After being marooned for five years on a remote island, former billionaire playboy Oliver Queen returns with a mysterious agenda and a lethal set of new skills that he uses in a war on crime.

Here’s a first look at the new The CW’s pilot ARROW, starring Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen and Arrow. Arrow’s suit was designed by three-time Oscar®-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood.

ARROW pilot director/executive producer David Nutter said: “When I directed the pilot for Smallville, I knew that making Clark Kent relatable would be the key to audiences believing in him as a hero. ARROW is a different show — darker and harder-edged — but it’s the same core idea. We’re creating a real, believable world in which Oliver Queen can do incredible things. Colleen Atwood’s great work on the Arrow costume reflects that effort.

ARROW is executive produced by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg and David Nutter, who is directing, from a teleplay by Kreisberg & Guggenheim, story by Berlanti & Guggenheim. Melissa Kellner Berman is co-executive producer.

It should work for TV, because the villains will be small time.

The problem Green Arrow has is he's too small time to be hanging out with Martian Manhunter and Superman. He needs a comic book that's more like a detective TV show.

And the gimmick that wraps up the plot every time? Shooting an arrow at something.

After their terrific work in Green Lantern, I'm glad Marc Guggenheim and Greg Berlanti will be using their AMAZING, STAGGERING, OVERWHELMING TALENTS in yet another DC property.

Kudos!

I liked 'Eli Stone.'

Only for a bad writer. That's like saying the the gimmick that wraps up the plot every time in a cop show is shooting a gun at something.

I liked 'Eli Stone.'

The CW Orders a Full Season of 'Arrow' Based on DC Comics' Emerald Archer

Someone at the CW must really, really like Oliver Queen. After a multi-year stint as a supporting character on the long-running Smallville, the television network has promoted Green Arrow to star status with the announcement of a series order for the hour-long show Arrow.

Despite spending five years in Clark Kent's shadow during the sixth to tenth seasons of the surprisingly long-lived Superman-in-training series, Arrow isn't a spin-off of Justin Hartley's Smallville superhero. Instead, it's a reboot of the character developed by Green Lantern screenwriters Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim -- along with Fringe co-executive producer (and one-time Green Arrow and Black Canary comic writer) Andrew Kreisberg -- that'll star The Vampire Diaries' Stephen Amell as "billionaire playboy Oliver Queen," who returns to Starling City after five years of life on a remote island in the Pacific a changed man. From the CW's official description of the project:

While Oliver hides the truth about the man he's become, he desperately wants to make amends for the actions he took as the boy he was. Most particularly, he seeks reconciliation with his former girlfriend, Laurel Lance. As Oliver reconnects with those closest to him, he secretly creates the persona of Arrow – a vigilante – to right the wrongs of his family, fight the ills of society, and restore Starling City to its former glory. By day, Oliver plays the role of a wealthy, carefree and careless philanderer he used to be – flanked by his devoted chauffeur/bodyguard, John Diggle – while carefully concealing the secret identity he turns to under cover of darkness. However, Laurel's father, Detective Quentin Lance, is determined to arrest the vigilante operating in his city. Meanwhile, Oliver's own mother, Moira, knows much more about the deadly shipwreck than she has let on – and is more ruthless than he could ever imagine.

Given the name of Queen's own Alfred (Apparently, like Smallville, Arrow likes to play up the Batman-like qualities in the character's backstory), it looks like Andy Diggle and Jock's 2007 retelling of the character's origin in Green Arrow: Year One may be an influence on this particular version of the character.

Alongside Amell, the cast for Arrow includes Supernatural's Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance, The OC's Willa Holland as Oliver's sister Thea and genre veteran Susanna Thompson as the Queen matriarch, Moira.

The series will debut on the CW this fall with a pilot scripted by Kreisberg and Guggenheim and directed by Game of Thrones director David Nutter.

It was a bit kitchen-sinky: Law firm! AND there's a psychic! AND there are musical numbers! It was like Guggenheim just threw other popular shows into a blender.

That said, I liked it too.

Never saw it. I am not saying he has never done anything good, but his résumé is certainly marred by some mediocre crap.