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Oct 10, 2012 By Kyle Lemmon Web Exclusive

The promotional posters for the CW’s Green Arrow adaptation show lead actor Stephen Amell all shirtless and beat-up. Female Smallville fans may flock for the eye candy, but this DC Comics TV series is gravely serious; inspirations include Christopher Nolan’s grim Dark Knight trilogy, Mike Grell’s The Longbow Hunters, and Andy Diggle’s Green Arrow: Year One. The show’s shadowy color palette and the bloody revenge storyline conceptualized by Green Lantern executive producers Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim take heroism to another level. Oliver “Ollie” Queen has absolutely no qualms with killing people, which is somewhat in line with his billionaire playboy-turned-vigilante past. He takes down tyrants and masked criminals in almost every episode.

Longtime fans of the original comic may frown at nagging small changes from the source material; Star City is now Starling City and metahumans such as Black Canary will not possess a siren scream in this normalized world. The first season of the show will feature many Lost-esque flashbacks to Queen’s island asylum period. It’s a narrative decision that works fairly well as we begin to unravel the story of Queen’s father and Starling City’s criminal underbelly. The Odyssey and Hamlet are classical touchstones for this muddy and sometimes underwhelming show. The CW gets the action scenes down when the quiet acting moments fail to deliver much in the way of gravitas. Overall, the showrunners are promising to hit the bull’s-eye, but haven’t quite done it yet. The promise of DC characters such as Deadshot, Tommy Merlyn, Speedy, The Huntress, and China White will keep disgruntled fans tuning in as well. (www.cwtv.com/shows/arrow)

Author rating: 6/10