I've been catching up on lost time on my none DC related Blogging subjects while trying to find out how to put into word how wowed I am by closing episodes of The Flash's First Season.
And then I read this.
When the reports that the movie was why Deadshot was killed off came out I chose not to believe them, now I'm pissed.
I expressed how excited I was about what DC is doing on Television. I said I was glad they are separate universes both from each other and the Cinematic Universe.
But the entire point of WHY I was glad for that was that we could see different takes on different characters.
I thought we were done with the days of the Bat embargo and Smallville having all kinds of limitations on it.
I'm fine with the notion that the big three, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, can't appear on TV shows (in their fully formed forms) as long as everything else is fair game.
I'm sick of DC always giving the movies first dibs, and then being afraid TV will cause confusion. The know the animated projects we don't get confused by, or the Comics themselves which aren't even all the same canon due to DC bringing the Multiverse back.
Arrow had a 5 year plan mapped out in advance. I'm sure not every detail, but a lot of basic things. And I haven't exactly been thrilled with much of what they've done each season. But to then because a movie is green lite take away assets they were banking on is just plain mean.
And they are being illogically selective. The Flash is the lead and title character of both a TV show and am upcoming Movie, and both Flashes are Barry Allen. They aren't afraid that will be confusing. But recurring characters are confusing? One Floyd Lawton is white and one is black but they are afraid people won't be able to tell the difference?
This happens endlessly with Iconic characters who are no longer copyrighted. We have lots of Sherlock Holmeses and Draculas and Frankensteins all over pop culture. But we can only handle one Harley Quinn or Deadshot?
I don't even think Harley Quinn on Arrow would make sense, she can't exist without The Joker, The Joker can't exist without Batman, and I prefer no Batman or Superman in the DCWverse.
But it's the principle of the thing.
So I'm obviously not saying I want each television DC Universe to have one of every character. But there are certain DC characters who it's in their DNA to be not limited to any one subsection of the DCU, Amanda Waller, assassins like Deadshot, organizations like HIVE. The League of Assassins, while it's head is mainly a Batman villain it does have tentacles all over. These are lesser known characters they have a created a great chance to show in a short time how versatile they are by letting different writers do different things.
Instead it looks like the reason the Teen Titans won't have Roy Harper or Wally West is because a different channel has dibs on them. Having Dick and Barbara won't be seen as stepping on Gotham's toes however. (And no Donna or Cassie because of weird contract stuff concerning Marston and Wonder Woman, but I suspect that'll be the same for the movies.)
Maybe their logic is that it's because they're lesser known then the big 2 and their supporting cast? We already have multiple Alfreds and Robins and Batgirls and Jimmy Olsens as cultural icons, from the movies alone before this new string of shows started. But Roy Harper might seem to non comic readers that he was written for..... I forget the actors name.
But Gotham and Arrow both had their own Dollmaker without it being an issue? They were in different seasons though, and now they're both dead.
It's all so stupid.
Look DC, I'm excited for your Movies, and for your TV shows. I have a lot of faith in where you're going now in-spite of past problems, and have expressed that excitement to your harshest critics. But if you continue to be afraid that some of your properties can't handle both, while consistently giving first dips to the medium that we actually spend less time in. Your going to neuter a lot of your potential.
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