Series Title: Arrow

Seasons: 2

Season 1 Duration: 10/10/12 – 5/15/13

Producers: Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg

Stars: Stephen Amell, Katie Cassidy, David Ramsey, Emily Bett Rickards

It’s out of the pages and onto the big screen for DC Comics’ lesser-known hero, the Green Arrow. Created by Morton Weisinger, the Green Arrow debuted in 1941 as Oliver Queen, a billionaire businessman who secretly fights crime in Starling City at night. Not a originally a popular hero, the Green Arrow has only recently increased his previous status as a B-level hero. So much so, that the CW network decided to create a show based on the character in 2012.

Season 1 of Arrow, or “Year One” as it is called on the show, details the origin of Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), a rich playboy who survives a shipwreck with his father, Robert Queen (Jamey Sheridan). While drifting on a lifeboat, Robert confesses to his son about being a terrible person to their city, and gives Oliver a list of Starling City’s most corrupt along with a single order to “Right my wrongs.” Oliver then ends up on an island in the South China Sea, without his father, where he survives and learns how to fight with a bow and arrow. He is eventually rescued and brought back home to Starling City, where everything has changed in his 5-year absence. Upon his return, Oliver starts to go out at night, using the archery skills he acquired on the island to pick names off of his father’s list. The season ends on a note of extreme calamity, both public and personal, for Oliver. In his mind, he failed to complete his father’s dying wish, and it hits him hard.

The beginning of Season 2 will show how Oliver and Starling City recover from their respective losses as well as the obvious difference in Oliver’s opinion of the double life he leads. Season 1 may have been about Oliver’s return from the island, but Season 2 will be about Oliver becoming the hero he’s meant to be.

Looking back, season 1 of Arrow was as experimental as it was new. Despite clearly defining a proper origin story for the character and rebooting him with a grittier, rougher-around-the-edges feel, Arrow as a TV show marks the first time the Green Arrow has ever been given a central live-action role as opposed to simply being a supporting character. I love the realism that was incorporated into the writing of the show, as it forces writers to think outside the box when considering cameos, and breeds excellent and innovative ideas for dealing with the involvement of normally metahuman characters, such as Count Vertigo, Firefly, and the Royal Flush Gang. However, the devil’s in the details and so are my reservations about the show. As a fan of a series, there is no greater form of torture than to watch an important character be misinterpreted and left completely butchered by a cinematic or TV adaptation. That being said, the current character in question is Katie Cassidy’s Dinah “Laurel” Lance. Dinah Lance is of titanic importance in the Green Arrow comic book continuity. In the show, however, her character is only ever referred to as “Laurel” and only formally as Dinah.

Since the dawn of the comic book industry, there have been two massive rival companies, both alike in dignity: Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Nowadays, Marvel is at the top of the cinematic food chain when it comes to comic book-inspired films, annually releasing box office hits and blockbuster releases like The Avengers (2012). All the while, DC lags behind with  only half kept cinematic promises and massive but few successes, like Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel (2013). However, DC has in turn actively dominated the small screen since 2001, with relatively forgotten shows like Birds of Prey (2002-2003) and massive, ten-season success stories like Smallville (2001-2011) and it’s various but short-lived spin offs. At the rate that it’s going, Arrow seems to be following in the footsteps of its more famous predecessor Smallville. There is also news about plans to produce even more DC Comics TV shows, including a confirmed show based on Flash that will spin off of Arrow Season 2, and a planned crime drama focusing on the  pre-Batman adventures of Commissioner James Gordon that will be called “Gotham”.

On the whole, Arrow is the TV show that comic book fans deserve, and also the one they need. It takes a relatively unknown but great hero, revamps him, and puts him out there in the world, declaring, “Here he is! His name is Green Arrow and he’s a total badass!” Though it has its snags, Arrow is one great show that anyone will benefit from watching, comic book fan or not.