Arrow (2012 TV Series)

[Silver Nemesis]

I've ignored this show until now, assuming it would be another Smallville spinoff in the style of the Aquaman pilot. But it's starting to look quite interesting. Here are some pics of Green Arrow's costume and Deathstroke's mask from Comic-Con.





I hope the characters wear proper costumes in this show, not just hoodies and trench coats. I've had enough of superhero shows where the heroes look like ordinary people (Mutant X, Smallville, Birds of Prey, Heroes, etc). I preferred it back in the 90s when production teams went to some effort to make the heroes and villains look like they did in the comics (The Flash and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman being my two favourite examples).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDQBHIvx1eM&list=CL40vS0jNgG8o&index=0&feature=plcp

I don't know much about the Green Arrow comics, so I can't comment on how faithful this will be to the source material. But I'm sufficiently intrigued to watch the first episode when it debuts in October.

What does everyone else think? Does this have the potential to be the next great superhero show? Or will it end up being quickly forgotten like last year's Wonder Woman pilot?

[riddler]

The thing is with the green arrow there's a big age scope there in the comics. Most superheroes stay relatively the same age for most of their runs; Peter Parker is always a teenager/20's, Bruce Wayne never hits age 50, Clark Kent is ageless. Green Arrow has comics age 20 and with him as an old wise man. So once you say green arrow will be adapted, it's unclear what kind of adaption we will get. Seems this will be different from Smallville as this wont be just an origin story, we'll see him as the Green Arrow here.

Anyone know when it starts?

[BatmAngelus]

I'm getting tired of adaptations that deliberately strip away the comic book aspects, i.e. calling this Arrow instead of Green Arrow, calling it Starling City instead of Star City, plus it doesn't look like Oliver even has a mask. 

I haven't heard it from the people on this show yet but I'm sure there's been the inevitable "He's not really a superhero 'cause he has no powers, blah blah blah" talk that I'm sick of hearing, too.

Still, I'm interested to see where it goes.  We need a good comic book adaptation on TV (and in DC's case, we need a good non-Batman comic adaptation), so I hope it's good.  That Deathstroke mask is definitely more comic book-like than anything they tried to do with him in Smallville.

[Silver Nemesis]

Anyone know when it starts?

The first episode is scheduled for October 10th, which happens to be my birthday (and the birthday of Court of Owls Talon William Cobb, Dick Grayson's great grandfather).

Here's a trailer.

I'm getting tired of adaptations that deliberately strip away the comic book aspects, i.e. calling this Arrow instead of Green Arrow, calling it Starling City instead of Star City, plus it doesn't look like Oliver even has a mask.

I haven't heard it from the people on this show yet but I'm sure there's been the inevitable "He's not really a superhero 'cause he has no powers, blah blah blah" talk that I'm sick of hearing, too.

Still, I'm interested to see where it goes. We need a good comic book adaptation on TV (and in DC's case, we need a good non-Batman comic adaptation), so I hope it's good. That Deathstroke mask is definitely more comic book-like than anything they tried to do with him in Smallville.

My feelings exactly. Warner Bros is sitting on a goldmine of comic book franchises, and they have no idea how to adapt any of them. They're entirely dependent on visionary directors like Donner, Burton and Nolan. And as soon as those guys move on, WB doesn't have a clue what to do with its properties. Any other studio would have capitalised on the recent popularity of the genre and made a dozen films by now. But the folks at Warner Bros don't understand the appeal of these franchises to begin with, so they don't know where to start. Marvel Films is running rings around them at the moment.

Personally I think they should focus on making a Flash movie next. He's my third favourite DC hero and one they could easily adapt, provided the right people were involved (and that doesn't necessarily mean Nolan, Goyer and Snyder). We've already seen the Flash can work in a live-action medium, costume and all. It's interesting to note that the networks originally didn't want him to wear the iconic suit in the 90s TV show. Apparently they wanted him to wear a hooded tracksuit instead, which is basically what ended up happening on Smallville. But the show's producers fought for the costume, and the result speaks for itself. I mean, which one of these guys looks more like the Flash, and which would you rather watch fighting super villains on a weekly basis?



And yes, I know the Smallville version is meant to be Bart Allen, not Barry. But the point still stands.

Hopefully this Arrow series will break the trend and embrace the character's comic book origins. Comics are a visual medium after all, and the iconography plays an important role in the characters' appeal. It's hard to tell from the trailer, but it does look like Oliver's wearing a mask under his hood in some shots. Though I might be wrong about that. I'll be really disappointed if Deathstroke only wears his orange and blue mask in one scene, or if the rest of his costume turns out to be black leather. We'll just have to wait until October to find out. But I'll definitely check out the first episode.

I agree about the title as well – why not just call it Green Arrow? I honestly don't get that. It's as if ever since The Dark Knight was a hit, filmmakers are trying to avoid including the hero's name in the title of their adaptations.

[Paul (ral)]

According to that trailer he only calls himself "Arrow" as well.

Perhaps they are afraid of confusing audiences with Green Lantern. If that is the case then, why not get WB and DC heads together and call him "Arrow" when the New52 launched so there is some consistency?!

When DC's new Entertainment dept launched (along with the New52) it was a chance to get the house in order and get these franchised properly exploited - instead there still seems to be the same problems regarding adaptations.

[Silver Nemesis]

That's a good point. Especially when you consider the coordination that's been happening between the Man of Steel movie and Superman's revised new 52 origin in the comics. There's evidently some synergy going on there, with both the movie and comics reimagining the character along similar trajectories. There's no reason why they couldn't have done the same thing with Green Arrow.

[thecolorsblend]

I'm getting tired of adaptations that deliberately strip away the comic book aspects, i.e. calling this Arrow instead of Green Arrow, calling it Starling City instead of Star City, plus it doesn't look like Oliver even has a mask. 

I haven't heard it from the people on this show yet but I'm sure there's been the inevitable "He's not really a superhero 'cause he has no powers, blah blah blah" talk that I'm sick of hearing, too.

No doubt. In spite of all the success, I still don't think a lot of Hollywood types are completely comfortable making movies about them funny-book characters. There's a very insulting tendency to want to "make things credible"... which, to be frank, I completely, totally, absolutely, 110% blame Chris Nolan for instigating.

I mean, that kinda plays with Smallville because that was set before the age of superheroes. I can accept it there because that's the premise of the show. But so far Arrow looks to exemplify everything that modern comic adaptations shouldn't be.

[BatmAngelus]

Called it:
http://blastr.com/2012/08/why-the-guys-behind-arrow.php

"It's interesting to me because we don't really see the show as a superhero show. We see it as more like a crime thriller.

Blah blah blah....

[riddler]

Called it:
http://blastr.com/2012/08/why-the-guys-behind-arrow.php

"It's interesting to me because we don't really see the show as a superhero show. We see it as more like a crime thriller.

Blah blah blah....

Translation "we have an idea to fit a type of crime thriller we want but instead of making our own character we will take a beloved hero who has never appeared on screen before and adapt him to make the show we want. I'm sure his loyal followers wont mind"

[Silver Nemesis]

And with that, my interest in this series plummets by 87.2%.

I'll still give it a chance. But it's starting to look like any other generic action show.