Arrowverse

In 2012, a Live Action Adaptation of Green Arrow, dubbed Arrow, aired on The CW before it got a Spin-Off, The Flash, in 2014, creating what became known as the Arrowverse.

Most of the Arrowverse originally took place on Earth-1 before the adaptation of Crisis on Infinite Earths created a new reality that merged all of the main shows into one reality dubbed "Earth-Prime." The list of shows was as follows:

Taking place on Earth-Prime:

• Arrow (2012-2020)
• The Flash (2014-2023)
• Constantine (2014)
• Vixen (2015-2016)
• Supergirl (2015-2021)
• Legends of Tomorrow (2016-2022)
• Black Lightning (2018-2021)
• Batwoman (2019-2022)

Other Earths:

• Earth-2: Stargirl.
• Earth-9: Titans.
• Earth-19: Swamp Thing.
• Earth-21: Doom Patrol.
• Earth-66: Batman.
• Earth-89: Batman.
• Earth-90: The Flash.
• Earth-96: Superman Returns.
• Earth-167: Smallville.
• Earth-666: Lucifer.
• Unknown Earth: Superman & Lois (2021-2024)

Following the adaptation of Crisis on Infinite Earths, a mixture of Executive Meddling and Real Life Writes the Plot (mainly actors choosing to move on and the COVID-19 pandemic causing each show to film in isolation), the Arrowverse came to a slow close, the flagship shows ending in the early 2020s.

Tropes used in Arrowverse include:

