It all started in October 2012 with Arrow, and since then, there have been a whopping 11 seasons of DC superhero television that have aired on The CW network. What started with Oliver Queen's "five years in hell" has expanded into a multiverse that has included speedsters, Kryptonians, and baristas who become demigoddesses.

Some of these seasons have been excellent; sometimes, they may not be as good as the series' best. In this column, we attempt to rank them all, from not-so-best to the very best.

As for what is included: Only shows within the "Arrowverse" executive produced by Greg Berlanti are included here (The Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl). So, sorry, no Smallville. Additionally, only shows that first aired on The CW are here, so Supergirl Season 1 and the retroactively Arrowverse-tied NBC season of Constantine are not featured on this list, either.

Also, obvious spoiler warning for anyone who isn't caught up with certain shows or seasons; just skip past the ones you don't want to know details about!

11) The Flash Season 3: The One Where Barry Allen Is the Worst

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Image via The CW

Dramatic Highs: No, you were crying when Barry (Grant Gustin) started singing "Runnin' Home To You" to Candice Patton's Iris.

Also, the notion that Iris was going to die and be killed by Savitar was also a hugely dramatic thing that resonated through most of the season.

Dramatic Lows: Somehow The Flash made me hate Barry in Season 3. In The Flash Season 1 I loved Barry. As such, the Savitar reveal didn't shock me much either, because I was already truly irritated by the current, non-time-remnant Barry at that point.

You'd think there would have been a lesson learned about making this happy character miserable, like when Arrow started putting Felicity through the emotional wringer. In this case, it was Cisco who was miserable, and honestly, it was Barry Allen's fault resulting from the creation of Flashpoint, which led to a changed timeline where Cisco's brother had died and Caitlin was slowly becoming Killer Frost in "our" world.

Again: It was Barry Allen's fault.

The Flash was often the place to go for a more optimistic worldview, and gratefully, it seems they are going to try and get back to that for Season 4. But Season 3 is a cautionary tale against taking a likable character in such an unlikable direction. It should be said, though, that whenever we get a happy Barry again the show is fun again, and the performances in the musical episode alone help make the season special. There are also elements like Tom Felton's Julian Albert, Keiynan Lonsdale's Wally becoming Kid Flash, Jesse Quick adventures, and the wonderful musical that make it memorable.

Let's hope Season 4 will be a return to form. But Barry this season? Eesh.

10) Arrow Season 4: Felicity and Friends

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Image via The CW

Dramatic Highs: The season began with a shocking tease about an impending death on the show. The shooting up of a limo which temporarily paralyzed Felicity was a huge dramatic moment, as was the eventual, controversial killing of Laurel (who was at that point also the Black Canary).

Dramatic Lows: The "Bug-Eyed Bandit" from The Flash came back. I'm going to be nice and leave it at just that. Also, Felicity just getting up, putting a ring on a table, and walking away after months of paralysis was also not one of Arrow's finest moments, though it may count as a big dramatic beat that neither "Olicity" fans nor those in favor of the pairing would care for.

By Arrow's fourth season, the show seemed to put a heavy focus on Oliver's relationship with Felicity, their drama, and a new narrative interest in many members of the Smoak family at the expense of some of the vigilante action that people tuned in for in the first place. Comic book fans were also shocked when the season's big death turned out being a major character from the Green Arrow mythos. As with any season of Arrow, there were certainly some good installments and great moments, even in light of that major death, but it wasn't the blockbuster that the show's first, second, and fifth seasons turned out to be. Neal McDonough's Damian Darhk and his magic (which was put to fantastic use over in Legends Season 2) was also a bit campy for such a dark and supposedly grounded show as well.

The flashbacks might have been the biggest slog, though, but at least a welcome appearance by Matt Ryan as John Constantine made one of them fun.

9) DC's Legends of Tomorrow Season 1: Six Months Ago I Was On Another Show

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Image via The CW

Dramatic Highs: "Star City 2046" gives us a future with an aged Oliver Queen, and it introduced Connor Hawke to television for the first time. "The Magnificent Eight" is also a fantastic trip to the DC Universe's past as the team meets a perfectly-cast Jonah Hex (Johnathon Schaech) which may make up for that not-so-good movie.

