Busted! Manu Bennett

On Sunday night, word started to spread that Spartacus, The Hobbit and Arrow actor Manu Bennett was arrested in San Antonio, Texas and charged with misdemeanor assault. In town for the Alamo City Comic Con, Bennett was apparently arrested at 6:00 AM after punching an unknown 29 year old male in the face at 4:30 AM. Details have been sparse but Bennett was released later in the day. We've seen the formerly New Zealand based actor at a couple of shows and he always seems gracious, honest and genuinely cool. He's also a very physical actor, playing action oriented roles his whole career in The Marine, The Condemned and especially Spartacus where his top gladiator turned slave leader Crixus was a fan favorite. Candid in a way that is lacking by most of Hollywood, Bennett has never minced words at the politics of white leading men or had any reservations of calling out other actors like Jean-Claude Van Damme, who dropped out of a flick last minute that Bennett was co-starring in and spent months preparing. I can only imagine this was the result of a night and early morning of alcohol infused shenanigans and just goes to show you that not much good can happen if you're out til 4:30 AM. Allegedly, Bennett was asked to leave a hotel party after drinking too much then punched the unknown man in the face on his way out. Here's hoping the incident serves as a wake up call and we see more of the guy soon.

Con-Man: Salt Lake City Round Up

Saturday was a short day where we hoped to get Danny Glover's photo, see Simon Helberg and maybe Stephen Amell before doing a last walk of the floor for any unseen swag.  We breezed on in the door with our Gold passes and I headed for Photo Ops where a very small line was formed.  I'm not one for paying to interact with celebrities but I hadn't spent much at the show and I had a significant discount so I figured what the hey, it'll make for a funny Christmas card.  Danny Glover has always been an actor I've enjoyed, especially in the Lethal Weapon series and Predator 2 where his clap in Gary Busey's face actually saved a rude asshole and his rude asshole assistant one day at work when I was ready to beat up an old man and his underling. 

After a few minutes on the floor we realized we'd seen everything the day before so we headed to Simon Helberg from The Big Bang Theory's panel.  An announcer/organizer type came out several times to pump up the crowd with bad jokes and asked us to scoot in to make room for people coming in.  Compared to the light hearted fun of Alan Tudyk and emotional frankness of Manu Bennett from Friday, Helberg's panel was a bit awkward and got pretty old.  Sure I've seen the show he's famous for but I'm not exactly it's biggest fan.  More than one question was in regards to guest stars and all I could think about was the BS fact that they're all supposed Flash fans but John Wesley Shipp from CBS' own The Flash television show never guest starred.  Also, there wasn't an introduction per se, whereas Manu Bennett can have a quick sizzle reel of action pieces, Helberg's clip consisted of him telling jokes without audio.  He seemed like a nice guy but the moderator didn't do much to prep the crowd and talk about Helberg's career, beginnings or how he got involved with the show and just handed the mic(s) to the crowd.  Coupons were handed out for Helberg's autograph and photo op so when people asked for photos on stage they were awkwardly denied.  One question asker said San Diego sucked but I'm sure he's never actually been there to see how clown shoes Salt Lake's show is in comparison but we'll get to that later.

The panel got lame kind of quickly with too many kids asking incoherent questions or people making comments instead of asking anything and then the fawning fans asking for up close and personal time.  They just gave you coupons to meet him, if you want a face to face experience, you gotta pay!  That's how this show works!  Helberg did get to talk about his studies at NYU, thinking the show would be canceled due to the writer's strike, being in awe of Stephen Hawking, the loneliness of shooting his astronaut subplot, working with Joss Whedon for Dr. Horrible, how a movie he directed is based on his bumbling, bad luck ridden attempt to win his girlfriend back and that he can't name favorites among the cast since he would alienate others.  Even though we had primo seats for Stephen Amell, having only seen season 1 I figured the panel would be very season 2 and upcoming 3 heavy so we decided to bounce.  It was off to the arcade for another crack at Captain America and The Avengers.  Armed with about $10 bucks in quarters we triumphed over additional villains like Crossbones, Juggernaut, Ultron and then the Red Skull himself, on a space station!  After 5 stages and about 25 minutes of gameplay, we had defeated the game and the universe can sleep safely once again.

