The Slow End of The Unappreciated Arrowverse

I grew up watching the Arrowverse and I've always felt it was a really defining group of TV shows for me whilst I was growing up. I feel an extraordinary amount of love and nostalgia for these shows. Contrary to most people my age, I would even go as far as saying it was more of an introduction to superheroes for me then Marvel was, despite the Marvel films coming out at a similar time to the peak popularity of the Arrowverse, and it even made me a DC guy - something that means nothing to any non-superhero people.

For those who don't know, the Arrowverse covers a group of TV shows set within the DC Universe and pretty much exclusively was all released on the CW. It started with 'Arrow' in 2012 and went on to include the likes of The Flash (2014-2023), Supergirl (2015-2021), Legends of Tomorrow (2016-2022), Black Lightning (2018-2021), Batwoman (2019-2022) and until last night, Superman and Lois (2021-2024), meaning the Arrowverse has finally come to an end, albeit quite a slow one.

The more I think about it, the crazier it is that this franchise of superhero TV shows existed as long as it did. With Iron Man being released in 2008, it's pretty much existed the same amount of time as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, except that this has only ever appeared on TV and has quite a lot less popularity as a result. In fact as a Brit, I've never really known large amounts of people that have kept up with the series although I imagine that was predominantly not helped by how difficult it was to view the shows in England throughout the Mid 2010s. Although I do have a lot of strong memories of watching it throughout school with my friend Josh, especially the moment in The Flash where Zoom quite literally catches lightning and then throws it back at The Flash. A very cool moment that I still have saved as a GIF on my phone to this day and a moment that me and Josh went absolutely crazy for when we watched it during a free period at school.

On a side note, the film 'The Flash', that came out in 2023, should have definitely included the characters from the TV series. The film literally made an infamously known effort to reference previous important DC franchises/moments and yet disappointingly never included any of the Arrowverse. For many people out there, Grant Gustin will always be the defining actor to play The Flash so to not include him or any of his fellow cast really sucked. Although given the critics reviews (I actually quite liked it), maybe they're quite happy about the decision in reality.

Don't get me wrong, I haven't really thought about the TV series as much as I used to except being aware that Superman and Lois was coming to an end. However, I was on a flight recently and the man in front of me was watching Arrow on his Ipad and I was pleasantly surprised to realise I not only could accurately remember the plot of the episodes he was watching but also that I recalled the characters names pretty successfully as well. There's part of me that's actually quite tempted to start a rewatch of all the shows together but I'm also pretty happy living in the realms of ignorance is bliss when it comes to my thoughts on the shows. I am still very aware that like many shows on the CW at that time period (Love you Riverdale) that the quality really varied throughout the shows. There's also the fact there's over 800 episodes between all the shows and they're all 45 minutes to an hour. As much as I loved the Flash, there were only so many times that they could really shake up a speed related villain to fight a speed related hero and similarly with Arrow, there's only so many times an Arrow related hero can stop a villian with said arrows.

I also want to use this opportunity to say that I do still stand by the fact that the show Legends of Tomorrow is still one of my all time most underrated shows due to its incredibly wacky plot lines and characters. The highlight for me was the Season 5 finale where they went to a History Museum in the future to fight the fates and encores, and ended up having a fight to the song 'The Thong Song' by Sisqo which is sung by the artist himself during the fight. Bonkers.

Overall, I think it's a shame how the Arrowverse will probably be lost to time, especially with DC Studios about to undertake a brand new version of their cinematic universe and Marvel inevitably going to rise again in popularity. This was a franchise that somehow managed to have multiple TV shows set in the same universe on television pretty much consistently throughout the years they were on. I am not sure that it's a feat that could ever get replicated in the current era of Television and sadly I don't think it will ever be given the respect it deserved. With Superman and Lois ending last night, it's a chapter of superhero media that I will always be incredibly grateful for.

Thank you Arrowverse.