10 Ways the Arrowverse Has Gotten Better With Age 12 Years After its Premiere

The Arrowverse was a monumental achievement for DC TV. Everything started with Stephen Amell’s Arrow in 2012, as Greg Berlanti kick-started a new universe of DC shows on The CW. The Arrowverse expanded with Grant Gustin’s The Flash joining the schedule, as well as Melissa Benoist’s Supergirl on CBS. This was the point where things started to become clear about the Arrowverse’s intentions to become the biggest cinematic universe on television.

The Flash ended with Season 9 and took on the duties of bookending the Arrowverse. While wrapping up its storylines, showrunner Eric Wallace made sure to include major Arrowverse heroes like Green Arrow and Supergirl‘s Dreamer. Fans enjoyed the final season as it rounded out twelve years of great superhero television on The CW. However, Superman & Lois is technically an Arrowverse show that is still going, but most fans don’t consider it canon anymore after Season 2.

10 Introducing the Multiverse Before the MCU

The multiverse is a huge thing in superhero and genre movies now. Look no further than the great success of Everything Everywhere All At Once a couple of years ago. The MCU introduced the concept of the multiverse in 2016’s Doctor Strange but didn’t fully get into it until Loki Season 1. Movies as recent as the MCU’s Deadpool & Wolverine are still obsessed with the multiverse, but they have never cracked the code, unlike the Arrowverse.

Crisis on Infinite Earths
reset the Arrowverse’s multiverse.

The Flash Season 2 saw Zoom, a villain from Earth-2, face off against Flash during the early episodes. Those episodes were in 2015, and the two-part story when Barry Allen and Cisco Ramon went to Earth-2 was early in 2016 before Doctor Strange was released. Looking back, seeing how they handled the multiverse, it’s impressive that they were bold and stuck with it throughout the Arrowverse. Adding the multiverse allowed for never-ending possibilities that let the Arrowverse progress in an unrestrained manner.

9 The Arrowverse Broke Barriers When It Crossed Over With the DCEU

There has always been a tension between movies and television. This applies to the Arrowverse and DCEU which ran side by side for many years. Things finally aligned after years of speculation from fans wondering if the two universes were connected in the Arrowverse’s Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover.

Grant Gustin didn’t appear in
The Flash
movie, despite him being the most obvious candidate to cameo.

Ezra Miller’s Flash was the biggest surprise cameo in Crisis on Infinite Earths. The scene saw Gustin and Miller’s Flash meeting in Star Labs, where they awkwardly compliment each other’s suits. Also, Miller’s Barry hears the nickname Flash for the first time, seemingly inspiring him to take it on in the DCEU. This was a huge shock for Arrowverse and DCEU fans; looking back at it, it was a huge moment that showed the great ambitions of the Arrowverse.

8 The Arrowverse Evolved Into Emmy-Worthy Television

Over the years, The CW has been rightly criticized for producing lower-quality content than most other TV networks. It’s true that they cared more about quantity than quality for a long time. Making twenty-plus episodes of intriguing superhero content per show was great for fans, but this approach had an effect on the amount of time and care that could be put into the visuals.

The Flash
followed in
Superman & Lois
‘ footsteps and added black bars in its final season to make it look more cinematic.

With filming restrictions in place, the pandemic, in a strange way, helped The CW realign their goals. Arrowverse shows had lower episode counts, and the scale of things was drawn back. Also, this coincided with the release of Stargirl and Superman & Lois, two shows that truly cared about having beautiful visuals paired with classic Arrowverse storytelling. Arguably, Superman & Lois is an Emmy-worthy television show that would’ve never happened if the Arrowverse hadn’t changed with the times.

7 The Arrowverse Had Great Representation

Representation of all people is very important in movies and television. The Arrowverse was always big on making sure they represented all sorts of people. Whether it be casting actors of color for characters who were white in the comics or major characters coming out as gay, the Arrowverse took great care with their choices and proved they were right to redefine certain characters from the comics.

Dreamer’s story is still continuing to this day as Nicole Maines has written various comic books featuring Nia Nal.

When it comes to representation, no Arrowverse show did it better than Supergirl. Nicole Maines’ Nia Nal, aka Dreamer, is the best example. Supergirl introduced the transgender superhero by gradually making her friends and an ally to Team Supergirl while utilizing her dream powers to progress her story as a hero fighting alongside Supergirl. Looking back at how inclusive the Arrowverse was, it can only be considered a strength and a blueprint for other projects to follow suit.

6 The Arrowverse Redefined The CW Network

The CW is known for its genre shows that attract young viewers to watch week-to-week. The network’s brand identity lives on in All American, Superman & Lois and All American: Homecoming, which are the only shows of the Mark Pedowitz era to survive Nexstar’s brash takeover of the network.

