DC’s heavy move towards TV could be their best move in years
It comes as no surprise that Marvel is winning the Media battle between them and DC Comics. While DC has created some of the more “Iconic” superhero films over the years, with franchise after franchise, Marvel has set the standard for how to properly create a comic book film. With Spider-man, The X-men films, and even the current “Marvel Cinematic Universe” (which includes Iron Man, Captain America, and The Avengers Films) over the past decade Marvel has seemingly owned the silver screen. At this point many would say any attempt made by DC Comics may be a little late.
But DC has taken a different, and unexpected, approach. Television. As of Today, DC Comics has Arrow, Constantine, The Flash, iZombie, Gotham, Lucifer, The Titans, and Supergirl all moving forward across different networks with (mostly) separate continuities to allow independent storytelling, while Marvel only has Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Marvel’s Agent Carter, both of which heavily rely on the Marvel Cinematic Universe as its continuity staple.
Why is this so significant? Not only does that mean DC Comics is dominating the TV Show game, but if all goes well, four of the five broadcast networks will airing shows based on DC characters next season, (except the one owned by Disney/Marvel).
ARROW – The CW
The Flash – The CW
iZombie – The CW
Gotham – Fox
Lucifer – Fox
The Titans – TNT
Supergirl – CBS
Between now and 2018, Marvel currently has 12 films and 2 TV series in production, while DC has 6 films and 7 TV Series. Now to the average person, one would automatically just assume that Marvel is winning “the comic war” between Marvel and DC thanks to all of the movies they are putting out, but thanks to this hefty lineup of shows, it very well may turn out to be quite the opposite. Marvel currently pumps out a few movies a year, with their primary characters getting the movie treatment once every 2-3 years, meaning simply that fans have to wait 2 years to see the continuation of their characters stories again, but with the shift to TV, DC can now deliver weekly viewing to their characters, which fans have already gotten for the past several years with Arrow.
Now obviously this could change, Marvel could start pumping out more shows, but with Marvel wanting to keep a more “hands on” approach, its likely these shows would only end up on ABC (which currently already has 2). But as of right now, this means DC’s Characters will be seen more often, and fans will be more involved in DC’s properties on a weekly basis than they would with Marvel.
DC may have easily just made its best move in years.
