Decades ago comic junkies could get their hands on the latest comic issues only at the stands. But things have come a long way since then and nowadays the infinite universe of comics has spanned across mediums to reach out to the masses. From live issues flying off the shelves, to the latest online and animated content sitting pretty on your hand-held devices and from big screen adaptations at the box office to TV soaps, comics are being consumed in various forms and how!
Speaking of the classic heated debate between DC and Marvel comics, our last story on Marvel v DC rounded the arc of the age-old on-going battle at the big screen between the two comic publishers. While the fight is blazing up the box office numbers, its achingly apparent success has also trickled down to the TV industry.
With Marvel’s brand new TV series, Daredevil, hitting Netflix in April and DC announcing its latest Supergirl on CBS in pre-production, the famous Marvel v DC has ratchet up the stakes of comic adaptations on TV dominating the airwaves.
So in our first of the Comicstuff series let’s have a look at some of the successful live-action comic TV shows on currently on-air:
Arrow: Based on DC Comics’ Justice League member, Green Arrow, Arrow is CW’s television show penned by writer/producers Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg. Arrow kicked-off in the latter half of 2012 and has till date spun three successful seasons with Stephen Amell playing the green hooded vigilante.
Dark cinematic action sequences, a double-layered strong story-telling plot and intriguing characters, has spelled success for the comic inspired series which is CW’s highest rated TV show in the last five years. With each season, viewers have witnessed every character mature on-screen. Even Stephen’s casting which received mixed reviews initially has been absorbed well with Stephen’s portrayal of the tormented and initiated vigilante Arrow and the alter-ego Oliver Queen has broughta perfect depth to the character.
The show has created the right platform for DC Comics to leverage on the other characters from the DC universe as well. Something which Iron Man (2008) succeeded in doing so for Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) on the big screen. Other popular DC characters shown on the TV show include Green Arrow’s side-kicks The Black Canary, Red Arrow/Arsenal (Colton Haynes) and Atom (Brandon Routh).
The angle of including the ‘League of Assassins’ (Yes the same as League of Shadows from the Batman franchise) with its demonic head Ras Al Ghul (Matt Nable) in season 3 has got the fans rolling. Other antagonists in the series include Deathstroke aka Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett), Deathshot and other members of the Suicide Squad to name a few.
The series has won many accolades since 2012 including Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design and Best Stunt Co-ordination in Leo Awards (2012) and also the TV Guide Awards awarded Arrow the Favourite New series (2013).
The Flash: Arrow’s popularity has got CW to pen a spin-off of another Justice Leaguer, Flash which premiered in early 2015. While the red speedster aka Barry Allen in The Flash played by Grant Gustin is agedly new to the TV space, the show has already struck the right chords and has harnessed a huge fan-following.
Its pilot episode in October 2014 recorded a whopping 4.83 million viewers in the US alone making it CW’s most watched and highest rated series premiere since The Vampire Diaries in 2009. The show’s brighter tone is set in the alternate Central City contrasting to the dull and lowly-lit setting of Starling City shown in the Arrow. Also as critics and fans alike point out, The Flash’s successful one-episode crisp story-telling format coupled with exciting dosage of villains (meta-humans) with whacky code-names has given the show the boost.
Following Arrow’s footsteps, The Flash too has had a disguised antagonist, the Reverse Flash out-speeding our scarlet speedster. But what’s truly badass is the occasional cross-over between The Flash and the Arrow. Also reportedly season one’s finale will see The Flash teaming up with the hooded archer; Arrow confronting the yellow suited villain after Barry discovers the Reverse Flash’s true identity. According to the network’s president, crossovers between their own DC Comics series may be just the beginning of their grander plans.
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: Inspired from Marvel’s multi-layered shared storytelling format, DC has successfully created the shared Arrow/The Flash universe. However it seems Marvel’s been losing at its own game with the initial season of Marvel’s Agents of Shield failing in its attempt at conjointly sharing the MCU both between the big screen and small.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D created for ABC by Avengers’ director Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen stars Clark Gregg as S.H.I.E.L.D’s resurrected Agent Phil Coulson with his bandwagon of agents. With high expectations from fans the series kick-started with an alternate story-line of agents of S.H.I.E.L.D cornering rogues with super powers gulping a massive 12 million plus viewership for its premier, but later on the show lost its sheen.
While the show doesn’t disappoint in showing Earth’s watchdog organisation using cutting-edge tech and espionage to eliminate threats as they emerge, the TV show has been critiqued for being slow paced and its lack-lustre character development. Also the show’s inability to create an episode-wise story-tellingand ratherploughing in a narrative for a grander plot hasn’t appealed much to the fans. However, the second season of Agents of SHIELD has seen a massive turn around for the TV show with its ratings bouncing back and the show leveraging more on its characters now rather than the story-lines borrowed from the big screen universe.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D has taken an independent path with its season 2 paving way for the origin of its own superhero gal, Quake portrayed by Chloe Bennet. Last year, the show won the Male-Breakout Star award for the double-crossing agent Brett Dalton in the Teen Choice Awards.
Gotham: Where on one side CW is spawning characters from the DC universe, Fox is finding its success in the comic-styled Batman stories’ spin-off Gotham. Based on Batman’s crime-infested city, Gotham, the show jogs back to the origin of many of thenotorious Batman villains with detective James Gordon (Ben McKenzie) as the lead protagonist.
The premise of Gotham is more focussed on the honest cop, Gordon’s fight against Gotham’s organised criminals including the likes of the gangster bosses (Falcone and Maroni). Also the one-off episodes focusing on the earnest beginnings of the iconic villains including Penguin, Scarecrow, Catwoman, Ivy, Two-Face,Riddler and hopefully the Joker too have garnered the interests of the fans.
Set in the dingy, dark setting of Gotham, the show has been applauded for its comic-styled sets portraying the city and also the creepy-looking Arkham Asylum. While fans do get to see the young orphaned Bruce Wayne alongside his loyal butler, Alfred, makers of the show have plainly stated no intention of bring the caped-crusader to the small screen.
Gotham has aired 18 episodes of its first season starring Donal Logue, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sean Pertwee and David Mazouz among others in lead roles.Gotham brings a perfect blend of the DC’s characters in its CSI-styled crisp investigative story-telling and delivers a never-before visualised Gotham.
Gotham piloted successfully with 8.21 million viewers in the US and since then the viewership for each of its episodes has been neatly over 6 million (in US) delivering a success bonanza for Fox who have extensively started planning on its second season.
Agent Carter: The latest on the list, but definitely not the least, Marvel’s Agent Carter with 8 successful episodes on ABC is a flash-back story of Agent Peggy Carter following the immediate events of Captain America – The First Avenger. Set in the stage of the post – World War 2 era, Peggy Carter is downgraded to secretarial duties in the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR). Things go bold and beautiful for Carter when Howard Stark who is accused of treason, secretly recruits Peggy to clear his name with the help of his butler, Edwin Jarvis.
The show, quite successful in setting the United States 1946 era also brings out the strong anti-feminist views held back then. Fans may know that SSR is the former S.H.I.E.L.D organisation and Agent Carter with Hayley Atwell reprising her big screen role, Peggy Carter is a successful spin off of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Showcasing Carter as a person first and then an action-hero has paid off well for the network so far with an average 5 million plus US views for each of its episode. Plans are still in the pipeline for a second season, and who knows the badass spy may dominate the airwaves longer than we think.
Critics and fans point out that the success of these TV shows has specially relied on great comic character depictions staying true to the comic lines, strongly adapted plots from successful comic issues at the same time bringing a novelty factor to it, decent production value with well-choreographed action sequences and acceptable VFX and lastly the amazing and practical costume designing of the heroes. So no complains at all!
While the last few years have set-up quite a premise for live-action comic TV shows, the pace is set to continue in the coming year as well. To shed light on what DC has in store for us in 2015, the upcoming DC Comics adapted Supergirl on CBS looks promising with the leading lady’s (Melissa Benoist ) first look revealed. Marvel too isn’t leaving any stone unturned with its upcoming rebooted Daredevil series starting early in April and its first teaser has given us the glimpse of its dark, gritty-edged tone. Apart from Daredevil and Supergirl, 2015 could see another spinoff of Arrow and The Flash from CW Network which reportedly may include the likes of a bunch of new characters from the DC comic universe. Stay tuned!