Vixen joins the Arrowverse; the WWE and Constantine tag along
August 25, 2015 7:57 AM   Subscribe

Releasing its first episode today, Vixen is a CW animated web series starring DC Comics' shapeshifting African-American superheroine Mari McCabe. Vixen is set within the CW's steadily-growing Arrowverse, the DC TV universe shared by live-action series Arrow, The Flash, and forthcoming team series Legends of Tomorrow. But that's not all: it's been an eventful summer for the Arrowverse!

This past Sunday, Arrow star Stephen Amell faced his WWE nemesis Stardust (previously, plus more wrestling background info) in a tag-team bout on WWE's SummerSlam. Is this the beginning of a beautiful WWE / Arrowverse crossover friendship? WWE wrestler Adam "Edge" Copeland has already been cast in The Flash season 2 as the superhero Atom-Smasher.

And finally, an unusual cross-network crossover resurrection! Although NBC's comic adaptation Constantine was cancelled after only one season, actor Matt Ryan will reprise his role as exorcist and master petty dabbler of the dark arts John Constantine in a season 4 episode of Arrow.

The Arrowverse on FanFare Tangentially-Related Entertainment
posted by nicebookrack (44 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
I was so psyched for Vixen, only to find out today that it was a five-minute webisode. So disappointed.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 8:03 AM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Stephen Amell just seems like one of the coolest people EVAR. Plus, y'know, those abs.
posted by Kitteh at 8:06 AM on August 25, 2015 [3 favorites]


That WWE clip starts with the commentator talking about how King Barrett is in a good mood because England just won the Ashes which was unexpected.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 8:11 AM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


My capacity to feel genuine anger at WWE announcers despite being a real adult who understands these things never ceases to amaze me, but COME ON Stardust punched him in the face how are you saying he wasn't provoked. COME ON.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 8:16 AM on August 25, 2015 [4 favorites]


I was so psyched for Vixen, only to find out today that it was a five-minute webisode. So disappointed.

The creator of the #BlackComicsMonth push, who goes by "Miz Caramel Vixen" in a nod to the character, was absolutely livid this morning. I can't blame her, it's a total dick move of WB not to mention in any of the promos that this is a half-hour special broken up into mini-sodes, rather than a full-fledged series.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:35 AM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


1970s Antihero: Vixen's "six episodes will encompass one, 30-minute story." Fingers crossed that we'll see subsequent episodes/stories soon. I'm curious if/how Vixen will cross into the live-action Arrowverse; will her voice actress play her in the flesh?

Kitteh: Yesss! Stephen Amell is one of the few celebrities I follow on Twitter and other social media. He's just so charming and deeply excited about the nerdy good fortune that is his ENTIRE LIFE. Relevant link from the past 5 minutes: handsome philanthropist man with his adorable baby daughter oh my god
posted by nicebookrack at 8:42 AM on August 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


my god he is a delight

edit: a friend of a friend made Arrow nesting dolls and he was so pleased by that he made a little video on his Facebook page thanking her and showing the fans what they looked like.
posted by Kitteh at 8:45 AM on August 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


it's a total dick move of WB not to mention in any of the promos that this is a half-hour special

At least it's not a blatant ad for Bose headphones?

The execs said in July at Comic Con that Vixen would be six 5-minute episodes, but I don't know how publicized that info was. I've known about it since at least then, but I also stalk Arrowverse news sites like the obsessed person I am.
posted by nicebookrack at 8:49 AM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


ooo, now I gotta watch the one season of Constantine and check out Matt Ryan. Keanu didn't do a bad job, but I've heard the show is much better than the movie.
posted by numaner at 8:49 AM on August 25, 2015


ooo, now I gotta watch the one season of Constantine and check out Matt Ryan. Keanu didn't do a bad job, but I've heard the show is much better than the movie.

i have some very bad news for you
posted by Kitteh at 8:50 AM on August 25, 2015 [7 favorites]


So was Amell on WWE as himself or as Oliver Queen? In other words, is professional wrestling now Arrowverse canon?
posted by Naberius at 9:04 AM on August 25, 2015


It was better than the movie! but the movie was terrible, soooo that's some damning faint praise. Matt Ryan was an excellent Constantine, but everything else was kinda cheesetastic. But I enjoyed it as my secret guilty pleasure dream of "John Constantine flirts with everyone* amid supernatural hijinks in Atlanta," which was as soothing balm to my homesick Atlantan soul.

Stephen Amell (mentioning him again at the slightest excuse!) has campaigned hard for a Constantine crossover since the beginning, offering to guest-star on the show when it was struggling. Matt Ryan's Arrow guest spot is supposed to be a one-episode thing, but here's hoping it does well enough that they can slide him onto the Legends of Tomorrow team. LoT already has a Snarky British Guy in Not-Rory-Williams, but they don't have a Magic-Working Guy in the group.

