In some ways, we will miss the Arrowverse. When it was good, it was very good. And though we admit a lot of our memories are tainted by when it wasn’t at this point, the truth of the matter is that the Arrowverse at its height brought comic book storytelling to many people not familiar—or even interested in it.
And it gave us great characters, great ships, and some iconic moments. We can’t deny that. Sure, there were some, eh, let’s say questionable moments. They didn’t always know what to do with their female characters. They often, questionably, pitted women against each other instead of letting them work together. And there was that double wedding—why? Why not let Barry and Iris have their moment, and then let Oliver and Felicity have theirs, separately and on their show?
It made no sense. It made no one actually happy. But that was the Arrowverse sometimes. Just throwing everything at the wall, hoping something stuck. And at first, maybe because of the marvel of seeing superheroes together, a lot actually stuck. The friendship between Barry and Oliver was kinda great. Seeing beloved comic book characters was thrilling, even when they weren’t always accurate. We also didn’t know enough about most of the actors’ real lives to have that be a concern.
And we didn’t know—or understand, the depth of what Candice Patton had gone through, and what she had to go through for so long, just because she was cast as Iris West. We still probably don’t understand.
No matter how much we now want to just look at the good parts of the Arrowverse—and there are undoubtedly good parts, all of that is part of its legacy too. The racist treatment they let Candice go through, not because they didn’t know, but because they chose to look the other way. The general bad writing of women. The abusers TPTB not just enabled, but allowed in charge.
With Superman & Lois, the CW closes the book on the Arrowverse, and the book on an era. The fact that we get to say goodbye on a high, with what has perhaps been one of the Arrowverse’s strongest shows—Superman & Lois—and two of its strongest actors, Bitsie Tulloch and Tyler Hoechlin is perhaps fitting. Character-wise, this is an era we will certainly miss. And there are a lot of actors we’ll look back on and remember fondly, even if we have to look another way when it comes to others. But all in all, it’s probably way past time to move on and try something new.
