Well, its been a year. Weve endured wholesale slaughter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and witnessed a last-minute rally in Warners ongoing struggle with its DC franchise, embraced one of the best Spider-Man movies ever just months after one of the worst, and lost of one of the most identifiable characters in superhero history.
2018 was bookended by Black Panther and Aquaman, two very different franchises that tell essentially the same story: a half-breed outcast arrives at a technologically advanced kingdom with a claim to the throne, sparking civil war within the land and threatening the entire world in the process.
This isnt a dig superhero culture is filled with familiar and even archetypal stories that date back centuries or even millennia, and Ryan Coogler and James Wan made movies that cannot be mistaken for one another. But its interesting to see how the films echo one another in their racial awareness and their sense of scope, and how both of them exist more or less independently of their designated comic-book universes.
Speaking of those larger universes, Avengers: Infinity War shocked audiences with its cataclysmic denouement, even though we all know its not going to stick. The big question now is how next springs Avengers: Endgame will undo the damage, and of course the various nerd sites are offering close readings of the trailer in order to build fan theories… but weve already got the answer to the only question that matters.
Oh, and Nicolas Cage got to play two superheroes this year, voicing Spider-Man Noir in Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and Superman in Teen Titans Go! To The Movies… where he got to say the word goofsters,” which I assume was an even bigger bucket-list item for the actor than playing Superman. So that was nice.
Over on the TV side, Netflix went and Thanosed Marvels Iron Fist, Luke Cage and Daredevil series, which strongly implies the 2019 seasons of The Punisher and Jessica Jones will be the last for those shows as well. Ill miss Krysten Ritters pissed-off pathos as the super-powered private eye, but otherwise I cant say Im crushed: Daredevil and Luke Cage burned out in their final seasons, and Iron Fist was never that great, though its second season was a marked improvement on the first.
Marvels TV division never really got the hang of long-form storytelling, stretching out master plots to fill the episode order rather than coming up with more plots to pass the time. Jessica Jones could have a case of the week to change things up from one episode to the next, but most of the other shows padded things out with scenes where characters simply brought each other up to speed on the latest plot developments, or talked each other out of or into the next big move. Shorter seasons would have been immensely helpful in trimming the fat, but American television is still mired in the idea that more is always better.
Come to think of it, the Marvel/DC divide is neatly reversed on the small screen where DC and Warner has spent half a decade trying to figure out superhero movies, finally getting there with Wonder Woman and Aquaman, their television output has only grown more complex and confident.
Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl have established specific tones and points of view especially Supergirl and even manage to mesh them effectively once a year for their big crossover event. Black Lightning, which exists apart from all the other shows, is carving out its own space with a storyline thats as racially and politically conscious as Luke Cage at its best, but also incorporates issues of family and parental responsibility in a way the Marvel show never could.
Meanwhile, Legends Of Tomorrow has turned into the most gleefully ridiculous superhero series of all, having shrugged off the self-seriousness of its first season to become an unpredictable, irreverent comedy about a bunch of time-travelling goofsters bouncing around history fighting monsters and arguing about who used up all the mustard. (Im not kidding that was an actual plot point this season.) Its also surprisingly good at portraying the various sexual orientations of its characters, and depicting same-sex affection and intimacy without delicate cutaways: a kiss between two men actually saved reality just a couple of weeks ago.
But its more than just sex: as a couple of excellent Canadian genre shows have demonstrated, its about representation. Over at Supergirl, trans actor Nicole Maines joined the cast as trans journalist Nia Nall, and Chyler Leighs Alex Danvers who came out as gay in the second season continues to be a front-and-centre character even though her romantic life is on the back burner this year. Im sure shell get a new love interest before too long (this is a CW show, after all), but its heartening to see the show respects the character enough not to force her into a big relationship after her heart was broken last year. Besides, shes busy enough battling a nativist movement with parallels to the alt-right who has time for Tinder?
Just think, this time last year we were all just depressed about how dumb Steppenwolf looked. How far weve come.
Superhero Nonsense is NOW’s weekly column delving into all things superheroic. Check out previous columns here.