*whatever the writers thought, Matt Ryan apparently didn't get the memo about no bisexual John, bless him
posted by nicebookrack at 9:13 AM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


He appeared as himself, but the storyline revolved around a WWE heel (Stardust) who was convinced that Green Arrow was a real person pretending to be Stephen Amell.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:13 AM on August 25, 2015


i have some very bad news for you
What ? You liked the movie more ? Matt Ryan all the way for me.
posted by Pendragon at 9:13 AM on August 25, 2015


Stephen Amell also spends half his time on social media in pseudo-kayfabe that he actually is the Arrow, so it should surprise none of us when he is eventually revealed to be Oliver Queen for realsies.
posted by nicebookrack at 9:16 AM on August 25, 2015 [3 favorites]


So I have to admit, I gave up on Arrow a few episodes in because it was all so grimdark and miserable and po-faced. Was I just being po-faced myself, or does it get more lighthearted later? Or is that part of the fun?
posted by fizban at 9:20 AM on August 25, 2015


The first season is v grimdark, the second season is still grimdark but get super rad, season three is up and down but still pretty damn good.
posted by Kitteh at 9:22 AM on August 25, 2015


Yeah, once The Flash got so many kudos for actually treating the plots and characters as if they were from comic books rather than teen soap operas or movie tie-ins, Arrow shook things up a bit. The first crossover episodes worked really well whenever the Star City crew loosened up a bit.
posted by zombieflanders at 9:27 AM on August 25, 2015


Basically, I love The Flash for being everything that grimdark isn't, and yet if I want grimdark comic book feels, Arrow does a really good job of that for me.
posted by Kitteh at 9:30 AM on August 25, 2015 [4 favorites]


Supernatural bit so much from Hellblazer that Constantine never had a chance.

Also it's Constant Time, not Constant Scene
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:31 AM on August 25, 2015


I probably should have expected this from the WWE, but ugh, the conflation of masculinity and violence.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. I'm an actor? I'm also a man. If some guy's gonna put his hands on me, I'm gonna fight back."
I probably wouldn't have noticed as much if it weren't Amell saying that. Arrow is obviously a violent show, but it doesn't put that framing on it and it makes a big difference.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 9:31 AM on August 25, 2015


i really want to love arrow because first of all shirtless men but also because so many actors i loved from spartacus have had recurring roles. but alas a friend of mine is a very aggressive and sometimes irrational fan of one of the show's characters to the extent that they will go on frequent impassioned rants about how terrible everyone else on the show is in comparison to their flawless fave, and it's made me just back away slowly from the entire thing and quickly change the subject.

sigh
posted by poffin boffin at 9:44 AM on August 25, 2015


Arrow is obviously a violent show, but it doesn't put that framing on it and it makes a big difference.

It really does. While it's more about sexual assault than hypermasculinity in subject, a few of the Arrow execs notably went on record recently that sexual violence is "not part of the culture of the show."
posted by nicebookrack at 9:45 AM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


vibratory: There's a context missing before that quote. When he said that, Amell was being kicked out -- well, "kicked out" meaning getting yelled at backstage -- by Triple H for daring to interfere with a match even though he'd been given ringside seats by WWE management.

Triple H told him something like "You're not a real fighter, you're an actor and you had no right to get involved" which led to Amell's response.

So I don't read it as Amell saying "actor =/= man" but more like "I may be an actor on a comic book show, but I still have my pride and I respond to being physically shoved."
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 9:51 AM on August 25, 2015


Amell is the first WWE celebrity guest that I've seen step into the ring who wrestled a legit good match. Like, ever.

Cody Rhodes has taken every gimmick he's ever had and turned it into gold. Stardust doesn't tickle quite as much as Dashing Cody Rhodes did, but he's still getting great mileage out of a gimmick that doesn't fit at all in the current WWE. Everything about Stardust except his production values screams CHIKARA gimmick, and I mean that as genuine praise.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 9:52 AM on August 25, 2015 [4 favorites]


Vixen isn't a shapeshifter! The Tantu Totem gives her the ability to use all the powers of the animal kingdom!
posted by Guy Smiley at 9:53 AM on August 25, 2015 [3 favorites]


I am covered in nerd shame; I legitimately thought that Vixen could turn into animals, not mimic animal powers. Forgive me!
posted by nicebookrack at 9:59 AM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm not missing context. He's not contrasting actor to man, but he is saying "because I am a man, I will meet violence with more violence". That's toxic and the source of a lot of bad shit in broader society.

There are ways to play out violence in fiction, even reactive / retributive violence, that don't involve that same "masculinity means violence" framing.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 10:13 AM on August 25, 2015


Except that in the world of pro-wrestling, a ritualized pageant of violence literally is the solution to all problems, including (just off the top of my head) wedding proposals, custody battles and contract disputes. The only thing Amell did "wrong" in the show's context was to get out of his seat to do it; once he was an actual participant everything was above board.

I understand the broader point about society, but that's a) a bit beyond the scope of what we're talking about here, and b) a strange thing to accuse of pro-wrestling, where at least the violence is only simulated.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 10:25 AM on August 25, 2015 [4 favorites]


Well, scripted.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 10:51 AM on August 25, 2015


Is it my imagination, or have we spent most of a thread about the appearance of a black woman in a superhero series talking about a couple of white men?

