I know literally your next post is about Batwoman, so you are aware, but, dang, I would not expect the Berlanti that gave us Batwoman's whole first season to take the position that Space Cops are anything but a universal authority.
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The DC Comics TV & Movie Thread - A Thread for Talking about Detective Comics Comics Television Shows and Movies
- Thread starter Rascally Badger
- Start date
I know literally your next post is about Batwoman, so you are aware, but, dang, I would not expect the Berlanti that gave us Batwoman's whole first season to take the position that Space Cops are anything but a universal authority.
jpfriction
(He, Him)
Guy is not close to being the best GL, but he is definitely the most fun. I hope the show updates itself a bit and talks about how 1) they’re Space Cops with dubious legal jurisdictions, 2) Guy is an actual cop who is exactly the kind of guy who would fly a thin blue line flag nowadays, and 3) that the GLC historically was a nonviolent, pacifist organization before modern times and Geoff Johns came along.
Meanwhile, LEGENDS IS BACK BAYBEEE. Tonight’s episode:
“Being an Avenger is stupid. The goal is to prevent death, I’m a Preventer. You wanna join The Preventers, Sparty?”
Edit: Garry is an alien fucking magical show hahahaha
Edit2: I’m gonna be upset if Esperanza Cruz is not secretly Jessica Cruz
Poor Garry. Hope his fiancé is okay.
This week in Batwoman:
So the show just casually introduced Stephanie Brown like it was nbd and as a fairly disposable one-off character. I guess they could and probably will bring her back? But it was just weird. Especially when the show and all the characters around them immediately started shipping her with Luke Fox? Who, I'm pretty sure is supposed to be gay??? Did the show just forget and un-gay one of its main characters on accident??? Woof.
Also, I still can't get over last week's Batwoman. Batwoman left Alice to die, literally just walked out of a room while she was getting choked to death, despite that being probably the worst thing I've ever seen a Bat-character ever do. This new Batwoman seems like such a cool character until they start doing really dumb or evil shit like this and it just ruins everything.
So the show just casually introduced Stephanie Brown like it was nbd and as a fairly disposable one-off character. I guess they could and probably will bring her back? But it was just weird. Especially when the show and all the characters around them immediately started shipping her with Luke Fox? Who, I'm pretty sure is supposed to be gay??? Did the show just forget and un-gay one of its main characters on accident??? Woof.
Also, I still can't get over last week's Batwoman. Batwoman left Alice to die, literally just walked out of a room while she was getting choked to death, despite that being probably the worst thing I've ever seen a Bat-character ever do. This new Batwoman seems like such a cool character until they start doing really dumb or evil shit like this and it just ruins everything.
So Supergirl S6E7 has put an end to the ScarySpace plot and Kara is finally back with her friends family and now the show is on hiatus until late August.
I liked this episode a lot overall, and it had me fooled for the first hallucination fake-out, but then I noticed the flash (the screen effect, not the character) at the start of the second one. The focus on the fears of each character, except Jonn and Brainy, was well done and downright spooky in places.
Biggest quibble is the most obvious one, that ending was rushed. I guess it was one last necessity made with the pandemic shooting schedule and Benoist's mat leave, but it is a shame we couldn't really let Kara's rescue sink in. It's just, yay she's back, and also her Dad and... Nixly somehow, I guess?
Anyway, Superman and Lois is back next week, which I'm not all that interested in. Maybe now I'll finally try and watch Legends.
I liked this episode a lot overall, and it had me fooled for the first hallucination fake-out, but then I noticed the flash (the screen effect, not the character) at the start of the second one. The focus on the fears of each character, except Jonn and Brainy, was well done and downright spooky in places.
Biggest quibble is the most obvious one, that ending was rushed. I guess it was one last necessity made with the pandemic shooting schedule and Benoist's mat leave, but it is a shame we couldn't really let Kara's rescue sink in. It's just, yay she's back, and also her Dad and... Nixly somehow, I guess?
The show doesn't address how Kara's dad or Nixly survived, like at all. We last saw SuperDad with a wounded leg left behind in an exploding base. We saw Kara escape, and the show made great pains to show her surviving alone, but then this episode opens and he's just... there with her. Not a single mention of it. I guess this was another casualty of the shooting schedule, but it was awkward as hell.
