Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Vs. DC’s Arrow
November 7, 2013 in TV SHOWS
TV SHOWS – Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Vs. DC’s Arrow
Who’s better, Marvel or DC?
Marvel and DC have been rivals for a long time. They both have a universes full of unique superheroes a they’re in constant competition for the same audiences. They have been for years.
Now a days, their competition has gone beyond comics. They’re rivalry has extended to movies and TV shows.
I’m going to be writing about this in this post. You can either watch the video or read the post. It’ the same thing…only, I draw in the video:
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Who is Winning What?
As of the time of this writing, Marvel is beating DC with their live action movies. , and of course, The Avengers, are kicking butt at the box office.
Meanwhile, DC has only three Batman movies and one Superman movie. And the Superman movie turned out to be very divisive. On top of that, they’re desperately shoving Batman into the Superman sequel in order to try to catch up to the success of The Avengers. It comes across as sloppy and rushed.
On the other hand, DC superhero animated movies and TV shows are running circles around anything Marvel is producing. It’s been doing this for years. Marvel is only now trying get some kind of serious animated cartoons going. I have yet to be impressed with what they’ve come up with.
Now Marvel and DC have started another battle…
Marvel and DC’s Fight over Live Action TV
Smallville was on for ten years. DC had a superhero presence on TV for years. It was the only game in town and personally, I loved that show.
When Smallville ended, Arrow took the baton. It’s now on it’s second season.
After the enormous success of The Avengers, Marvel decided to join in, with their show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Headed by Joss Whedon, Director of The Avengers, Serenity, The Cabin In The Woods
Meanwhile Arrow, is a step up from Smallville and is doing some very interesting things.
So how do these two shows tack up to one another?
To be fair, Arrow has been on the air longer, there have only been, as of the time of this writing, six episodes of S.H.I.E.L.D. aired. I’ve only seen four so far.
I’m going to compare the first four episodes of Arrow to the first four episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. so see with company has it “right,” Marvel, or DC.
The First Four Episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
I have to say, the first episode of S.H.I.E.L.D. was fun with a lot of promise. A tad bit too snarky, and it had a few redundant characters. But overall, it had a lot of promise. The promise being, that we were probably going to see a lot of superpowered characters from the Marvel universe, possibly making an appearance.
After watching the first four episodes, I can say, this is not the case. The show has not really had any “fan service” at all when it comes to seeing more characters make cameos from the Marvel Universe. It’s mostly about the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on assignments that may really didn’t deal with super humans, except in the pilot.
So far it hasn’t really delivered. And some of the episodes, like the second episode, really comes across as low budget show.
I really want to like this show but so far, it’s pretty “meh.” Shows like Alphas or Warehouse 13 have covered similar territory in a better way.
Marvel has a huge universe to plunder from and they seem to be ignoring it.
I hope they remedy this soon.
The First Four Episodes of Arrow.
As for Arrow, after watching the pilot, I was hooked. It was just good. It didn’t have the promise of a good show, the pilot WAS a good show. Not only that, all four of the first episodes where really great to watch. There wasn’t a bad one in the bunch.
And “fan service?” In the first episode we got to see Deathstroke‘s mask, a character from the comics. By episode three, they had introduced Deadshot, another character from the comics.
Arrow has taken the great stuff that the last three seasons of Smallville got right and plussed them up.
It’s lit well. I doesn’t look cheap. It has attitude and flair. I like the characters. I like the struggle.s between them. I like the way the stories unfold and the take they’ve taken with the character.
I’m addicted to this show. I have yet to be disappointed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCpTR9hwBhkWhich one is better Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Arrow?
Well obviously, from my description of Arrow, it’s Arrow. So far, in four episodes Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has promised more than it’s delivered.
While Arrow has delivered from episode one and hasn’t stopped.
Watch them and decide for yourself.
As for me, so far, between Marvel and DC, DC is doing a better job with their live action TV superhero shows than Marvel is.
I agree with you but for different reasons. I do not like Marvel and its Agents of Shield. It is good for some things. But the constant barrage of X-Men Xenophobia, and fear and pro government views of Marvel (and its antihero and darker themes) versus DC’s and ARrow’s better storylines is showing that DC is more fan friendly, more pro hero and promotes the good of their hero characters. Smallville was good also. And they don’t have a fear of connecting up their universe like Flash with Arrow or Superman with Batman or like in Smallville, they actually showed the Justice Society a bit.
But with Marvel, its total political agenda. Xenophobia of heroes by the government and its military. When was the last time they showed the regular people and general public enjoying the heroes or mutants? Spiderman is the only one. Fantastic Four was not done well.
But in DC, even if the movies are weak, you have great shows and good universe of heroes where the general public and occasionally even the police do not hate the heroes.
Also, one other thing. When I go for entertainment and superhero movies or comics, I do NOT want to be reminded of what life is really like. I do not want darker themes and edgier storylines just because the world is crap or that is the artistic license of the writers or that it is evidence of a great story. I would rather take weak stories like the old Supergirl movie, for entertainment, escapism, from this real world. I want to see heroes do well and to see that the regular public like me and people on the street like heroes helping them out (Spiderman anyone?). I don’t want to be preached to. I want to see good stories and good battles between villains and heroes, where the whole city does not have to be destroyed, and where there is not an alien invasion or where the government is attacking the mutants.
Thanks for the feedback catsintexas.
I agree with just about everything you said. Especially how you like to see heroes do well, and how you don’t want them to reminded of the real world. How they ought to be escapist entertainment.
However, my slight disagreement is that I would still prefer a good well told story over a goofy one. And I don’t mind when aliens invade or when heroes accidentally destroy a city when fighting. The reason is that, it happens in comics all the time and there’s nothing real about that. I accept those things as part of the fantasy. It also comes with the territory of high level super powered heroes. Street level heroes don’t often have to deal with that sort of thing.
That said, is the alien invasion thing getting old? Yes. They’ve gone to that well, to many times.
Otherwise, I think you brought up some REALLY great points. I too am sick of the prejudice metaphor and theme blanketing almost every superhero story.
I always thought that the difference between DC heroes and Marvel heroes was that DC heroes where meant to be aspirational models of who we can become, while Marvel characters where reflection of who were are.
And depending on what you want out of your superhero stories, you were drawn to one over another.
Again, thank you so much for your feedback.