Depending on who you ask, DC’s film ventures are either amazing or awful. Whatever your opinion on the matter, the box office errs towards the latter. At least when matched up to the number of their primary competition, Marvel. But there’s one arena where DC reigns supreme, and arguably always has – television.
DC has reigned supreme over Marvel in small screen ventures for years. There was the infamous Batman show of the 60s, the iconic Wonder Woman show of the 70s, and Smallville, come 2001. Meanwhile, Marvel’s had its ventures, but their most well-known live-action series for a long time was 1978’s The Incredible Hulk. And that’s not even going near the literal decades of animation domination, thanks to the DCAU. And now there’s a new wave of shows to prove DC’s dominance, while Marvel is… struggling with TV, to say the least. But now there’s another show in the works for DC’s exclusive streaming service – Metropolis.
DC’s main claim to the television world, at the moment, is its CW line-up. Shows like Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow are proving incredibly successful. Even the unconnected Black Lightning is off to an exceptionally good start with audiences. But then there are the shows not attached to CW at all. On its way is a show on SyFy that’s all about Krypton – the home planet of DC’s favorite man of tomorrow. And then there’s the long-running Gotham series, over on Fox, featuring the events leading up to Bruce Wayne donning the mantle of The Batman for the first time. And the upcoming Metropolis show seems to be very much aimed in that direction.
The series will follow Lois Lane and, oddly enough, Lex Luthor in a pre-Superman Metropolis. What will they be doing? Well, apparently they’re investigating “fringe science” and “exposing Metropolis’s bizarre secrets.” What that means is anyone’s guess. It’s possible the series will set up a number of the classic Superman foes. Though one has to wonder exactly how fruitful this approach would be. Most of Superman’s enemies aren’t even human, much less possess the deep psychological appeal that Batman’s foes do. They’re often more about scale, such as the likes of Brainiac or Darkseid. What few human adversaries he has – Livewire, Parasite, etc. will be difficult but interesting to see how they make more intriguing and engaging.
The new Metropolis live-action series will, of course, be joined by the rest of the projects on DC’s exclusive streaming service. This includes the likes of the Titans series, the third season of Young Justice, and the animated Harley Quinn solo series. The service launches later this year.
