While comic books are the birthplace of super heroes and
feature films are their new frontier, there seems to be one medium that has
been very hit or miss when it comes to super heroes. Television has had an odd
relationship with the cape and cowl crowd. You would think with television
being the logical step in between big screen films and serialized comic books
that super heroes would be a perfect fit for it, having seen such huge success
in those two mediums. Sadly, small screen super hero success seems to be few
and far between.
The one area where super heroes truly succeed is in animated form.
A weekly cartoon show is how most super heroes end up on TV and gain fame and
acclaim for the character. Challenge of the Super-Friends created a whole
generation of new comic book fans. While the Tim Burton Batman films may have
reinvigorated interest in the Caped Crusader, Batman: The Animated Series
probably is what kept interest in the character alive for several years after and
what allowed fans to forget about Joel Schumacher. Many people still feel Kevin
Conroy, the voice of Batman/Bruce Wayne, was the best on screen interpretation
of the character.
While the Tim Burton Batman films inspired an excellent
cartoon, it also inspired a not very excellent live action show. The Flash ran
one whole season on television before it was mercifully yanked off the air.
While in the comics, The Flash had always been a light hearted and fun super
hero, the TV show decided to follow the dark, almost Goth, tone of the Tim
Burton Batman and show a darker take on the Scarlet Speedster. Setting the show
almost exclusively at night, this Flash faced mostly murderers and violent
criminals rather than his usually colorful cast of Rogues. Even the red of the
costume seemed more blood like than bright. This is surprising as this version
of the Flash aired on CBS which, before hit CSI, tended to try and minimize its
questionable content.
The Flash is a good segue to the current crop of comic book
super hero TV shows since the CW has a Flash show of its own debuting this
season. That show being a spinoff of the successful Arrow, which tells the
story of Green Arrow (minus the green name) as a tough vigilante. The success
of Arrow has led to Gotham (an origin story for the characters in the Batman
universe) on Fox and Constantine on NBC.
Gotham is a bit worrisome as we have already seen an origin
story about a young hero’s beginning in the guise of Smallville. Smallville
tried to show us how a young Clark Kent could eventually become the greatest
hero of all time, Superman. Unfortunately that idea ran out of steam pretty
quick and the show limped along trying to do a Superman show without Superman.
Similarly, coming on the heels of Smallville, was Birds of Prey which tried to
do a Batman show without Batman. The problem with these shows is that they want
to mention the characters they are based on yet are restrained from doing so
for fear that those characters will take over the show. Once you introduce Superman,
Smallville ceases to be about Smallville and becomes about Superman. Same with
Birds of Prey. Why would we care about a group of super heroines when we can
get a show about Batman. My only hope for Gotham is that Batman is never
reference ever throughout the series. That way it becomes all about the story
of James Gordon and what was Gotham City like before super criminals took over.
Constantine is a different beast altogether. Constantine is
based on the popular comic Hellblazer about British con man John Constantine
who dabbles in the occult. This property was already developed as a live action
property in the failed film starring Keanu Reeves. While the film was not bad,
it was a failure and alienated the fans of the comic which is bad since the only
motivation behind developing comic book properties because you have a built in
fanbase. If you eliminate all the recognizeable elements from the comic it
almost doesn’t make sense to develop. And that is what worries me. Hellblazer
the comic is a dark mature title. While John Constantine has been folded into
the DC Universe proper, he became famous as a Vertigo title and Vertigo titles
are known for their mature content (that’s actually the whole purpose behind DC
printing the Vertigo line). And network television is not known for its
edginess. It’s known for whitewashing properties and taming them for the widest
audience possible, which makes for good business sense but makes for terrible
art.
Television is a hugely profitable industry and as long as
comic book properties can be profitable in this medium we will continue to see
more and more comics adapted into TV shows. It has been noted that comics have
become less and less about their own stories and more just intellectual property
generators for the big and small screen. There are probably more children today
who know Spider-Man and The Avengers from the movies than from any sort of
comic book. Which begs the question when will this goldmine become tapped out?
When will comics just give up the goat and the only source of super hero
material is movies and TV?
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