The CW DC Superhero Universe Headcanon, Season 1: The Brave & The Bold

I'm a Marvel fan. I came to comics through the X-Men. And while I did enjoy the Tim Burton Batman movies, it wasn't until the X-Men movies that I loved comic movies, and it wasn't until the Marvel Cinematic Universe that I Loved comic movies. Yea, I liked the first two Nolan Batmans, but that's pretty much it. The DC Cinematic Universe is not for me. And that's ok. I have loved several seasons of their cartoon properties. Teen Titans was amazing. Batman The Animated Series was wildly inconsistent, but the good epiodes were years beyond other comics-based cartoons. Batman: The Brave & The Bold was a blast. Both incarnations of The Justice League, and the Young Justice cartoons are about as perfect as you can get. But the live action shows?

Obviously the 1966 Batman show was iconic and necessary, even if it's complete cheese. The original run of The Flash was ... fine. Birds Of Prey was watchable. And then came a new wave of DC shows. For the most part, pretty good. But not all good.

It would take 510 hours (over 21 days) of no meal or bathroom breaks to watch through all of the Arrowverse, and that's not including the supplementary series that are going to creep their way in here (Gotham, the 1990s Flash, Birds Of Prey, Smallville, Lois & Clark, Superboy, Wonder Woman, the 1966 Batman, and more). You shouldn't waste that much time. Some of it is really, really terrible.

This particular reimagining is how I would string together these shows to form a fun, watchable universe. Usually, I do ten episode seasons of condensed storytelling, but I'm going to go for twenty-four episode seasons because that's how long these stories seem to need in a season. The reimagining is centered on The Flash. It's my favorite of the series. I like its tone, its characters, and much of the early stories. But in order to get to The Flash, we must start with Shirtless Arrow's origin.

I couldn't get into Arrow, originally, referring to it as Shirtless Millionaire Frat Boy Escapes Death Island To Return To Grimy City Home And Play Even More Melodramatic Batman. It's still often too melodramatic for me, but there are some great episodes sprinkled throughout its run, even ones that don't involve Barry Allen at all. 

​So let's spend this season meeting Oliver Queen and Team Arrow, and then Barry Allen and Team Flash, and see how well the teams work together.

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Season 1:
​The Brave & The Bold

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101. Arrow
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Tommy Merlyn, Laurel Lance, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Quentin Lance, Sara Lance)

A millionaire playboy returns after years of being marooned on an island and begins a vigilante campaign against the men who are destroying his city.  Amongst the baggage he returns to are an ex-girlfriend whose sister he slept with and who died in the shipwreck that marooned him, a bodyguard he's trying to evade, a sister whose grief turned into a drug problem, and a very complicated mother. 


102. The Odyssey
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Slade Wilson, Yao Fei, Fyers, Shado)

We fast forward nearly half a season. Diggle is now Oliver's co-conspirator, and we meet the very helpful Felicity Smoak after Oliver gets shot by ... checks notes ... his mother. We also see flashbacks to Oliver's time on the island where he's training with Slade Wilson to be a soldier. 


103. Darkness On The Edge Of Town
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Tommy Merlyn, Quentin Lance, Slade Wilson, Yao Fei, Fyers, Shado, Malcolm Merlyn, Roy Harper)

The big arc of the season surrounds Oliver's mother being involved in a massively evil scheme to destroy the poor part of town: The Glades. Her partner is Tommy's more evil father. We also meet Thea's boyfriend from The Glades, a guy who idolizes her brother's alter ego. Tons of CW family melodrama in this storyline.


104. Sacrifice
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Tommy Merlyn, Slade Wilson, Fyers, Shado, Malcolm Merlyn, Roy Harper)

The night of Merlyn's plans, every character in the current timeline must work in their own way to stop The Glades from being destroyed. In the island storyline, Oliver must stop Fyers from destroying an airplane and framing Yao Fei for its destruction.


