Superhero TV Show Power Rankings — JAN 2018
Black Lightning bolts into the mix, Gotham and Legends of Tomorrow take their hiatuses & both The Gifted and Runaways come to their (quasi)epic conclusions.
With so many super shows out there, how do you which ones to watch?
That’s where this article comes in!
I’ve watched every episode of every season of every show listed below and have given the current season a brief analysis and a ranking out of 10. The italicized number after that represents the change in ranking from last month.
For previous articles see November 2017 and December 2017.
SPOILERS for episodes of — Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Arrow, Black Lightning, Flash and Supergirl — UP TO AND INCLUDING 2/1/17.
SPOILERS for ALL episodes of the first seasons of — The Punisher, Future Man, The Gifted and Runaways.
ARROW (CW)
Season: 6
Episodes Reviewed: 10–12
RENEWAL STATUS: TBA. Likely Safe.
THE GOOD: (1) I enjoy nods to the show’s early mythology, so it was nice to see some Bertinellis (Helena Bertinelli is Seaosn 1’s The Huntress) pop up and Felicity even bring up the fact that Oliver once slept with her. (Ouch.) (2) Seeing Thea act as Quentin’s mentor of sorts really shows how much she’s grown from the bad-girl teenager from season 1. She’s also provided support and advice to her brother. I’ve realized that show has shown Oliver’s journey toward maturity, but it’s shown Thea’s as well. (3) Damn! Arrow has stepped up their stunts, choreography and camera work tenfold! I’ve noticed a lot of single-take fight sequences that are super impressive and fun to watch.
THE BAD: (1) I’m not a fan of the “Wild Dog giving up Green Arrow’s identity” plotline. Even though Rene loves his daughter, I don’t feel that’s “in character” for him. I also don’t think Curtis would so easily take Rene’s side over Felicity, who he’s known for much longer. Oh well. (2) For a duo who can make a chip that reverses paralysis and another that can heal an arm tremor in mere seconds, Felicity and Curtis are wasting what would certainly be profitable careers. Also, I still don’t understand why Felicity’s paralysis lasted only a few episodes — perhaps the writers still have a grand plan for this? (3) The “legion of supervillains” has been super disappointing. Mr.Sheck was killed before doing anything useful. Vigilante turned out to be a double agent. And Anatoly and Dragon…have kind of just stood around so far. I’d like to see those two show off what they can contribute to the team. I want to see Cayden James in action as well. Right now he just stands around menacingly.
How to Make It Better: It now appears that Cayden James is being manipulated into hating Green Arrow, as our hero was framed for the murder of James’ son. So perhaps James is not the big bad of the season after all. The grudge-holding Anatoly is the obvious choice, but perhaps the manipulator is someone more cunning; Talia Al Ghul, furious at being left for dead, Kane Wolfman, Deathstroke’s son, still hoping to catch his escapee or even Samandra Watson, hoping to bring down the vigilantes by any means necesary.
Score: 6/10 (-1)
BLACK LIGHTNING (CW)
Season: 1
Episodes Reviewed: 1–3
RENEWAL STATUS: TBA. Looking good.
THE GOOD: (1) Off to a fairly good start. The pilot introduced a lot of interesting characters, and I’m excited to learn more about them. (2) I’m really excited about the villains. Marvin “Krondon” Jones III is electric (pun intended) as Tobias, a powerful and evil thug who thought he had killed Black Lightning. Lady Eve is a completely different type of villain, but I look forward to seeing more of her character as the series progresses too. (3) I love Gambi, Black Lightning’s sidekick and #1 fan. He fulfills the show’s Felicity/Cisco/Winn role, providing Jeff with his outfit, weapons and game plans. It’s also neat to see someone in their mid-60’s take that role, especially on a network known for casting young people, like the CW. But even more interesting is a cliffhanger where he knowingly erases footage that puts Tobias at the scene of the crime….
THE BAD: (1) Lynn, Jefferson’s ex-wife, doesn’t really seem to know what she wants. Is she for or against her husband’s return to the superhero life? This makes life near-impossible for Jefferson. It does seem like she’s going to become a bigger problem though — she wants custody of Jeff’s girls. (2) The fact that Khalil becomes paralyzed mere hours after he and Jennifer plan to have sex for the first time seems a little cliché. (3) Anyone else concerned about what happens to Lala’s son? Maybe we can see him being raised by Tobias. Or Jefferson!
How to Make It Better: So far, Black Lightning’s decisions have essentially been made for him. Lynn and Gambi have pressured him into suiting up & the actions by Lawanda and Revered Holt have forced him to step up too. But soon, having a reluctant hero every episode is going to get stale. Once he finds out that Tobias is alive, hopefully BL will find his motivation.
