10 Ways DC Movies Can Get Out Of Marvel's Shadow

5. Don't Make Another TV Show

Though Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is currently hot of the pops for TV nerds (especially with the vacuum created by the twin losses of Dexter and Breaking Bad,) it is DC who have ruled the small screen airwaves in terms of superhero adaptations, with Smallville scoring an enduring popularity, and Arrow still pulling in fans. But TV adaptations for stand-alone characters are not the way forward. Smallville's success came down to it channelling the zeitgeist, and audiences' yearning for origin stories (as well as filling the Superman shaped hole in a different way to avoid the bad vibes of a Superman Returns style film adaptation) and Arrow follows a similar thread, while offering a supposedly "lesser character" more of a chance to succeed than he would probably have enjoyed on the big screen. The problem with a TV show is that it splits the appeal of a brand, and robs cinema going fans of the impact of major events and drama: it might be a good way to establish character and to develop particular ideas across multiple storylines, but DC need to be brave and bold and to make a statement on the big screen before they even consider letting another company bring one of their properties to the small-screen (and risking them doing it as badly as the Wonder Woman show did.) DC also need to be careful not to split their properties: they could do with the good fortune Marvel have had in regaining the cinematic rights to some of their biggest properties, as they can begin to work on the kind of unifying brand message that Marvel have built their recent successes on.
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