Ever since The CW launched Arrow to critical acclaim and ratings success, there’s been an element of the fan base that has looked forward to Man of Steel, saying that Warner Bros.’s path to a DC Cinematic Universe should run through those two properties, bringing them together in a shared universe that could then be expanded upon.Arrow, in addition to being popular, draws a lot of influence from Christopher Nolan’s Batman films, the logic went–and so while Nolan’s Batman isn’t canon to Man of Steel, his role as producer and adviser on the movie could bring some level of cohesion to the two.I’m here to say, though, that it doesn’t really work that way.One of the themes we see in the trailers and interviews for Man of Steel is that Superman’s very existence will change the world. It would, therefore, be hard for Arrow to make a simple acknowledgment of “That flying guy out on the East Coast…” and then let the world resume as it was, without stripping the Superman movies of some of their weight.That’s probably for the better; while the “no tights, no flights” rule seemed a bit arbitrary on Smallville, especially as the show wore on and became an onscreen parade of super-powered DC heroes, on Arrow it makes perfect sense. Without radically altering the premise of the series, it’s difficult to put your non-powered hero with a bow and arrow up against guys with legitimate super powers.This is actually the same reservation I had when I heard that Andrew Kreisberg had referenced Arrow in the Booster Gold pilot script–except that one could reasonably assume that Booster’s world will include all manner of characters and it’s no more “shared” with Arrow than Smallville was. There was, after all, a version of Oliver Queen there, too. Meanwhile, just because Booster’s world has a Green Arrow in it doesn’t mean Arrow has to have a Booster Gold.