Then it was time for our photo op with Danny Glover.  I honestly thought no one would be queued up but I was wrong.  There were dozens of people already waiting.  I had planned to say something to Mr. Glover but once we got in with him, he was just so kind and happy to be there that all I could do was shake his hand, ask how he was doing and smile like a goof.  A truly enjoyable experience and the photo is now hanging in the den.

Parting thoughts on Salt Lake Comic Con?  It's a fun show but still has to work out a lot of their logistical issues.  Thursday's wait time and disorganization was pretty unacceptable to me although Friday went smoothly.  Saturday got real crowded and it's estimated that 120,000 peeps rolled through in total.  But if their staff can't handle that capacity, maybe they should consider capping ticket sales.  Oh wait, they're for profit so no, that won't happen.  Their info book didn't include an actual schedule of events and there could have been a lot more signage around the floor for special events, panel rooms, etc.  The exhibition floor was decent with lots of variety but we got through it pretty quickly.  Panel wise beyond actor spotlights were mostly fan run and listening to super fans talk about a subject really isn't that interesting or educational compared to someone involved professionally in a comic, movie or book discussing their experience.  How does it compare to San Diego Comic Con?  It doesn't.  At all.  I hope attendees will stop comparing themselves to the show because they're not on the same level.  At all.  They might have crammed nearly as many people into the show but they also gouged them to buy upgraded ticket packages that didn't even get you much.  The entire show is based around selling autographs and photos whereas SDCC is about celebrating the arts with over 1,000 panels to choose from. Nothing was going on outside the show unlike San Diego where half a dozen venues offsite offer more activities, many for free while SLCC had special events with Kevin Sorbo and Hulk Hogan available for a separate ticket price.  So for their own sake, I hope fans and organizers of SLCC work on making their show better, not trying to compete with San Diego because they're not in the same league and mouthing off about something you've never even experienced is just sad.

With Salt Lake City being such a religious town, the show did not occur on Sunday so our flight back to Los Angeles included no less than Bruce Campbell, Jon Heder, Cary Elwes and Lou Ferrigno.  Lou is still a pretty big boy and Bruce has that great, distinctive voice that could read you your rights and be entertaining.  I'd probably come back to Salt Lake Comic Con but only for Thursday or Friday, there's just not enough going on to keep you there for 3 days.  I hear there's a huge outdoor store outside SLC complete with an indoor shooting range and full sized Ferris wheel so that would be cool to check out.  Until then, America needs your help!

Con-Man: Salt Lake Comic Con Friday

After yesterday's infuriating experience in Salt Lake City for the con, I can happily report that Friday was much, much better.  Sure, our early entry was about 20 minutes late but honestly the floor wasn't that big and never got uncomfortably crowded.  Their exhibition floor reminded me of Long Beach Comic Con's, only bigger.  The Artist Alley was rocking with lots of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, movie/TV and Groot art while exhibitors sold everything from toys to comics to Star Trek molded chocolate.  Strangely, there were a lot of weapons dealers on the floor.  You know, selling samurai swords, knives, throwing stars and the like?  I wanted to buy a pair of brass knuckles but not sure if I'd have enough time to mail them to myself since the TSA probably wouldn't appreciate them on the plane.  There was a spot for the chitlin's dubbed KidCon plus a surprising abundance of food vendors offering pizza, burgers, Cambodian food, sammiches and the like.  A ring showcased local wrestling as well as LARP'ing, Live Action Role Playing.  On the cosplay front, we noticed tons of women dressed as Loki but honestly not many men.  Also popular was women dressed as Mario and I saw more than a few Ash's from Army of Darkness as well as the most random cosplay fad of the last few years, Jack Frost from Dreamworks' Rise of the Guardians.  Swag wise it was a button, sticker and magnet filled day with Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Michael Biehn, Race Bannon, The Rocketeer, Nick Fury and the Ninja Turtles items all joining my household.

