Hello, Readers!
Apologies for the long delay since the last time I’ve written (Cancer
sucks; let’s just leave it at that), but I’m back with a few more thoughts on
comic books and the glut of comic book properties we saw on TV this past year. Let’s run through them, shall we?
For the record, I’m mostly ignoring comic book properties
of the non-heroic variety here. My reasoning is that “comic book character” as
a genre is largely associated with capes and tights, as opposed to the wealth
of incredible graphic novels out there that are also being given the live
action treatment. The Walking Dead is probably the most famous comic book-based TV
show, but a glut of upcoming properties like Sex Criminals,
Preacher, and my
personal favorite The Wicked + The
Divine are on the horizon.
"Sistahhhhs...are doing it for themselvessss.."
Agent Carter
Let’s start with the good. Agent Carter was a miniseries designed to give us more about the
life of Peggy Carter, Captain America’s one-time love interest from before he
got all frozen at the end of the World War II. Introduced in the movie Captain America: The First Avenger,
Peggy Carter finally gets to be the hero that her fans know she is in this
short-run series. Hayley Atwell reprises the character from the movies and
presents Peggy as a secret agent working for the precursor to S.H.I.E.L.D.
after the events of the first Captain America movie. Peggy balances her life as a single woman in
the 1940s with all the assumptions about her skills that era had with her actual
ability to be a bad ass while hunting down an arms dealer. This show was
beloved, not only for its obvious girl-power bona fides but for the fact that
the sexism that Peggy faces is presented realistically. The men in her office
who barely see her as more than a secretary are less two-dimensional
stereotypes and more obvious signs of a world that is slouching toward
change. There’s a ton that you can say
about the pretty incredible writing here, but I think of a friend of mine
summed it up best when she said watching Agent
Carter was the first time she felt like someone in Hollywood made a comic
book superhero story for her.
Status: renewed
for season 2, to air early 2016
"Wait, are we all still on this show?"
Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D.
Now maybe with the less good. Look, I know fans of this
show love it. The thing I hear most frequently about it is, “but you’ve got to
start watching, it’s gotten SO GOOD!” I’m glad for you and I’m glad for the
show, but it lost me after the plodding first season full of characters I don’t
care about. Of all the highly successful Marvel properties, this one to me
illustrates most the danger of trying to run an integrated universe across
multiple entertainment platforms. The show suffered because of revelations in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and
while that’s unfortunate, it’s also not reason enough for me to come back to
it.
Status: renewed
for season 3, to air fall 2015
Arrow
Arrow had what
should have been a big year that unfortunately got overshadowed by a flashier
(heh) kid brother and some wandering in the woods on the part of the writers.
As The Flash went full bore with
establishing a world full of powers and magic, Arrow struggled to keep up. The introduction of Ras al-Ghul should
have been a game changer and instead fans felt mistreated by the relative
little screen time of the character and him once again being whitewashed. A
creative change is in the air for next year, and it’s looking like we’ll
finally see Ollie officially become Green Arrow and start to move away from the
angst of the past two years. For the first time, all the characters are aware
of each other’s secrets and finally working together. And no matter what anyone
says, I’m enjoying Katie Cassidy’s Black Canary. The character is one of my
favorites and Cassidy has done a good job of showing the damage that Black
Canary carries with her without letting it destroy her.
Status: renewed
for season 4, to air fall 2015
Constantine
This is probably the show that I wanted to work out the
most. After a lackluster movie, I really wanted Constantine as a character to
have his due. I wrote before about how it’s essentially an American Doctor Who, although clearly the
longevity is not the same. The show saw John Constantine battling the Rising
Darkness with his trademark punk wit and whimsy. The show touches into the area
of DC comics that I find the most fun – the area of magic and the occult. The
show, unfortunately, failed to find an audience, however it may not be
completely out for the count: there’s a chance the character could find his way
to Arrow since they technically
occupy the same world. Additionally, the upcoming Lucifer is based on a character from the same source.
Status:
cancelled
So much blood, you guys. Seriously, so much blood.
Daredevil
Remember how I said my friend referred to Agent Carter as the comic book show that
she finally felt like Hollywood had made for her? Well, the other half of that
sentence was that she felt like Daredevil
was the one they made in disregard of her. Daredevil
is Marvel’s first foray into Netflix’s original series. For those unfamiliar, it’s
the story of Matt Murdock, who lost his eyesight at a young age and now fights
crime using his heightened senses. The fact that some weird super chemical is
responsible for the loss of his sight is also what explains how UTTERLY
heightened his senses have become. The show is by far the entry in the Marvel
Cinematic Universe (the one that includes The Avengers, etc.) that is the
farthest removed from Marvel’s “house style” of high contrast shots, bright
colors, easy humor, and breezy attitude. Daredevil
is filmed in murky blacks, greens, and yellows and plays up the idea that
Daredevil is Marvel’s Batman. It’s also
somewhat predicated on the idea that all that damage and destruction to New
York from the first Avengers movie
maybe had a consequence. The show veers more toward the violent and the gritty,
which is a big factor in my friend’s less-than-enthusiastic endorsement. Nonetheless,
it scored well with critics and with lots of fans.