The first season also gave some redemption to Wentworth Miller's Leonard Snart/Captain Cold. I admit, I wasn't a fan of Snart when he first appeared on The Flash, but the more I saw of him, the more I loved him and noticed the nuances and complexities in Miller's performance.

Dramatic Lows: The Hawks were not good, and villain Vandal Savage was a bit over-the-top (and not particularly scary) which made him hard to connect to. The show was still finding itself in the first season and some stories like a Ray and Kendra "romance" didn't really work.

While it was admirable to try and get a lot of fan favorites -- including Arrow's Sara Lance and Ray Palmer, and The Flash's Firestorm, Captain Cold, and Heat Wave -- into a show together, honestly, DC's Legends of Tomorrow spent a lot of its first season searching for its identity. The repeated refrains of "six months ago I used to be a barista" didn't help.

The show always had some fan-favorite actors; they were just put to better use in Season 2, except for poor Wentworth Miller's Captain Cold, who was a highlight of the first season and only made occasional appearances in the sophomore year.

Honestly, if there were more than 11 choices in this column, there would be a bigger divide between Seasons 1 and 2 because the second season was such an improvement.

8) Arrow Season 3: The One With Ra's al Ghul

Dramatic Highs: Arrow Season 3 started with one of the most emotional premieres, culminating in the death [at the time] of a major character. The midseason cliffhanger killed off the series lead, which lit up Twitter on the night that it aired.

Dramatic Lows: A lot of Season 3 came apart with the season finale, where first we get to see Felicity wearing Ray Palmer's ATOM suit to save the day, and then we see Oliver and Felicity driving off into the sunset. Tumblr was happy, but the question remained why Felicity would so easily run off with Oliver when he'd been lying to her for months and not letting her in on his true plan or intentions in Nanda Parbat.

Some, including myself, have been critical of Arrow's third season, partly because of the way the season ended and the notion that the show's take on Ra's al Ghul wasn't really as scary as one would expect that character to be. There was also the flashback which wasn't as good or engrossing as they may have wanted it to be. But many may forget that Season 3 had an explosive start with a fair amount of tragedy, and the season had some fantastic entries like "The Return" and "Nanda Parbat."

Brandon Routh's Ray Palmer was also introduced in Season 3, and you can't go wrong there, right? The midseason cliffhanger was also definitely one of Arrow's high points that year.

7) DC's Legends of Tomorrow Season 2: The One Where It Got Good

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Image via The CW

Dramatic Highs: Any Legends Season 2 episode with the word "Doom" in it is guaranteed to be a good time, especially with actors John Barrowman, Matt Letscher, Neal McDonough and the occasional addition of Wentworth Miller all in the same room. It's also fantastic to see the legendary Justice Society of America on the show.

Dramatic Lows: With no offense to Arthur Darvill, I still don't give a rip about Rip. When he disappeared early on in the season, it gave the promise of a much better show, with Captain Sara Lance as a far more likable and compelling leader.

This is a show that surprised many critics in the second season, as it completely embraced its silliness and started to get really playful with its characters, whether it's Mick Rory (Dominic Purcell) giving a sardonic voiceover, or villains played by John Barrowman and Neal McDonough hamming it up.

The team also added Nick Zano's Nate Heywood and Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Amaya/Vixen and both added a lot to the dynamic of the show. Caity Lotz's Sara Lance became the Captain of the Waverider, and it was nice to see how she took on such a role. The two Legion of Doom-focused episodes "Legion of Doom" and "Doomworld," however, remain highlights, and are absolutely worth seeking out for any fan of the Arrowverse. As mentioned before, the actors who played the villains were worth the price of admission, and all of the other stuff was a great bonus.

Basically, if a viewer is looking to watch a TV show that is just pure fun, one really couldn't go wrong with Legends Season 2. It might have been one of the more overlooked gems of the bunch, exploring new parts of the DC Universe in a very fun way.

6) Supergirl Season 2: The One With Superman And The Daxamites

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Image via The CW

Dramatic Highs: You can't really beat the beginning, where we see Supergirl and Superman saving a space shuttle. Blake Neely's alternating score between the two characters made a great scene even greater. It was a great way to introduce Supergirl to The CW, and to give a nod to the Man of Steel.