105.  The Scientist
(Oliver Queen, Barry Allen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Roy Harper, Slade Wilson, Shado, Sebastian Blood, Malcolm Merlyn, Sara Lance)

Oliver Queen has now been a vigilante for a while, he has mucho mucho baggage, and is in the midst of massive plot shenanigans with Slade Wilson and Sebastian Blood when a meek little scientist named Barry Allen shows up. Back during the island days, it turns out Sarah Lance survived the shipwreck and is just as much a badass as Oliver Queen.


106. Three Ghosts
(Oliver Queen, Barry Allen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Roy Harper, Slade Wilson, Shado, Sebastian Blood, Tommy Merlyn, Sara Lance, Ivo)

Barry joins Team Arrow in his quest to stop Slade Wilson and Sebastian Blood. During the island days, Oliver is given an impossible choice by Ivo.


107. Particle Accelerator
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Oliver Queen, Henry Allen, Eddie Thawne, David Singh, Clyde Mardon) 

The actual pilot for The Flash gives us all the Barry Allen backstory we need to know. Oh sure,  we'll get it several more times over the series, but all the important stuff is here. Family trauma, new family, love life, superhero origin. All tightly packed in an episode where Arrow stops by to check in on Barry. Isn't that sweet?


108. Going Rogue
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Leonard Snart, Felicity Smoak, Eddie Thawne, David Singh)

See? Rogues! And this episode introduces a doozy! Captain Cold is pure fun. He's great in the modern comics, and he's wonderful here. He's just the kind of villain you wish had his own show. Oh well, we can dream. Also, The Flash is refererred to as The Streak. Huh.


109. The Promise
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Quentin Lance, Slade Wilson, Roy Harper, Shado, Sarah Lance, Sebastian Blood, Ivo)

Much of this episode deals with Oliver's time in the island because, uh-oh, Slade Wilson is still alive and in Starling City, offering to support Moira Queen's run for mayor against Sebastian Blood.


 110. Deathstroke
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Slade Wilson, Laurel Lance, Roy Harper, Shado, Sarah Lance, Sebastian Blood, Ivo)

When Slade kidnaps Thea in the midst of an election, all of Oliver's secrets start to spill out to various friends and loved ones, and nobody takes them very well. 


111. Plastique
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Eddie Thawne, David Singh, Wade Elling)

Barry Allen was adopted by Joe West after Allen's mother was murdered. This makes Iris West sort of his sister. She's a journalist writing about The Streak (we're still calling him that? ok). Everyone wants her to stop. Meanwhile this episode's rogue of the week can blow shit up just by touching it. Of course the military wants a piece of her.


112. Flash Is Born
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1,  Eddie Thawne, David Singh, Tony Woodward)

Finally. Am I right? Streak no more. Barry Allen is The Flash. The rogue of the week is Girder, who is as silly as his name sounds. But there are some cool developments with Eddie, Joe, and Barry in this episode.


113. Seeing Red
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Slade Wilson, Laurel Lance, Roy Harper, Sebastian Blood, Samantha Clayton,  Sin)

Slade Wilson goes full rampaging villain. Roy, infected with Mirakiru, is hunting Team Arrow, and while Sarah wants to put him down, the rest of the team struggles to take him alive.


114. Streets Of Fire
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Thea Queen, Slade Wilson, Laurel Lance, Sara Lance, Quentin Lance, Roy Harper, Malcolm Merlyn, Sebastian Blood, Sin)

The city is under seige by Slade's army of Mirakiru-infused Deathstroke masked men. The police, Team Arrow, and Sebastian Blood must pool their resources to save the city that all of them have failed. 


115. Unthinkable
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Thea Queen, Slade Wilson, Laurel Lance, Sara Lance, Quentin Lance, Roy Harper, Malcolm Merlyn, Sebastian Blood, Sin, Amanda Waller, Nyssa Al Ghul)

The League Of Assassins arrives in Starling City to help distribute the Mirakiru cure, while Amanda Waller and ARGUS have blocked out any escape from the city. Plus, Thea's reunion with her father doesn't go well.