I had to refrain from digging through comic boxes and half off graphic novels as we're hopping back on a plane but I am on the hunt for Captain America # 14 from the latest series when he returns from Dimension Z.  One of the first purchases of the day came from Cape and Cowl, a store located in my backyard in Orange County yet the one thing I bought from Seattle's Emerald City Comicon?  A Dutch action figure from Predator from these guys.  They always have a great selection and good prices so I'm happy to hand them some bucks.  The Celebrity signing area was hopping with the likes of James Hong, Ron Perlman, Hulk Hogan and Danny Glover courting fans.  With our $20 off a Photo Op burning a hole in my pocket, I decided we should get a serious family portrait with Lethal Weapon and Predator 2's Mr. Glover.  Unfortunately the Photo Op line was moving at a snail's pace, maybe tomorrow.  Upstairs with a great view of the exhibition floor was a transported arcade complete with Battle Toads, Spy Hunter and the holy grail of multi-player button smashing side scrollers, Captain America and The Avengers!  Like Final Fight, this simple punch'em up was one of my favorites as a kid and we quickly dumped several bucks into the machine.  I forgot how comic related the game was as you can choose between Cap, Iron Man, Hawkeye and The Vision while The Red Skull, The Grim Reaper, Whirlwind, The Mandarin, a Sentinel...I mean Giant Robot are among your adversaries.  Avengers regulars like The Wasp, Wonder Man and Namor the Submariner show up to help you out. I'm tempted to go at it again tomorrow with an Alexander Hamilton or Andrew Jackson and see who else turns up.

Panel wise the floor was kind of confusing and we spent a good 10 minutes wandering around looking for the ball room after Security just shrugged when we asked.  We only hit up two, both spotlights on actors, Alan Tudyk and Manu Bennett.  Even though we arrived nearly 30 minutes early, there was already a decent line and SLCC sells VIP tix, giving badge holders first entry and their line seemed plenty long as well.  Fortunately we got some decent seats and there were two large screens in the room for enhanced viewing.  Tudyk is a con regular and employed a panel style I've never seen, he brought question askers up to the stage to sit with him and then the two would each ask the other one question culminating with Tudyk handing them "some shit" from his bag of goodies.  It was mostly random stuff and swag like tee shirts, a harmonica from the lead singer of Blues Traveler, a CD, a pair of Prada sunglasses he never wore after Bridget Moynahan told him they didn't fit his face, etc.  It was a refreshing change of pace and Tudyk was quite the sport and showman, reciting lines from his work in Frozen, Firefly, Transformers 3 and regaling us with the story of how The Cosby Show and Thundercats' Earle Hyman told him to give up acting and go work for his father.  When Tudyk refused, Hyman then become a mentor to help prepare the then 19 year old. 

The room cleared out and we snagged some solid near front seats for Manu Bennett of Spartacus, The Hobbit and Arrow.  Bennett started things off on a surprisingly educational and cultural note by bringing out members of the Ute tribe, Salt Lake City's original settlers.  Bennett too is a regular on the con routine but came off very sincere and appreciative to be on stage.  Audience members lined up on both sides of the stage and Bennett took their questions, addressing and speaking directly to them which was a nice touch.  However, like Kevin Smith, Bennett is prone to answering a question with a story that prefaces another story so not many queries receive reply.  One just wanted a hug which Bennett graciously granted while discussing how he got involved with The Hobbit: another actor spent a year and a half in the role of Azog but Peter Jackson thought the prosthetic make up wasn't up to snuff and with 3 months before the premiere, made the decision to replace the role with a Motion Capture performance a la Andy Serkis' Gollum and Bennett, who had auditioned earlier, got the call.  Many questions were about Arrow and Bennett's portrayal of Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke and the darkness of the role.  Here, Bennett opened up to the crowd and shared that his mother and brother both died in car accidents at a young age and that his little brother literally died in his arms.  No fluffy, softball stuff for this guy, which is why I like him.  When a young woman shared that her mom died when she was 8, Bennett jumped down off the stage and gave her a big hug, telling her she's on her way as she showed her strength and honest heart by opening up in front of a crowd.  Now off the stage, Bennett took a seat in the front row to answer the next question.  Oh yeah, he's super yoked too and was wearing a skin tight shirt to show it. 

Having been at the show for nearly 9 hours, we decided to scram and find some dinner.  Luckily Squatters Craft Beers down the street was the total opposite of yesterday's disappointing cookie cutter Red Rock Brewery.  With a character rich décor and an excellent turkey burger on the menu, we took off in search of a Chase ATM but the app lied to me and we ended up strolling around a beautiful outdoor mall with several fountains.  Across the street was the Mormon Temple which has some gorgeous, castle looking structures in the middle of downtown.  Again, the centuries old architecture blends seamlessly with the modern design and along with the more noticeable foot traffic, Salt Lake City felt a bit more bustling today.