All American
will be the only remaining CW show of the old regime after
Superman & Lois
ends.

Before Arrow, The CW only had one DC show that came over from The WB. That show was Smallville, which served as inspiration for the Arrowverse. Now, The CW is known to viewers as the home of the Arrowverse, as it was a huge part of the network’s identity for over a decade. Shows like Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries are as influential as the Arrowverse, but the sheer number of DC TV shows that lived on the network proved that The CW relied heavily on Berlanti’s shows.

5 The Arrowverse Crossovers Are Unmatched

The Arrowverse had humble beginnings, with The CW starting small with only one show, Arrow. After the Stephen Amell-led show garnered a large audience of dedicated fans, who appreciated the grounded superhero show, Berlanti started making big moves. The Flash and Supergirl came next, followed by Legends of Tomorrow, which all crossed over in various smaller-scale crossover events to start with.

The Arrowverse had a total of six major crossover events.

The first major Arrowverse crossover was Invasion!, which saw Supergirl meeting Team Flash, Team Arrow, and the Legends. The Dominators were a great threat with a huge history that had planned their invasion almost perfectly, so it was a tough test for the heroes to take on. Crisis on Earth-X, Elseworlds and Crisis on Infinite Earths followed, which compelled fans of all the Arrowverse shows to tune in to see everyone crossing over and the major ramifications that it had on the multiverse.

4 The Flash Cracked Main Villain Mysteries

Every Arrowverse show had its own off-seasons, which normally coincided with lackluster big bads ruining the season. However, more often than not, shows like The Flash nailed the main villains and gripped viewers throughout the season. While other shows like Supergirl notoriously struggled to have many fascinating villains, barring Reign, as they didn’t often go for masked villains.

Villains like The Thinker and Cicada lacked intrigue, and fans got tired of them after a number of episodes.

Look no further than Reverse Flash and Zoom for the Arrowverse’s perfect villain formula. Introducing a mysterious big bad with an unknown identity was a major part of why fans returned every week, to get more clues and figure out who Flash was facing. Zoom was a demon-like speedster with a monstrous mask that was extremely powerful and had fans endlessly speculating online for months.

3 The Arrowverse Made Great Comic Accurate Costumes on a Budget

The Arrowverse was often the target of a lot of online discourse, especially regarding superhero costumes. Many compared costumes like Supergirl‘s Superman sit, which was made cheaply and intended for a two-episode arc, to the modern Superman costume in Man of Steel, which was perfected with a high budget and way more time. There is no real comparison, as The CW shows often had budget restrictions that limited the details that they could add to the suits.

Most Arrowverse shows gave their leading hero an upgraded suit once every one or two seasons.

With so many superheroes being introduced, there were bound to be endless costumes that were seen in the Arrowverse’s many shows. The costume designers did a fantastic job translating the hero and villain costumes from the comics with limited resources. Melissa Benoist’s Supergirl probably has the best-comic-accurate costume in the Arrowverse. Its simple yet sleek design should be the inspiration for Milly Alcock’s upcoming Supergirl movie.

2 Superman & Lois Perfected Visual Effects

Superman & Lois Season 1 was a part of the Arrowverse, spinning off from Supergirl, where Tyler Hoechlin debuted as the Man of Steel. It made an instant impression on fans far and wide, marking a shift from the Arrowverse’s normal network TV style of filmmaking as Superman & Lois took great care in crafting amazing images.

Superman & Lois
is on a significantly lower budget for Season 4, but the CGI in the SDCC 2024 sneak peek looks up to standard.

This includes visual effects, which were bound to have a huge role in bringing Superman’s many fights to life. With more attention given to the filmmaking, it allowed for a more calculated use of CGI that wasn’t just an afterthought. Seeing Superman fight John Henry Irons, who was suspected to be Lex Luthor, during the early episodes was a joy for all to watch. It’s clear that Superman & Lois‘ use of CGI is far beyond the Arrowverse’s normal utilization of visual effects.

1 Each Arrowverse Show Was Unique But Connected

The Arrowverse had a shared identity as it expanded by introducing countless new shows. Every show was somewhat compatible with each other, as evidenced by the crossovers. However, some were more grounded, like Arrow, while others fully embraced magic and superpowers.

The Arrowverse had six main shows that were set on Earth-1 or Earth-Prime, with other shows like
Stargirl
and
Superman & Lois
set on alternate Earths.

Reflecting on the catalog of The CW’s best DC TV shows, some worked really well together, like The Flash and Supergirl, while others were outliers, like Black Lightning and Legends of Tomorrow. It was great that Berlanti didn’t force the shows to have the same themes and follow a certain formula, but giving them free rein helped to expand the shared universe in a natural way.