Arrow Midseason Premiere: Easter Eggs and DC Comics References In "Blast Radius"

Arrow 

is back, folks, and it was a pressure cooker this week, so while there was quite a bit going on, they didn't find as much space as maybe they ordinarily would have for things like Easter eggs and inside jokes. That doesn't mean there were none, though; some of them have popped up before, some of them are a bit of a stretch on our part--but there are definitely some cool little things in this week's episode that mean more to you if you've been reading the DC Comics for a while. Check them out below and, as always let us know if we missed some, becuase we're doing this on the fly same as you and don't necessarily catch everything.

Barry Allen It's kind of surprising to see that Barry Allen gets a name-drop immediately--and that he's comatose, rather than the near-immediate recovery he had after getting Flashed in the comics. Will Felicity be a through-line between Arrow and Flash? We've asked bunches of times, but there's a bit of dialogue at the end of the episode that certainly suggests that might be the plan. It would be an interesting way to go, certainly, especially with so much of the fan base hung up on "Olicity." A chase through familiar streets In the comics, there is no Starling City. It's Star City. Well, we get a bit of a "star"-themed inside joke here in the street signs as Oliver makes his way through Starling. Pemberton Street is the name on one of the signs he passes--a likely reference to Sylvester Pemberton, better known as the Star-Spangled Kid (and later Skyman), a supporting cast member to the original Justice Society of America and later a founding member of Infinity, Inc. By coincidence--or perhaps not--Pemberton was eventually killed by none other than Solomon Grundy (better known around the Arrowverse--at least so far--as Cyrus Gold). The other street mentioned, Gerrard, is a little less obvious. The only Gerrard we could find in the DC wiki was a Martian sleeper agent and assassin named Paul Gerrard, who appeared in the '90s Martian Manhunter series. That's a far less likely homage, and the double-R in Gerard makes a creator homage somewhat less likely.

The Mad Bomber In the DC Comics Universe, Mark Scheffer is a supervillain by the name of Shrapnel. Not much is known about his life before he was transformed into a monstrous being made of shards of metal--after which he became a hitman. Conveniently enough, when Felicity manages to track him down later, he's using the username "Shrapnel" on the message board where he's posting. DC 52 Quentin Lance's police callsign, a reference to the publisher's 52 miniseries and New 52 universe-wide reboot, makes a reappearance when he calls in the second explosion.

Deathstroke Rising As the Mirakuru starts to take its hold on Slade Wilson, he's gradually becoming the man everyone always expected him to be when he first showed up.

Blood's parents In the comics, Sebastian Blood--the current model--murdered his father. In the series, he says his mom did it and then vanished off the face of the earth. What are the odds he's lying? Well, pretty good, it turns out; that's what his aunt mom tells us at the end of the episode.

The Movement They aren't the Teen Trillionaires, that's for sure! The militia group that Shrapnel belongs to in this episode carries the name of the Occupy Wall Street-like teen superteam from the New 52.

Deadman switch That's a pretty common term, all told, but the first time I can remember having heard it as a teenager was in Green Arrow #100, when Oliver effectively committed suicide in the name of an eco-terrorist group that he'd inadvertently become tied up with. A tenuous link? Sure. But worth mentioning, surely.

Arsenal powers up Well, it's not a bionic arm (although his biological one does take some damage this week--it gets better), but Roy Harper is doing some pretty superhuman stuff this week, including healing up super-fast (again) and catching a huge, falling piece of lighting equipment that almost flattens Moira Queen like a pancake.

"Sebastian is the devil!" Part of the revelation at the end that Sebastian's mother is alive and living in a lunatic asylum, doped up and posing as his aunt, is the phrase "Sebastian is the Devil!" Now, let's leave aside for a moment the fact that he's got a kind of weird, vaguely satanic cult in the comics. That statement is pretty interesting, considering that devil-like appearance of Trigon, Brother Blood's onetime father-in-law. Trigon who, like Slade Wilson, is a longtime nemesis of Roy Harper's Teen Titans team. We missed one!

@dcumoviepage @ComicBookdotcom @Riaaanna Also had to add, St. Walker Psychiatric Hospital. I’m assuming their slogan is “All will be well”

— Taruna D (@TarunaD) January 17, 2014