Dramatic Lows: Mehcad Brooks' "James as the superhero Guardian" storyline doesn't really connect the way it probably should, and if anything, it illustrates the fact that the creative team was at a loss as to what to do with him. Also, Teri Hatcher, who can at times be quite good (see: Lois & Clark and Desperate Housewives), really distracted.

If this column had included just the first half, Supergirl Season 2 would have ranked higher, but the second half of the season, complete with an over-the-top delivery from Teri Hatcher, knocked things down a bit.

With that said: Supergirl's inaugural season on The CW had quite a bit to write home about. Season 2 brought in Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) who gave us what may have been the best and most traditional take on the Man of Steel in several years. They (mostly) survived the departure of Calista Flockhart's Cat, though the show then got away from exploring Kara's human life a bit, pairing her with an alien (Mon-El) and giving her a journalism job that still doesn't make much sense. On the personal life front, though, the coming-out storyline of Alex (Chyler Leigh) was one of the absolute best and most honest portrayals of that kind of story, and her relationship with Maggie -- affectionately called "Sanvers" -- has been another thing that has excited the show's fan base.

Season 2 of Supergirl also introduced Katie McGrath's Lena Luthor, a character so well received that she'll be a series regular in the third season. Dean Cain's Jeremiah Danvers got more to do, which was nice, though the show is still not forgiven for failing to give him a scene with his former Lois & Clark co-star Hatcher. As ridiculous as Queen Rhea was, I'd almost be okay with her return if it meant sharing a scene with Dean Cain.

5) The Flash Season 2: Two Earths, One Zoom

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Image via The CW

Dramatic Highs: There were many high-stakes moments in The Flash Season 2, but the death of Henry Allen RIGHT after the show gave us a classic Flash reunion between actors John Wesley Shipp and Amanda Pays might take the cake. Also, the first glimpse at King Shark showed viewers a perfect example of Armen Kevorkian's VFX team's movie-quality capabilities while at the same time catching audiences by surprise.

Dramatic Lows: Though the reveal of Hunter Zolomon's true identity may (and the man in the iron mask) have been a surprise, the whole complication of "he's not the real Jay Garrick" may have made things a bit too confusing, especially once we find out who the real Jay Garrick is. And, honestly, haven't we already had the "villain posing as a friend" thing already? It just seemed like too much of the same thing, and by Season 2, rival speedsters were already starting to get old. (Also, Teddy Sears was just so darned likable, I think we wanted him to be a good guy).

Not ranking quite as high as Season 1, but still pretty darn good, the second season of The Flash fully introduced the multiverse, with the "Earth-2" two-parter being a season highlight, as were all jaunts to the very different and retro-alternate world. The season also included the memorable "Runaway Dinosaur" directed by Kevin Smith, which introduced audiences to the Speed Force, and yet another version of Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) in his new character "Harry."

As much as Season 1 established the world, Season 2 of The Flash expanded that world and the scope of the show, including its dramatic stakes.

4) Arrow Season 5: The Show Redeems Itself

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Image via The CW

Dramatic Highs: You can't get much more dramatic than Oliver and his son, William, seemingly watching the entire supporting cast go "boom" on an exploding Lian Yu in the season's cliffhanger.

Dramatic Lows: While Tyler Ritter and Carly Pope are likable actors and quite talented, their characters only seemed like roadblocks and complications to keep Oliver and Felicity apart for 20 episodes. I'm not a "shipper" by any means, but let's admit it: If we were weeping when Billy Malone died, it wasn't because he passed; it was because Prometheus tricked Oliver Queen into doing it.

That incredible feeling of Arrow's first two seasons was revisited with the recent fifth season, which took the show back to its roots. Now called the Green Arrow, the one we once knew as the "Hood" was back to a dark and violent place that was challenged by a villain who offered him a mirror to his darkest impulses. Josh Segarra's "Prometheus," once revealed, was a deliciously scary villain, and the season finale was a culmination of many things that made Arrow Season 5 great.

The fifth season also included the series' 100th episode which showed an alternate reality that had many call-backs to the series' origins, and viewers since the very beginning were rewarded for their time watching the show.

