The DCTV Universe has come a long way since Arrow launched back in 2012. We’ve seen characters come and go through those years, but the women of the Arrowverse remain a constant backbone for each respective series. Time and time again the women of DCTV rise to their respective challenges. These flawed, clever, resourceful women make each Arrowverse show better and we’d love to see more of them shine in the coming Fall 2018 seasons.
Felicity Smoak
There is no Team Arrow without Felicity Smoak. Arguably, there’s not even a Green Arrow without her. While those are high and deserved accolades, we’ve rarely gotten to see Felicity lean into her smarts and do her thing outside of said team. Her role as head of Palmer Tech was woefully short-lived, and Oliver chilling out in prison gives the writers a rare opportunity to have Felicity be resourceful outside of the Arrow Cave.
She has a son to take care of, a budding start-up to help flourish, and no mayoral funds paying for their swanky condo. Smoak Technologies may yet come to be, and it will be nice to see the brains of the operation figure out how to be a mom of a child she didn’t have until a year ago while juggling all of her other duties.
Caitlin Snow
The Flash writers have struggled with Caitlin’s story since Season 1, but we’ve seen more and more progress with her character as the show grows. Their biggest hurdle has been giving Caitlin her independence. She’s always tied to someone else’s storyline and is rarely given the opportunity to take care of herself. This trend was very strong in Season 1 and 2, first by connecting Caitlin’s trauma to Ronnie, then to giving her a relationship with fake Jay Zoom.
Giving her an arc as Killer Frost really gives Caitlin a way to change that. We’ve seen her make rash decisions and put everything on the line to get her alter ego back, which is and unexpected direction that they should keep heading in. As Killer Frost she has her own missions, her own motivations, and we’re excited to see he journey play out in Season 5.
Dinah Drake
Just like The Flash took their time developing Caitlin’s character, it took Arrow a few iterations before they hit their mark and found the perfect Black Canary. There have been three Canaries on Arrow: Sara Lance, Laurel Lance, and now Dinah Drake. Each Canary had her own merits, but Dinah really nails the classic comic book-feel of the character.
When Arrow returns this Fall, Oliver will be in prison and Dinah will be left without Captain Lance (or Mayor Lance). Here’s hoping Arrow gives Dinah the opportunity to shine both as a hero, a detective, and as a woman. And, with Felicity acting as the Oracle equivalent in this universe, we’d love to see that classic Oracle/Canary friendship brought to the forefront on Arrow.
Sara Lance
The Lance family has always fought for the good of Star City while dealing with their own demons. They have all been through hell and back — with Quentin and Laurel dealing with alcoholism and addiction — and Sara quite literally fighting her way out of hell after being resurrected by the Lazarus Pit. Sara has died a few times, lost herself in the world a time or two, and has found love in the arms of countless men and women throughout many timelines. She is flawed but powerful, and always rises up to fight when called upon.
When we catch up with Sara and the rest of the Legends in Season 4, it will be right on the tail end of her father’s death. Hopefully we’ll get to see the fallout from that as the season progresses as her team desperately tries to get her to cope with the situation. Sara gained a lot of wisdom in a short amount of time, but the loss of her father might push her back a few steps. Whichever road the Captain of the Waverider goes down, we hope Legends of Tomorrow takes it as an opportunity to tackle grief and coping in a way the other DCTV shows may have avoided in the past.
Lena Luthor
When we last saw Lena Luthor, it was in yet another villain fake-out in Supergirl’s Season 3 finale. The show has spent a lot of time trying to separate Luthor from her family name, but every once in a while it falls back on the cheap “will she or wont she” question of her lineage. Next season, it would be great to Lena be the clever, capable, and strong willed woman we know she is, without asking the needless questions of her assumed villainy.
There’s plenty of actionable drama to be had with her relationship with Kara, with James revealing himself as Guardian to the public, and with running two companies while Sam still gets her life in order. Lena is not Lex, so here’s hoping The CW avoids making extremely smart and super villain synonymous with this one!
Iris and Nora West-Allen
Because Nora West-Allen presumably grew up without her father, she didn’t have anyone around to tell her what the consequences would be if she altered the timeline. While The Flash will have the difficult task of not rehashing a story line that they just covered with Flashpoint, it has the chance to show us a different side of Iris West-Allen and to introduce us to the future Flash.
Iris has plenty of challenges when it comes to keeping Team Flash alive, but we’ll likely see her panic a few times as she reconciles the idea of being someone’s mother. She’ll also have the unique task of wanting to keep Nora safe while encouraging her to be a hero, while Barry plays his typical role of overprotective title hero (and dad). Whether they’ll have to do all of this while dealing with Time Wraiths remains to be seen.
Zari Tomaz
It’s still far too rare that we see someone of Muslim faith on television. Legends of Tomorrow has done a good job incorporating Zari’s religion without going out of their way to make it a big deal, and this is a trend that should continue in Legend’s fourth season. More then her faith, Zari brings some much-needed logic to the team, while offering a dry wit that compliments the rest of the Legends exceptionally. Because everyone on the cast gets along so well, there isn’t poor chemistry between any of them, but we’d love to see more of the contrast between Zari and Ray as everyone gets to know each other better.
Anissa and Jennifer Pierce
Black Lightning smashed its way into the DCTV universe like a wrecking ball. Though it’s not currently tied to the other shows in plot, it carved out its own corner of the network and made it clear that it was here to stay. There’s little the first season of the show doesn’t nail, including its female protagonists, but we want to see even more of Jennifer and Anissa going into Season 2. Each of them have something to learn from the other, which will serve as a great watch through both the good and the bad moments.
Cat Grant
Yes, Cat Grant is off doing more important things in the world of Supergirl. Yes, Kara’s narrative has technically outgrown her now that she’s coming into her own and has found out that her mother is alive on another planet. But we just really need some more Cat Grant on our television screens! This whip smart leading lady needs to make at least a couple cameos in the show’s next season. She could pop in to face off with the deplorable Morgan Edge, to bring some high level political game into the mix, or to just give her girl Kara a much needed hug.
Whether it’s giving them more opportunity to grow, or just including more of them in the shows themselves, here’s hoping the women of DCTV get more complex storylines in the coming year!
The full DCTV lineup returns to The CW this Fall.