As for Nixly, it's not super surprising she survived, being one of the DC Universe version of Q after all, but it does throw a wrench into what to expect for the remainder of the season. Which is honestly kinda nice? Up until now the only likely endgame for the series would have been Lex again, and while John Cryer is a delight that would make it three seasons in a row and the show is supposed to be about Kara, not him. (just give him a spinoff) Nixly is far too new to be a series-ending antagonist, though, but maybe she can help bring about whatever final catastrophe Kara is going to face. Mixy is also confirmed to return again this season, though, so maybe Nixly will just get one more episode to be a threat before the rest of theQ Continuum 5th Dimensional Imps notice and send a cleanup crew.
As for Nixly, it's not super surprising she survived, being one of the DC Universe version of Q after all, but it does throw a wrench into what to expect for the remainder of the season. Which is honestly kinda nice? Up until now the only likely endgame for the series would have been Lex again, and while John Cryer is a delight that would make it three seasons in a row and the show is supposed to be about Kara, not him. (just give him a spinoff) Nixly is far too new to be a series-ending antagonist, though, but maybe she can help bring about whatever final catastrophe Kara is going to face. Mixy is also confirmed to return again this season, though, so maybe Nixly will just get one more episode to be a threat before the rest of the
Anyway, Superman and Lois is back next week, which I'm not all that interested in. Maybe now I'll finally try and watch Legends.
I started watching this week's episode of The Flash, and it opened up with Flash and not!mom;speed-force-made-incarnate arguing and yelling at each other really angry like about how speedmom just murdered somebody and I had this weird feeling like wtf is even going on (more than normal). And then I realized, I had skipped last week's episode and didn't even notice. But just the idea of having to go back and watch TWO episodes of The Flash in order to catch up felt daunting and awful. To say nothing of the intense feeling of revultion and disgust I had at watching the dramatics of Flash and speedmom arguing for what seemed like no reason at first. I've been saying I'd swear off this show for a while now, but this might be the time it finally sticks? Fingers crossed!!! 
Also, it's still just INTENSELY WEIRD that Wally West is still just hangin' out in this universe, but the last time we saw him he was angry at Flash over Flash fucking up the speed force, and they left on bad terms. Maybe they'll bring him back but somehow I doubt it? It's weird that Flash's brother-in-law and also speedster is just kinda forgotten about. Ostensibly when speedmom came back, Wally should have gotten his powers back too but if he did, he's staying far far far away from this trainwreck of a show.
Also, it's still just INTENSELY WEIRD that Wally West is still just hangin' out in this universe, but the last time we saw him he was angry at Flash over Flash fucking up the speed force, and they left on bad terms. Maybe they'll bring him back but somehow I doubt it? It's weird that Flash's brother-in-law and also speedster is just kinda forgotten about. Ostensibly when speedmom came back, Wally should have gotten his powers back too but if he did, he's staying far far far away from this trainwreck of a show.
Conversely, I genuinely love how The Flash tries so hard to wring as much relateable pathos out of the most completely bonkers situations possible.
This particular episode had Joe attempted to connect being disappointed in your child to the act of creating a super villain whose only power is to literally scare people to death.
Also, the metaphorical child was a fully grown adult who had never met you and only got super powers because of your actions.
This particular episode had Joe attempted to connect being disappointed in your child to the act of creating a super villain whose only power is to literally scare people to death.
Also, the metaphorical child was a fully grown adult who had never met you and only got super powers because of your actions.
I hope somebody someday writes a postmortem to explain how The Flash went from the best first season in a superhero TV show to *waves around* this.
Traveling back in time to prevent people from getting super powers that hurt other people; including a number of straight up murders, thereby also preventing Bad Fast Mom from wanting to kill them, is considered an unconscionable act that nobody in the show can justify.
...in this episode. That’s usually the first thing they try, and this time they have the means to actually make it work without it breaking history.
...in this episode. That’s usually the first thing they try, and this time they have the means to actually make it work without it breaking history.