Plus, many characters from past seasons were brought back for Episode 100 and other parts of the season, including a finale that featured the return of several faces from the past. In addition to Katrina Law's always-enjoyable Nyssa, we also got to meet her sister, Talia, played by Lexa Doig. But in the villains department, no one could quite beat Prometheus, who, as portrayed by Segarra, was a manipulative bastard who knew every single way to exploit Oliver's weaknesses. And it was fantastic to watch unfold.

3) Arrow Season 1: The One That Started It All

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Image via The CW

Dramatic Highs: The Bludhaven action sequence kicking off "Darkness at the Edge of Town" showed all that the Arrow stunt and fight teams were capable of.

Dramatic Lows: Let's all try to forget those really early installments where Oliver narrated the story because he didn't yet have John Diggle to talk to in confidence.

Arrow Season 1 set the tone for the types of movie-style action sequences that a show like this demands. Introducing comic book elements like The Huntress and Deadshot showed what this series was not only capable of but allowed to do, and the entire mystery of the "Undertaking" kept audiences interested. Stephen Amell's Oliver Queen was clearly still very tortured from his time on the island (and other places, as we'd learn from the series run). But from a nostalgic perspective, it's fun to see Laurel Lance working for CNRI, Oliver doing his thing almost alone, and characters like Tommy and Moira still among the living.

Arrow Season 1 did, however, have a "Batman-lite" start, but around the previously-mentioned 14th episode, when Felicity became part of the team, it all seemed to really come together, and that last run of 9 episodes is really something incredible.

2) Arrow Season 2: The One With Deathstroke

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Dramatic highs: Nothing in the DC TV canon can match the shock value of when Slade kills Moira Queen in front of her children, Oliver and Thea.

Dramatic lows: Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy)'s downward spiral in the wake of Tommy's death, and moments like her words to Sara at a reunited Lance family dinner, diverts from what would otherwise be a pretty flawless run.

The fantastic second season of Arrow had the team fully together, continuing the momentum started around Episode 14 of the first year. Manu Bennett's Slade Wilson provided a villain that audiences could love to hate; the two-parter that introduced Grant Gustin's Barry Allen is one of the best spinoff springboards of all time. The "Team Arrow" trio of Oliver Queen, John Diggle, and Felicity Smoak may have never worked better, and supporting villains including future "Detective Douche" Kevin Alejandro as Brother Blood continued to make things work. Following the death of Tommy, Oliver would take on a vow to not kill villains, giving new layers to his mission.

Arrow Season 2 also gave the series their first "Black Canary" even though this version of the character is retroactively known as just "Canary." While her secret identity may have been blown by a CW executive prior to the season, the story of Sara Lance and the impact she had on the show still resonates. Personally speaking, I'm still waiting for a "what happened to Sara over those missing years" flashback. And on the subject of flashbacks, Season 2's might be the best of Arrow's first five seasons; the moments with Slade and Sara, as well as the introduction of "Mirakuru," had direct emotional tie-ins to the present day.

1) The Flash Season 1: The Fastest Show Alive

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Dramatic highs: Nothing quite matches the elements of "Out of Time," where Wells' ruse is discovered to dangerous consequences for Cisco, and Iris finally learns Barry Allen's secret... or does she?

Dramatic lows: "All-Star Team-Up" with the first and sadly not last appearance of the "Bug-Eyed Bandit" wasn't one of the bright spots.

The first season of The Flash could quite possibly be the most perfect season of superhero television there is. A likable and optimistic lead character in Grant Gustin's earnest Barry Allen set the tone, and fantastic performances by the show's supporting cast, most notably Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells (with whatever he was hiding at the time), kept the material at the highest level. DC Entertainment's Geoff Johns participated in the writing for several episodes also, allowing such DC icons as Firestorm to even be a part of the action, and the emotional connection to the characters kept audiences enthralled. There was also a clear respect for that which came before, with actors from the original Flash series of 1990 showing up in the new one.

Barry Allen was a character that went through tragedy, but instead of brooding about it, he instead kept his chin up and did his thing despite any challenges he may face.... even if it meant not letting the love of his life, Iris West, know who he really is.

There's a reason this was one of The CW's highest-rated shows of any series they have aired in their 12-year history. A diverse cast of likable characters, a continuous mining of DC Comics lore with references that would surprise even the most die-hard comics geek? It was a winner.