It's truly the end of a superhero era, as Arrow star Stephen Amell has revealed the series will end with a final, 10-episode-long season this year . The long-running superhero series that spawned an entire shared universe on The CW is bidding its fans farewell.

Serialized Superhero Storytelling

The 25 Best Arrowverse Episodes 26 IMAGES

Making 'Comic Book-y' Cool

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A True DC Universe

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Establishing the Berlanti Brand

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Big Screen Production Values

History of the Justice League on TV 13 IMAGES

While the series has certainly had its ups and downs over the past seven years, there's no denying the profound influence Arrow has had on The CW and superhero TV as a whole. As we adjust to the prospect of an Arrowless CW lineup, let's look back at the show's huge influence.Arrow is perhaps the first superhero TV series to truly embrace the heavily serialized storytelling approach that makes comic books so fun to read. That's not to say no superhero series pre-Arrow ever dabbled in serialized storytelling. But no shows used that model as heavily or effectively. Smallville (basically the proto-Arrow) often tended towards "monster of the week" episodes as much as it did more story-driven fare.On Arrow, there's always been a steady, constant narrative progression from one episode to the next. Each episode builds to a major climax at the end of the season. Even as it set up the confrontations between Oliver Queen and villains like Malcolm Merlyn and Slade Wilson, it was already laying seeds for the following season. And all the while, the recurring flashbacks chronicled the extensive saga of Ollie's five-year evolution from spoiled rich kid to hardened vigilante.That storytelling model has carried over to all the Arrowverse spinoffs and other superhero projects to boot. Even Netflix's Marvel shows probably owe a debt of gratitude to the Arrowverse for proving that fans will keep coming back to watch a complex superhero saga slowly unfold, piece by piece. It's also surely a major reason why Arrow and its sister shows have always done so well on Netflix. They're incredibly binge-worthy.These days, it often seems like there's no part of the DC Universe too weird or too outlandish for Hollywood. Movies like Aquaman and shows like Legends of Tomorrow and Doom Patrol are proof enough. However, that wasn't always the case. Even Arrow took some time to really begin embracing the zany side of the source material.When Arrow kicked off in 2012, the series was clearly borrowing several pages from the Dark Knight playbook. The look and tone of the series skewed very much in that dark, severe, relatively grounded direction. But over time, Arrow lost whatever sense of self-consciousness it might once have had. It started slowly in Season 2 - a Batman reference here, a super-strength serum there - and quickly grew with the introduction of true metahuman characters like The Flash, the immortal Ra's al Ghul, actual magic, and even the DC multiverse itself.Comparing the current season of Arrow to the show's first year is like night and day. Oliver Queen has crossed dimensions, fought speedsters, monsters, and his own Nazi doppelganger - and bumped elbows with Superman. And for all that, Arrow is still a fairly grounded show compared to its spinoffs. Far from trying to mimic the approach of the Dark Knight movies, the Arrowverse has become a place that happily embraces the campiest elements of the source material.Prior to Arrow, Smallville was pretty much the biggest and best showcase for what was possible with a live-action version of the DC Universe on the small screen. But even Smallville was just one series. Arrow took things a giant step further by spawning multiple spinoffs - The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and, most likely, Batwoman this fall - and establishing a true shared universe on the small screen.The Arrowverse is a vast place comprising hundreds of episodes of TV across numerous series (not even counting the animated web series and comic book tie-ins). And it's one that frequently rewards viewers who follow along with every show. When Felicity Smoak needs a little added brain power, she can just call up her friends at STAR Labs. When Team Flash has a problem with an escaped metahuman criminal, ARGUS director Lyla Michaels usually isn't far behind. Every so often, these shows cross over in more direct and significant ways. In this shared universe, some characters can pull up stakes and make a permanent home on a completely different series. Just look at how Sara Lance went from Arrow supporting player to leader of the Legends of Tomorrow.Without the Arrowverse, we might never have gotten Netflix's interconnected Marvel shows or the shared universe being established by shows like Titans and Doom Patrol. It proved that superhero TV can be bigger than any one show.Producer Greg Berlanti has been one of the driving forces of the Arrowverse from the beginning (alongside the likes of Geoff Johns and Marc Guggenheim). Berlanti helped shape the voice of Arrow and has been one of the few constants as the Arrowverse has grown and expanded in different directions. Berlanti was basically the one thread linking Supergirl to the Arrowverse in that tumultuous first season when the series was on CBS. There's a reason the Arrowverse is also commonly referred to as the "Berlanti-verse."The superhumanly prolific Berlanti has basically grown into a brand unto himself. He's signed a lucrative producing deal with Warner Bros. and recently broke a record by spearheading no fewer than 15 scripted series for the 2018-2019 TV season. The Berlanti brand has come to mean a great deal to TV viewers, much like Shonda Rhimes has become a major television force. Even on shows like Black Lightning that aren't necessarily connected to the Arrowverse, there's a certain expectation of quality and style. And Arrow is where the Berlanti brand truly began taking shape.Historically, there's always been a stark difference in what we see from big-budget superhero movies and what's possible on the small screen. No one would ever mistake Smallville or Lois & Clark for lavish theatrical productions. Arrow has played an instrumental role in bridging that gap and showing just how much can be accomplished on a weekly basis.Even before Arrow kicked open the door to the wider DCU, the show boasted higher production values and more elaborately staged fight scenes than fans were used to seeing. It doesn't hurt that actors like Stephen Amell, David Ramsey, and Manu Bennett are legitimately built like superheroes and can bring a higher level of physicality to their roles. As much as Ollie's fondness for the salmon ladder and shirtless training montages became a running gag in those early seasons, the fact that Amell actually performed those feats himself brought a real credibility to the series.Nowadays, it's impossible not to marvel at the sheer scale on which these shows operate. Take The Flash, for instance, which just delivered an episode where King Shark battled Gorilla Grodd . The Arrowverse is able to show us dystopian futures, speedsters unleashed, and fully CG characters, and do it all on what is still a relatively modest budget. The fact that these shows manage this while also giving fans 16-22 episodes every year is pretty darned impressive. Like Ollie on that salmon ladder, Arrow truly raised the bar.

Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter , or Kicksplode on MyIGN