End of Watch(ing): Spartacus - Blood and Sand

It must have started at Calgary Expo when we saw Manu Bennett on stage during The Middle Earth: EXPOsed event.  I had absolutely no idea who he was but he came out riding a piece of stage equipment and then showed off some sword play choreography with one of the other panelists.   He seemed like a cool dude and had a noticeable air of rugged yet funny charisma  but I couldn't place him in The Hobbit.  Upon further research, we learned that he performance capture played Azog the Defiler, leader of Orcs and ruler of the abandoned Dwarfish mines.  Then I started watching Arrow, where he played Special-Ops soldier Slade Wilson and he did a good job there teaching Oliver Queen how to fight while at the same time insulting him.  One article I read about him showed a very humanitarian side where he engaged a physically disabled fan behind the scenes at Comic-Con while another had him blaming Jean-Claude Van Damme for the collapse of his career in the late 2000's.  It seemed like his professional output took off with 2010's Spartacus series on Starz, which I recall creating quite a stir with it's over the top portrayals of sex and violence.  A friend was a big fan of the show and let me know how the seasons rolled out as IMDb just has all 4 just lumped together.

Now, this ain't your father's Spartacus i.e. The Man Kirk Douglas' 1960 epic film.  No this is Spartacus for the post-300, graphic novel, rated R age.  The 13 episode season starts off with Thracian fighters duped into assisting the Romans in fighting off a threat but the civilized Romans treat the tribal Thracian's like crap.  When one rebels, he's thrown into the arena to die by combat but ends up winning and embarrassing the brass.  Separated from his wife, this lone warrior joins the House of Quintus Batiatus, who along with his wife Lucretia, look to conspire and back stab their way into high society.  Dubbing the rebel Thracian Spartacus after an old king, our protagonist must now deal with life inside gladiator academy and learn to fight for the crowd if he intends to survive and be reunited with his lost wife.  Batiatus' champion is a fighter named Crixus, an undefeated Gaul and secret lover to Lucretia.  At first unwilling to participate, Spartacus slowly comes to realize that he is property and if he ever wants to see his wife again, he'll need Batiatus' help.

Through the season we watch Spartacus become a champion and legend in the arena while Crixus is injured and must fight to reclaim his former glory.  There's melodrama galore as Lucretia befriends Llithyia, the wife of the high ranking military commander Spartacus defied and educates her in the primal and taboo ways of a slave/gladiator facility while Llithyia teaches Lucretia how the other half lives.  Batiatus has his own plans for Spartacus and manipulates the new champion with promises of finding his wife.  By the end of the season, there's been so much betrayal and so many lies, there's only one thing for Spartacus to do: rebel!  In the first episode, the use of green screen, digital backgrounds, fake blood and way too much slow motion had me worrying I'd just purchased a dud of a season of TV.  I'm not the biggest fan of 300 so if Spartacus was just going to coast by trying to be a weekly version of the film, I would be out.  Luckily each episode got better as the relationships between gladiators, slaves and owners grew and the action helped highlight the stories, giving them weight and a sense of urgency.

The cast all do a splendid job starting with Andy Whitfield as the quiet yet strong Spartacus, The Mummy's John Hannah as the increasingly evil Batiatus, Xena's Lucy Lawless as his conspiring yet sympathetic wife Lucretia, guy in everything Jai Courtney as gladiator and Spartacus bro Varro and of course, Manu Bennett as asshole turned chick magnet turned ally Crixus.  The drama and subplots are all crafted quite well with plenty of shocks and surprises throughout the season and unlike Game of Thrones, doesn't string you along, it's all in your face and you feel it.  Action scenes are sword and shield heavy with lots of fake CGI blood and horrific yet funny stabbings, bone breaking and swords going through heads.  Spartacus has an odd sense of humor from the explicit sex and nudity (male and female) to the extreme, laugh out loud (knife to the eye!) or cringe inducing (Spartacus fights in bloody, underground matches) violence to random moments like Spartacus day dreaming about killing everyone or the heavy use of cursing and insults between the testosterone filled gladiators ("Jupiter's cock!"). 