Score: 7/10 ( — )
FUTURE MAN (HULU)
Season: 1
Episodes Reviewed: 8–13
RENEWAL STATUS: Renewed
THE GOOD: (1) This show has a lot of bizarre moments and strange humor, but however far it seems to stray, it never forgets its original concept and always progresses the overarching story. It also juggles a variety of minor plotlines (Kronish’s love life, Josh’s uncle, Wolf’s desire to cook, Detective Skarsgaard, the dick swap, etc). And just when you’ve forgotten about one, another pops up in its place. All (or most) of these pieces come together toward the end of the first season. Even Wolf’s knowledge of Na’vi comes back in the finale. (2) I cannot stress enough how perfectly this show was cast. Josh Hutcherson is especially excellent at embodying the gamer with good intentions who is stuck in an unusual situation. (3) The finale was full of twists and surprises, which is always a nice reward to viewers who watch a whole season of a show.
THE BAD: (1) I didn’t find Wolf’s severe crack addiction to be very comedic. For a show that is, at times, very smart, this seemed like cheap humor. (They then had to force him to overcome the addiction in a matter of minutes.)(2) One story that did get dropped was Tiger’s desire to learn more about her ancestry. Wished they had explored that more. (3) I never much cared for the character of Stu, and found he didn’t really add as much to the story as the other supporting characters.
How to Make It Better: I think the show would benefit from less “digression montages” (such as Tiger and Wolf living in the past). Those went on for a long time. Perhaps shortening episodes to 20 minutes each would be beneficial.
Score: 9/10 (+1)
THE FLASH (CW)
Season: 4
Episodes Reviewed: 10–12
RENEWAL STATUS: TBA. Likely safe.
THE GOOD: (1) The show is finally revisiting Barry’s mysterious jibberish remarks that he made upon his return from the Speed Force. (2) Nice to see Elongated Man get an episode essentially all to himself, where Barry gets a chance to mentor him too. The outfit is a bit disappointing though. (3) Good twist at the end of episode 12, which reveals that the Warden of Iron Heights, where the Flash has sent multiple supervillains, is in cahoots with Amunet Black.
THE BAD: (1) The plot-convenient power where Barry can suddenly talk to other people mid-speeding? Yikes. (2) Cecile has superpowers now but only during her pregnancy? Double yikes. (3) No one seeming to miss HR, who died at the end of Season 3? Triple sad.
How to Make It Better: Does this all mean Amunet has access to more villains from past seasons? That would make her a much more interesting villain….
Score: 6/10 (-1)
THE GIFTED (FOX)
Season: 1
Episodes Reviewed: 11–13
RENEWAL STATUS: Renewed
THE GOOD: Let me know if you think of something.
THE BAD: (1) This month, I’ll complain about the dialogue. Half the dialogue directly establishes things that are happening. For example, “There is a lot of tension here right now.” Characters say things that real people don’t say, such as “You can’t be serious” and “we have to stick together”. (2) The events in the show do nothing to progress the story. (exhibit a) Stuckers visit Grandma. They tell her to come with them. She doesn’t. (exhibit b) Lauren meets up with her love interest Wes again. They kiss. He leaves again. (exhibit c) Eclipse tries to calm Polaris. He doesn’t. The list goes on. (3) The Gifted has a lot of faults, but the biggest one is this — you don’t care about the characters. And if a show doesn’t have that, you’ve already lost. Do you know how many thousands of people cry over every episode of “This is Us”? That’s how you know you have a show with good characters.
How to Make It Better: Hire the “This Is Us” writers?
Score: 0/10 ( — )
MARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.
Season: 5
Episodes Reviewed: 6–9
RENEWAL STATUS: TBA. Looking unlikely.
THE GOOD: (1) Right as I was complaining about the slowness, the show kicked off with a big escape sequence! It also killed off almost every new annoying character. (2) Really enjoying the character of Enoch. He’s reminiscent of Vision, in the MCU films. I wish they’d give him more to do. (3) A lot of series-wide arcs are coming together. Fitz and Simmons, May and Coulson, Yo-Yo and Mack, Daisy and Deke(?) is a sign that S.H.I.E.L.D. knows that this season is, indeed, its last.
THE BAD: (1) The “oh by the way the bad guys can bring people back to life” plotline is sloppy. (2) As S.H.I.E.L.D. will inevitably return back to Earth/the present and prevent all this from happening, I’m not sure why they (or I) should care about any of these people in the alternate future, if they’re not going to exist anyway. (3) I held out hope for him, but Kasius isn’t as evil or scary as the writers hoped he would be.
How to Make It Better: Get. Them. Out. Of. The Future.
