The Collective DCU TVerse -- Lions, Titans, and Supergirls

[polishgenius]

All of these shows look too cheesy for me to be honest. It's got Rory in it though so maybe I'll give it a go.

Not being funny like, but how can you think these are too cheesy but you know who Rory is?

[protar]

Not being funny like, but how can you think these are too cheesy but you know who Rory is?

A fair point. But to be honest I don't find Doctor Who to be that cheesy. Maybe it's the acting which is throwing me off, what I'm seeing here isn't too impressive on that front. Whereas Doctor Who - though not perfect - delivers some pretty great acting at times, especially from the Doctor(s). Or maybe it's just because I've grown up with Doctor Who, who knows?

[Lord Hanna]

Legends of Tomorrow Trailer.

Shrinking confirmed.

That looks amazing.

As a comic book fan, i cannot wait for that show.

[protar]

Also, I think there's perhaps a difference between British cheesiness and American cheesiness. Something about the American accents just ups the cheese factor for me.

[john]

I like silly shows for the most part but that looks really really silly. I mean i'll watch it for Rory of course but still ...

Supergirl seems a lot more coherent. I like how they're just totally not fussed with the secret indentity thing. Ever single person in the trailer, other than her boss, knows who she is.

[Mladen]

The return of Sarah Lance seems to make the entire Season 3 of Arrow somewhat useless.

I have to admit that I'm a bit excited for Supergirl. Though Calista Flockheart's bizarre dialogue about why girl is ok is annoying. I'm hoping there will be more to it than that.

I have huge problems with entire Season 3 of Arrow. And if someone asked me, which, btw, no one did, Arrow would have met his end this season.

I am not big fan of the mumble-jumble that will have to be enforced for the LoT to work.

As for Supergirl... Well, we will always have Peggy Carter.

[Kindly Old Man]

Legends of Tomorrow Trailer.

Shrinking confirmed.

I feel like we are reaching comic book saturation. That said, I'll be watching.

[The BlackBear]

Supergirl seems a lot more coherent. I like how they're just totally not fussed with the secret indentity thing. Ever single person in the trailer, other than her boss, knows who she is.

The thing is with Superman I'm used to saying 'he's not got his glasses on, so no one knows who he is' even though it's silly. I'm not used to thinking it with any other character so here I think she's not wearing a disguise, but she kind of is, because she hasn't got the glasses on.

But I don't think too many people know it. Who in the trailer knew her identity: The Adoptive Sister (who should know,) the guy who wants to sleep with her (Ben Begley?) who as basically the only guy in her 'team' again kind of makes sense, Jimmy Olsen (I quite like the actor btw) less reason for this apart from the Kal connection, and possibly David Harewood's military man (she shows up with a shorthaired woman, possibly her sister) so he might know.

[drawkcabi]

Now THIS is what I'm talking about!

(fan made remix Super girl trailer)

[GallowKnight]

Another one that looks great. Only thing is, they really should be doing 10-13 episodes per season of each DC show, and air them only 1 or two concurrently. Otherwise the tv landscape becomes (has become) saturated too quickly and there's way too much filler in the show.

Will Dean Cain reprise his role as Curtis Knox - Vandal Savage? Seeing him and Routh on screen together would just be too scene chewingly delicious.

Apparently Legends of Tomorrow will actually only be 13 episodes.

[denstorebog]

Now THIS is what I'm talking about!

(fan made remix Super girl trailer)

Well, seeing as the Supergirl trailer has become the latest laughing stock of the internet in record time, someone had to do the job right. That fan trailer manages it. Keeps the sane parts, removes the rest then adds some musical cues that ties the whole thing into the universe. Good job.

[Myrddin]

Now THIS is what I'm talking about!

(fan made remix Super girl trailer)

That looks much better. I liked how they even used both the John Williams and the Hans Zimmer themes.

[Dr. Pepper]

I tried to think positively about the original trailer, I really did. I knew that I was already predisposed to hate it since I don't like romcoms and I had also lol'd hard at the SNL sketch. So, positive thinking. But this fan remix is so much better and makes all the dumb stuff in the original look so much worse. I'm feeling like Leap, I guess I'll watch the show, though my only desire to watch is based on liking comic book shows and the coolness shown in the remixed trailer.

