Arrow: Easter Eggs and DC Comics References In “Blood Debts”

This week’s Arrow midseason premiere didn’t have much in the way of Easter eggs.

Partially, to be honest, because there likely just wasn’t a lot of room to play around.

“It’s a very playful thing to lay the Easter eggs in and it’s something we do try to be sensitive to, especially in an episode like 410, where we are coming off a tragic, sad event and we’re trying to keep the tone consistent,” executive producer Wendy Mericle told ComicBook.com. :We do tend to pull back, and sometimes I think it’s conscious and sometimes it’s not. You get so wrapped up in breaking the story and being truthful to the emotions of the characters that it’s not something you think about in the moment.”

That doesn’t mean there was nothing to see, though, and since it’s been a while since there was a new episode, we wanted to give a little primer on the Easter eggs and references we would ordinarily have ignored since they already came up at some point during Season Four.

Anarky

Lonnie Machin is a Robin/Batman villain who terrorized Gotham in the ’80s and ’90s in between bouts of being an antihero.

In the comics, he wore a sylized costume and called himself Anarky. Here, we didn’t see that…but the “A” emblem was used, the concept of anarchy came up a few times, he was battling the government…

…and after being burned nearly to death, he got up, fought to escape and may show up in that robe/mask combo the next time we see him.

Baron Reiter

In the comics, Reiter is Blitzkrieg, the head of Shadowspire. More on them below.

Shadowspire

Shadowspire, a criminal organization that first appeared in Milestone Comics’s Shadow Cabinet #0, will come to Arrow on January 27.

The CW has released the synopsis for “A.W.O.L.,” which sees the organization doing battle with John Diggle and his brother Andy.

In DC Comics, Shadowspire has ties to Deathstroke, who was the central antagonist of Arrow Season Two.

So why mention it here? Well, Conklin — that abusive jerk in the flashbacks — was described as amember of Shadowspire back when he was first cast.

Central City

The doctor came in from Central City for Felicity’s surgery. That, of course, is the name of the city where The Flash lives and where The Flash takes place. It was most recently seen on Arrow in the December episode “Legends of Yesterday.”