116. The Calm
(Oliver Queen, Barry Allen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Laurel Lance, Sara Lance, Ray Palmer, Quentin Lucas, Roy Harper, Amanda Waller)

As the city recovers from the previous episode's drama, Oliver tries to balance his life as Oliver Queen and Arrow. Felicity meets Ray Palmer and accidentally empowers him to take over Queen Consolidated. Our flashbacks move from the island to Hong Kong, as we start to figure out Amanda Waller (who just sort of started showing up with Argus a few episodes ago) 's identity. Oh, and Barry calls Oliver for some help. (Technically, that scene takes place before we even started The Flash episodes but shhhhh....from now on everything will line up continuity-wise.


117. Flash Vs Arrow
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak, John Diggle, Roy Harper, Eddie Thawne, Digger Harkness, Amanda Waller)

Team Arrow needs Team Flash's help to deal with (let me check my notes here, ah yes) Captain Boomerang. A classic Flash rogue. But another rogue with a very silly name shows up and turns The Flash into Public Enemy #1.


118. The Brave & The Bold
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak, John Diggle, Roy Harper, Eddie Thawne, Digger Harkness, Amanda Waller, Samantha Clayton)

Evil Flash is a problem, so Team Arrow is going to have to go to Central City to help Team ummm...Flash, I guess?  It's fun seeing the different characters invade the tone of the other show.


119. The Man In The Yellow Suit 
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Eddie Thawne, Henry Allen, Ronnie Raymond, Christina McGee)

One of my least favorite parts of The Flash, across TV or comics, is that a good chunk of his rogues are Other People Who Run Fast But In Slightly Different Colored Suits. This episode introduces the first of them, Reverse Flash. If he were the only one, I'd be more forgiving, but this is the beginning of an unfortunate trend. We do get to see the debut of Firestorm, though, and he'll be around for a bit. Sort of.


120. The Climb
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Thea Queen, Roy Palmer, Lauren Lance, Quentin Lance, Ray Harper, Malcolm Merlyn, R'as Al Ghul, Nyssa Al Ghul, Maseo Yamashiro, Tatsu Yamashiro)

The League of Assassins comes to Star City to avenge a death from an earlier episode, setting up a showdown between Oliver Queen (who's being framed for the death) and R'as Al Ghul. Also, Thea's relationship with her father may be more complicated than they were in previous episodes.


121. Revenge Of The Rogues
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Leonard Snart, Mick Rory, Eddie Thawne, David Singh)

Get our your popcorn. The Reverse Flash story continues to be interesting, but Captain Cold's return, and his first teamup with Heatwave is the beginning of one of the most pure, beautiful villain friendships in television history.  Oh yea, and Barry has more weird love feelings blah blah blah.


122. Nanda Parbat
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Thea Queen, Roy Palmer, Lauren Lance, Ray Harper, Malcolm Merlyn, R'as Al Ghul, Nyssa Al Ghul, Maseo Yamashiro, Tatsu Yamashiro )

Who will lead The League Of Assassins if anything happens to R'as Al Ghul? Why is Laurel wearing her sister's Black Canary outfit? Will Oliver and John be taken down The League? Lots of family drama in this episode. Must be a CW show.


123. Crazy For You
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Martin Stein, Ronnie Raymond, Eddie Thawne, Wade Elling, Linda Park, Henry Allen)

The villain of the week is Peek-a-Boo, a transporter. While Team Flash tries to figure out how to stop her, Barry tries to get over his feelings for Iris by dating her coworker, Linda.


124. The Nuclear Man
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Martin Stein, Ronnie Raymond, Eddie Thawne, Wade Elling, Linda Park)

Firestorm proves that Barry isn't the only one affected by the particle accelerator that didn't turn out to be a villain. But can Team Flash keep him from accidentally destroying the city? And is Barry actually The Man In The Yellow Suit?