Arrow is Livin’ in the Future with a trip to Star City 2040 and the fight to keep it from becoming, well, Star City when Oliver Queen was alive.
1. Changes
Coming out of COIE there is a line from the “The Multiversity Guidebook” #1 that I’ve been thinking about. This is how it describes Earth-1 “this freshly created Universe is still colling and as yet unformed … nothing here is certain.” That sense of novelty and adventure has been running through the DCWverse since the end of COIE, last week. It adds an extra layer of interest to this backdoor pilot. Part of the fun of this episode was seeing all the way things are different and how they’re still the same.
Some of them are expected, Mia living a good but hollow socialite life in a seemingly utopian Star City. Star City is apparently NOT second only to Gotham as a terrible place to live, which is the biggest sign that something is off. Dinah Drake is randomly sent to Star City 2040 and the world has forgotten her. Laurel is on a mission to save Mia and Star City for reasons. J.J. isn’t a Deathstroke but a good guy. It is brother Connor Hawke Diggle that appears to be the black sheep of the family. Zoey is alive! And even with a good childhood, William still can’t keep a boyfriend. Maybe not everything changed.
The want to discover has me very interested in seeing more of this space. Even some of the most ludicrous stuff, Dinah Drake was randomly sent to the future with no memory and the world forgot her, sounds interesting. “Green Arrow & The Canaries” has lots of possibility if it gets picked up.
2. (Backdoor) Pilots
“Green Arrow & The Canaries” is the title for the proposed show in development by Beth Schwartz and Marc Guggenheim. When the DCWverse has gone this backdoor route before starting with Barry Allen showing up for a pair of episodes in Arrow season 2, these were generally extended special guest spots. They were testing the character out in another show. If it worked they’d get a pilot order and if not, well they added a character to call on for a special guest spot. “Green Arrow & The Canaries” breaks from that formula. This was functionally a pilot episode that did all the normal plot and emotional beats needed to setup Mia Queen as the Green Arrow of Star City 2040. It clearly lacked the extra bit of budget production companies normally get for pilot episodes, but overall director Tara Miele and writers Beth Schwartz, Marc Guggenheim, Jill Blankenship, Oscar Balderrama did a fine job. Pilots are hard with many masters to serve and while they did a lot of teasing it hit the right emotional beats and laid the groundwork for more.
Man, I really hope this show is picked up after this episode. With how the CW handles development and the vertical nature of WarnerMedia there is a 95% of this show getting an initial order. It should, this isn’t just a continuation of Arrow visually or emotionally but is clearly derived from it. One of the hardest things to do with the DCWverse is making sure each show feels unique. It’s one of the reasons I am weary of the upcoming Lois and Clark show, how is that substantially different from Supergirl?
With this episode in the can, what does an actual pilot look like that isn’t just a retread of this one? Ironically a pilot would effectively be a second episode which are generally the better version of the pilot episode because most of the setup is now out of the way.
3. Livin in the Future
Per Arrow tradition the penultimate episode is an homage to the Boss and the E Street band, but corporate overlords don’t like that fun when there’s a chance to test branding ideas. So instead of going by the intended title “Livin’ in the Future” from the album Magic by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band we get “Green Arrow & The Canaries”. That isn’t a bad title but there is something more resonant and fitting about the original title.
Continued belowMagic is noted for being a more pessimistic album overall. A note of cynicism isn’t new Springstreen and companies work but it is normal counterbalanced by an upbeat tempo an structure that ultimately tips to hope. Lyrically there is a note of cynicism as the unseen narrator recalls getting a message saying he and his partner would never see each other again. The song ultimately turns it into a call to live in the present (or is that just the future) because none of that stuff has happened yet “No baby, don’t you fret/We’re livin’ in the future/And none of this has happened yet”
That sort of ill proclamation of the future is at the heart of “Green Arrow & The Canaries” with Laurel coming to the future to stop the fall of Star City 2040. Much like last year’s use of “Living Proof” this was a fitting reference.
4. The Full LOST
If you’ve ever read any of my stuff on this site, link down below, you will know I am a strong proponent of going “The Full LOST.” By which I mean waking people up and having them remember their past lives. This was side stepped, understandably, in COIE but going the full measure appears to be at the heart of “Green Arrow and the Black Canaries.” Mia Queen in the rebooted Earth-Prime has no memories of her prior life, living the opulent and vapid lifestyle that Mary Hamilton pretended at. Until Laurel decides to wake her up, notably the ring glows red when it is activated much like Neo choosing the red pill in The Matrix.
She isn’t the only one woken up by the end of the episode as J.J., seemingly good and an art deal, is reminded of his past life as the leader of the Deathstroke gang. There is also the rest of New New Team Arrow to consider. It is still early days and as previously stated I’m not sure what an actual pilot would look like compared to this, but using this notion of memory and its relation to COIE as a key emotional touchstone for the series and to carry what was previously done forward into the future is a very smart choice.
5. Legacy
One of the core reasons I tend to read DC comics more than Marvel is how they (had) treated the concept of the superhero as a legacy item. Most of Geoff Johns core work has been dealing with the concept of legacy. Arrow littered their own version of that concept throughout their run from introducing proto versions of characters like Wintergreen Deathstroke into Slade Deathstroke, Sara Lance Canary into Laurel’ Canary, etc. It was a storytelling choice that allowed them to play with DC iconography in their own way. “Green Arrow & The Canaries” is the most direct linkage of the comics version of legacy and the DCWverse with the daughter of the Green Arrow grappling with how to live up to what her father did. What will the titular Canaries do now that they exist in a future without their band of street Canaries? If this show goes forward it will be interesting to see how the writers grapple with this concept. It places them within a lineage and seemingly preconceived path, which like the timeline they’re trying to prevent, will need altering if they are to succeed.
