Ten Thoughts About Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow

Last week was a good week for fans of DC television shows with not one, but two previews of upcoming fall super-hero series.

Supergirl (from CBS):



And Legends of Tomorrow (a CW Arrow/Flash spinoff featuring the Atom (or A.T.O.M. if you prefer), White Canary, Firestorm, Hawkgirl, and Flash Rogues Captain Cold and Heatwave as a team brought together by contractual convenience Rip Hunter, Time Master:


Here are my thoughts, in completely random order.

Starting with Legends of Tomorrow:

1. I'm hep to the concept. This sounds like it's going to be a sort of Doctor Who's Suicide Squad, and you know what? I think that's an awesome premise with a lot of room to do cool episodes set in historical locales. I eagerly await the second season Titanic-based episode. ;)

2. Am I the only one who finds the Iron Man-ization of the Atom a bit annoying? I mean, I get it — people love them some Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man, and it's not like Ray Palmer's personality (as represented in the comics) has a lot of hooks, but every time Brandon Routh makes one of his Billionaire Software genius jokes, I sort of cringe. On the flipside, he also has this awkward tech geek thing going on which helps a bit (though that's a trope that's getting old as well...)

3. The White Canary - I'm not familiar with this relatively new DC character, so I can't say much about other than the name will help viewers connect the character to the Black Canary. God help them if they try to unravel the connection past the name though. Still, it will be great to see Caity Lotz back on a weekly series. She was one of the outstanding players on Season 2 of Arrow.

4. Hawkgirl. Well, I would have rather scene Black Orchid or Zatanna here, but I'm glad they included another woman on the team. Who wants to bet they'll upgrade her powers in some fashion as the show goes on?

5. Captain Cold/Heat Wave - like Caity Lotz, Wentworth Miller is one of those actors who can save almost any show for me (except Dinotopia, which I suspect he no longer puts on his resume.) Pairing him with Dominic Purcell (his television brother from Prison Break) was a cute gimmick on the Flash.

And while the Heatwave character hasn't given Purcell much to work with, Miller's Captain Cold has been a blast to watch on the Flash. Even in this trailer, he manages to steal a few scenes.

Now on to Supergirl:

6. As tonally different as the Flash was from Arrow, so is this show from either of those two. This definitely has a "television show aimed at women - as produced by CBS" feel to it. Someone called it Ally McBeal with a cape, and while they meant that as an insult, I'd have to say that sounds like a combo that would make a lot of people happy. In my household, both my wife and 9-year-old daughter liked the preview.

7. I also think the show will appeal to those disenfranchised Superman fans who felt Man of Steel betrayed their hero. As to me, I think the preview made it look like a fun show, so count me in. :)

8. Nice to see both Helen Slater and Dean Cain will have a role in the pilot (as the Kara's adoptive parents.) I guess we've reached a point where in fandom, if you've ever played a role in a DC television series, there may be an opportunity for you to play another role in a DC television series. So, how long before we see Smallville's Tom Welling in a DC series? (Wouldn't it be cool if he did a cameo as Superman in this Supergirl series?!)

9. Is Vartox going to be in the Pilot?  Screenrant has a nice Easter Eggs round-up that suggests the first villain of the series will be the Sean Connery-inspired Bronze Age Superman foe. They also have a screenshot that alludes to other extraterrestrial threats. I think that if the show goes for a ET Freak of the Week vibe (initially) that will help viewers get grounded in the show. Then they can branch out from there.

10. Will either show be a hit? That will depend on ratings and how much stock each network puts into those ratings. One of the things that has constantly plagued ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is that ABC has higher ratings expectations than the CW. Will CBS have similar expectations for Supergirl? How have such shows fared on the big three networks in the past? Heroes did quite well initially. And going back further, so did Lois and Clark. Still, CBS earned its reputation as the "old people's network" the hard way, and I don't see them shaking that anytime soon. Supergirl might not be what the viewers of CSI or NCIS are looking for.

