When Arrow launched on the CW in 2013, Oliver Queen’s transformation from trust-fund playboy to vengeful vigilante marked a shift for superhero television.
Instead of the quippy, goatee-sporting activist from decades of DC Comics, viewers got a haunted, brooding figure who spent years off the grid and then built a squad to take back his corrupted city.
This TV Oliver showed grit and trauma; his years on Lian Yu grew into the main mythos, while his leadership in Team Arrow became the show’s emotional spine.
Yet, for all the intensity and high-stakes action, Arrow’s version of Queen was rarely aligned with its iconic comic roots. The comics’ Oliver Queen has been a social crusader and outspoken liberal ever since writers like Dennis O’Neil and Mike Grell recast him as a fiery activist in the 1970s.
His comic stories abound with calls for racial justice, takedowns of corporate greed, and fierce debates with fellow heroes. In Arrow, though, those politics were mostly missing in action. Season after season focused on personal drama and the ethics of vigilantism, not systemic change or ideologically driven battles.
Even Arrow’s long-haul storytelling, such as the death and rebirth themes, or Queen’s raw personal journey, kept Oliver fundamentally separate from his comic legacy. This was a purposeful creative choice: the show aimed to present a stripped-down, “grounded” hero in a post-Batman TV climate.
But in doing so, Arrow made Oliver Queen less an activist and more a stoic action figure, marking a surprising step away from one of DC’s most principled icons.
A Single Flash of Comic Truth: Oliver’s Mayoral Season
Arrow spent five seasons building Oliver Queen into Star City’s shadowy defender, but it was only in Season 5 that the real comic Oliver Queen showed up, even if only for a brief narrative window.
In the comics, Queen’s stint as mayor represents a critical moment: he tries to transform his city’s future, urges progressive policies, and fights for causes bigger than himself. Fans of comic Green Arrow know that his political activism surfaces in everything from his corporate decisions to his crime-fighting priorities.
Arrowverse (Credit: Wikipedia)
Arrow’s TV version briefly mirrored this, with Oliver elected as Star City’s mayor. For the first and only time, that political storyline edged into the spotlight. Oliver’s office struggles and attempts at city-wide reforms gave viewers a taste of the original character’s priorities. But even this storyline fell short of the comic blueprint.
Unlike in comics, where Oliver’s activism is persistent and outspoken, the show focuses much more on his internal drama and threats to his family and identity. The potential for showcasing lasting political impact, one of Oliver Queen’s defining comic traits, was largely sidelined.
The mayor storyline introduced legislative dilemmas, challenges from Queen’s enemies, and brief moments of civic responsibility.
However, rather than influencing meaningful systemic change or revealing deep ideological convictions, the narrative used Oliver’s political role mainly as plot fuel for continuing action sequences and interpersonal conflict.
Comic fans recognized the DNA of their Green Arrow, but the Arrowverse version never truly embraced these roots. Outside of this arc, Oliver Queen quickly slid back into his established TV pattern: a determined vigilante, untethered from the radical political legacy that shaped the Green Arrow mythos.
Why Arrowverse’s Oliver Queen Remains a Political Phantom
The divide between Arrow’s vigilantism-focused Queen and his outspoken comic counterpart left passionate discussions swirling in fan spaces for years.
On sites like Reddit, viewers debated whether “Arrow’s Oliver Queen” ever embodied the real “Green Arrow” from the source material, especially with the show’s tendency to lean Batman-lite, rather than a bold, left-leaning hero.
Even showrunner interviews and retrospectives echo the reality that Arrow’s Queen could have been pulled from a totally different character sheet than the comics.
This disconnect isn’t accidental. The Arrowverse used Oliver Queen as a backbone for its shared universe, prioritizing interconnected storytelling and personal stakes over ideology or activism.
By downplaying Oliver’s politics, Arrow allowed audiences to relate to his personal battles and crises, but also lost what made him one of the most controversial, inspiring, and singular DC heroes. Oliver’s social justice crusades in comics often sparked tension, fueled real-world debate, and challenged his Super Friends.
His Arrowverse journey, though, bypassed those moments almost entirely, showing how adaptation choices can reshape a character at their core.
As the Arrowverse draws to a close, one thing stands clear: Oliver Queen, as comics fans know him, only truly appeared once, and even then, it was a fleeting glimpse. For viewers wondering if the show ever captured the essence of DC’s Green Arrow, Season 5’s mayoral turn is the solitary evidence.
