Arrow Sneak Peak Featurette Shows A Realistic Take On DC's Superhero

This time next week, Arrow, The CW's new superhero series, makes its highly anticipated debut. Whether it will live up to the wildly successful Smallville is yet to be seen but the origin story of Oliver Queen, also (usually) known as "Green Arrow," seems to be the heir apparent to the Superman origin story enforcing it's own 'no tights, no flights' policy, this time with the motto 'superheroes can be real.'

Arrow stars Stephen Amell in the titular role of the former playboy turned vigilante (after time stranded as a cast away makes him re-evalute his life) and this "Sneak Peek Featurette" serves as an excellent introduction to the new take on an old character as well as make it absolutely, crystal clear, Arrow is not super he's just a hero. Take a look to learn a little more about one of the lesser known DC superheroes. Uh, sorry, heroes with learned abilities...

It's not a coincidence that the first words uttered in the featurette for the new series are "Arrow is a story about a superhero who is real" since every comic book adaptation these days seems to think following the Christopher Nolan mandate means guaranteed success. Well, except for the Avengers, which managed to make a little bit of money without worrying about being gritty or realistic, but for the most part these properties, especially from DC Comics, want to capture that same serious tone. I'd ask "why so serious?" but that reference being so well known kind of answers my own question.

Arrow premieres Wednesday, October 10 at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. Based on DC Comics' "Green Arrow," the series stars Stephen Amell, Katie Cassidy, Willa Holland and Colin Donnell.