— Jim

Arrow Season 3 Midseason Report

Editor's Note: Today Blair Marnell continues his CW Superhero midseason reports with a look back at the first half of "Arrow" Season 3. - Jim

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I wasn’t always a fan of “Arrow,” especially in the first season. 

Although “Arrow” has been pretty good in terms of action since the beginning, the dialogue was beyond atrocious during the early days as the show reveled in its CWness. There was Stephen Amell’s apparent allergy to shirts, Oliver’s doomed love with Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy), and the most CW characters of them all: Oliver’s sister, Thea (Willa Holland) and their mother, Moira (Susanna Thompson).

That’s not to say that there weren’t episodes I enjoyed during “Arrow” Season 1. It just wasn’t fully clicking for me. It didn’t help that “Arrow” killed off Tommy Merlyn when Colin Donnell was easily one of the best actors on the series. It took most of the first season for “Arrow” to find itself, but I didn’t really get invested in it until early in the second season when the following line was said: 

“Ra's al Ghul has ordered your return.”

Now, it’s just a name, right? A little Easter egg for the DC fans and viewers of the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight films who remember that Ra's al Ghul just happens to be one of the greatest Batman villains of all time. It didn’t necessarily mean that we’d ever get to see Ra's al Ghul on “Arrow,” but the idea that he was out there really expanded the world of the show.

Green Arrow doesn’t have the greatest rogues gallery in the comics, which is why “Arrow” has so liberally borrowed other villains from the DC Universe. John Barrowman was a terrific choice as Malcolm Merlyn, but Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke (Manu Bennett) was the only other adversary who really registered on the show... and he’s more of a Teen Titans villain than an enemy of Green Arrow. At least that was the case before Identity Crisis came along and tried to spark that rivalry between them. 

The point is that there was no clear choice for “the big bad” of “Arrow” Season 3 except Ra's al Ghul. It really had to be him, because the show had foreshadowed his appearance for almost a full season. If Fox’s “Gotham” had cockblocked that, it would have killed that momentum. 

That said, I’m not entirely sold on Matt Noble as Ra's al Ghul. The midseeason finale of “Arrow” Season 3 gave us our best look to date at Noble’s incarnation of the character. He’s not bad in the role, but I’m not blown away by this casting choice. 

From this point on, there are full spoilers ahead for the “Arrow” Season 3 midseason finale! If you’re still reading after this paragraph, I’m assuming that you’re up to date with the show.

One thing that I loved about the midseason finale was that Oliver Queen was completely outclassed in the unnecessarily shirtless in the snow duel with Ra’s. The Demon’s Head easily disarmed Oliver and stabbed him with his own sword before kicking Oliver off of the mountain to his apparent death. But if anyone thinks that Oliver is really dead then they haven’t been reading enough comic books. 

The downside of Noble’s performance is that he didn’t demonstrate the force of personality behind Ra's al Ghul. This is a world class adversary who could teach James Bond villains a masterclass on truly epic villainy. Ra's al Ghul is the hero of his own story. He wants to save the Earth... but he’s willing to kill nearly everyone on the planet to achieve that goal. In “Arrow,” that same sense of purpose isn’t coming across. Ra’s is just the leader of the League of Assassins, and it’s not clear if he has any larger agenda beyond that. 

There needs to be more animosity between the Arrow and the Demon’s Head. Their conflict just isn’t personal enough to resonate. Malcolm Merlyn is still coming off as a bigger villain because he represents a very real threat to Oliver’s family by his corrupting influence on Thea. It may go against all sense of logic and reason, but Thea’s murder of Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) is actually a great way to continue Oliver’s feud with Malcolm. 

Unfortunately, Thea doesn’t really have any agency in this storyline. Thea doesn’t know that she killed Sara because Malcolm drugged her with some previously unmentioned wonder plant that made her susceptible to suggestion. The “Arrow” writers really dropped the ball by not hinting at that plant’s existence until the episode that they sprung that explanation on us. That is the definition of cheap writing from the seat of your pants and making it up as the story goes along. 

