Something really sucks in the world of the CW network.
At first, I thought it was perhaps the fault of certain executive producers and showrunners for certain shows on the CW. You can probably guess which ones I’m referring to. I’ve referenced them in a few articles before.
But with the trailer released by the CW of their upcoming show “Gotham Knights”, I’ve come to the conclusion that this problem is more than just a few shows or showrunners. I believe this is systemic of the CW network itself.
The CW seems to love superhero shows. Ever since they were created from merging the United Paramount Network and the WB and they inherited the WB’s series “Smallville”, they were eager to air other superhero shows.
They started with “Arrow”, with the adventures of Oliver Queen as he becomes a bow-and-arrow vigilante, ridding his city of corrupt and evil players. It then expanded to “The Flash” and “Legends of Tomorrow” and soon they picked up “Supergirl” from CBS. They brought in “Black Lighting” and “Stargirl” and “Batwoman”.
Great, right? All of these superhero shows with their expanded characters and diverse subjects, and talk of many more shows to come.
Except it’s all coming apart now.
“Arrow” came to an end with the spectacular “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover series. “Black Lightning” and “Supergirl” soon followed, making way for “Naomi” and “Superman and Lois”. Then the execs at the CW did a stupid thing and cancelled “Batwoman”, “Legends of Tomorrow”, and “Naomi”. That leaves only three shows, with one not even airing its new season for a few months and leaving its ultimate fate in the air.
And all those other shows being talked about? “Green Lantern” and the unnamed show featuring John Diggle from “Arrow”? Will they air? Or will they join “Painkiller” and “Wonder Girl” and “Green Arrow and the Canaries” in the dustbin of TV miscarriages? We don’t know. The only show that we do know about that is going forward is “Gotham Knights” thanks to the released trailer.
But if the trailer is any indication of what the series will be like, then “Gotham Knights” will be a steaming pile of fail.
“Gotham Knights” is clearly not a part of the same DC universe as “Batwoman” or any of the so-called “Arrowverse” shows. It takes place in a Gotham where Batman is murdered and his adopted son – who is not Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, or Jason Todd – never knew that Bruce Wayne was Batman, but now everyone knows. And now he’s working with a bunch of other young teens suspected of being Batman’s killer and trying to find ways to clear their names and figure out who the real killer is.
Oh yes, some of these lesser characters have names. Harper Row, Carrie Kelly, Duela Dent, and Stephanie Brown. But we don’t see them as Bluebird, Robin, Joker’s Daughter, or Spoiler. We just see them as teenagers, along with the totally made-up character of “Turner Hayes” as the adopted son of Bruce Wayne. They don’t have costumes, but they have the cool bat-themed devices.
The future series also has no connection to the upcoming video game of the same name, which does involve known characters in the world of Batman and takes place within an established video game universe. It also has no connection to the “Batman: Gotham Knights” comic series that went from 2000-2006. This has caused some serious confusion with fans of the upcoming video game, which has been in development hell for the past few years.
If the premise of a bunch of young people fighting crime in Gotham with Batman tech but without Batman or masks sounds a bit familiar, that’s because the premise was already done in a one-season series called “The Birds of Prey”, which aired on the WB. A show that did everything it could to bring the “air” of a Batman-like world but without masks or costumes or known codenames. Of course, they had to include references to Batman and Catwoman and Joker and Batgirl to tie it all in, and Batgirl even made some on-screen appearances, but, for the most part, it was no masks and no capes.
Now, I could be wrong about “Gotham Knights” and maybe “Turner Hayes” was an audio cover-up to an actual Batman-related character. And maybe they’ll bring out the costumes and the superhero code-names at some point. But if they did, they really had no reason to keep it a secret. In fact, it would have encouraged people to look forward to seeing it.
That brings us to the flaw that I see about the CW.
They clearly love their superhero drama shows.
But, let’s get brutally honest here... they also seem to hate the superhero.