Score: 7/10 (+3)
MARVEL’S RUNAWAYS (HULU)
Season: 1
Episodes Reviewed: 9–10
RENEWAL STATUS: Renewed
THE GOOD: (1) This picked up quite a bit. I enjoyed the reveal that Molly’s parents were not only killed by Leslie, but that Molly received her powers via rock specimens in the ensuing fire. (At least we have one answer.) (2) Interesting that they brought back Darius (Geoffrey Wilder’s nemesis) and had Alex form an alliance with him. (3) Someone (likely Jonah) framing the kids for murder finally gets them on the run. Now they’re officially “runaways”! Hopefully Season 2 keeps up the pace that begun in the final two episodes.
THE BAD: (1) I don’t buy the Nico/Karolina relationship. While Gert and Chase was planted from Day 1, Nico/Karolina felt like it came out of nowhere. (2) I wish we got to see all the kids use their powers more in the last two episodes. Nico’s wand got taken, Chase’s hand blaster lasted about 30 seconds & Gert’s dinosaur continued to be useless. (3) The scene where Alex says that they should call themselves “Runaways”. Yuck.
How to Make It Better: I’m hoping for more in-fighting between the parents, as they’ve gotten pretty interesting too. I expect we’ll get that in Season 2.
Score: 6/10 (+2)
SUPERGIRL (CW)
Season: 3
Episodes Reviewed: 10–11
RENEWAL STATUS: TBA. Likely.
THE GOOD: (1) My prayers have been answered! The returns of Lillian Luthor! Morgan Edge! And Guardian! Looks like Mom is hoping to corrupt Lena. I, for one, hope she succeeds. As for Edge, his testimonial isn’t going to be usable in court, because he had a weapon pointed at him. Guardian was pretty cool…but very, very recognizable through his mask. (2) The start of a relationship between Alex and Ruby suggests to me that Reign/Sam doesn’t necessarily need to come out of this season alive. Because if not — Alex gets her wish: a child! (3) First deaths on the show in a while finally came in the form of 5-seconds-of-fame Priestess and the more-important DC villain Livewire. The latter was certainly unexpected.
THE BAD: (1) Sadly, the Legion of Superheroes (so far) was a bust. Brainiac V’s makeup looks like it was purchased at Dollar Tree. (Get the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. people!) Saturn Girl threw weights with her mind…and was otherwise useless. (Also, she telepathic not telekinetic.) Mon-El’s uniform is the least-inspired costume in the Arrowverse. He’s also super grim, boring and no longer funny. (2) I mentioned this last month, but Winn has been reduced to a speaking extra role. The problem started when he joined the DEO. J’onn and Alex already have that role covered. Winn was originally conceived as Kara’s best friend and confidant. But with Kara becoming “best friends” with Lena and Sam and Alex and Maggie, there was little room left for Winn. (3) The characters on this show are too black & white. Everyone is super good or super evil. We need characters like Wild Dog or Vigilante or Diggle or…anyone in Arrow!
How to Make It Better: It will likely be after Supergirl defeats Reign and unmasks her, but I’d like to see Kara and co. discover Reign’s identity earlier. This would be a unique plot twist in what’s been a pretty boring season so far. What if they have to try and defeat Reign, all while knowing it will make Ruby an orphan?
Score: 3/10 (-2)
THE PUNISHER (NETFLIX)
Season: 1
Episodes Reviewed: 7–13
RENEWAL STATUS: Renewed
The Good: (1) Nice (and sad) to see Madani really shaken up by her partner’s death. So often in these shows characters in her position get over death very nonchalantly. Her being bathed by her partner’s murderer made for a very creepy scene. (2)Excellent setup of the season 2 villain. For those who don’t know —LIKELY SEASON 2 SPOILER AHEAD — Billy Russo (Ben Barnes) becomes the Punisher villain Jigsaw in the comics, known for his deformed face (which he received in the finale, courtesy of Frank Castle). (3) For such a violent and dark show, it had a somewhat touching ending, where Frank shows up to Curt’s support group and finally opens up, even if it’s just a little.
The Bad: (1) Is this the most violent show on television? It certainly has the most kills by shot to the head. At some points, it seemed like a video game, and not in a good way. Sometimes I feel like this would be more effective as TV-14 (PG-13). (2) I know it’s a comic book show, but if you’re going to give Punisher that much punishment and torture in the penultimate episode, there’s no way he’d be able to walk around the next day. (3) This, like the other Defenders shows, is very very slow. Unlike the Arrowverse shows, these take their time. I always think that a faster pace is better for an action series.
How to Make It Better: I’d be interested to see Frank Castle leave Hell’s Kitchen. He’s a wanted man there and the stories of Micro & Madani wrapped up pretty nicely. Maybe he tries Detroit or Chicago, in the hopes of cleaning up more crime…his way.
Score: 8/10 (+2)
On next month’s Superhero TV Show Power Rankings…
- THE TICK comes back for more!
- And further analysis of the other above-mentioned shows!
What do you think? Was I too harsh on some on these shows? Too gentle? Comment with your rankings!