Question for the lifelong comic lovers. I've seen it said a number of times that media is becoming too saturated with comics and superheroes lately. I didn't grow up reading or watching comic shows because we were poor and nearly fundies. But I knew they existed and I knew they were everywhere. There were cartoons, tv shows, movies. Is it truly so much more now or does it just seem like so much saturation since the DCU and MCU have served to connect all of the stuff they release?

[red snow]

Apparently Legends of Tomorrow will actually only be 13 episodes.

Are they using it as a mid-season break for Arrow and Flash? I think Arrow could definitely benefit from a less hectic schedule or breaking a season into two clear arcs per season. Plus we wouldn't get the weird stop and start (and what seemed to be misaligned Flash and arrow episodes) of those shows if they had a 13 week break.

[Kindly Old Man]

I tried to think positively about the original trailer, I really did. I knew that I was already predisposed to hate it since I don't like romcoms and I had also lol'd hard at the SNL sketch. So, positive thinking. But this fan remix is so much better and makes all the dumb stuff in the original look so much worse. I'm feeling like Leap, I guess I'll watch the show, though my only desire to watch is based on liking comic book shows and the coolness shown in the remixed trailer.

Question for the lifelong comic lovers. I've seen it said a number of times that media is becoming too saturated with comics and superheroes lately. I didn't grow up reading or watching comic shows because we were poor and nearly fundies. But I knew they existed and I knew they were everywhere. There were cartoons, tv shows, movies. Is it truly so much more now or does it just seem like so much saturation since the DCU and MCU have served to connect all of the stuff they release?

My take is, there was always a ton of comic book material if you wanted to look for it. However, the audiences for kids shows/ actual comic books are much smaller, and there were fewer tv shows and movies. Now, with so many prime time TV shows and blockbuster movies, the mainstream audience is getting material previously only seen by hardcore fans. Thus far, the material adapted has been the basic origin stories and major storylines - mostly material that is accessible to everyone when it is done alright. However, as these things keep making more and more money, they are branching out into the less accessible material. This can still be good if it is made well (see Guardians of the Galaxy). However, if not done really well, I think a lot of the things that kept comics out of the mainstream will also start to turn people off of the MCU and DCU media . More and more heroes are introduced with completely ridiculous or duplicate powers, Stories get robbed of tension as resurrection devices come into play and no one stays dead. Plot lines get more and more complicated, particularly when time travel and multiple universes are introduced. Even heroes that are relatable lose some of their luster when people wonder why there are now 20 characters in these universes at 'peak human condition' with a seeming immunity to bullets.

I'm hopeful that they keep putting out high quality stuff, but watching Arrow drop off this year when the Flash came out, and seeing them add even more to that universe has me a little worried.

[red snow]

I'm hopeful that they keep putting out high quality stuff, but watching Arrow drop off this year when the Flash came out, and seeing them add even more to that universe has me a little worried.

Add Supergirl to the list as while not in the same "universe" it has some of the showrunners.

It is true that Arrow probably dropped off while they paid attention to getting Flash "right" (which on the whole they've achieved). Still, given the amount of talented writers out there I don't see why these concepts should be diluted. It could be CW are being cheap by sticking with a main team and not spending much on other creative groups.

Basically, they should be able to find people who can run Arrow pretty well while having the other guys concentrate on Flash, etc.

It's maybe too soon to say wrt the netflix heroes but all four shows have individual showrunners with a handful of overall execs. That seems a better way to run things. The impression I get with CW though is that it's all about Berlanti/Kriesberg (and Guggenheim) and there doesn't seem to be much trickling down.

To recap. I don't think there's a problem with too many superhero shows (because there's still good cop shows regardless of the number of them) but getting 2-3 people to run them all is a worry/issue.

[drawkcabi]

I tried to think positively about the original trailer, I really did. I knew that I was already predisposed to hate it since I don't like romcoms and I had also lol'd hard at the SNL sketch. So, positive thinking. But this fan remix is so much better and makes all the dumb stuff in the original look so much worse. I'm feeling like Leap, I guess I'll watch the show, though my only desire to watch is based on liking comic book shows and the coolness shown in the remixed trailer.

Question for the lifelong comic lovers. I've seen it said a number of times that media is becoming too saturated with comics and superheroes lately. I didn't grow up reading or watching comic shows because we were poor and nearly fundies. But I knew they existed and I knew they were everywhere. There were cartoons, tv shows, movies. Is it truly so much more now or does it just seem like so much saturation since the DCU and MCU have served to connect all of the stuff they release?

