9 Problems Nobody Wants To Admit About The Arrowverse
9. It Still Lacks A Genuine Green Arrow
The CW
Undoubtedly the biggest tragedy of the Arrowverse is the fact it still lacks a Green Arrow.
While there's little doubt that Stephen Amell would make a fine Oliver Queen given the genuine opportunity to do so, the CW's Arrow continues to persist as this bizarre ersatz version of Batman. So entrenched is the Bat-analogue that Arrow's writers have made repeated attempts to tie Queen to the Caped Crusader's mythos, turning him into the Heir to the Demon in Season 3 and following up with more references to the Bat-fam in its wake.
Not only has this given the show a major crisis of identity to contend with, in that the its Oliver is less Green Arrow and more bargain bin Batman, it's further perpetuated the notion that Green Arrow is a superfluous element of DC's library. The character's seventy-five-year history is yet to show itself in the series, certainly not in an authentic way, and the character of Oliver Queen is as far away from the show's portrayal as it can get.
There's no 'tache, no wit, no pathos and no politics. It's just not Green Arrow, and while it's doubtful that audiences are perturbed by the very obvious Bat-analogue, it's an issue that's continued to vex the hero's biggest fans from day one.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