I think it is a pretty good example of "planned first season" syndrome. Like, every character in Flash was created with a really clear, deliberate arc for the first season. Barry learns about the unsolved murder that has driven his entire life. Harrison Wells is the mentor that is eventually revealed to be not only "a" villain, but "the" villain. Cisco graduates from "shut-in nerd" (remember the original concept for STAR labs!?) to a possible superhero himself. Caitlin has a lost love to find, and she'll eventually find he's become a superhero, too. And Iris has to eventually find that the true love of her life isn't this (disposable) fiancée she's got, but her brother. And, by the end of the first season, basically all of these "conflicts" have been resolved... so nobody has anywhere to go in the Season 2. And that just means that the show will have to manufacture drama in new ways while simultaneously being "better" drama than what was in Season 1, which is a tall order when, like, your hero seems to have a harder time emotionally reckoning with disturbing his girlfriend-sister than getting over watching his mother being murdered. It's weird! And the audience notices!
All that said, this is the exact reason Legends of Tomorrow got good, because they had a similarly carefully "set up" Season 1, realized what actually worked in Season 1, and then jettisoned practically everything that didn't work out into space. Flash decided to hang on to all of its cruft, whether it really worked or not, and the "reason" for half of that stuff still existing gradually faded into obscurity, or had to be retconned. Either way feels emotionally hollow in the long-term, and generally subconsciously off-putting in the short term. Or, put another way, consider how many people seem to finish an episode and note "Hey, aren't these characters that are debating the ethics of a villain also the same guys that spent a year locking up metas in their own private prison?"
And for another example of a very planned Season 1 leading to complete lunacy in later seasons, please recall the good ol' days of Heroes. When you have four different characters that are different definitions of "invincible" by the end of Season 1, Season 2 can be a little difficult...
Have they realized their horrid mistake regarding old Batwoman, or Is Kate still a Frankenstein?
Sorry, this just reads really funny to me
I bailed on Flash in the middle of the Savitar arc (I never found out who Savitar was or why it wanted to kill Iris, but I stopped caring and I never bothered to look it up), and the most fun I had with the show were the Supergirl crossover, then the rest of the DCTV crossovers up until the... 2019 one, IIRC, although by that point the Crisis events were the only DCTV I watched. But I distinctly remember bailing on Flash because it seemed like his driving motivation was to constantly doubt himself, and that he wanted everyone around him to also doubt him, so he kept tripping himself up functionally and emotionally until he came off as an incompetent jerk. The writers also had a really hard time thinking how to challenge a speedster, so they used Barry's self-doubt as a way to keep him from using his speed, and it got annoying real fast.
From what I'm reading, that emotional pinball actually got worse over time?
Hot Take: certain superhero powersets only work with characters at certain points in their "careers". To wit:
- Batman works at any age and with any general "street level" variation. Just omnipotent enough to conceivably "know everything", but just human enough to have issues with gigantic crocodile monster men. See also the success of Arrow.
- Superman can only ever work as a shining paragon of all that is good in the world, or an unstoppable villain. Make that type too "gray", and you've just got a god with identity issues. This is how Supergirl works: she is unending optimism in human(ish) form.
- Similarly, Flash works best as a neophyte hero, and immediately trips the moment he is completely confident with himself. This is why the best Flash stories involve (kid) Impulse, or Wally West learning to be like his mentor. A confident Barry Allen is just a dude who can solve literally every problem before you blink. The Flash TV Series tries to straddle this line, and is worse for it.
- And that "Flash Fact" applies to Green Lantern when hanging around Earth, but not when he's out in space facing galactic-level threats. My ideal Green Lantern series would follow Kyle on Earth, and Hal out in Space. Neophyte learning the ropes and stopping bank robberies locally, veteran of the corps stopping planet-sized death machines out in the final frontier. Guy Gardner would show up to help both parties randomly, and be really judge-y about it.
Flash works if you limit his powerset (like they did after Crisis in the comics) or limit him somehow (like, again, they did after Crisis or in the TV show, with him having to keep eating or risk passing out). The problem is that he's overpowered for TV. Heck, Cisco solved the eating thing in a throwaway scene in Season 1.
They still manage to have a few episodes where people have to remind Barry that he can run fast, and that perhaps “Running Fast” might be the key to saving the day.