Sadly, I rely on NetFlix for my TV series, so I am way behind on Arrow, which is cheesy fun (and could use more characters of color, although it's been OK on female characters with agency, although there is that weird thing that some TV shows do where they really want the main character to have a romance, so they keep throwing other characters at them to see if they have chemistry, which they don't (first season of Veronica Mars, I am looking at you)).
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:55 AM on August 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


I am way behind on Arrow, which is cheesy fun (and could use more characters of color, although it's been OK on female characters with agency

Lord knows it's running rings around Flash in terms of female characters with agency. But to be fair, Arrow's had three years to build up a kickass female roster and Flash only has one season under its belt.

Returning to the actual topic: I really hope this Vixen web series jumps off into a longer series-series.

It is baffling/infuriating to me that in the year 2015, approximately six-seven years into what can arguably be called the rise of mainstream comic culture (thanks, Marvel Cinematic Universe!), we have neither a movie nor a TV series with a woman of color as the lead. I'm a longtime comics nerd and it has been so disheartening to see my generation of comics nerds grow up, begin producing comics and comic-related media across film and TV, and stick to tired old same-old, same-old.
posted by sobell at 11:09 AM on August 25, 2015 [5 favorites]


Except that in the world of pro-wrestling, a ritualized pageant of violence literally is the solution to all problems

Which means that it has precisely a 50 percent overlap with the world of Arrow where, as I think I've said before, the solution to all problems is either a ritualized pageant of violence (specifically filling someone full of arrows) or throwing a huge party. The trick is figuring out which is the appropriate response to a particular situation. And that isn't always as straight forward a decision as you'd expect.
posted by Naberius at 11:22 AM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Option #3: throwing a huge party to distract civilians from your ritualized pageant of violence

Bonus: build your superhero lair and weapons cache literally under a nightclub
posted by nicebookrack at 11:32 AM on August 25, 2015 [5 favorites]


Bonus: build your superhero lair and weapons cache literally under a nightclub

Lbr, either Team Arrow got very good at maintenance or there is a whole slew of well-paid handymen who are quite excellent at keeping their mouths shut.
posted by Kitteh at 11:35 AM on August 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


They're buried in the foundations.
posted by Naberius at 11:36 AM on August 25, 2015 [4 favorites]


Old Ollie might have done that, but current Ollie? Nah, he's too busy plotting his self-sacrifice every freakin' time he steps out the door.
posted by Kitteh at 11:40 AM on August 25, 2015


This is all very fascinating, I'm sure, but I have to play Harley for a moment here:

It should have been called the Quiverse. It's a better name.
posted by Imperfect at 11:44 AM on August 25, 2015 [3 favorites]


It should have been called the Quiverse. It's a better name.

This would lead to terrible confusions with the Quiverfull movement, and someone would end up with like 8 homeschooled minions or something.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:56 AM on August 25, 2015 [5 favorites]


Well, Ra's al-Ghul has the whole heteronormative crusader conflict going on with Nyssa. "I don't care that you're a lesbian badass, you're going to marry a man and settle down to give me a million Baby Heir to the Demon grandkids!" Patriarchal religious oppression with ninjas.
posted by nicebookrack at 12:16 PM on August 25, 2015 [4 favorites]


"Lbr, either Team Arrow got very good at maintenance or there is a whole slew of well-paid handymen who are quite excellent at keeping their mouths shut."

I've always wondered about this. And in addition to that both the nightclub and lair were built in a former steel foundry. No issues with environmental remediation there.
posted by Kevin Street at 1:17 PM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Kitteh: "Stephen Amell just seems like one of the coolest people EVAR. Plus, y'know, those abs."

He would be the coolest if he could, y'know, smile.

(Disclaimer: HUGE Arrowverse fan!)
posted by Samizdata at 7:31 PM on August 25, 2015


Kitteh: "Basically, I love The Flash for being everything that grimdark isn't, and yet if I want grimdark comic book feels, Arrow does a really good job of that for me."

Truthfully, what makes Flash for me (other than the cameos from the old show) is Grant Gustin. He's just so damn sincerely nice, I can't help but love him. Remember, The Flash was always supposed to be sort of the conscience of the Justice League, and Gustin just carries that off so well. I don't think I am supposed to see a male superhero I just want to cuddle and reassure him everything will be alright...
posted by Samizdata at 8:05 PM on August 25, 2015 [3 favorites]


The Pluto Gangsta: "vibratory: There's a context missing before that quote. When he said that, Amell was being kicked out -- well, "kicked out" meaning getting yelled at backstage -- by Triple H for daring to interfere with a match even though he'd been given ringside seats by WWE management.

Triple H told him something like "You're not a real fighter, you're an actor and you had no right to get involved" which led to Amell's response.

So I don't read it as Amell saying "actor =/= man" but more like "I may be an actor on a comic book show, but I still have my pride and I respond to being physically shoved.""

As well as being amazingly physically fit and having had some theatrical fight training. Watching Amell do salmon ladders is almost enough to make one swoon, male or otherwise.
posted by Samizdata at 8:07 PM on August 25, 2015


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