Arrow is one of the top comic book TV shows right now. The success of the series is one of the reasons why we are seeing such a huge push for more comic book TV shows, and we're glad. However, the tone seems more like that of Batman rather than Green Arrow.
Now, don't act like what I'm saying is not true. Arrow, ever since it came on the scene, has felt like a complete Batman copy, and that is not good. The creators need to make sure the show is capable of differentiating itself from other notable comic book characters.
The first sign of this Batman rip-off is the amount of Batman villains that have managed to show up in the series. It makes us wonder if Green Arrow doesn't have interesting villains the team of writers could pick from. This is truly not the case because there are several great Arrow villains and other lesser ones who could do well with live-action screen time.
This copy-Batman thing took a strange turn when the writers chose to make Ra's al Ghul the main bad guy in season 3 of the show. I nearly threw my cup of coffee because right away it gave me that Batman feeling. It's not like it wasn't known beforehand that he would appear, but seeing it happening was still shocking.
The writers didn't stop there. They went all in with the need to turn Arrow into the Batman by outright copying a storyline. In the recent episode, Oliver Queen took a trip along with Diggle to the lair of Ra's al Ghul in order to rescue Merlyn.
Now, the idea to save Merlyn was a dumb one, but folks who watch the show on a consistent basis should be used to dumb things happening regularly. Anyway, I'll talk about the silly things another time.
After making their way inside Nanda Parbat, Oliver and Diggle were captured by members of The League of Assassins. Oliver was then brought before Ra's al Ghul, and that was where I began to realize for certain that Arrow is just a Batman rip-off.
Ra's al Ghul looked Oliver in the eye and told the hero he wants to be replaced by him in the future. The "Demon" did a similar thing with Bruce Wayne, and here he is trying to make the same deal with Oliver. If this isn't sign enough that the writers are definitely going with several Batman storylines, then I have no idea what is right now.
