Warner Bros., CW target Green Arrow for mobisodes

Warner Bros. Television and The CW Network announced a partnership with Sprint to launch a new shortform animated mobile series spun off from the CW's primetime hit "Smallville." Like "Smallville," which portrays the turbulent teen years of Clark Kent, a.k.a. Superman, the mobile production "Smallville Legends: The Oliver Queen Chronicles" spotlights another DC Comics superhero, the young Green Arrow. The series premieres on Sprint's TVSM mobile video service today, and will remain a carrier exclusive throughout the duration of its six-episode run, at which point it will stream on The CW website.

"This is another example of how The CW is delivering on its promise to deliver original, new content to our young audience via multiple platforms," said the network's executive VP of marketing and brand strategy Rick Haskins in a prepared statement. "We will continue to work with our studio and sales partners to whet the appetite of our passionate fans for more CW programming."

While the deal makes obvious sense from a CW perspective--the network's core teen viewership dovetails nicely with mobile entertainment demographic trends--it's far more interesting in terms of what it means for DC Comics and parent Warner Bros. Green Arrow is by no means a household name along the lines of Batman, Wonder Woman or even Aquaman, and that's the point--the mobile platform is the perfect springboard to develop and trial lesser-known DC characters for mainstream consumption. The vast majority of revenues DC and Warner derive from the publisher's copyrights are generated by merchandising and movie/TV deals, not the comic books themselves; the mobisode format is an excellent opportunity to explore a character's potential in other media and nurture breakout hits into Hollywood franchises, or else Cartoon Network series.

(And sure, Green Arrow is cool and all, but FierceMobileContent suggests that Warner Bros. develop a mobile series based on the adventures of DC's microscopic superhero the Atom--if ever a character was destined for fame on the handset screen, it's this one.)

For more on the CW/Sprint deal:
- read this release

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