The Arrow's Character Felicity Featured As A Superhero In DC's Legends Of Tomorrow

It’s finally happening, Arrow fans: Felicity Smoak is becoming a masked superhero of her very own. After years of operating as tech support and guiding Oliver Queen and his allies in the field, fans of The CW series will get to see Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) suit up as a masked vigilante of her own. It may be on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow instead of her own show, and may be set in an alternate version of the events that led to Oliver’s own crusade, but we doubt that will calm the conversation one bit.

Having spent this season trying to prevent The CW’s version of the Legion of Doom from recovering the Spear of Destiny, the Legends finally failed. With the ability to remake reality itself as they see fit, it appears that the Green Arrow of Star City’s presence will be one significant change. Luckily for the heroes of the Arrowverse, the trio of villains clearly never accounted for a future in which Felicity Smoak donned a mask, hood, and superhero costume of her own. That’s according to official concept art now released online ahead of her debut.

 

In the episode of Legends titled “Doomworld” set to air on March 30th, a select few of the hero team will be forced to find their way out of the darker reality that Reverse-Flash, Damien Darhk, and Malcolm Merlyn created to better suit their goals. It’s a world in which White Canary and Vixen have been employed as their own villainous bodyguards, and Martin Stein now takes orders from Jefferson Jackson, among other disturbing reversals. And, as mentioned above, a very new look at Felicity Smoak.
A look teased by Arrow and Legends executive producer Marc Guggenheim via Twitter, showing Felicity in a costume designed by Maya Mani and drawn by Andy Poon. Check out the images below:

 

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Concept art from next week's Legends of Tomorrow...

5:20 AM - 23 Mar 2017

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The costume itself is a suitable, if streamlined costume for the world of The CW’s heroes. But as hinted at earlier, the reaction to Felicity Smoak ‘the vigilante’ is guaranteed to stir up strong opinions (as most conversations involving her character have in the past). And not without good reason, either. For some, Felicity managing to be effective in Team Arrow’s crusade by using her brain, not her aim, made her one of a kind. So seeing her become yet another Arrow regular to discover a vigilante alter ego may be a nice change of pace… or less than original.

 

Others are likely to take one look at Felicity’s costume – mask, hood, and sleek coat all in purple – and assume that yet another DC heroine is being co-opted (in this case, Huntress – specifically the DC Rebirth re-design). It’s impossible to truly judge the costume, the resemblance to or differences from any DC heroine or vigilante until it’s seen in action, or promos ahead of “Doomworld.” But just as Arrow‘s devoted comic book fans took offense as Felicity shifted closer and closer into a Barbara Gordon/Oracle pastiche (paralysis and all), expect to hear the argument that “if they wanted Huntress, just do Huntress!” in the coming week.

 

Hopefully, the significance of Felicity’s role in Legends will be distinct enough to let the storyline stand on its own. The last thing any of the Arrowverse producers want is to remind viewers of other shows of their admitted Olicity regrets. Frankly, the latest episodes of Arrow have shown that Oliver Queen has enough things to worry about… in fact, an alternate reality where he never became a hero might be a nice vacation. If Felicity wants to step in to help mind the shop, all the better.

The tease from Guggenheim is obviously meant to get the audience talking and, most likely, disagreeing (all in the name of enthusiasm). It looks poised to do just that, as viewers can begin counting down the days until Felicity Smoak has a full-blown, purple-dyed, hooded, masked, vigilante persona of her own in the Arrowverse canon. Now we just have to see how it will be remembered by those who saw the story play out for themselves.
What do you think? Do you think the costume and story twist has potential? Or is even an alternate-timeline/temporary superhero career for Felicity Smoak a step in the wrong direction?