Sci-Fi / Fantasy

"To understand what I'm about to tell you, you need to do something first. You need to believe in the impossible. Can you do that? Good. Because all of us, we have forgotten what miracles look like. Maybe because they haven't made much of an appearance lately. Our lives have become ordinary. But there is someone out there who is truly extraordinary." 

It's become so much easier to believe in the impossible in recent years. The guys over at Marvel have created an amazing theatrical universe where we escape into the comic book world of heroes at least a couple times a week. DC hasn't managed to wow us in our theater seats so much recently. What they have been able to do is deliver hours of wonderful escapism television every week. That's where the DC miracles are happening, first on Arrow and now Gotham and... The Flash. This is the decade when comic book pages truly come to life before our very eyes.

"My name is Oliver Queen; after five years in hell, I have come home with only one goal, to save my city. Now others have joined my crusade. To them, I'm Oliver Queen. To the rest of Starling City, I'm someone else. I am something else."

That someone, that something more ...that something else is the DC Comics character Green Arrow. Not to be confused with the same-colored Hornet or Lantern. In season 2 Oliver Queen finally shed the name and reputation of the Hood or Vigilante. He vowed not to kill, and he no longer has the list to guide him. His job now is to go after any bad guys in Starling City. In season 3 that job will get a lot harder to do while still keeping his vow. You can say that things get a lot more personal and that season 3 of The Arrow is all about family. And, you can bet that not everyone is getting out alive. Those who remain will be forever changed. That much is certain.

Gotham City. You know the name just as you know the names of Metropolis and Smallville. These are important places in the DC comics universe that have existed as part of modern American mythology since the 1930's. Warner Brothers has decided to tackle Gotham in much the way it spent 10 years bringing us to Smallville. But there is a decided difference to be found here. Smallville was indeed the origin story of Superman, and while the obvious answer might be that Gotham serves the same role for Batman, I found that to be a bit of an oversimplification. This is not the origin story for Batman, and while many of the future major villains from that universe take their first baby steps here, this is not their origin story either. This is an origin story for the city of Gotham itself. Unlike many heroes, Batman was a product of his environment. This is the story of how one city devolved so badly that a hero like Batman was necessary. What we see taking shape here is a place where a certain Dark Knight can thrive and spread his wings.

That means the city itself is the most important character of the show. To make that effective over a season of stories, the city must be created with a kind of style and atmosphere that would set it apart. While there are certain aspects of this Gotham City that owe to Tim Burton's style that set the mood for the first four films, there are also aspects of Nolan's gritty city here as well. It's at once familiar, but this is also unlike any city you've seen on television before. It exists out of place or time. There are cell phones, but not really computers. Detectives look through old newspaper stories on microfilm projectors. Some of us remember the days you had to do that at your local library. The cars are mostly from the 1970's, while the building decor and costumes appear more at home in the 1940's. It's an industrial city, but one where whatever industry once thrived here has long gone away. For something conceived in the original four-color world of comic books, this is a dark and colorless place for the most part. The only thing that's missing is the "abandon hope all ye who enter" sign at the city limits.