Opinion: Arrow Did What the DCEU Couldn't

Arrow has now wrapped up an impressive eight-season run with its recent series finale, "Fadeout," but never let it be said the show isn't leaving behind a clear, lasting legacy. Arrow has spawned numerous spinoff series throughout its time on air, creating a shared universe that just pulled off its biggest and most ambitious crossover yet in the form of Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Arrowverse is exactly the sort of cohesive, interconnected universe WB has been struggling to build on the big screen. Why has the Arrowverse succeeded where the "DCEU" has failed? Join us as we celebrate the legacy of this critically important superhero series and how it serves as a lesson for other studios hoping to establish their own shared universes.

How Arrow is the Iron Man of the Arrowverse

Everyone in Hollywood wants to replicate the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And why not? Marvel Studios has grown to become one of the biggest box office juggernauts in history. These movies each rake in hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars, all while benefiting from the name cache of the Marvel brand and the knowledge that each adds something to the larger tapestry of the MCU. But as we've seen, building a new MCU is much easier said than done. Universal has tried multiple times to make its monster movie franchises into the next big thing, resulting in the disastrous and short-lived Dark Universe brand. Paramount's plans to expand the Transformers universe hit a snag when 2018's Bumblebee underperformed compared to past entries, leading to a reported revamp of the franchise with a Beast Wars twist. Even WB has regularly struggled in building a cohesive DC Universe on the big screen. While recent DC movies like Aquaman and Joker have raked in piles of money, they've done so by distancing themselves from early entries like the critically-derided Batman v Superman. It's no longer clear how, or even if, upcoming movies like Birds of Prey and Wonder Woman 1984 are meant to fit into DCEU continuity. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=crisis-on-infinite-earths-aftermath-all-the-ways-the-arrowverse-has-changed&captions=true"] The thing most studios forget is that you can't build a cinematic universe without an Iron Man. That is, a movie that serves as a proof of concept for that universe while still telling a complete and satisfying standalone story. Iron Man certainly offered hints of a larger shared universe, but director Jon Favreau wisely kept the focus on Tony Stark's compelling origin story. Only once it became clear the audience demand was there did Marvel began constructing a shared universe in earnest. Arrow really is the Iron Man of the DC TV universe - or at least the corner of it executive produced by Greg Berlanti, which has been dubbed the Arrowverse. The first season was very self-contained and small in scope relative to what came later. While filled with references to the larger DCU (including that now-iconic shot of Deathstroke's mask in the pilot), Arrow didn't start out by trying to establish a full-fledged franchise. Only halfway into Season 2 were the seeds of Arrow's first spinoff series finally sown. Creators Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg knew that there was no point in trying to create a Flash or Supergirl if fans weren't first invested in the story of Oliver Queen. Along with the MCU, the Arrowverse has helped train casual superhero fans in the language of comics. Viewers are now used to watching conflicts play out over the course of a season or more and seeing stories and characters weave across multiple shows. That might have been too much to ask of viewers in the beginning, but Arrow earned their trust over time.

The Building Blocks of the Arrowverse

Looking back on the series as a whole, Arrow provides a really fascinating case study of how the Arrowverse has grown and evolved over the years. When the series first started, it was clearly inspired by Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man. Season 1 is a fairly grounded story of a billionaire playboy donning a costume and becoming the vigilante his city needs. Characters who have superhuman powers in the comics, like Count Vertigo, were given a more realistic makeover for the show. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/18/crisis-on-infinite-earths-crossover-review"] It wasn't until Season 2 of Arrow that it began introducing true metahuman characters. Season 3 introduced the Atom and the death-defying Ra's al Ghul, while Season 4 brought magic into play. Once it was up and running (pun intended), The Flash introduced larger-than-life concepts like time travel and alternate universes. Only after several years of building and expanding did the Arrowverse become as colorful and varied as the comics that inspired it. Watching recent episodes of the truly bonkers Legends of Tomorrow, it's easy to forget the Arrowverse was ever anything remotely resembling The Dark Knight. The same goes for the Arrowverse's cast of characters. In the early days, the prospect of seeing Oliver Queen fight alongside heroes like Supergirl or Black Lightning was unthinkable. Season 1 limited itself mostly to traditional Green Arrow characters and other non-powered vigilantes like Huntress. Only by gradually expanding the scope of this universe did it become possible for speedsters, magicians, and aliens to become a part of this universe. Only after years of buildup could epic crossovers like Invasion and Crisis on Earth-X take place. This had as much to do with the early limitations imposed by Warner Bros.' theatrical arm as anything else, but the Arrowverse is defined by its ability to work around and eventually transcend those limitations.

