Top 10 Tuesdays: 'Arrow,' 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' and Beyond - Part 1: DC Comics

With the 2014 fall television season creeping upon us like the dumb Galactacus cloud, it's looking to be a pretty sweet year for series based on comic book heroes. From returning favorites like Arrow and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to promising new shows like The Flash, Agent Carter and Gotham, TV seems to be jumping headfirst into many different corners of graphic multiverse. So today, we're throwing up a list of heroes (and others) who deserve their piece of this new frontier. Here's 'Arrow,' 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' and Beyond - Part 1 of 3: DC Comics!

10) Static (CW)

If you remember the incredibly fun “Static Shock” animated series, you know why Virgil Hawkins is ripe for a return to the spotlight. Originating in Dwayne McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III’s 1993 series for the DC imprint Milestone, Hawkins is a inner city teen who becomes an lightning-based superhero after an explosion (the ‘Big Bang’) turns him and several cops and gang members into superpowered meta-humans (or ‘Bang Babies’). Given the recent media focus race-based police brutality, a Static show has a lot of potential. Not only would his origin be topical (racial profiling is always topical), but the series would be a the first superhero show with an Black male protagonist, his best friend and sidekick is gay so you could totally explore platonic relationships between straight and gay men in a supehero setting… This has the potential to be groundbreaking program and it could fit right into the “Arrow”-verse.   

9) Super Best Friends Forever! (Cartoon Network)

“Super Best Friends Forever!” is a series of hilarious shorts created by animator Lauren Faust, best known as the mastermind behind “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.” The shorts follow the exploits of an adorkable Batgirl, a buxom Supergirl and a (strangely but awesomely) Latina Wonder Girl as a trio of girlfriend getting into the occasional DC-related shenanigan together. The short “Grounded” is a great example of why the series would be fantastic edition to the Cartoon Network’s line-up and an easy fix to the channel’s issue with girl-targeted programming.

8) Lois Lane (USA)

I’m not sure about anyone else but, in my opinion, Lois Lane is one of the most underutilized characters in comics. When she’s done right, she’s incredible. When she’s handled poorly, people tend to make negative assumption about her. While Lois and Clark as a pair is always entertaining, it would be really interesting to see a prequel-ish look at Lois before Superman. I like to think that Lois was just as drawn to danger as she is now but had to use her reporter’s intuition to get herself out of those situations. Cast a charismatic actress, maintain a balance between snark, action and drama and place the show on a network like USA (known for “White Collar,” “Covert Affairs” and “Burn Notice”) and you’ve got a decent cable hit on your hands.

7) Spoiler (MTV)

Polarizing as it is, one thing MTV has going for it is uncanny ability to bring in young adult viewers with amazingly mediocre shows. Now, I’m not saying that a Stephanie Brown show would be mediocre or should be mediocre. That’s just MTV. However, if they could get a good EP (say, “Buffy”’s Marti Noxon), the show might have a chance. The pre-teen/teen daughter of a super(?)villain, the Cluemaster, who stalks the night seeking to unravel her father’s schemes in Gotham seems like a great jumping off point for some compelling drama. And MTV’s habit of producing female-led series and attaching up and coming music stars to its programming can only help the cause.

6) Lobo (Adult Swim)

This just needs to happen. Lobo, the insane, foul-mouthed muscle-head bounty hunter needed a more adulated-oriented animated series, like, yesterday. A violent, space-hopping romp with Lobo flying across the cosmos trapping and maiming “bastiches” sounds like an awesome time. And it doesn’t even have to be a 22-minute show. Ten hilarious 15-minute episodes of “Guardians of the Galaxy” meets “Superjail” would be great gift to DC fans. Nay – the world.

5) StormWatch (AMC)

Based on the Wildstorm-turned-DC team, “StormWatch” is a team of superheroes led by powerful and godlike Apollo and violent sociopath Midnighter. StormWatch is basically a send up of the Justice League with many of the characters written to their archetypal extreme. The big catch is that Batman and Superman stand-ins Apollo and Midnighter are a gay couple – an extremely volatile one at that. If you’ve never read “The Authority” or any StormWatch title, they’re fascinating (if problematic as hell – it’s Millar) and would make for some engaging drama to fit right alongside AMC’s newer, more adventurous programming.

4) Harley & Ivy (Cartoon Network)

Botanist-turned-petty criminal/part-time eco-terrorist Poison Ivy and her girlfriend (do what that what you will) psychiatrist-turned-lovesick psycho Harley Quinn are one of the best comic book partnerships of all time. If anything, this show would be better as a 22-minute program consisting of two 11-minute short episodes. Preferably, it’d be set in Bruce Timm’s DCAU because any and every incarnation of Harley Quinn outside of “Batman: The Animated Series” and its spin-offs has been uniformly terrible.

3) Hawk and Dove (CW)

Hank and Don Hall, aka Hawk and Dove, have a relatively simple story: two siblings bound by a brotherly bond and sense of justice and constantly at edge due to their respective views on human nature. There’s a lot you can do with that and if they don’t end up with their own series, they damn sure should appear in the “Arrow”-verse.  

2) Batgirl (TNT, dependent upon ‘Titans’)

Barbara Gordon is arguably the most emotionally varied and fleshed out character in the Batverse. I’d argue that, when done right, she’s more compelling that FrownyFace McDaddyIssues himself. The story of a diminutive but determined girl who wants nothing but to follow in her father’s law enforcement footsteps only to be denied and start a vigilante career is pretty neat material for a series. It’s especially great given Bab’s generally cheery disposition and how its juxtaposes Batman’s view of Gotham.

1) Infinite Earths (Cartoon Network)

I’ve always been fascinated by DC’s multiverse and, consequently, how often they destroy it and put it back together again. A sort of “DC Universe Presents” anthology series of tales set on the many different DC earths has a lot of potential. I can think of several stories that could be awesome fleshed out in animation and I’m sure you can as well. The different incarnations of iconic characters (like depowered “Mod” Wonder Woman, weird but interesting 90s Mullet Superman, psychotic All-Star Batman) could send new readers flocking to the comics because, at the end of the day, isn’t that what these adaptations should be doing?

Did we miss your favorite DC property? Agree or disagree with my picks? Suggestions of your own? Leave a comment and let us know!

Be sure to join me next week for a Marvel Edition of Top 10 Tuesday: 'Arrow,' 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' and Beyond.

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