The CW has released a trailer for Arrow, the upcoming super hero action serial.
Here we see the origin story in brief, and are offered a hint as to the over-arching plotline for the first season.
We already knew from past synopses that Oliver Queen’s big change occurred while he was ship-wrecked on an uncharted island, but these revelations about the wider plot are interesting. Indeed, it seems Oliver’s father (also ship-wrecked) gave him a book of names – described as people who need to be taken out of their place of power.
I’m guessing that for the first season, at least, Oliver will be marking a name off of the list somehow each episode. This story line appears nowhere in the comics, as far as I know – I haven’t read every issue – but sounds fun, and gives the show something to focus on for episodic purposes, while we establish the characters and their dramatic roles through the first season. The story would likely broaden after that, if the show survives.
A disapointing note in this trailer is the arrows themselves. I noted it also in the preview last week, but thought it was perhaps a fluke, but here in this trailer, we also only see Oliver shooting sharps, which the Green Arrow of the comics almost never uses, preferring implements like gas arrows or net arrows.
The odd gadget arrows that Oliver and his team come up with in the comics are a large part of what makes the character fun. If this Green Arrow only ever uses sharps, I’ll be pretty disappointed. It would be like a Batman story in which the dark knight only ever punches and kicks people without ever using his baterangs or bat-grapple-hooks or bat-gasmask and all the other cool stuff he has on that belt.
Let’s hope that it’s just the pilot that doesn’t have any gadget arrows. Maybe it’s something that the character has to come up with later on, like the way Smallville’s Clark had to slowly discover his powers over ten seasons.
Arrow debuts on The CW this fall.