Arrow's Winning Formula

If Smallville offered a rough, imperfect look at how the DC Universe could work in live-action, Arrow honed a formula that has since carried over into most of its spinoffs. The series began with a clear mission for Ollie - the desire to save his city - and a five-year flashback structure that promised to chronicle his evolution from carefree playboy to hardened vigilante in painstaking depth. No other Arrowverse series has committed to the flashback/flash-forward formula as much as Arrow, but all use that motif to some degree or another. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/15/crisis-on-infinite-earths-links-dc-tv-and-movie-universes-ign-now"] The series introduced a supporting cast of friends and family, all of whom were slowly exposed to Ollie's secrets and drawn into his crusade. Many of those supporting characters wound up becoming costumed heroes in their own right. Arrow showed us the origins of Red Arrow, Black Canary, and numerous others. In turn, The Flash gave rise to new heroes like Vibe, Killer Frost, and Elongated Man, while Supergirl has built up new heroes like Guardian and Dreamer. Arrow showed how important it is for a hero to have a tangible legacy and inspire others to take up the same cause. That's the very basis of the upcoming Green Arrow & The Canaries spinoff, if it gets greenlit to series. There are other ways in which Arrow's influence is felt throughout the rest of the Arrowverse. It's become mandatory for every show to have its own Felicity Smoak character - a snarky, brilliant sidekick who handles all the tech-y grunt work. Felicity begat The Flash's Cisco Ramon, Supergirl's Winn Schott and Brainiac-5, and Batwoman's Luke Fox. With Slade Wilson, Arrow showed that the best villains are often the ones with close personal ties to the hero - leading to betrayals and victories that hit home all the more. Without Season 2's Deathstroke storyline, would we have other Arrowverse greats like Reverse-Flash, Zoom, and Lena Luthor?

Ending the Hero's Journey

Arrow is ending by doing something we rarely see in other superhero shows or even in DC's comics. It's bringing Oliver Queen's journey to a close and giving him a definitive ending. After eight seasons of watching Oliver Queen fight and sacrifice to protect his city, anything less than a total and lasting victory would have been a disappointment. Thankfully, Crisis created a scenario where Ollie was able to gain ultimate power and use it to restart the multiverse. He sacrificed his own life, but he completed his mission in the process. It's a novel experience seeing a superhero's journey truly end. In the comics, no major character stays dead and gone forever. Apart from the odd outlier like Logan or The Dark Knight Rises, live-action superheroes rarely get that level of closure. The movie series generally run until they get rebooted, while shows like Smallville finish on an open-ended note. In the worst case scenario, you have a show like Lois & Clark that's canceled before it ever has a chance to properly end. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=arrow-fadeout-photos&captions=true"] The final season of Arrow and the Crisis crossover both suggest the Arrowverse is a place where every hero's journey ends sooner or later. Arrow is ending as Oliver Queen's friends and family lay him to rest. Crisis devotes a significant amount of time to closing the door on older superhero universes. Smallville's Clark Kent, and the Barry Allen of the 1990 Flash series are given their final sendoff, albeit in very different ways. Arrow makes a strong case that every good superhero series needs a proper ending. After spending the better part of a decade with Stephen Amell's Oliver Queen, fans need that sense of closure in order to move on. And as we say our goodbyes to Arrow, it's hard not to wonder where characters like Barry Allen and Kara Danvers will find themselves when their respective shows end. Arrow's most valuable lesson is that no shared universe should stick around forever. For more on Arrow's final season, see why the series finale flashed back to Season 1 and what Amell had to say about Ollie's death. Then find out more about the newly formed Earth-Prime and why John Diggle's story may continue as Green Lantern. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.