“Smallville” gave the CW the opportunity to explore the world of Superman without Superman. For ten seasons, the series gave viewers everything about Superman but without Clark Kent ever wearing the Superman outfit. Even their finale never showed their star wearing the full Superman outfit. It was computer animation or else a tee-shirt with the symbol.
This was followed with “Arrow”, where the main character never really called himself “Green Arrow” until several seasons in. Until then, he was always “The Hood”. His allies never took up codenames or even wore outfits until Barry Allen appeared and would become “The Flash” in his own series.
It was when “The Flash” began that the CW shows started focusing on costumed adventurers, but, even then, there have been problems with keeping identities secret. Secondary characters would suddenly find out who the hero is, sometimes even through something stupid as a careless blurting out that hero’s real name. The more people who know that hero’s identity means they don’t have to show them in costume as often. And this happened with all of the CW hero shows, not just “The Flash”.
Perhaps the worst of this was “Legends of Tomorrow”, which started out with a collection of heroes and villains working together to save history, but eventually became a madcap gang of characters who may or may not have powers, who may or may not have a hero name, and who may or may not even have costumes. It’s one thing to replace hero characters with other hero characters, but, near the end, they didn’t even bring heroes or villains to replace the others. They just brought in civilian characters with “unique abilities” or some other kind of gimmick. Even on the very last episode, where they brought in “Michael” to supposedly “save” the series from being cancelled, they couldn’t bring themselves to reveal him as the time manipulator Booster Gold until the last ten seconds, and he wasn’t even in costume.
The one-season series “Naomi” was supposed to represent the “next generation” of superheroes on the CW, but she couldn’t even finish the season with her wearing anything resembling her comic book outfit. Instead, they focused on the drama and on her powers and on being a teenager. The typical CW fare.
The only three superhero shows continuing on the CW - “The Flash”, “Superman and Lois”, and “Stargirl” - all have one thing in common: they all still focus on the superhero. They still wear the costumes. They still have secret identities. They still have battles with supervillains. And they continue to get support from viewers while the cancelled shows have lost viewers prior to their respective terminations.
You would think that the execs at the CW would notice this. Then again, I suspect they would be worried about whether or not they would keep their jobs as their corporate masters seek to sell the network to someone else.
So why bother with having superhero shows without superheroes? Why have the names and the powers and the gimmicks without the legendary imagery? Why not create a whole bunch of shows that feature young people with some sort of gimmicks and/or powers that aren’t created by DC Comics? Well, they actually did that with a show called “Roswell”. It didn’t exactly work for them.
It should be noted that Disney doesn’t have that problem when it comes to their Marvel shows. While they were hesitant at first, when their shows were on ABC and Netflix, the execs at the Almighty Mouse seeming have no qualms bringing their famous superheroes on their own streaming service. They show the Hulk, not just Bruce Banner. They show Falcon/Captain America and not just Sam Wilson. They show Hawkeye and not just Clint Barton. They show the Scarlett Witch and not just Wanda Maximoff. And the fans love them for it.
Amazon’s Prime Video also has no problems with their cache of superhero programs. Neither do the folks at Netflix, who churn out their own superhero programming and not scrimp on the costumes and hero names even after losing their best DC and Marvel material to their respective owners.
It seems that the folks at the CW want to bring in comic book fans as viewers, but not give them what they want, which are actual superhero stories brought to the small screen. They love doing drama. They love focusing on the younger generation. But it appears that they are not fans of the very thing that bring in those viewers. That is a fraudulent deception that has clearly hurt them and the fans.
Maybe the future new owners of the CW will have a different take on this. Maybe they’ll embrace the superhero along with the superhero show. Or maybe it’ll be up to Warner Brothers Discovery to take their characters and move them to HBO Max like they have with their own series “Titans” and the “Harley Quinn” animated series. Who knows? All this longtime comic fan and comic creator knows is that trying to sell a superhero show without the superhero is a con worthy of a comic book corporate villain.
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