Arrow: What Is The Slab?

On tonight's episode of Arrow, there were really no Easter eggs or DC Comics references to speak of.

Yeah, we got some News 52 imagery, we got mentions of Coast City, and my feeble mind realized for the first time that Ruve Adams was likely named for legendary Green Arrow artist Neal Adams...but at the end of the day, we've seen/heard all of those things so often that they've stopped being exciting or newsworthy, really.

And then, in the final moments of the episode, they mentioned "The Slab."

It's where Waller had her A.R.G.U.S. agents take the idol which would later fall into the hands of Damien Darhk.

In the comics, Slabside Penetentiary is a metahuman supermax prison. Its first warden was Shiloh Norman (Mr. Miracle), and it was nicknamed "The Slab" because it was supposedly escape-proof, so the only way people got out was "on a slab."

About ten years ago, Man of Steel and The Dark Knight co-writer David S. Goyer was developing a feature film based on Green Arrow, the premise for which was that Oliver Queen was wrongfully imprisoned and had to sneak out of a Supermax prison. Rumor was that it was going to be The Slab that he escaped from, although a leaked script purported to be genuine doesn't feature that name.