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Published weekly on alternating weeks, the two titles will fill in gaps between episodes of their respective TV series.
Arrow launched a weekly, digital-first comics series back when the first season aired, but at the end of the season, the series ended and did not resume when the show returned to TV. Now titled Arrow Season 2.5, the book will fill in gaps between Season 2 and Season 3, leading up to the events of the October premiere.
The Flash Season Zero will reportedly take place between the pilot episode and the series itself, with “Team Flash” established and starting to do their things. It will be a bit more “comic-booky” than the TV series itself.
Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim will write Arrow: Season 2.5 along with series writer Keto Shimizu. Unlike the first volume’s self-contained chapters, this version will “tell one continuous story that I’ve separated into two-different arcs,” Guggenheim told TV Guide. “It will take us from the end of Season 2 right up to the beginning of Season 3.”
“We’ve tried to put in all the elements that people like about the show, so there will be Oliver and Felicity banter,” he added. “We’re going to see what’s happened to Detective Lance after he collapsed in the season finale. A good chunk of the burning questions left over will get answered in the tie-in comic.”
Joe Bennett and Jack Jadson will draw Arrow: Season 2.5.
Over in The Flash, showrunner Andrew Kreisberg will oversee the comic with Brooke Elkmeier and Katherine Walczak writing and art by Phil Hester and Eric Gapstur.
“Barry will be the Flash, he will have his team, everyone will be in that world, and we’ll introduce a new set of villains that we won’t be seeing on the TV show,” Kreisberg said.
Mr. Bliss, who first appeared in Starman, will lead the new rogues, a group of circus performers who gained super powers as a result of the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator explosion.
In the series, Bliss “has the ability to manipulate peoples’ emotions,” said Kreisberg. “He and his cadre of circus folk have decided that they’ve been pushed around long enough and are going to take it to society.”
The series launch in October.