Spearheaded by the likes of Steven S. DeKnight (Buffy, Smallville and the NetFlix's upcoming Daredevil), Robert Tapert (Xena, Hercules), Joshua Donen (Legend of the Seeker) and Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Spider-Man), Spartacus again uses New Zealand's tax breaks to produce an action oriented show that is like the raw and edgier evolution of kid and family friendly Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess from the 90's.  Only instead of utilizing the lush landscapes of the island like those shows, Spartacus is all shot on sets with green screen.  It doesn't hurt or hinder the style of the show but it would have been nice to see something that wasn't on a stage like some real grass or trees.  As 300 featured a cast mostly in their underpants and started a new fitness trend, the gladiators of Spartacus are all in tip top shape thanks in part to a 6 week Gladiator camp that put the actors through physical training to get lean and mean as well as fight choreography.  Leading man Andy Whitfield was diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin Lymphoma so a 6 episode prequel, Gods of the Arena, was produced while Whitfield sought treatment but he was later replaced by Liam McIntyre for seasons 2 and 3, Vengeance and War of the Damned when he died in 2011.  During his fight against the disease, documentary Be Here Now was produced to capture his struggle and ultimate defeat.  

(Pre)Con-Man: Salt Lake Comic Con

Clicking around the ol' interwebs I came across the first guest announcement for Salt Lake Comic Con 2014 in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Back to the Future's Christopher Lloyd, Ghostbusters' Ernie Hudson and Brisco County, Jr. himself Bruce Campbell will anchor the show which debuted last year.  Apparently it was a big frigging deal too as it became the most attended first year convention in history with some 72,000 attendees showing up causing the Fire Marshall to only allow one entrant per one departure.  Their next show, the Salt Lake Comic Con FanX event drew 100,000 goers and received some heavy support via Governor Gary Herbert declaring a holiday in honor of the convention.  Their Facebook page has 95,000+ Likes making it the most popular Utah based page on the social network.

Salt Lake Comic Con seems to be a perfect example of the new breed of conventions, shows based around celebrity talent and selling autographs.  From there you can plan spotlights and reunion panels for said celebs along with any well known artists and writers in addition to the exhibition floor hocking comics, art and swag as well as Artist Alley where you can pick up sketches, buttons and all that good stuff.  Tickets are pretty reasonable with $60 bucks scoring you all 3 days of the show plus early entry to the floor and panels AND a free t-shirt!  2013's guest list included the likes of Adrian Paul, Burt Ward, Dean Cain, Henry Winkler?!, Manu Bennett, Scott Campbell and Stan Lee.  Last year's programming was a nice offering with panels on Anime, Fantasy Films, Cosplay, Copyright Law, JRR Tolkien, Harry Potter, Sci-Fi Dating, writing, directing and much more.  After 2013's stellar success, I can only imagine even bigger names showing up this year.  But surging attendance comes with massive growing pains as we witnessed at Seattle's Emerald City Comicon where the show took over the segmented convention center with some areas not easily accessible and a staff of unprepared volunteers who didn't know where to direct traffic.

But shows like Salt Lake are great because they're big enough with plenty of attractions to keep you busy but nothing unmissable so you can come and go as you please then go see the city a bit.  I've only spent enough time in Salt Lake to land, rent a car and drive to Park City so I'll be ready to take in some history and culture like the Olympic Park and Natural History Museum.  Since it's not until September there's still plenty of time to find the best Gotta Eat! and Drank! spots around.

Celebs, cosplay and celebrating:

Straight Netflix'ing: Arrow

It all started at WonderCon during a panel on writers and showrunners.  One of them worked on Arrow and during the sizzle reel I spotted action hero/martial artist/bodybuilder/Black Dynamite  Michael Jai White as a member of the Suicide Squad.  I know Smallville ended up doing a TV version of Justice League but I hadn't kept up with it's 10 year run and just felt it was too late to jump back in.  But Arrow had only been on the air a couple years I thought and I kept seeing it on Netflix.  Byron Mann, an actor I've tried to keep up with since seeing him Van Damme's Street Fighter, The Corruptor and Michael Biehn's American Dragons, had a recurring role on the show so that was a plus.  I was unfamiliar with Manu Bennet's work or existence until seeing him at Calgary Expo where he seemed like a cool yet macho kind of guy, a rarity in today's era of skinny leads and lady boys.  I haven't seen him in Spartacus but found out he plays Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke on Arrow so it seemed like I had enough reasons to check out the show between the three action actors.