In theory, an Evil Thea is something that could have been a lot of fun. But the show wants to have it both ways, by not fully committing to making her a villain and by keeping the old Thea around... and giving her the most annoying character ever as her new love interest in the form of Chase (Austin Butler). Seriously, I’d pay good money to see Chase get brutally killed by an arrow.

 It’s the same story with Laurel. The “Arrow” producers have been trying so hard to make Laurel happen for three seasons that they can’t step back and realize that it just isn’t working. The only tacit admission of their failure is the way that the writers have reoriented Oliver’s romantic feelings from Laurel to Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards). Personally, I hate the “Olicity” shipping, but it is the pairing that the majority of the show’s fans seem to gravitate towards.

If the “Arrow” creative team had really been listening to the fans, they wouldn’t have written out Caity Lotz’s Sara Lance. She was the Black Canary that we didn’t have to wait three seasons for. Lotz was more convincing as a heroine and she had more charisma than Holland or Cassidy combined. Instead of signing Lotz as a series regular, they killed off the wrong Lance sister because the creative team is still trying to make the audience love Laurel and accept her as a heroine.

But I think it’s too late for that. The next couple of episodes are supposed to put Laurel in costume as Black Canary, but Cassidy is working against three seasons of bad writing to try to change the audience's perception of Laurel. And let’s be honest, Cassidy’s performance hasn’t exactly been great. 

Compared to “The Flash,” “Arrow” has seemed strangely unsure of itself this season. Brandon Routh has been a fun addition to the cast as Ray Palmer, but The Atom feels even more out of place on “Arrow” than The Flash does. More than anything, I think that “Arrow” has lost its sense of direction. The only plots that have been driving this season forward have been Sara’s murder and Laurel’s supposed evolution into a heroine. Oliver Queen is being poorly served by his own show and even John Diggle (David Ramsey) has been reduced to the guy who’s trying to get Oliver and Felicity back together as a couple... just because he cares for them.

That my friends, is about as CW as The CW gets. 

Regardless, a strong cliffhanger can make up for a lot of shortcomings. “Arrow” definitely had one of those in the midseason finale. The challenge for the show will be to deliver a resolution for that cliffhanger that doesn’t take a cheap way out. I’ll accept the existence of a Lazarus Pit, but even that’s a little too easy. 

I think the “Arrow” creative team can make adjustments after some of their misfires, but first they need to realize where they’ve gone wrong. Sometimes, that’s the hardest thing to figure out.

The Flash Vs Arrow

Editor's Note: Today, I am proud to present a guest post by Blair Marnell with his thoughts on the Flash/Arrow crossover episodes. Blair Marnell is the TV and Comics Editor of CraveOnline and a freelance writer for ComingSoon.net and SuperHeroHype. Previously, he wrote for Wizard Magazine, Geek Monthly, MTV Splash Page, Fan TV and Comics Bulletin.

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This past week, The CW ran a two night event between The Flash and Arrow that served as the first full crossover between each series. It’s a superhero fan’s dream.

I wasn’t around for the ‘70s, but the closest TV equivalent I can think of would be if CBS had crossed over Wonder Woman and The Incredible Hulk when they were both on the network... ownership issues aside.

CBS didn’t even give fans an Amazing Spider-Man and Incredible Hulk crossover, and that should have been automatic!

Oddly enough, CBS ran the first TV series adaptation of The Flash back in 1990. But a few decades later, it Is CBS’ corporate sibling, The CW that has become the superhero network. Both Arrow and The Flash are now the signature shows of The CW that weren’t originally created for another network.

But the thing that I found most striking about The Flash and Arrow crossover is just how much I like The Flash more than I like Arrow Season 3 at the moment. The Flash just feels like a more fully realized show at the moment and the third season of Arrow hasn’t quite found itself yet.

This version of The Flash owes everything to Arrow. If Arrow hadn’t proven to be a hit, I highly doubt that there would be a Flash TV series on the network right now. After Green Arrow was proto-Superman’s substitute Batman for half a decade on Smallville, that’s a significant step up for the character in the eyes of the general public.

