The CW’s “Arrowverse” has been gradually coming to a close for the last few years, but the series finale of Superman & Lois on Monday feels like a major book-end — at least for the live-action TV portion of the franchise. After 12 years, seven TV shows, and eight crossover events, this phenomenon deserves more praise than many fans of the genre likely realize. The Arrowverse accomplished at least as much as any other superhero screen adaptations, and its legacy will be felt for years to come, whether it gets credit or not.
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The Arrowverse started, of course, with Arrow in 2012 — a very gritty take on DC’s Green Arrow, a.k.a. Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) with no hint of plans for a broader franchise or “cinematic universe.” Somehow, it ballooned into a huge web of interconnected stories, pulling in DC characters and concepts as needed and embracing its deviations from the source material. If you’re reading this, you probably have at least some idea of what the Arrowverse became, but it’s equally important to remember the context in which it was happening.
Arrowverse and the Big Screen
Arrow premiered months after the MCU’s Avengers, and a few months before the DCEU kicked off on the big screen with Man of Steel. It was a thrilling time for superhero fans, many of whom felt like Hollywood was finally exploring the true potential of the genre for the first time. A key part of that atmosphere was the faithfulness and authenticity of the adaptations, so it would have been easy to overlook Arrow by contrast.
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In the years that followed, the Arrowverse was able to hold its own, and not just because the DCEU was disappointing to so many viewers. While the MCU depicted Marvel’s most iconic art on screen like never before, the Arrowverse was more true to the comic book genre in some important ways. It was messy at times, it course-corrected, and it mimicked the esoteric feeling of weeklies without becoming too inaccessible. Arrowverse crossover events tempted fans into watching all of its shows — not with the threat of misunderstanding something in the plot, but with the promise of feeling something richer instead.
Those crossovers also gave the Arrowverse a huge head start on what the MCU is currently trying to capture: meaningful storytelling in a multiverse setting. Long before the Mysterio fakeout or the TVA, the Legends of Tomorrow went questing down the timeline and Supergirl stepped over from Earth-28. The Arrowverse was extremely successful with these kinds of concepts, simply because it trusted its audience, and it kept its focus forward at all times.
It didn’t hurt that the multiverse format made room for so much fan service, including many cameos by stars of other DC adaptations from years past. It’s fair to call these stunts heavy-handed — this is The CW, after all — but at the very least, they warmed audiences up to these concepts on screen, and left them wanting more. Callbacks like these are essential in comic books and they are beloved in Hollywood, making them the perfect point for these two mediums to meet. The Arrowverse deserves at least some credit for the triple Spider-Man action in No Way Home, among other things.
Arrowverse vs. Small Screen Superheroes
With all the focus on the big screen, the Arrowverse maintained a huge headstart in bringing comic books to serialized TV. It was even used as a springboard for the short-lived DC Universe streaming app and the four shows that debuted there — Titans, Doom Patrol, Stargirl, and Swamp Thing. They were all included in Arrowverse crossovers, and they benefited from the groundwork there. Ultimately, shifts in the streaming business contributed to cutting these shows short, but there’s no doubt that they all benefited from the Arrowverse in the beginning.
By comparison, Marvel was surprisingly cautious with its experiments in TV at the time. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. debuted in 2013 and Agent Carter in 2015, but neither was allowed to interact heavily with the movies they spun off from. Meanwhile, all six Defenders series on Netflix were beloved by fans on their own, but were also kept separate from the MCU movies. If they’d been able to lean on the infrastructure of other stories more heavily, they may have gained more momentum, while the Arrowverse was simply allowed to explore every corner of its stories freely.
Of course, there were business considerations at play there as well, and Marvel Studios has clearly found the recipe for success since bringing its TV endeavors to Disney+. Even there, Arrowverse comparisons persisted — and with good reason. Marvel’s streaming shows are often marketed on their crossovers with each other or with movies, mimicking the success of the Arrowverse’s seasonal events. However, fans often grumble that the short, disparate streaming shows demand too much binge-watching, while the Arrowverse’s slow and steady serialization was easier to keep up with in a routine.
Flexibility and Working With What You Have
In a decade where superhero adaptations were often judged by faithfulness to the source material and meticulous continuity, the Arrowverse was forced to pivot and adapt more often than any other franchise. Now that it’s over, the results hold up remarkably well. These shows thrived under pressure, much like early superhero comics did. The Arrowverse dropped concepts and integrated new ones when it needed to, it folded in shows like Black Lightning and Constantine when it could, and sadly, it let go of shows like Superman & Lois when it had to.
That constant motion is the reason the series finale of Superman & Lois on Monday feels like the end of the Arrowverse, even though the show was technically separate from the franchise all along. Superman & Lois was conceived with big Arrowverse plans, but behind-the-scenes factors — chiefly the COVID-19 pandemic — got in the way. The show pivoted one way while the franchise went another, and both were able to carry on working with what they had. Rather than lament what could have been, Superman & Lois told a bold new story about the Kent/Lane family, leaving no stone unturned.
Future
If the Arrowverse lives on in anyway, it will be by continuing to work with what it has. All of its TV shows are over now — even the tangential ones in alternate timelines — and it outlasted the DCEU franchise it worked so hard to support. However, the Arrowverse had tie-ins in several other mediums, and it’s not outrageous to hope that it may be revived there in some way. There are several acclaimed comic book series, graphic novels, and prose novels that tell stories in this continuity. Video games would also benefit greatly from including the Arrowverse versions of these characters where possible. We could see Stephen Amell’s Ollie or Melissa Benoist’s Supergirl suiting up again on the printed page any time.
Most importantly, it’s the Arrowverse’s turn to be honored with allusions, cameos, and references in the next round of adaptations. Just as fans were delighted to see the John Wesley Shipp in The Flash and the Arrowverse, they will be overjoyed to see Grant Gustin back in the suit one day. These characters have always endured by celebrating the fandom that supports them, and leaving room for the connections they make.
The Arrowverse has passed into legend, and it’s the next franchise’s job to tell it.