As a fan of superheroes, I've been lamenting the sunset of comics adaptations on network television. With the end of Superman & Lois behind us, Superhero TV now belongs to streaming--and in a small way cable--closing a beloved chapter of pop culture history. I admit, it's a sad feeling, not a bittersweet one, that I've been working through.
There was something special about being able to watch Marvel and DC characters from week-to-week on channels easily accessible by as little as an antennae if you couldn't afford cable. Be it animation, or live-action adaptations, I've watched superheroes grow into their powers, fight crime, and learn about the world and their place in it on broadcast for nearly my whole life.
But in this changing era of TV, streaming has increasingly taken over the medium and audiences have begun to expect (and even crave) adaptations that are grittier, more expensive to make, and have the quality of a six part movie. Due to licensing, effects, and extensive stunt work, superhero dramas have always carried a hefty price tag. That's only skyrocketed over the years.
I've seen a good portion of adult fans of the genre ecstatic about this shift to streaming because it means the sky's the limit in terms of what can be shown. Broadcast is subject to strict rules. The rating can be no higher than TV-14, though a show like Gotham floated that line, and many of the series that graced the small screen were interested in telling triumphant stories. They were complex but they weren't the likes of WandaVision or Loki.
My concern about this desire to churn out show after superhero show that considers itself to be prestigious, elevated, or mature is that we're going to lose entry points into the genre for younger fans as they come of age. Preschoolers have Batwheels and Spidey and His Amazing Friends. There's Teen Titans Go! for older kids and then TV series kind of just stop for them.
The teen superhero shows have all been cancelled--I'm still bitter about Cloak & Dagger, fyi--with exception to Ms. Marvel which is in limbo. The CW was where the more family friendly programs were even though they did skew older. And the streaming shows are either TV-MA or, in Marvel's case, require you to have decades worth of knowledge to know what's going on.
When I was a kid, I was able to bounce from comics to Saturday morning cartoons to live-action film adaptations to live-action and animated TV series. There was enough content that was geared toward adults but still accessible to children that allowed my fascination with superheroes to grow and be fostered. Much of that had to do with broadcast and the cable channel Cartoon Network.
But, as an adult, I'm seeing that child to adult fan pipeline dry up. And it's because there is an increasing lack of care and interest in catering to younger audiences even as the companies continue to sell them action figures and paraphernalia focused on programs and films that are age inappropriate.
This is not to say that there aren't movies, like Miles Morales' Spider-Verse, or shows meant for kids or that are at least accessible to them, I already named a few. But my question is, how long will we have those when studios no longer have to adhere to guardrails because of streaming? When they can push as far as they want because of a paywall. When there's no incentive to color within the age restrictive lines and they're devaluing both animation and children's programming.
We could be entering into an era where it's going to become increasingly difficult for parents and older fans to introduce kids to this genre we love so much without having to dig into the vault, if the vault is even available considering the decline in physical media over the years and shows being taken off online and streaming platforms. Those who have been waiting to kick the children out of the party, seemingly forgetting they were once kids themselves learning about superheroes for the first time, certainly don't care. But fans like me are concerned.
If you're not impacted by the digital and class divide, if you have easy access to the internet and can afford streaming subscriptions that's all well and good but that's not true for everyone. Network TV, even as it's diminished in the last decade because of streaming, made superheroes accessible to so many people and that's gone now. I do think that is something to mourn in an era of television that struggles to meet the needs of preteens and teenagers.
There were so many jokes during CW's pre-Nexstar era about it being the network for teens. Superheroes being folded into that despite series focusing on characters in their 20s and 30s was treated like it was a bad thing. As if it was horrible that young adults could see versions of adulthood that were diverse but still catered to their interests in action, humor, and storytelling that was complex enough to feel richer than younger programming but not so mature that it left them feeling like what they were watching wasn't for them, too.
That shouldn't have been laughed at, it should have been celebrated. All superhero TV isn't going to be for everyone but it certainly shouldn't grow to exclude the next generation of fans who should be able to grow-up with the genre like we did.
It's going to be streaming's job to ensure this doesn't happen since broadcast is out of the game. I hope it doesn't fail them because if this era in superhero TV can't cater to all ages like the previous ones it's going to be poorer for it. And I promise you, you are going to get tired of prestigious and mature and gritty superhero television if we don't have series like Superman & Lois, Smallville, The Flash, Static Shock, or Teen Titans in the mix.