Sharon Leal is Miss Martian in Supergirl Season 2

If you liked this article, please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and please consider Donating to keep the blog going

Edited by Robert Beach

One of the interesting things about CW’s growing collection of superhero TV is the way they’ve so definitively altered their brand of superhero TV over its 4 years of growth. When CW first entered the modern superhero show game (excluding Smallville) in 2012 with Arrow, their outlook was incredibly limited and stripped down. The first 2 seasons of the show were all about having as few high-concept aspects as possible and as much angst as the show could fit, ripping off Batman in that category. Even the first ½ season of The Flash fell prey to this, but then the first Flash/Arrow crossover hit, and everything changed. 

Suddenly, everything was about bright adventures, weird concepts, and a expanding array of superheroes that culminated in Legends of Tomorrow. Given that, it was inevitable that Supergirl would be getting more superheroes now that it moved to the CW.  We’ve already confirmed Superman and Mon-El are joining Martian Manhunter in the show’s supporting cast, but now we have one more name to add to the list: Sharon Leal will be playing Miss Martian in season 2. 

Static Thoughts - Teen Titans Go!

If you like this post or want to support the blog, please consider donating

Edited by Robert Beach 

I am an unapologetically huge fan of Teen Titans Go.  Cartoon Network’s third shot at the Teen Titans franchise through this latest reboot is an unquestionable win, my favorite adaptation of these characters, and honestly one of the funniest superhero spoofs produced.  And yet, I feel bizarrely alone in my love for Teen Titans Go.  

Whenever the show comes up in conversation the universal response seems to be a wistful sigh of disappointment that I wasn’t talking about the 2003 TV show or Young Justice.  Why is this?  I’m not saying the previous incarnations were bad but the fact there were beloved previous versions of a thing didn’t stop us from loving Batman: The Brave and The Bold or even the upcoming Lego Batman movie.  Why is Teen Titans Go so overlooked by so many?

Comics Rainbow - Amazons

Today is the 75^th anniversary of Wonder Woman, THE premiere female character in the biggest genre on the planet right now.  That’s a pretty big milestone and an aptly timed one at that.  After decades trying to reclaim the place in the public eye she enjoyed during her hit ‘70s TV show’s run, Wonder Woman is finally returning to the public eye thanks to the premiere of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in this year’s Batman v. Superman.  

Now Dawn of Justice was a travesty but Wonder Woman was actually a good part of it and Gadot’s upcoming Wonder Woman solo film is shaping up to be a major blast, so to celebrate this milestone I thought we’d get the full spectrum on the various Amazonian heroes and characters’ that’ve peppered DC’s history. 

Comic Rainbow - Flash Family

Welcome back to Comic Rainbow, the show with a pointedly vague brief so I can focus on pretty much whatever I want so long as I’m indulging my color obsession.  In the spirit of undefined focus this week we’re looking at another topical subject: The Flash.  In case you don’t know CW’s The Flash premiered its 2^nd season on Tuesday of this week at the time of writing.  The show had a rocky start but rocketed into the hearts of nerds and common folk alike through its winning combination of comic book craziness and engaging character and story.  I personally love CW’s The Flash, it’s the only DC adaptation of the 2010s to rival the works of Marvel and is the best comic show currently on TV.  This new season is primed to continue the show’s broadening horizons by introducing both the multiverse and a collection of Flash allies such as Wally West, Jay Garrick, and Jesse Quick.  This has got me thinking about the Flash Family, a group of heroes who all draw their power from the speed force, which I discussed previously in “Would You Like To Know More.”  So, this is your full spectrum look at the Flash Family in all its shades, shames, and successes.

Week of Review - Beware The Batman

And so we come to the end of the first ever Week of Review and the final time Batman was on TV prior to Gotham.  If you’re interested in my thoughts on Gotham I already reviewed the entire first season and will be reviewing the premiere as well all for Front Towards Gamer so just follow the link right here.  For now, however, we’ll be focusing on the shockingly short-lived CGI Batman show from 2013 Beware the Batman.  In 2013 Batman: The Brave and the Bold had been off the air for about 2 years after the disastrous year of 2011.  While 2008 had redefined the superhero landscape 2011 showed that this wasn’t going to be a static game as DC saw its dominate market share slip with the awful Green Lantern and realized that there was legitimate competition thanks to smash hits like Thor and X-Men: First Class. 

More than anything, 2011 was the year that sent DC/WB scurrying back to the safety of the Batman umbrella and confirmed to them the importance of sticking with dark, brooding, quasi-realistic heroes.  By 2013, they’d more or less expended that particular capital in films with Dark Knight Rises concluding the Nolan Batman trilogy the year before so the decision was to pull the lighter and more accessible Green Lantern: The Animated Series and replace it with a dark, brooding new Batman show; Beware the Batman.

 

First Image of Supergirl's Red Tornado

Edited by Robert Beach 

As some of you hopefully gleaned from the title of this article, there’s a Supergirl TV show currently in the works from the people at CBS. I’m not exactly sure why the show is being developed by CBS instead of CW, but it’s best not to get too caught up in these things and just accept DC comics TV rights are spread across all of TV for no real reason. 

What I do know is that the show will be adapting other DC heroes beyond just Supergirl as part of its supporting cast. The only hero yet confirmed is Red Tornado, played by Iddo Goldberg of Salem fame, and today we got our first look at him. Goldberg will also be playing super scientist and super villain T.O. Morrow, the man who invented Red Tornado in the comics, though the hows and whys of that particular casting have yet to be revealed.

Week of Review - Bat Bits

Edited by Robert Beach

Day 2 of our first Week of Review, folks, celebrate my continued dedication to a self-appointed task transcending the bounds of reasonability and self-preservation. If you missed the first installment and are thus literally adrift, here’s the deal: Week of Review is retrospective series where I spend 5-7 installments going over a bunch of entries in a given subject. This opening week’s topic is Batman on TV, building up to the Gotham season 2 premiere a week from yesterday. The first installment dealt with the massively popular Adam West Batman show from the ‘60s (the first major introduction to Batman that most people had).

Today, I’m covering the awkward 30-year gap between Batman ’66 and Batman the animated series.  There were animated Batman shows during this period, but none of them are really worth a full in-depth analysis. Additionally, I’ll be using this sequence to touch on Batman’s role in a few other DC series where he was prominently featured, yet the show wasn’t part of his mythos. Also, this article will be in list format because I refuse to limit Week of Review to a set format or structure for each installment.