This is probably because, as "problems" for Flash go, this is one of those that can only ever be solved by an exhausted Flash being fed a cheeseburger. And, ultimately, once you've got a hero that can only succeed when he eats a special food, you've just got Popeye. And, on a related note, where is my life action, all-drama-all-the-time Popeye franchise? They could make that whole "I yam what I yam" thing the rallying cry of a generation! Call me, Greg Berlanti! I've got some ideas here!
Do you not remember the live action movie from the 80s?
I remember...
*thousand yard stare*
Oh man, you never finished the Savitar Arc!? Oh man. Ok, so Savitar’s secret identity was... wait for it, drumroll please...
Barry Allen.
Yes! You might recall earlier how the Reverse Flash made clones of himself to fight by pulling time displaced versions of himself out of time. This of course creates a paradox and those time displaced versions are doomed to be obliterated. Barry did the same thing in one fight at one point, and Savitar is one of those time displaced, doomed Barrys. Time displaced and doomed Barry was so sad and angry that he was doomed to die and didn’t get to spend his life with Iris that he decided he was just gonna ruin everything for everyone and make the original Flash’s life hell by murdering Iris.
It’s SO INCREDIBLY BAD. It’s basically an omission that Barry is a terrible person. Normally your paragons of morality super heroes will gladly offer up their lives to save people, especially on a huge global scale. Barry though, when confronted with such a dilemma, decided to do a heel turn instead and murder everyone he loves.
The crossovers are the only time these days where Barry gets to be a recognizable and likable version of the character. When there’s everyone else being broody-sad, Barry is free to be the upbeat, moral, positive one in the group for the broody broods to bounce off of.
Barry’s status as “The Paragon of Love” stems entirely from the fact that he is seemingly the only character in the CW who successfully remains married.
They are, but Superman can’t be the paragon of two things
This looks so much better than Abrams Bat-cartoon. I'm in.
(seriously, we've had enough of dark, serious, brooding Batman in film and cartoons. Give me that super-hero romantic comedy instead)
"Clark and Lois are both twenty-somethings trying to make their way in Metropolis, settling into their new jobs at the Daily Planet, where they meet their best friend Jimmy Olsen, and slowly grow their romance."
Okay, I know this is just weird phrasing, and not suggesting that there be a Lois/Clark/Jimmy Thruple relationship, but... I mean... that would be a new frontier for Superman stories...
Legitimately, I am vaguely excited about not just the look/tone (which has me right from that teaser image), but the idea of Lois interacting with people that aren't Clark Kent/Superman. I had to quickly think of the last time I saw Lois having a legitimate conversation with Jimmy Olsen (and not just being like "Oh, look, there's Superman again, kid with camera that is in my immediate vicinity. Let's monologue about him."), and I'm coming up empty. (I haven't seen the new CW Superman & Lois, though.) By and large, I feel like I haven't seen Lois be anything but a solo act (brave reporter!) or Superman's wife/confidant across various media lately. I am genuinely curious what Lois and Jimmy do when they hang out alone together (because Clark had to leave because he forgot he had the oven on at home again).
The HBO Go Harley Quinn animated series scratched this itch for me, albeit with a... less than faithful DC universe.
Okay, I know this is just weird phrasing, and not suggesting that there be a Lois/Clark/Jimmy Thruple relationship, but... I mean... that would be a new frontier for Superman stories...
Legitimately, I am vaguely excited about not just the look/tone (which has me right from that teaser image), but the idea of Lois interacting with people that aren't Clark Kent/Superman. I had to quickly think of the last time I saw Lois having a legitimate conversation with Jimmy Olsen (and not just being like "Oh, look, there's Superman again, kid with camera that is in my immediate vicinity. Let's monologue about him."), and I'm coming up empty. (I haven't seen the new CW Superman & Lois, though.) By and large, I feel like I haven't seen Lois be anything but a solo act (brave reporter!) or Superman's wife/confidant across various media lately. I am genuinely curious what Lois and Jimmy do when they hang out alone together (because Clark had to leave because he forgot he had the oven on at home again).
The HBO Go Harley Quinn animated series scratched this itch for me, albeit with a... less than faithful DC universe.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Which is what he is referencing. It's co produced by Abrams. All those TAS vets but no Dini?