One thing I really didn't realize was that Arrow has full seasons.  I figured CW only did short, 13 episode arcs a la cable to save money but nope, Arrow is full on with 23 frigging chapters.  That gave me pause because I think that's one of TV's problems, the seasons are too long so you just get filler.  I still haven't checked out an episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. because it looked so boring and lackluster.  Who gives a shit about that smirking bland-ass Agent Coulson?  Where's the actually interesting men of action like Dum Dum Dugan, Jimmy Woo, Clay Quartermain or Gabe Jones?  I don't want to see a bunch of boring, unknown actors solving Podunk mysteries on a weekly basis.  I want to see interesting characters working for a super secret para-military/international police force using fancy toys and kicking ass!  Maybe I'll go back and check out the Bill Paxton episodes because, bro, Bill Paxton...  Dude, Bill Paxton.

Luckily, Arrow has been pretty interesting through the first half of the season and is only getting better.  The story of Oliver Queen; a rich, vain, thoughtless playboy who is cheating on his girlfriend with her own sister.  On a leisure cruise somewhere in China, the yacht sinks and Oliver is left on a life raft with his father Robert, a powerful businessman who admits to his son that he's failed their city and helped destroy it.  Father Queen gives his spoiled son a list of all the names of people who helped poison Starling City and instructs him to survive.  Washing ashore on an unknown island, Oliver is taken in by the mysterious Yao Fei (Mann) and later comic based character Slade Wilson (Bennett) who teach him to fight and survive.  Turns out the island is actually a former prison and through flashbacks we see Oliver adapting and escaping. 

5 years after the sinking of the family yacht, Oliver is rescued and returns to Starling City where he's reunited with his mother, sister, former girlfriend and best friend.  The show does a good job of mixing in the family and former lover drama like any CW show should with Oliver's vigilante antics as he dons a hood and uses a bow and arrow to fight those who have helped destroy his city.  At first, it all smacks deeply of Batman.  The rich kid, big house, unlimited resources, inspired by his dead father to take revenge, etc.  But slowly, Arrow differentiates itself as he deals with his affluent family, his sister's despondent fall into drugs and trouble and the fact his mother had something to do with the sinking of the yacht.  More tinges of Batman come out as Oliver taps resources from his father's vast business empire and of course, the "Applied Science" department helps him out a la Morgan Freeman's Lucious Fox in Batman Begins.  The pinches aren't blatant enough to make your eyes roll, they just help keep you in the right frame of mind of the show's story and world.  The show's action is pretty solid with lots of hand to hand, parkour infused mayhem happening each episode.  Production values are high as Vancouver looks great with locales for the 1% style luxurious, woodsy natural and seedy urban aspects of the show.

I had seen Stephen Amell on the last season of Hung, where he played a nice yet shallow rival gigolo to Mr. WeirdCool Thomas Jane's.  On Arrow, his Abercrombie & Finch handsomeness and action figure physique are put to good use as the rich kid façade and for the shirtless training scenes.  In the first half dozen episodes, Amell's lack of a dignified hero voice a la Michael Keaton or straight Christian Bale growl was really jarring in the Arrow scenes but now seem to be modulated to give him a kind of monotone, ominous motif instead of the gee whiz, nice guy quality his voice naturally has.  Since superheroes and villains are all the rage right now, Arrow hasn't shied away from using colorful characters like revenge seeking The Huntress, assassin China White, eye patched super gunman Deadshot and so on.  A drug dealer known as The Count gets a syringe full of his own supply and is carted off at the hospital so you know he's gonna come back looking all freaky and cray cray in the head.  I'm unfamiliar with the comic book version of Oliver Queen beyond knowing The Green Arrow shared a title with The Green Lantern at one point and was praised when sidekick Speedy was depicted as a drug addict so I have no idea if this is paying homage to the panels.  That's not a bad thing because there are no preconceived notions and if anything will inspire me to pick up a few issues to expand my comic knowledge since I've always been a Marvel guy.

Apparently the show is doing quite well, being CW's highest rated new show in 5 years and receiving positive critical reception along with garnering award nominations from The Saturn Awards, IGN, The Leo Awards and more.  I wonder if interest in bow and arrow shooting has risen in the last 10 years what thanks to Legolas in Lord of the Rings, Thomas Jane's throwback to Rambo in The Punisher, Arrow, Hawkeye in The Avengers and of course, Katniss in The Hunger Games.  Season 2 has just wrapped up while a 3rd year was green lit.  Spin-off The Flash was picked up recently along with Fox's young Commissioner Gordon series, Gotham and Constantine on NBC so while Marvel is winning the cinematic battle, DC can claim victory on the small screen.