The Arrowverse is what a comic book TV multiverse should look like
The Arrowverse is one of the greatest success stories in the history of comic books movie or TV adaptations.
What started with one series has since exploded into multiple series featuring dozens of characters. The ongoing stories and crossovers built through this world have been some of the most engaging on TV around. And the Arrowverse did it with no substantial help from DC movies.
Arrow was the start of the Arrowverse on The CW, as well as the source of its real name. The series launched in 2012 and focused on the adventures of Oliver Queen. The heir to the Queen fortune was thought dead after a shipwreck. Instead, he spent five years on an island as well as other places around the world becoming a deadly archer and hand-to-hand combatant.
Sprinkled among the stories of his evolution into Green Arrow were an ongoing series of flashbacks showing what happened during those five years. Once the flashbacks caught up with the series, they became flash forwards looking at the lives of his children.
Stories for the series were drawn from a mixture of Green Arrow and Batman comic books. The main character might have been Green Arrow but many of the villains he faced were straight up Batman rogues – Ra’s al Ghul trying to bring Oliver into the League of Assassins was a prime example.
The Arrowverse picks up speed
Season 2 of Arrow was when the Arrowverse truly began. A CSI from Central City named Barry Allen arrived in Star City and became a de facto member of Team Arrow. After returning to Central City, he was in an accident that gave him, and a number of other people, superpowers.
These episodes were supposed to lay the groundwork for a backdoor pilot for a new series called The Flash but the show was ordered straight-to-pilot instead. After that, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, and Batwoman all launched.
While Arrow has since come to an end and Supergirl is ending, new series like Superman & Lois and potential spin-offs Green Arrow and The Canaries and Painkiller are on the way.
One issue for the Arrowverse was some of these shows being on networks outside of The CW. By necessity, the Arrowverse became a multiverse. Fortunately, that didn’t stop them from crossing the series over. Supergirl‘s first foray into the wider Arrowverse happened when Flash accidentally ran into her universe.
After that, bigger crossovers including more shows started happening. They got so big that they even started dragging in other DC shows like the Netflix series Lucifer which isn’t technically part of the Arrowverse. Ezra Miller’s version of Flash from the DC films made an appearance, acknowledging that the TV shows and movies are part of the same multiverse.
Crisis on Infinite Earths changes the game
Crisis on Infinite Earths was the most recent crossover. In addition to Lucifer, it also included other non-Arrowverse shows like Titans, Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing and Stargirl. It also brought in past shows and movies such as Batman (1966), Batman (1989), Smallville and Birds of Prey.
The influence of the Arrowverse has gotten so big that it is reviving series that ended years ago and bringing in actors from long gone movies. Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman in the DC Animated Universe for many years, even made an appearance as an older Bruce Wayne.
More impressive than that was the fact that Crisis on Infinite Earths was foreshadowed in the pilot episode of The Flash several years earlier. When it comes to the Arrowverse, the producers certainly know how to keep the big picture in mind.
The clarity of that big picture has always been at the core of this world. From day one, a vision was at work that led fans to where they are now. But it was never a guarantee that it would work out. There are a lot of moving parts in the Arrowverse, and things change all the time.
A big one was the recent departure of Ruby Rose from Batwoman. It caught fans off-guard. The announcement probably had a similar impact on producers. The series will continue with Javicia Leslie in the role of Batwoman. It will be interesting to watch this change play out.
A successful multiverse
The Arrowverse is how a comic book TV universe should be organized. It was a reasonably well-paced build, starting with one show and adding more into the mix as time went on. There was also enough crossover between the series to keep things interesting and build organic connections between them.
But the key to the Arrowverse’s success turned out to be its distance from the movies. Initially, fans were confused and annoyed by recasting characters for the movies that already existed in the Arrowverse. That turned out to be the smart move as this allowed the TV shows to do what they needed to do without worrying about what was happening in the movies.
Plus, Crisis on Infinite Earths filled in the gaps by laying out how the multiverse works between Arrowverse series, non-Arrowverse series and the feature films. While some wanted to see another MCU set up, this worked far better for DC in the long run.
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While the DC movies have been a breeding ground for controversy and the occasional bomb, the Arrowverse has proven to be far more reliable. The massive narrative constructed through it has provided something braver and bolder than anyone could have predicted.