I don't think animated shows cause any of the problem. There's always been many of them and they've always had their place where to be found. In the 60's - 90's it was Saturday morning on the networks and the afternoon on weekdays on local stations. From the early Marvel cartoons, Spiderman, Thor, Captain America, Fantastic Four, etc. and the Filmation DC cartoons, all in the 60's. To Hanna Barbera's Superman and Batman shows, in the 70's. Then Spider-man and his Amazing Friends, Incredible Hulk in the 80s. The 90's were a renaissance era with X-Men, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk all having updated and slightly to drastically more sophisticated stories, and of course this was the decade of Batman: The Animated Series, Superman, and Batman Beyond. DCAU at it's finest.

From the late 90's most animated comic book shows found their place on cable networks like Cartoon network, Toon Disney, and so on. Kids WB put up the valiant fight to keep them on Saturday morning but a few years ago they were the last remaining network to stop showing Saturday morning cartoons. But still everywhere they were to be found, there was a glut of them, yet they still they kind of had to be looked for by people who wanted to watch them.

With live-action I remember shows like The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, and Spider-man in the 70's along with tv movies/pilots for Captain America and Dr. Strange. Most of those shows down played the comic book stories and changed things like Bruce Banner's name to David Banner. In fact, I heard that one of the reasons Spiderman was cancelled (along with looking so cheesy, even for 70's standards) was CBS didn't want to be branded the "Superhero network". In addition to all those shows there were also shows like 6 Million Dollar Man, and Bionic Woman, technically not comic book movies but kind of in the spirit. There was also Buck Rogers which was kind of like a hybrid comic book show/space sci-fi series. I suppose that time is the closest in comparison with the current time and can be drawn the most parallels.

Otherwise there were sporadic comic book shows throughout the other times. I wasn't around but there was Batman and Green Hornet in the 60's. In the 80's there was The Greatest American Hero, not show from an actual comic book, but it was a super hero show. Superboy in syndication in the late 80's. Then in the 90's there was the first Flash series and Lois and Clark. In the 2000's there was Smallville and Birds of Prey.

Most of the time though, all these live-action shows were found on weekends, on out of the way channels, or on network channels on nights sandwiched between other hour-long action shows or dramas. They kind of kept their profile low and downplayed so much of the super hero aspects. Now it is just really in your face.

I'm curious what the reaction is going to be to people (like my mom) who will tune into CBS this November expecting to find shows like 2 Broke Girls and Mike and Molly and get Supergirl. It will be interesting to see how it does

Are they using it as a mid-season break for Arrow and Flash? I think Arrow could definitely benefit from a less hectic schedule or breaking a season into two clear arcs per season. Plus we wouldn't get the weird stop and start (and what seemed to be misaligned Flash and arrow episodes) of those shows if they had a 13 week break.

Agreed.

Also mostly agree with your comment on getting 2-3 to run them all could be an issue.

[RedEyedGhost]

To recap. I don't think there's a problem with too many superhero shows (because there's still good cop shows regardless of the number of them) but getting 2-3 people to run them all is a worry/issue.

Link

The "Flash"/"Arrow" spinoff "DC's Legends of Tomorrow" is being held for midseason and Pedowitz noted that it isn't necessarily being viewed as a "Agent Carter"-esque bridge between seasons of an established show, saying that all three of those shows could and possibly will air at the same time.

"It is a possibility because of the fact that... 'DC's Legends of Tomorrow' is part of the 'Flash'/'Arrow' universe. The character will criss-cross as needed and we'll have big crossovers as we can acquire them at the right time," Pedowitz said.

[Kindly Old Man]

So the Supergirl pilot leaked. Not sure what the deal is with spoilers for things like this so I'll just say it wasn't great. Whatever your opinion was after seeing the trailer, I doubt it'll change much.

[SpaceChampion]

I heard speculation that it was the network itself who leaked the show, evidenced by the lack of watermarks, in order to kill the bad buzz.

It was less far less rom-commy than the trailer lead us to believe. It dived deep into the mythology quickly too to set up the antagonists. I'm not seeing it appeal to non-genre fans. Either the second episode will lead the show back into the rom-commy elements much more and the antagonists will be on the backburner for much of the season (but then they've alienated their audience), or vice versa.

Or maybe one of the antagonists will be a love interest, tackle it from a Buffy-Angel / Beauty & The Beast kind of story. Make Kara's story a tragic love story is probably the only way the show would reach the audience it seems to want.