Kevin Smith at Awesome Con, Laura Hurley/Awesome Con
Downtown Washington D.C. became distinctly more awesome for the June 3 – 5 weekend. The fan convention Awesome Con has taken over the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, and writer/director/actor/comic guru Kevin Smith’s show “An Evening with Kevin Smith” on Friday night drew a huge crowd. He provided plenty of laughs for his two-and-a-half hours on stage, but he also dropped some interesting tidbits about potential future TV projects that were actually quite serious. Apparently, his stint as a director on Season 2 of The CW’s Flash was enough of a success that the door is open for Smith to return.
Kevin Smith’s episode of The Flash was highly unusual as hero Barry Allen spent most of the hour trapped in the Speed Force while his mostly non-superpowered pals had to defend Central City from a superpowered metahuman. Given that Smith is a fan of The Flash, he was the perfect man to drop in and direct an installment. According to him, the Season 1 finale is “…one of my favorite things produced by humanity over the course of the planet Earth.”
The Flash was lucky to get a director who already had an emotional attachment to the show as well as a vast knowledge of DC comics, and the success of Kevin Smith’s Flash episode may mean that he has a long future ahead of him with superhero work on The CW. The Flash is only one show in the CW’s DC universe; Smith now has a foot in the door for Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl. Evidently, he even already has the Greg Berlanti stamp of approval. Kevin Smith recounted a conversation with the super-producer, saying “Greg Berlanti – when we were making the Flash episode, after we were done – he was like, ‘Dude, you’re welcome to come play here anytime you want. I loved this episode, clearly you get this stuff, so you can come work on any of my shows. If you’re not busy, consider this a second home.’ So I was like, ‘Thanks.’”
The carte blanche invitation to return to Greg Berlanti’s Flarrow-verse could mean that the sky is the limit for what Kevin Smith can potentially bring to the four shows of the CW DC lineup. In response to an audience question about what he could deliver for Arrow, Smith revealed that he has an idea. “I would love to write for Arrow because I created a character called Onomatopoeia – a villain – and I would love to bring him into the show,” shared Smith.
Onomatopoeia is a supervillain that Kevin Smith introduced into DC canon as a serial killer who targets vigilantes who have become superheroes despite a lack of superpowers. Considering that Arrow is the only CW DC show not to revolve around any main characters with superpowers, Smith could indeed have the perfect live action vehicle to bring his character to life. Season 4 of Arrow featured an awful lot of characters with fantastical abilities, so a major villain whose primary focus is skills rather than superpowers could mean a return to what worked best in earlier years. Oliver deserves a break from all of the metahuman and magical shenanigans to battle a good old-fashioned psychopath.
Arrow fans shouldn’t get their hopes up just yet about Kevin Smith bringing Onomatopoeia to vex Oliver and Co. in Season 5. It seems that Greg Berlanti’s offer for Smith to drop by anytime hasn’t resulted in any solid plans for actual episode to showcase his villain. “The wheels started turning about maybe possibly jumping onto Green Arrow,” said Smith, “but so far, I haven’t spoken to anybody, there’s nothing official about it.”
Kevin Smith is more widely known for his work in film than for his contributions to television, but his participation in Season 2 of The Flash proves that he does have what it takes to adapt superhero stories for the small screen. Still, his approach to Arrow would have to differ pretty widely from his approach to The Flash. Smith is enough of a Flash fan that he has rewatched the Season 1 finale a number of times, but he hasn’t tuned in to catch any of what Arrow has to offer. “I didn’t watch this season. I honestly never watched Arrow yet,” admitted Smith.
The DC universe on The CW will be bigger than ever when four nights each week as of this fall will feature superhero shenanigans, and comic expert Kevin Smith is undoubtedly qualified to contribute great things to any of the series involved. If Smith does get his wish and comes on board at Arrow with Onomatopoeia, it would be interesting to see if his lack of familiarity with the Oliver Queen of The CW would affect how he told the story of his comic villain.
“An Evening with Kevin Smith” was a one-night engagement at Awesome Con, but there’s still plenty of exciting programming in the works for the rest of the weekend. To see what else Awesome Con has to offer, head down to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and pick up some tickets for the last two days of guests, vendors, and panels.