Status: renewed
for season 2, to air on Netflix in 2016
"Just try and catch me, bad ratings."
The Flash
Along with Agent
Carter, The Flash is the best comic book property that this year’s
television season brought us. In the same joined universe as Arrow, the show is a fast-paced (I’m
never going to stop with these speed puns) take on a classic superhero. By embracing
the elements of the character that made The Flash a touchstone in the world of
comics, the show has reaped a lot of dividends. The trend in a lot of superhero
stories is to get away from the more ludicrous story elements of the comic
books. The Flash took that notion and
ran away from it. It managed to make Gorilla Grodd an
effective character, for God’s sake. What’s more, the series was immensely
popular, outperforming Arrow and
forcing that show to rethink how it would conduct its next season. DC Comics
has taken heat for how it plans to manage all its properties, from the upcoming
shared universe movies like Batman vs.
Superman to Arrow and The Flash, but this show may hold the
method to their madness. Season one ended with an acknowledgement that the
multiverse is real, opening up the possibility that all of the DC properties
are, in fact, connected even if they seem contradictory. The Flash plans on delving even deeper into the multiverse next
year when it returns.
Status: renewed
for season 2, to air this fall
So much rain, you guys. Seriously, so much rain."
Gotham
Oh, Gotham.
Where do I begin with you? You know I’m a huge Batman fan, so you’ve pretty
much got my attention from the start. I’ll never quit you. That said, let’s
tighten things up a bit in season two, mmkay? Gotham made strides in its first season by establishing a very
lived-in Gotham City. The show was stylized and beautiful to look at. And what
they got right, they nailed: Carmen Bicondova’s Selina Kyle is precisely how
Selina should be played as a young teenager. Donal Logue is Harvey Bullock and
Robin Lord Taylor has earned the praise he’s gotten for his portrayal of the
Penguin. Now the show needs to focus on fixing its two weakest links: Jim
Gordon and Bruce Wayne, ostensibly the heroes of the show. Gotham was predicated on the notion that the show was going to be
more about the development of Batman’s villains than on him. In that sense, the
show has succeeded because the “evil” characters are by far more interesting to
watch. The problem is that we still need to feel like we’re on the side of
Gordon and Bruce Wayne, even if Bruce is still only a child. Creating
compelling, layered bad guys is important for good storytelling, but as long as
the narrative focus is always returning to Jim and Bruce the show will have a
hard time capitalizing on its biggest assets.
Status: renewed
for season 2, to air this fall
iZombie
Last but not least, the little zombie show that could. As
a comic book property, iZombie is
perennially overshadowed by its bigger siblings, the superheroes and that other
zombie show that people are losing their heads over. That positioning is
unfortunate, because iZombie is
delightful. It’s the story of Liv Moore (yes, that’s on the nose), a medical
resident who is bit by a zombie at “the world’s worst boat party” and awakes to
find herself desiring brains. Unable to connect with her old life, Liv becomes a
medical examiner and discovers that if she eats the brains of bodies brought
in, she can take on flashes of their memories and personality which, natch, she
does to help solve crimes. So long as she regularly eats, Liv seems to be a
normal, if pale, girl, so much so that her family and friends hardly notice
that anything has happened other than assuming her new more lethargic
personality is the result of the trauma of the “boating accident” she was
involved in. The show plays with melodrama and humor masterfully, which is
to be expected given that the show was developed by Rob Thomas and Diane
Ruggiero-Wright, the creators of Veronica
Mars. As such, the show contains some of the same DNA as their previous
creation. Liv is, essentially, Veronica if she had moved to Seattle, become a
zombie, and grew up in a slightly less paranoid home. The same noir-tinged
voiceovers and wit that made Veronica
Mars memorable to fans is on display here. The show was praised by critics
and fans, although some fans were displeased by the in some cases significant
departures that the show makes from the comic book. iZombie
was probably the biggest surprise of this season and season two looks to
continue the trend.
Status: renewed
for season 2, to air this fall
So, winners and losers of the 2014-2015 comic book
television season? The Flash and Agent Carter are comfortably sitting on
top, followed closely by iZombie. All
three had positive fan and critical reactions and all three are coming back for
their second season. Daredevil and Arrow occupy the middle ground; both
were solid entries into the genre, however both darker and both shows that took
themselves far too seriously at times. Gotham
and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. come next;
both shows are very high concept and will have hardcore fans loving what they’re
doing. They both have the backing of their parent companies probably more than
either one deserve, but that alone should keep them chugging along for at least
a while. Constantine, the only show
not to be renewed, is sadly the biggest loser. Fans of the character know,
however, that John Constantine usually finds a way to show up in places where
he wasn’t supposed to be, so we’ll see how long it will be before he’s mucking
things up for everyone again.
But wait! There’s more! This post gives you a sense of
the current slate of comic book shows, but next season is going to nearly
double the number of properties on your television. For a full run-down of the
new comic book characters about to grace your screen this coming year, check
back soon.
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