6 Reasons Why This Season Will Be The Best Year Of The Arrowverse Yet

We're now just one week away from the premiere of The Flash’s third season, which kickstarts a new year for The CW’s so-called Arrowverse – which also comprises Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl, which is newly transferred from CBS. In just a few years, from one ordinary TV series a mighty shared universe of superheroes has grown. However, while that's hugely exciting for comic book fans, quantity doesn’t equal quality, and this ballooning of the Arrowverse could act to the detriment of the individual shows. For instance, if we're being honest, neither Arrow nor The Flash had their best season last year and the debut runs of both Legends and Supergirl had their teething problems. That's not to say that any of these shows are bad, but they've all got a little room for improvement. However, from what we know about what’s to come, we are pretty sure that this will easily be the best year of the Arrowverse yet. From musical crossovers to a certain Man of Steel, here are six reasons why you should be tuning into Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow this fall. 6) Biggest Crossover Ever Naturally, one of the things we're most excited about is the four-way crossover that's been confirmed to occur later this year, which will align with the 100th episode of Arrow. Since Arrow and The Flash appeared in each other’s show two years ago, the big crossover events have been the most anticipated, most talked about events of the season. With the Legends and Supergirl now onboard, this will be the most ambitious one yet – taking place over four episodes, it’s practically a mini-series – and hopefully the best. For one, it won’t have the burden of setting up a spinoff show, like last season’s crossover, and can just be a grand celebration of the fact that the universe has grown to include so many heroes. With all these characters coming together, so many great things could happen. From big set-pieces (Arrow, Flash and Supergirl teaming up) to the smaller, character moments which are just as fun – if Diggle can’t handle Barry’s speed, what will his reaction to meeting a flying alien be - there's a lot to look forward to here. We don’t even know what the plot of the event will be just yet, but with so many characters to play with, the DC universe is their oyster and we can’t wait to see what the writers have come up with. 5) Musical Meet-Ups The four-way crossover isn't the only crossover that will occur this season. Just like last season, The Flash and Supergirl will also crossover, with Kara visiting Central City. However, there’s one extra twist – these crossovers will comprise a two-part musical special. This is something that a certain subset of fans have been calling for for a while, given that the Arrowverse contains so many cast members who have proved their musical capabilities in previous roles – not least former Glee stars Grant Gustin and Melissa Benoist themselves. Even if you're not part of that subset, this is a great sign for the future as it means the writers are stretching their imaginations and trying out new ideas. The last thing that should happen now is for the shows to find a groove and stick with it. They need to keep trying out new things to keep the universe fresh. Plus, a rumour going around states that the episode will be directed by The Avengers’ Joss Whedon, which should get any superhero fan, musical lover or not, excited. 4) The Justice Society Of America With the Avengers, Justice League, Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy being big hits on the big screen, it's proven that fans love a good superhero team. While we don’t have a Justice League on our TV screen (at least not yet), Legends of Tomorrow will go some way towards that this season by introducing the Justice Society of America. A WW2-based precursor to the League, their number consists of the likes of Commander Steel, Stargirl, Doctor Mid-Nite and Obsidian. With the introduction of the JSA, Legends will hopefully have found its purpose in the Arrowverse, after a first season that didn’t seem entirely certain of its identity. Clearly, the best thing for the show to do is use its time-travelling nature to feature various lesser-known characters from DC mythology, who no one else is really utilizing. As much fun as it is to see the famous names, it's nice to have under-appreciated heroes getting their due, as well. Though the show might get pretty crowded with two superhero teams knocking about, we think the new characters will kick Legends up a notch. 3) Superman Lives For years now, fans have been under the impression that, due to the disconnect between DC’s movie universe and its TV output, the small screen division could only play with the cast-offs that the film people didn’t want (with the exception of the Flash). That turned out to be a complete myth, however, when Superman himself was revealed to feature in Supergirl season 2. He’s played by Teen Wolf alumn Tyler Hoechlin and has been confirmed to appear in at least the first two episodes. To start with, after many laughable explanations for why he wasn’t around in season 1, introducing Kara’s cousin will really give Supergirl the lift it needs to up its ante. While it was a good decision to let the Girl of Steel establish herself as her own hero over the first season, Superman’s appearance is now entirely welcome. What’s more, Superman’s addition to Supergirl opens up a load of possibilities for the future. Will he turn up in the four-way crossover and meet Green Arrow and the Flash? Will other big name heroes like, say, Green Lantern appear next? Time will tell. 2) Arrow’s Getting Gritty Again It's pretty much unanimously felt by the fanbase that Arrow’s fourth season was far and away its worst. With its spinoff shows dealing with time travel and alternate universe, the producers clearly thought the audience wouldn’t be satisfied with an ordinary vigilante and so went all out in introducing magic into the show. As well as that, there was all the turgid soap opera stuff with “Olicity” that threatened to overwhelm the narrative. For season five, though, it looks like the show has learnt its lesson and is stripping Arrow back to its constituent parts. The big villain won’t be a sorcerer out for world domination but Chad Coleman’s Tobias Church, a down-to-earth yet formidable crime boss. Likewise, producers have promised that Oliver and Felicity are over and that this will be the last year of the regular flashback sequences - which fans have also agreed are getting increasingly weaker. With these big problems fixed, the new season should be a lot closer to the grittier tone that made season 1 and two so great to watch. Arrow is the leader of the pack, after all, it doesn’t need to tail after its own spinoffs. 1) Flashpoint But while Arrow might be the father of this TV universe, it's hard to dispute that The Flash is the most popular of the lot. From the start, the show has been the best for transposing the comic book world to the small screen, with a great lightness of touch as well as proper drama. Season 3 could well be the best example of this so far, as it will find the Fastest Man Alive in a completely fresh timeline, after he travelled back and time and saved his mother in the final moments of season 2. As any fan knows, this is a TV version of seminal comic book storyline “Flashpoint.” From what we know, the actual Flashpoint adaptation won’t last very long – perhaps as short as just the first episode. However, the repercussions of the storyline will no doubt be felt throughout the rest of the season, which could raise the stakes higher than ever before. Though season 2 was fun, it never reached the heights of The Flash’s debut run. With an exciting comics-inspired storyline though that will surely have a strong character-driven element, too, this could be the best season yet of The Flash.