Dammit DC, stop doing this.

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.

DC Cinematic Multiverse

I'm now more excited by what DC is doing on TV then what either is doing on the Big Screen.

Not because of any lack of excitement for the movies, certainly as each movie (excluding Fox ones) nears release they'll be what at the time I'm most Geeking out over  And Batman Vs Superman once it's actually approaching I predict I will be the most intensely excited I have been for a movie since 2008.

But TV I've said for a long time has the potential to do Comic Book mythos far more justice then Movies, and DC is finally realizing that.  The Flash season 1 alone is going to give us in less then 9 months more screen time of Comic Booky goodness then the entirety of Phase 1 of the MCU gave us in 4 years.  6 movies, 5 were 2 hours one was rounding up 2 and a half makes 12 and a half hours.  An Episode of Flash is minus commercials 40 minutes, so 3 episodes makes 2 hours.  So 12 and a half hours of screen time will be reached during episode 19.  It'll be the same with every other show that gets at least a 20 episode season.

Why am I not as excited for Marvel on TV?  Because Marvel's shared universe approach means TV only gets the left overs.  I did enjoy season one of AoS, especially the Winter Soldier tie in storyline, that was Historic.  And I enjoyed Agent Carter, but it was still mostly just the supporting cast of First Avenger, plus some generic Cold War nonsense.

I'm glad DC is not simply doing the same thing as Marvel.  I'm glad they are doing a connected Universe on the big Screen but with a different approach.  But I'm also glad the TV shows get to be separate.  Not just from the movies but also from each other.  CW has it's own mini DC Universe going now, but neither Gotham or Supergirl are gonna fit into that.  And probably not Teen Titans either.  I know some people are holding out for Supergirl and the CW shows being connected because of the CBS-CW relationship, but Supergirl is going to have a Superman established for awhile, which won't fit The Flash's premise.

But because DC has the long established in the comics Multiverse premise, it means the option still exists for them to something down the road.  Keeping it so each universe can day to do not worry about any continuity restrictions but their own.

After all the currently green-lite DC movies are done, maybe they could consider an Crisis on Infinite Earths and/or Infinite Crisis inspired story, perhaps as 3 films filmed at once.  Where they could bring the various TV show universes into it.

Because of the nature of the Crisis none of the shows would have to acknowledge it in their continuity if they didn't want to  But The Flash has already established a Crisis as part of it's future.  2021 is when I believe it's supposed to happen, that is after all the already announced JLA movies will be over.  So, who knows, maybe WB/DC already considers that in the cards.

In the comics there were many universe crossovers before the Big Crisis, they'd been going on since the 60s.  But the key thing that really matters is the concept of first Contact being made by two Flashes.  So could Ezra Miller guest start on The Flash in it's 6th or 7th Season?

Update: I'd misremembered, on The Flash the Crisis will happen in 2024, they gave themselves a decade.

Gay Representation on TV

Gotham is, so far, one of the few shows I watch with my family.  On Monday I heard them rolling their eyes at the Renee/Barbara scene.  I refrained from getting into a heated discussion at that time, but I know inevitably one will be needed.

They're not full blown Homophobes.  In fact they've mostly taken my word on that The Bible does not Condemn Homosexuality.  But they definitely still have a Hetero-normative outlook.

They're the kind of people who complain about a Gay PDA, or something Gay on TV, and insist they'd feel the same if it was a Straight couple.  Even though I know full well they don't, at least the PDAs anyway.

Watching TV, indeed they will complain about what can be perceived as like a "Soap Opera" even about perfectly Hetero-normative Melo-Drama.  Their attitude toward those things are about the opposite of mine.  I'm all for the Melo-Drama.

On the subject of Gotham, I intend to explain to them that Renee Montoya is a Lesbian character in The Comics, and a very popular one.  But this triangle with Gordon and Barbara is not from the Comics, and I'm not very fond of how it's being handled thus far either.

I expect my dad to be all "I don't care if their Gay but that story doesn't have to be about that".  At which point I'm prepared to explain that I'd like a Gay character's sexuality to be "in our faces" no less then the Straight ones.  Straight characters get laid, and flirt, and get entangled in triangles all the time.  I know full they often enjoy seeing McGee and DiNozzo getting played by a female suspect on NCIS.  I think a Lesbian cop experiencing that can be just as fun.

Still, I wish I'd be having this discussion with them prompted by a Gay storyline I was more enthusiastic about shipping.  Maybe Barbara and Renee will grow on me more once they've had an episode where they're together for more then one scene.  But for now I'm still fearing it could wind up being more counterproductive.

So all that about Gotham I've been wanting to post for onto time.  Onto other more recent news.

It's been notated that lately a lot of Lesbian women have been killed off on TV.  Heather Hogan did an article mainly prompted by Arrow killing of Sara Lance Wednesday.  I agree this trend is very annoying, but Arrow is the last example that ought to be singled out (and it's not the only relevant show Heather covers either).  Sara was slated to die long before we knew she was Bi (they refused to even really label her that).  She's a non Comic character carrying the future mantle of her sister.  I wish her exit had more put into it, that she'd died more heroically, and been in her last episode for more then the last 10 minutes.  But it was still inevitable.

I'm more angry at SHEILD.  The fact that the entire selling point of this show was that it's incredibly secondary to the MCU and the Movies won't acknowledge it, is exactly why it pisses me off that they bring important SHEILD Agents from the Comics onto the show only to kill them after very brief story-lines.  And that it's been done now to more then one Lesbian character is really troubling.  It's the opposite of Arrow with Sara, it's closing doors from the comics canon rather then opening them.

But I feel like people in The Lesbian and Feminist communities are far more forgiving of Joss Whedon then they would be most male writers.  Yes he did earn a lot of cred with Buffy, which was awesome and my favorite TV show of all time before PLL came along.

But I frankly have always felt like the more a Male constantly proclaims himself a Feminist the less of one he probably really is.  Perhaps Joss doesn't realize Misogynist men can share his Fetish for watching Hott women beat up larger men.  I get annoyed when people act like Avengers proved Joss should've done his Wonder Woman film.  Being right for one Comic based story isn't right for all.  To me, no matter how much cred they have, when a Director says he doesn't think much of a Superhero's canonical villains, they should be ruled out for directing that character.

Back to Gay issues.  One fact about Buffy's history still bugs me.  Joss said when he originally did the Willow and Tara storyline that he only intended Willow to be Bi.  And given her multiple very real romantic affections toward Male characters before that makes much more sense.  He then decided not to do that because he was afraid it would anger Lesbians to see Willow get with a man after Tara.  I think it's a problem within the Community that so many Homosexuals feel like Bisexual representation means less representation for them.