Next year, I am looking forward to Wonder Woman in theaters but I dread that it will be drenched in Zack Snyder’s style to prep the character for the inevitable Justice League mess; the other purpose behind Batman v. Superman. Here I wish the Time Warner Empire would just concede to Disney since going with Snyder’s dark, gritty, Instagram-filtered approach isn’t going to work out. What should they do? I have no idea beyond “not doing” what they’re doing.
Theaters aside, I have been slowly soaking up DC’s TV offerings via Netflix. I’m trying to watch them in chronological order because they eventually have occasional team-ups or crossovers.
This being part one, I’m only going to cover the first few shows I’ve actually watched.
Arrow‘s first two seasons are a chore like reading Tolkien or playing most collectible-card games. The biggest problem was the producers making Green Arrow a poor-man’s Batman.
- Urban setting with rampant crime…check
- Brooding hero who uses devil-may-care playboy cover…check
- Most fights happen in the dark…check
- Hero uses deep, creepy voice that needs a cough drop…check
- Hero underwent intense training before coming home…check
At least they kept the character’s trick arrows I’ve always loved. One day I will get my boxing-glove arrow!
The writers also padded out Green Arrow’s ensemble by adding his mother, step-father, younger sister, ex-girlfriend, best friend, trusted bodyguard, IT director and sister’s ex-boyfriend. For us comic-book fans, we know how things will pan out when we first hear their names. I do have a soft spot for the bodyguard (Diggle) character they made up.
Since Batman is a movie-only property with the exception of the dreadful Gotham show, many of the Dark Knight’s C-list enemies tangle with (Green) Arrow: Deadshot, the Royal Flush Gang and Bronze Tiger. They also use other, somewhat overused members of the DC Universe, muddying the waters for the uninitiated: Slade aka Deathstroke (in Arrow he’s Australian not American), Captain Boomerang, “Count” Vertigo, Merlyn the Black Archer, Ra’s al Ghul, Ravager, Amanda Waller, Katana, Huntress and the League of Assassins. If you tough it out though, Arrow begins to peak on the dark crap when Barry Allen visits near the end of the second season.
I’m definitely enjoying the third season more since The Flash crossovers begin and other heroes from the DC Universe are seeping in, namely Ray Palmer (Atom II) who (spoiler alert) acquire’s Ollie’s corporation.
The Flash had a much better start as I’m going through the first season. It’s a more super-heroic program: Flash fights crime during the day, it’s more colorful and his opponents are more super-villainous! Here they use the event that gave Barry his powers (a particle accelerator at STAR labs exploding) as the cause for all his enemies’ abilities: Weather Wizard, Blackbolt, Gorilla Grodd and Rainbow Raider. Flash does face others from his comic’s rogues gallery armed with gadgets: Captain Cold, Heat Wave, Captain Boomerang, Sonar and Trickster. I have to draw attention to the actor playing Captain Cold, he is fantastic. His take has the villain as a rather, calm, calculating type which comes off as slightly funny, unlike the comics’ bumbling bank robber I remember.
For comic-book fans, The Flash is more interesting due to it having more tie-ins with the DC universe. The show has less soap-opera pacing, this makes Arrow the chore I described it as. Other characters you’ll see: Firestorm the Nuclear Man, General Wade Eiling (the always awesome Clancy Brown) and obviously Green Arrow. Compared to Arrow, I prefer the long-term arc in The Flash which is a spoiler so I’ll skip it. Can’t wait for the second season for I was tipped off about DC’s alternate universes coming into play: the original Flash, Jay Garrick!
Lastly, all I’ll say about Gotham, I watched two episodes and hated it. I know it’s a re-interpretation on how the Batman/Gotham City mythos came to be. It’s all the annoying synchronicity I can’t tolerate. To me, it’s not interesting, it’s lazy. Sure, some of the criminal elements were always there before Bruce Wayne put on the cowl: the Penguin, the Falcone Crime Family and I’m sure Poison Ivy and Catwoman were children. It’s having the future Catwoman be a witness to Dr. and Martha Wayne’s murder I find lame or Edward Nygma (Riddler) as a forensic scientist with GCPD or watching Jim Gordon’s earlier police career. If there’s no Batman or the possible predecessor vigilante, the Reaper or even Jonah Hex from the 1870s, this program has little purpose.
Part Two, when I get to them, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow.
