Lady Cop

You may think the credit for Rutina Wesley as “Lady Cop,” a member of the anti-vigilante task force and the main antagonist in this week’s Arrow, is a generic role but there is a DC Comics character named Lady Cop.

Lady Cop’s given name is Liza Warner, and in the comics, she was the sole survivor of the “Killer-in-Boots,” who murdered Warner’s college roommates. This event prompted Warner to join the police and she stopped numerous criminals in the search of finding the killer who changed her life. Eventually, Warner was promoted to Chief of Police in Ivy Town—yeah, the same Ivy Town Ollie and Felicity were at the beginning of this season, playing house—and Warner aided the onetime Atom Ryan Choi. It doesn’t look like Wesley’s Lady Cop will play nice with any costumed hero, so I don’t expect her to show up on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. But you never know.

You Have Failed this City

Part of what may have worked in this week’s episode (and what’s working so far in this season of Arrow) is Green Arrow’s attention to his hometown, Star City. With global threats a common occurrence, Ollie hasn’t been able to use his catch phrase, “you have failed this city” in some time. We heard it this week, when Green Arrow confronts Lady Cop.

Neal Adams

We’ve had more subtle hints to Green Lantern/Green Arrow’s artist but it still put a smile on my face when I heard Curtis Holt accuse Neal Adams, a Palmer Tech employee, of being Green Arrow. I don’t know if Adams is 5’2” (Felicity scoffs at Curtis’s suggestion of Neal Adams as the Green Arrow because he’s that height), but he’s left one of the longest shadows in DC Comics history. Besides Green Arrow, Adams is known for his work on Batman and Green Lantern.

Papp Stadium

The baseball stadium Oliver mentions is another reference to a Green Arrow artist. George Papp was a DC Comics artist and the first person to introduce the Arrowcave, Green Arrow’s secret lair. It’s fitting Papp had a namesake in this episode because we saw a new and improved Arrowcave in “Beyond Redemption.”

News 52

If you looked closely during Ollie’s mayoral announcement, you’d see a different logo on one of the microphones in the cluster of press mics in front of Ollie for News 52. This new logo is more in line with comics’ News 52.

Opening Monologue = Candidacy for Mayor Announcement

If Ollie’s speech during his announcement for mayor sounded familiar, it should. Most of Oliver’s opening credit monologue was used for his speech announcing his candidacy for mayor. Did they think no one would catch that?

Thanks again for reading. If you missed our review of Arrow’s “Beyond Redemption,” here’s a link.