One of the more obvious instances of Arrow’s influence on The Flash is the way that Team Flash was assembled before the end of the pilot episode. The Arrow creative team tried to run Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) on his own for a few episodes before teaming him up with John Diggle (David Ramsey) and Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) later in the first season.

For Barry Allen aka The Flash (Grant Gustin), his team consists of possible future villainess Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker), possible future hero (and annoying as f*** sidekick) Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) and the enigmatic Dr. Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh).

That dynamic shouldn’t work for The Flash, but somehow it does. Gustin has turned out to be a really good leading man and Cavanagh’s character has been the most intriguing addition to the Flash mythology. Caitlin and Cisco need better writing, but they’re bearable. Law & Order veteran Jesse L. Martin has been the most human character on the show as Barry’s surrogate father. Detective Joe West.

I’m gonna save my Iris West (Candice Patton) rant for another time. But she’s this show’s Laurel, which Arrow fans should instantly understand.

The Flash isn’t perfect, but it’s been amazingly solid through eight episodes. And the “Flash vs. Arrow” story of the eighth episode was the best one yet. The Flash writers wisely left the dead weight of Arrow aka Laurel (Katie Cassidy), Roy (Colton Haynes) and Thea (Willa Holland) off of the stage while giving Oliver, Felicity and Diggle the chance to shine on a different show.

One of my favorite parts of the episode was Diggle’s reaction to Barry’s superspeed. That was especially effective because we’ve been watching Diggle on Arrow for over two seasons and it meant more to see him freak out about it than it would have for a random character whom we had never seen before.

Rickards was also really good in the episode as Felicity was given a chance to actually be funny... which she seldom gets on Arrow. I think she’s a better fit on this series, but the Arrow creative team seems intent on following the fandom’s demand for an “Olicity” relationship.

But the most compelling part of “Flash vs. Arrow” is that both Gustin and Amell had a chance to play off of each other in comedic sequences and in a very well choreographed fight between Arrow and the enraged Flash. For TV action, that may be the new standard for a superhero fight. Remember when Smallville would give us 30 seconds of Clark Kent fighting Doomsday and then cut away? That didn’t happen here.

I have to admit that the biggest laugh of the episode for me came when Oliver and Barry took out the villain of the week so quickly that they did it during the final commercial break and he was already being locked up in STAR Labs when the show came back. 

It should be said that Arrow’s side of the crossover, “The Brave and The Bold” was not a bad episode. It was just too consumed with being an episode of Arrow that happened to have The Flash in it.

You’d think that the Arrow creative team would have used the special occasion to step away from the flashback structure for a week, but nope! We lost a few minutes of valuable screen time to Oliver Queen learning how to come to grips with torturing someone for the greater good. There is some dramatic potential in the way that Oliver has essentially absorbed the worldview of Amanda Waller (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), but that sequence was wasted in this episode.

It was also unintentionally hilarious to see how the show went out of its way to make Captain Boomerang aka Digger Harkness (Nick Tarabay) into a credible threat to both The Flash and Arrow. It’s one thing for Boomerang to fight Oliver and Roy to a standstill, but to make him tactical genius who hid bombs throughout the city just to keep The Flash off of his trail?!  

Seriously?!

And does the casting director of Arrow watch any other shows besides Spartacus? No, really. I want to know.

Once again, the best part of Arrow’s side of the crossover was the interplay between Oliver and Barry. They really are fun to watch when they’re sharing the same stage and both Gustin and Amell deserve recognition for how well they handle their roles. I still think that DC is making a mistake by not tying these shows into the movies. The DC Cinematic Universe of Man of Steel was a very joyless world. I want to see more of the TV world created by Arrow and The Flash.

Despite all of the changes made to both characters, Arrow and The Flash feel close to the spirit of the comics that inspired them. Neither show is perfect, but we should all recognize how fortunate we are to be in an era when we have two terrific superhero dramas... on the same network.

- Blair