The rest was an inventive, action-packed reimagining, sometimes heroic, sometimes divisive, always a bit removed from the real Oliver Queen.
One of the buzziest details in HBO’s ‘It: Welcome to Derry’ is the parade of turtles on a high school sign, as a costumed mascot, and dangling from a character’s bracelet, among other sightings.
Viewers familiar with Stephen King’s sprawling horror multiverse immediately noticed, but for newcomers, these reptiles might seem random or even oddly cute in such a grim setting.
Much of the first episode’s turtle presence riffs on real-world references, like the “Bert the Turtle says duck and cover” sign outside Derry High, a nod to a famous 1951 PSA about nuclear drills.
But the symbolism goes much deeper, and sharp-eyed fans have cataloged turtle appearances throughout the original ‘It’ movies, from Bill’s Lego turtle to a sticker on Beverly’s book.
In ‘Welcome to Derry,’ the turtle motif surfaces most meaningfully when Matty offers Lilly a turtle charm from his Cracker Jack box, which she then wears every day.
Notably, Lilly is the only character to survive the episode’s gruesome movie theater incident, sparking speculation that turtles might mean more than just luck; they could be a cryptic signal of unseen protection or cosmic intervention.
The showrunners aren’t hiding their intentions, as producer Andy Muschietti previously teased that ‘Welcome to Derry’ would link up with lore from King’s ‘Dark Tower’ universe, a move that leaves room for turtles to become an even more central part of the story.
Instead of placing these details as quirky background trivia, HBO’s prequel chooses to highlight them as major set pieces and plot points, signaling to audiences that deeper connections are coming.
Maturin: The Cosmic Counterweight to Pennywise’s Evil
So, why turtles? That answer lies in Stephen King’s novels and the mythos of Maturin, a godlike turtle who plays a pivotal role in King’s complex storytelling canon.
Within the books, Maturin is a cosmic being who both upholds the beams of the multiversal Dark Tower and accidentally throws up the entire universe in a fit of celestial indigestion.
Where Pennywise embodies unstoppable destruction and cruelty, Maturin stands for creation, wisdom, and improbable salvation, a benevolent counterforce that sometimes intervenes just when hope seems lost.
Maturin was referenced, but largely omitted from previous screen adaptations of ‘It,’ frustrating book loyalists who see the turtle as the key to understanding why the Losers Club can beat Pennywise at all.
It: Welcome to Derry (Credit: HBO Original)
In King’s original story, Bill Denbrough encounters Maturin during a climactic confrontation with Pennywise, learning from the turtle how to defeat the shapeshifting entity through the mystical Ritual of Chüd.
Although the movies tease the deadlights and offer nods to a “good” supernatural force, they stop short of depicting Maturin in any real way.
The appearance of so many turtles in ‘Welcome to Derry’ signals a long-awaited payoff for King fans: the series looks set to bring Maturin from obscure book lore into a visible role as guide and protector within the TV universe.
Critics and superfans, as noted by sites like Screen Rant and Esquire, see this as a way for the franchise to finally flesh out the full cosmology behind Derry, revealing that Pennywise’s terror isn’t the only supernatural game in town.
If the turtles keep appearing, the series may even introduce audiences to a showdown where cosmic good directly faces off with supernatural evil.
All Eyes on Derry: What Turtle Symbolism Means for The Franchise’s Future
As ‘Welcome to Derry’ continues and more episodes air, speculation flies about how turtles might drive the larger story or alter the fate of its characters.
The overt references suggest that, for once, an adaptation is prepared to connect the dots between disparate Stephen King books , setting the stage for possible crossovers with the ‘Dark Tower’ and other elements from the wider horror universe.
Online fandoms are ablaze with theories: Is the turtle charm really why Lilly survives? Could the mascot or the sign reflect more than period nostalgia, hinting at supernatural guardianship over Derry’s children?
Some believe that the show will finally explain recurring patterns of misery and tragedy in Derry not as random fate, but as the battleground in a war between destructive and creative cosmic entities.
As screenwriter Jason Fuchs and executive producer Stephen King collaborate on new scripts, there’s reason to expect more explicit Maturin scenes, perhaps even a concrete role for the turtle in future plotlines.
Most importantly, the show’s embrace of turtle lore offers fans old and new a way to see light within relentless darkness.
Whether through small charms or larger-than-life mascots, turtles are poised to become symbols of hope in the nightmare world of Derry, reminding viewers that even in horror, there’s always a force working against unstoppable evil.
