The Batlord

Of all the comic book movie/TV franchises, I think Arrow might actually be doing the best in developing its own shared universe. For those who don't know, it's now spawned a spin-off, The Flash, that's also pretty fantastic, and may be expanding even further if some rumors are true. But I'll get to that, and my reasoning as to its superiority, in a minute.

After being so succesful with its animated universe for so long, DC has been floundering with many of its movie projects. They're finally trying to get their **** together to play catch up to Marvel, but their decision to cram so many heroes into Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice is dubious at best. Having Batman play an older, more seasoned hero opposite a younger Superman is an interesting concept, but I'm not sure about introducing a new Batman outside of a movie of his own. Then of course, in the same movie, we're also getting Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and Aquaman (and yes, those last two are confirmed), without first giving them their own solo films. I'm thrilled with the idea of an expanded DC cinematic universe, but it's gonna take some great planning to not turn this into a cluster ****. Still, I'm cautiously optimistic. And the Suicide Squad movie coming in 2016 has me downright stoked (and yes, this is movie is also confirmed, with a release date of August 5, 2016).

For those interested, here's DC's projected movie schedule...



Now, Marvel has clearly been doing a better job of creating a shared universe. Cameos and foreshadowing about the formation of the Avengers built up a lot of excitement, all while keeping interference with the respective characters' movies to a minimum. Still, not every movie was that great: the Iron Man sequels have been getting progressively worse; Captain America would have been much better without a boring middle that dragged on for far too long; ditto Thor, and it's middle was downright painful at times, but at least the second movie was much better; I've heard the second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is better than the first, but I just lost interest after a few episodes; I've never heard a good about the Hulk movies, besides Edward Norton; and even the good movies have become formulaic.

Not to say that I don't love Marvel's cinematic universe, though: the first Iron Man was fantastic, the parts of Captain America and Thor that weren't boring were amazing, Guardians of the Galaxy was excellent, The Avengers was awesome if a bit overrated, and, for the most part, even a crappy superhero movie is still pretty good.

But still, it's been a bit of a mixed bag with Marvel.

Now, back to Arrow. It has the definite benefit of being a television show as opposed to a series of movies, so it's able to develop its plots and subplots more organically. This is also true of Arrow's expanded universe. Barry Allen wasn't introduced until season 2, and was only hinted at until The Flash debuted this fall. And since these are separate shows that aren't already predicated on building a shared universe, there isn't a feeling that they have to cross over, leaving each to stand on its own merits. This week's crossover event between the two felt natural, and I'm only looking forward to seeing where this will lead.

Yeah, these are only two shows, which only just makes it a shared universe, but there's also rumor that the upcoming Supergirl series being made by CBS might be set in the same universe. It's not particularly usual for different networks to share characters like that (Arrow and The Flash are on the CW), but all three shows are being produced by Greg Berlanti, and he appears to want this to happen. It's also not such an unlikely scenario since the CW is "co-owned" by CBS. We'll see, and we'll see how well it may be handled, but I'm hopeful.

Also, the Suicide Squad has already appeared on Arrow, and certain developments in the show seem to be hinting that a new team is being put together. The episode the Squad appeared in last season was pretty fantastic, so it's obvious that they will be appearing again, if not in the second half of this season, then certainly in the next. Amanda Waller and A.R.G.U.S. have also been putting in fairly regular appearances since last season. Now, this is just me being hopeful, but with the success of Arrow and The Flash, the CW may very well be open to continue capitalizing on the concept of a shared universe. So, I don't see it as at all out of the question that a Suicide Squad TV show might be possible. Harley Quinn actually had a few-second cameo in the aforementioned episode, and with the massive fan response to just that, the network surely must have noticed. This is all idle speculation on my part, but even if the Suicide Squad stays only on Arrow, that's still pretty big as far as I'm concerned. If my suspicions on the new team line-up are correct, a Squad made up of Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, Deathstroke, Bronze Tiger, and a Harley Quinn-replacement called Cupid (she's less lame than that implies) could be absolutely amazing.



And that's not to mention the inclusion of Black Canary, Huntress, Katana, and (soon!) R'as Al Ghul. It's still early in the game, but if all goes well, Arrow might just turn into a television empire to rival even the MCU (relatively speaking of course).

Take that, Breaking Bad!

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