• Aborted Arc: Mainly due to the above mentioned issues of the COVID-19 pandemic:
  • The franchise was clearly building to the formation of the Justice League but the isolation caused by COVID meant that the heroes never got to officially brand themselves as such (they're known as "The League") and no Crisis Crossover had them all fight under the League's banner.
  • The Earth-1 shows frequently teased that a Thanagarian invasion might come. It never did.
  • The shows were also building up to the introduction of Green Lantern. And while a Freeze-Frame Bonus showed that Hal Jordan existed and it was confirmed by Word of God that the mysterious green object in John Diggle's box was a Green Lantern Ring that was about as far as it went.
• Adapted Out:
  • While Superman and Batman eventually put in appearances, Wonder Woman never showed up. Not even Rip Hunter, who has met Super and Batmen, is said to have ever encountered her during his time travel. Versions of her did show up in the tie-in Crisis comics and Kate mentions that she existed on Earth-1 at some point but she never graced television screens.
  • Mention is frequently made of the Thanagarians but not so much the Gordanians.
• The Alcatraz: Iron Heights. Protective Custody? What's that?
• Alternate Self: They showed up quite a lot. At fourteen, Harrison Wells was the record holder.
• Ascended Extra: In a meta-sense, not many would have chosen Green Arrow and the Flash to be the ones to launch a new Shared Universe.
• Bigger Bad: The Anti-Monitor.
• Cosmic Retcon:
  • Barry unintentionally enacted one in the Flashpoint arc.
  • The shows merging into Earth-Prime. As Cisco irritably spells out to Killer Frost, the inhabitants of Earth-38 and Earth-BL didn't move onto Earth-1, reality has changed so that they've all always lived on the same Earth.
• Crisis Crossover: Happened Once a Season. Usually lampshaded by Cisco and Kara.
  • Averted in 2021, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, though John Diggle did guest star in one episode of all the active shows.
• Crossover: While Crisis on Infinite Earths was obviously one, it featured several other of DC properties and adaptations cameoing (in a Red Skies Crossover manner), including a surprise appearance by Ezra Miller's Flash.
• Deconstruction Crossover: All of the Crisis Crossovers have shades of this where the characters from the Darker and Edgier and more grounded shows, like Arrow and Batwoman, question the Lighter and Softer and more comic book style of shows like The Flash and Supergirl, while poking holes in the campy tone and scold the characters for treating heroics like a lark. On the flipside however, the Lighter and Softer cast makes a point to call out the brutality of their darker counterparts and point out their Arbitrary Skepticism.
• Depending on the Writer: How does Time Travel work? Depends on not only the show, but the particular episode.
• Early Installment Weirdness: The first season of Arrow is very dark, gritty, and realistic, not unlike The Dark Knight Saga. It continued until The Flash really started picking up steam due to an early embargo against aliens.
• The Juggernaut: The Kryptonian race. Without even trying, Supergirl can take on Team Arrow, Team Flash and the Legends all at once.
• Merged Reality: Earth-Prime is a mixture of Earth-1, Earth-38 and Earth-BL.
• The Multiverse: First introduced in The Flash, it plays an important role in that show before being at the centre of Crisis on Infinite Earths.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Facing off against aliens and cosmic threats, Superman and Supergirl will get tossed around and bruised. Put them against the villains that Teams Flash, Arrow and the Legends fight and they won't even be scratched.
• Red Skies Crossover: The Crisis on Infinite Earths adaptation features cameos from other DC Live Action Adaptations reacting to the red skies and anti-matter wave.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: The Paragons all remembered the original Multiverse before the Merged Reality. Since J'onn was one of those Paragons, he's able to pass the information onto the rest of their allies.
• Spiritual Successor: Could be considered one to the DCAU.
• Story-Breaker Power: Kryptonians in Crisis Crossovers. As Supergirl demonstrates, the full might of all of Earth-1 heroes can only tickle her. As a result, she and Superman tend to suffer from The Worf Effect in crossovers and/or tend to be The Big Guy just punching stuff so as to not make everyone else look totally useless.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: It was sort of hit and miss in how justified this was outside of the Crisis Crossovers:
  • In terms of The Flash and Arrow, the two heroes' cities have different dynamics that don't fit well with the other. For example, the Central City Police Department can handle most of the threats that Oliver fights on their own, in addition to being far less tolerant of vigilantes than Starling City, and Central City actively needs Barry there to fight the supervillains while Oliver generally struggles to fight against metas.
    • This is stretched beyond believability at one point in Arrow where everything was falling apart for Oliver and he was willing to recruit some very morally questionable types but never even considered calling Barry.
    • Averted in the Season 1 finale of The Flash where Oliver shows up to help.
    • Barry does show up a few times in Arrow but the Rule of Drama means that he's always too busy to stay the extra minute and a half that it would take him to wrap up the episode's plot, despite Felicity asking him to stay each and every time.
  • The simple reason that Superman does not frequent National City in Supergirl is that Kara asked him not to. She's trying to build up her reputation and it would do her no favours if she constantly ran to Superman for help each time. Season 2 offers another reason: If Superman is in National City, then who is defending Metropolis?
    • Taken to ridiculous lengths in Season 3 where no one thinks to call Superman despite the Worldkillers being on the rampage (blame Executive Meddling). Properly justified in Season 4 where Superman tells Kara that he's planning to retire to Argo City given that he and Lois are expecting. That said, he leaves the door open enough that he might come back one day. Lex Luthor's whole motive in Season 4 is to make sure that this trope lasts forever by blowing up Argo. Though he moves back to Earth following the Crisis.
    • Likewise, after being given breaching technology in mid-Season 2, Kara never thought to call upon Team Arrow or Team Flash for help. It's justified in Season 3 (Kara alone is stronger than all of Team Arrow, Team Flash, and the Legends. If she can't beat Reign, then the metahumans will just be in the way) and Season 4 (where human heroes would only aggravate the anti-alien climate). Why she didn't call for their help during Season 2's Alien Invasion, given that that's the exact circumstance for which Flash previously called on her for help, is not explained. Season 5's "It's a Super Life" seems to also justify a lack of other heroes on the basis that they would be unable to handle a Supergirl level threat. Season 6 of Supergirl, now set on Earth Prime, has the fear that World War III will break out. No one from outside National City shows up to help nor do any of them think to try and help rescue Kara from the Phantom Zone.
  • Legends of Tomorrow is usually pretty good about this on two counts: They're time travelling and often not in the same time zone as their friends, and they're trying to leave a small footprint. Having the Flash in 1814 would probably cause some temporal headaches. In Season 2 however, when facing off against a Legion of Doom made up of Oliver and Barry's enemies, calling the two is suddenly not an option. Repeated ten episodes later where no one considers calling on Barry's expertise with regards to Reverse-Flash.
  • The Elseworlds crossover justified this with regards to Gotham City. Kate really doesn't like other vigilantes running around in her city and she all but orders Barry and Oliver, Oliver especially, out once their business is concluded. Barry, being freaked out by Gotham, is only too happy to oblige. And as a Bat, she only steps out of Gotham if there is a really big threat.
    • Before the worlds merged, Kara avoided Earth-38's version of Gotham because Batman freaked her out.
  • Black Lightning originally had the excuse of taking place on a separate Earth. But post-Crisis, Jefferson still relies on himself and his children to fight off any threat, including an invasion by a foreign power armed with metahumans, rather than calling on the League. Even Lex Luthor, a Villain with Good Publicity and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in the immediate fallout of Crisis, appears interested in using this to validate his fear-mongering.
  • Justified with Superman & Lois. After the first season faced sharp criticism for never mentioning Supergirl despite how many times Superman was incapacitated, the second retconned the series to be taking place in Alternate Timeline where only Superman existed.
• Swiss Cheese Security: Across all the shows, the secret bases had very bad security.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Most of the shows seemed to take place in California but that was about it.
• A Wizard Did It: Continuity Snarl? Barry, or some other speedster, or the Legends screwed up.