Up until this week 13 confirmed DC Comics characters had been announced for the CW Network’s new TV series, Arrow, premiering October 10, 2012: Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Stephen Amell), his girlfriend Dinah Laurel Lance/Black Canary (Katie Cassidy), colleague in crime fighting The Huntress (Jessica De Gouw), the villain Deathstroke (not yet released), Speedy (formerly an alias of multiple characters but now Oliver’s sister Thea, played now by Willa Holland and referred to in the pilot episode by this nickname), the DCU villain Deadshot (Michael Rowe), Green Arrow Year One’s China White (Kelly Hu), Merlyn now Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell), Queen Industries CEO Walter Steele (Colin Salmon), Judd Winick and Phil Hester’s Constantine Drakon (Darren Shahlavi)–a former nemesis of Oliver’s son Connor in more recent GA stories, Firestorm series character Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards), and Mike Grell’s creation Moira Queen, Oliver’s mother (Susanna Thompson).
This week it was announced that Kyle Schmid (Being Human, Blood Ties) was tapped to play Kyle Reston aka Ace of early Justice League of America’s villainous Royal Flush Gang, although I wonder if they meant to announce the character as Derek Reston–the actual character’s name from the old DCU. This brings us to 14 characters pulled from past DCU stories, all previously tied to Oliver Queen except Felicity Smoak. It’s nice to see the writing staff and DC Comics are trying to branch out to include other parts of DCU history and in particular Green Arrow backstory, but ultimately the top 6 listed above are who we really care about so far. And we still don’t know who Torchwood’s John Barrowman will play in the series, maybe Deathstroke? Either way, you’d think the writers could have more fun–and so would the audience–by DC releasing more top-level DCU characters into the mix.
The other interesting addition to Arrow news this week is that DC Comics will be releasing a digital comic–separate from Green Arrow’s ongoing New 52 series–along with the airing of the TV series beginning each Wednesday starting with the premiere October 10. The comic will sell for 99 cents at comixology.com and each four issues are expected to be released for $3.99 beginning November 28 in a monthly combined print edition. TV series writers (and former comic book writers) Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg will be writing the series, which is expected to fill-in gaps from the TV show. Classic Green Arrow artist Mike Grell will supply the initial cover art and Sergio Sandoval and Jorge Jimenez will serve as interior artists.
My bet is that the digital series will look a lot like the rare San Diego Comic-Con exclusive Arrow 10-page comic book giveaway, also written by Guggenheim and Kreisberg along with Geoff Johns and Greg Berlanti with cover art by Mike Grell and interior art by Omar Francia. The SDCC Arrow comic book featured a short story showing the first meeting of Oliver Queen and Detective Hilton, played by Roger Cross in the series.
Stayed tuned here at borg.com to updates on Arrow, and to catch up on all things Green Arrow you can always click here or on the Green Arrow link in the topic cloud on the right side of the borg home page.
Editor’s Update (Feb. 2013): Check out even more DC Comics characters added to the Arrow line-up here.
C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg
