Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
While I think it’s reductive to pigeonhole oneself as being “Marvel” or “DC,” as both companies have rich histories and vital heroes and share practically all their comic creators, I still label myself a Marvel guy. I always have been, and my fate was sealed the instant I saw the X-Men cartoon 25 years ago. I have tried over and over again to get deep into DC, but it never sticks. I understand DC, and I appreciate it, but I’m not (and probably never will be) fluent in it.
I write all this so you know that I don’t make this assertion lightly, and this isn’t an instance of a DC “fanboy” cashing in paychecks from Warner Bros. to tarnish Marvel’s name (or any other cockamamie conspiracy that some comic fans float online). The DC Universe that I actually respond to is the one seen on the CW, and, when held up against the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s small screen counterpart, there is no contest. DC soundly defeats Marvel, and that’s not easy for me to say. Seriously, I have 23 Marvel action figures on my work desk all glowering at me for writing this.
While I certainly like a few of the Marvel TV shows (Daredevil and Jessica Jones) more than any of the CW/DC shows, I marvel (pun!) at the way the CW’s shows replicate the shared superhero universes of the comics on the small screen. To see why the CW’s works, let’s look at the two universes side-by-side.
The CW’s started in 2012 with Arrow, a gritty (or at least the soapy CW’s version of gritty) street-level action/drama about a billionaire playboy named Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) that was molded into a bow-and-arrow-carrying vigilante after a hellish stint on a not-so-deserted island. Arrow Season 2 introduced forensic investigator/super speedster Barry Allen (Grant Gustin), leading into his own super-series (The Flash) in the fall of 2014. The universe doubled during the 2015-2016 TV season with the debuts of Supergirl and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.
The former stars Melissa Benoist as the optimistic and inspirational Girl of Steel, and the latter is an ensemble show comprised of supporting guest players from Arrow and Flash. Supergirl started switched from CBS to the CW in 2016, bringing it fully into the CW/DC fold, but these shows had a tight-knit feel from the jump. Four shows on one network with dozens of characters, casual cameos, and crazy crossovers. It feels whole.
Marvel, well, they try. Or they make us think they’re trying. Unlike the CW/DC lineup, most of Marvel’s TV output is ostensibly part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, meaning they take place in the same universe as all those feature films that dominate the box office a few times a year. The first series, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., debuted in the fall of 2013, spinning out of 2012’s Marvel’s The Avengers feature film and starring Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson. Then things get hard to follow. Marvel’s Agent Carter ran for two seasons on ABC beginning in 2015, sharing a network and some continuity with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Then Marvel and Netflix teamed up for a slate of legit gritty (not CW gritty) dramas, including Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Marvel’s The Defenders (Marvel’s The Punisher drops later this year). All of the Netflix series connect to each other, CW-style, but they don’t connect to S.H.I.E.L.D. or Carter. Then just last month, ABC added a third show to its Marvel canon, Marvel’s Inhumans. That show made a passing reference to S.H.I.E.L.D. plot points, but that’s about it. And on top of all that, none of these series have any effect on the feature films and, aside from a handful of cameos on S.H.I.E.L.D. years ago, the movie stars don’t come and play with the TV stars. Making matters even more confusing is the fact that there are more MCU shows on the way on different networks: Hulu has Marvel’s Runaways while Freeform will debut Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger and Marvel’s New Warriors next year.
So, the CW has four shows on one network. Marvel has/had 12 shows on four different networks, as well as 16 feature films (although don’t think too much about those). You see why one is easier to follow then the other, right? The CW’s streamlined lineup–which, I point out, still includes four different shows!–is why the CW soars. Marvel’s lineup is all over the metaphorical cable dial, and it is anchored to the MCU movies to the detriment of all.
Here’s a hot take that actually shouldn’t be hot at all: Marvel’s movies are so much better than DC’s. Surprisingly, though, that actually works in DC’s favor when it comes to TV shows, and less so with Marvel’s. DC’s movies can be as gloomy as they want to be and that doesn’t tarnish the tight-knit CW continuity. And since the CW shows are their own thing, you never watch them waiting for movie characters to show up that you really know will never show up. And even though Wonder Woman and Batman are noticeably absent, the CW shows are populated with enough major DC Comics characters (Superman, The Flash, Arrow, a half dozen Canaries) that they don’t feel lacking for star power.
Marvel’s movies are tied to all their TV shows, but they’re only tied in name only. #ItsAllConnected was a mantra/slogan that Marvel put out there back when S.H.I.E.L.D. launched to hype all the forthcoming TV content. For a while it all did feel connected: Nick Fury and Sif and Maria Hill all stopped by the ABC show in its first two seasons. Then the TV lineup expanded and the gulf between movies and TV widened. Now it’s impossible to even get the TV shows to crossover. The Netflix shows are totally separate from the ABC shows, it’s hard to pin down if the Hulu and Freeform shows really take place in the MCU, and none of them crossover with the movies. It’s not all connected, but there’s still the expectation that it is. There’s still the hope that Luke Cage will appear in Avengers: Infinity War or Scarlett Johansson will do a stint on Daredevil or, I dunno, even that Quake will meet Medusa. Instead, fans are given some Easter egg dialogue (most of these shows have referred to the NYC battle in Avengers as The Incident at one point or another) and that’s it. Fans have been told #ItsAllConnected, so fans watch these shows hoping to see those connections–and they rarely, usually never, come.
This has become a problem for Marvel more recently as a few shows have, well, not exactly been hits. Iron Fist and Inhumans didn’t turn out so hot, which makes the MCU suddenly feel like it has a quality control problem. It’s hard to stand by the #ItsAllConnected catchphrase when characters never crossover and you want to distance the brand from the flops.
All that is why I appreciate what the that DC foursome pull off week in and week out on the CW. They don’t get as heavy as Jessica Jones or hit the heights of a Luke Cage or Daredevil, and it was genuinely cool to see movie characters on S.H.I.E.L.D. a few times, but the CW shows also free from the kinds of synergy distractions and confusing continuity that plagues the MCU as it grows and grows. What you see is what you get on the CW: four shows starring superheroes that cross over regularly and don’t feel like the B-leagues compared to the movies. The CW-verse promised a shared superhero universe, and it delivers on it in every single way.
