliver win battles he had no business winning – not-to-mention a rather flat season-ending with Oliver harnessing the magic of hope from the people of Star City (no joke!).

Arrow was able to steady itself with a strong fifth season that is widely regarded as the best since Season 2, as we saw Oliver face off with his past, and two villains who were a match for him both in fighting prowess and strategic thinking (Prometheus and Tobias Church).

More from Arrowverse

• The 9 best (and 8 worst) Arrowverse characters
• 27 best fighters in the Arrowverse, ranked
• All 8 Black Canary actresses ranked from worst to best
• 11 things nobody wants to admit about the Arrowverse
• The 7 best (and 6 worst) Arrowverse villains

Arrow had many good seasons and countless villains and heroes to remember, however, what the show will go down in the history books for is the creation of a universe that can stand next to the MCU, covering five TV shows over 25 seasons and 450 episodes.

The Arrowverse really started in Season 2 with the introduction of Barry Allen, who was then spun off into his own show The Flash. It continued with the Legends of Tomorrow joining up to take down Vandal Savage – which was teased in the show’s Season 4 crossover. Which brings us to what the Arrowverse is most famous for – its crossovers.

Building a legacy

What began with a small joint-adventure with Oliver and Barry has now morphed into a multi-hour miniseries across multiple shows – with this year’s five-part edition giving us the first on-screen adaption of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

It’s no secret that Warner Brothers has had a hard time with the DCEU on the big screen, and sadly with The Batman and Joker both being set outside the greater DCEU canon, we are increasingly unlikely to see a DC version of Avengers: Endgame with all our heroes together – so it is positively thrilling to see the Arrowverse and its dozens of heroes all gather to save the multiverse.

The Arrowverse, starting with Arrow, was able to build on its mythology and introduce its heroes and villains gradually. There were bumps along the way and The CW had every right to panic after Seasons 3 and 4 of the show, but they adjusted and pushed ahead, and fans can now be excited to see a truly living, breathing world where Green Arrow and Flash work with Supergirl.  

It’s hard to believe we’ve almost had 10 years of Arrow, and I for one will be sad to see it go. They say it’s better to leave a party 10 mins early and to leave while you are on a high. Well, the Arrowverse is definitely at its height right now, which makes it all the more bittersweet to see the one show (and hero) who launched it all riding off into the sunset.

Sadly that is the way of stories, and while Arrow has certainly had its rough patches (Olicity anyone?) I, as a lifelong DC fan, will be eternally grateful to Oliver and company for making my dreams of a giant DC universe come true.

We as comic-book fans can look back to 2012 and remember that we lived through the renaissance of comic-book characters on the small screen. It was a time of firsts, and no matter how many good shows (and movies) come out in the future, I will always remember hearing those words for the first time:

My name is Oliver Queen…

Arrow returns to The CW for its final season on Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 9:00 p.m. ET. Will you be sad to see the show go? What does Arrow mean to you? Let us know in the comments below!