One of the greatest things with comic book adaptations is when you get to see some of the iconic costumes come to life for our heroes and villains. On The CW, that is definitely the case with the Arrowverse shows, including Arrow itself. With Arrow coming up with its eighth and final season, many costumes have been made for several characters that have come to life from the pages of DC Comics.
Because the show is coming to an end this coming TV season sometime after the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, it’s time to go through Arrow’s best costumes for both our heroes as well as some of the show’s past villains. Disclaimer: this list will also include some of the new looks for some of the characters in Season 8!
Nyssa al Ghul
In the second season of the Emerald Archer drama, we got introduced to one of the al Ghul family members. But rather starting off with Ra’s, we met Nyssa (Katrina Law) whose complicated romance with Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) came to play a large role.
When we meet Nyssa throughout that season, we get a good close look at how this version of the League of Assassins dresses for their uniforms. With Nyssa, the costume department gave her LoA outfit a true personality with lots of red and black from. This made her stand out a lot while kicking lots of butts.
The Atom
In Season 3, we got introduced to a very familiar DC player who is still with us today and that is Ray Palmer a.k.a. the Atom (Brandon Roth.) Acting as one of the lights in the show’s dark third year, we saw Ray start from bottom to top with developing his A.T.O.M. suit.
By the middle of the season, we saw the series adapt his suit from comics to live-action. However, this is one of the costumes that got modified quite a lot from its source material to make sure it was functional. While having a very Iron Man feeling to it, the A.T.O.M. suit is not just one of the best Arrow costumes, but also one of its strongest.
Black Canary (Dinah Drake)
Arrow is known for a lot of things and one of them is the show’s big explorations of the Black Canaries. In the fifth season, we got introduced to Juliana Harkavy as Dinah Drake who would become the team’s new Black Canary. While she had a mask for the rest of the season, a costume didn’t come until the beginning of Season 6.
The suit is one of the most different Black Canary costumes that have been in live-action before. However, it still doesn’t change the fact of how amazing it looks when Harkavy sports it and kicks butt.
Spartan (Season 8)
Remember when there was a time when John Diggle (David Ramsey) didn’t have a mask out on the field? Remember the lousy ski masks he had as his only disguise back then? Diggle is someone whose costume has undergone several changes throughout the last couple of years of the series.
As the show is entering its final season, fans got introduced to Diggle’s final suit in the series at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. This one has perhaps its biggest nods to Diggle’s potential journey as Green Lantern.
Deathstroke
Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) was one of the show’s earliest characters for Oliver to face ever since their time back on their island Lian Yu. Starting as one of Oliver’s allies in the past, we saw the evolution of Slade going into a big bad throughout the second season.
Slade on Arrow had come a long way at that time and the same said this about his costume. In the latter half of Season 2, viewers got to winess Sara fully suited as the Canary.
Green Arrow (Season 8)
Revealed during the lead-up to this year’s San Diego Comic-Con was another suit-upgrade for our Emerald Archer. In magazine covers as well as the trailer or the new season, we saw some of the characters all geared up for their final season.
One of them was Oliver who is sporting a new design as the Green Arrow for the final season. This is, with no question in mind, perhaps one of the best looks we have had for Oliver in the whole series. While it remains to be seen what causes this suit upgrade, this final suit has an even more of a Green Arrow-y vibe to it as it celebrates the past suits to come before it.
Black Siren
While she may have debuted as a guest character on The Flash, Earth-2 Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) went on to play a significant part throughout the last two seasons of Arrow. One of the most fascinating things with the Black Siren character was her incredible costume.
Funny enough, this was more Black Canary-y than Earth-1 Laurel Lance’s costume, in comparison. It took some inspiration from a lot of the modern Black Canaries in the comics.
Arsenal
One of Oliver’s many portages throughout the series was and still is Roy Harper a.k.a. Arsenal who played a big arc in Season 2, Season3 and later on in Season 6. While his time as one of Team Arrow’s closest members wasn’t for as long as some had hoped, it didn’t change the fact about how insanely good the Arsenal costume turned out when adapting it to screen.
Earth-2 Black Canary (Season 8)
After a complex in the recent two seasons of the series, Earth-2 Laurel Lance finally discovered her inner hero and officially got redeemed in the recent season. Now set as the Black Canary of Earth-2, this Laurel is also someone who will be getting a massive upgrade for the finale ride.
This new version of the Black Canary costume incorporates a lot of what some of her costumes look like in the current costumes. What really stands out is the inclusion of yellow that makes her new costumes stand out.
Green Arrow (Season 4)
While Oliver has had many looks in the last couple of seasons on Arrow, it’s his Season 4 suit that really stands out as his best one. This costume was a completely different animal compared to Colleen Atwood’s suit that he had in the first three seasons. What obviously stands out that many true Green Arrow fans love is no sleeves which is the case in the comics. Even though this version of the suit only lasted for a season before he got tuned up with sleeves in the following season.