For eleven years across six shows, The CW’s Arrowverse gave fans of both comics and television some truly incredible stories. Thanks to Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, and even Black Lightning when the series was brought into the shared universe after “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” comic book television reached new heights — and new popularity — and changed the face of superhero entertainment forever. It was a great time to be a fan, seeing beloved characters and stories brought from page to screen like never before.
Videos by ComicBook.com
But while the Arrowverse as a whole is packed with great moments, there were also some misses in there as well. Some classic DC storylines were never quite done right, there was a major Arrow cliffhanger that never really resolved well, and how the universe’s Green Lantern teases were handled never really landed. Those are just some of the major misses. There are also some teases that the Arrowverse tantalized fans with that were never fully delivered upon and they’re still upsetting to this day.
6) Black Lightning Being Part of the Arrowverse
When Black Lightning debuted in 2018, it was established early on that Jefferson Pierce, his family, and the city of Freeland were their own, separate world not connected to The CW’s Arrowverse. However, that changed during the events of the massive “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover event which saw the series officially become part of the family with Black Lightning now being a hero that existed in the same universe as Green Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, and more. Fans were pretty excited about the situation and all of the potential it held.
Except, we never really got any serious payoff. While some of the other Arrowverse heroes were pretty routinely going back and forth between each other’s cities to help out, we never saw the major Arrowverse heroes come to lend a hand in Freeland. We do see Black Lightning show up in the eight season of The Flash where he helps Barry in his fight against Despero, but when it comes to fully integrating Black Lightning and his world into the greater Arrowverse, it just feels like something that was teased but never really delivered upon.
5) Tinya Wazzo, Phantom Girl
Season 8 of The Flash was a complicated one, with one of the major stories following Iris West-Allen as she experienced time sickness. The season also sees Iris teaming up with Sue Dearbon to investigate a metahuman called the Coast City Phantom, which the pair quickly identify as Tinya Wazzo. Tinya is a young woman trying to find her birth mother and while Iris tries to help, things backfire when the girl’s mother is seemingly erased by Iris’ time sickness. Ultimately, Tinya’s mom is okay (she’s trapped in the Still Force), but the next time on The Flash we see Tinya, Barry needs her help finding Iris and Tinya has no desire to assist as she wants him to experience the same loss she’s feeling because of her mom. In live action, we never see Tinya again.
Now, technically, fans do get a follow up for Tinya. The tie-in comic, Earth-Prime: Hero’s Twilight #6 reveals that Tinya is at ARGUS and is training with Cisco Ramon and Kamilla Hwang and she even has not only her iconic costume but her comics accurate name of Phantom Girl as well. But if you don’t read the comic, Tinya’s story is never fully resolved and it’s a very frustrating loose thread.
4) Bizarro Supergirl
Season 1 of Supergirl saw the titular heroine have to deal with what was ultimately a minor, but still terrifying threat: a perfect doppelganger of herself, Bizarro. Created by Maxwell Lord to defeat Supergirl, Bizarro is actually a young woman who had suffered brain trauma who Lord used to turn into a clone of Supergirl. Eventually, Supergirl and Bizarro face off and, thanks to a sort of reverse green kryptonite formula created by the D.E.O., Supergirl is able to stop her. Supergirl ends up bringing the badly wounded Bizarro back to the D.E.O. and promises to find a way to save her before the girl is put into a coma until that time.
The problem here? We never find out if the D.E.O. is able to help Bizarro. Supergirl is very upset about what happened with her, but the character’s fate is mostly just dropped and forgotten. There is one mention of Bizarro during the Red Daughter storyline in Season 4 when the evil clone of Supergirl attacks the White House and Alex Danvers notes that she checked to make sure it wasn’t Bizarro. That suggests that maybe the D.E.O. was able to help Bizarro, if Alex was worried she could have gotten out and attacked the White House, but frustratingly we’ll never know for sure.
3) What Happened to William?
Blame this one on the Green Arrow and the Canaries spinoff never being picked up. The penultimate episode of Arrow was actually a backdoor pilot for a potential Green Arrow and the Canaries spinoff that would have followed Oliver and Felicity’s daughter, Mia along with Laurel Lance and Dinah Drake. The episode took viewers to 2040 where Dinah finds herself after Oliver’s funeral and it’s quickly discovered that if the abducted socialite Bianca (who happens to be Helena Bertinelli’s daughter) is not rescued and dies, Star City will end up falling back into a world of crime. They enlist Mia for help, convincing her to become Green Arrow.
While there are a lot of things in this episode that never resolved because Green Arrow and the Canaries never got picked up by The CW, the big thread left hanging is the fate of Oliver’s son William. The episode ends with Mia and her older brother visiting the memorial statue for their father when they’re ambushed. William is kidnapped by cloaked figures and that’s pretty much where things end. We never find out what happens to William, or anything else about that timeline.
2) Booster Gold
Legends of Tomorrow took a big swing in what would end up being its final season. Season 7 of the series saw the introduction of Donald Faison as Mike, the guardian of a fixed point in time who ended up stealing the Waverider and going rogue after he realized his job as a guardian was pretty much a joke because no one trusted him to do anything more important. Mike ends up apologizing for stealing the Waverider and rejoins the heroes, but it ends up all being a ruse as he had actually lured the Legends into a trap for time police to arrest them. It’s then he reveals his nickname: Booster Gold.
Now, in fairness, this one wasn’t meant to be a frustrating tease with no payoff. The plan for Season 8 of Legends of Tomorrow would have seen Booster working with the Legends against the time police. Unfortunately, Legends was cancelled at the end of Season 7, meaning that there was never a chance to deliver on what was one of the Arrowverse’s coolest teases.
1) What Happened to the Real Bruce Wayne?
The first season of Batwoman brought Gotham City into the Arrowverse, but it also established an important status quo: Batman had disappeared three years previously and had not been acting as a vigilante int he city. Of course, that also means that Bruce Wayne was not part of the picture. The absence of Bruce Wayne is something of a mystery and it’s one that never gets solved.
While Kate Kane is replaced a Batwoman by Ryan Wilder in Season 2 (series star Ruby Rose departed the series after its first season, prompting Javicia Leslie’s Ryan to become the new vigilante) we do see Kate again. After being believed dead, Kate’s appearance is altered and she’s brainwashed by Roman Sionis into believing herself to be his daughter Circe. Her memories are eventually restored, but she chooses to let Ryan remain as Batwoman and instead chooses to leave Gotham to look for Bruce. And that’s it. We never find out where Bruce went or what happened to him or if Kate ever finds him. Season 3 of Batwoman moves on from Kate Kane’s Batwoman entirely and while it’s possible that future seasons of Batwoman would have explained what happened to Bruce and Kate, the series was cancelled, leaving the Arrowverse’s Batman just out of reach.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
