Hanging Out in the DC Universe

A few Moons ago, I talked about Gotham, one of the latest offerings from the DC Universe’s wealth of source material. I spoke of not being overly invested in the DC Universe, having been seduced by the Marvel Cinematic Universe long, long ago. But today I have to admit that the DC Universe is slowly growing on me. Not its big screen adventures – while Nolan’s Batman films are very good (if a tad too long sometimes) and Man of Steel was entertaining, they don’t hold a candle to Marvel. In my humble opinion. Oh, that’s a nice looking mushroom cloud of DC nerd rage in the distance...and here come the ravenous hordes...

So that might be an exaggeration. I hardly think my opinion would actually set off that much of an outrage. But I did say DC is growing on me. In its smaller screen forms – Arrow and The Flash being the outstanding picks, with Gotham bringing up the rear. To deal with Gotham first, it is improving greatly from the shaky start. The story is fleshing out nicely, the characters has stopped coming thick and fast, but there’s still much room for improvement. The last episode saw the introduction of Harvey Dent, played by Nicolas D’Agosto. Who I last saw in Heroes, playing West Rosen, a flying kid who briefly dates Hayden Panettiere’s Claire. It was a promising start, but as an SFX review of the episode noted, for something titled “Harvey Dent”, it was sadly Harvey-light. Still got a ways to go yet, Gotham.

More recently I have been introduced to The Flash. My housemate has become quite enamoured with the series and...well, I kept wandering into the living room while it was on and sitting down. Watching it. Enjoying it. We can safely say I am quite fond of The Flash. It has a good heart, pretty good effects, pretty well cast and compared to its distant, distant cousin Gotham, it doesn’t rush the story. Ironic, considering this is about a superhero with super-speed. The writers have seeded a neat little mystery into the storyline and it’s ticking along nicely. Also it has crossovers with Arrow. And Felicity Smoak. Emily Bett Rickards. She is awesome. And I won’t lie, the main reason behind wanting to watch Arrow.

It was the season three episode entitled “The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak” that clinched it. I’d caught scattered bits of Arrow’s second series and enjoyed what I saw. But it was after becoming enamoured with Felicity in The Flash that I was compelled to take a shoot at Arrow (please, hold the laughter and applause, the tumbleweed is shy about rolling through with such rapturous adoration). It paid off and I’m now quite hooked on that too.

I feel like I’m phoning this in a bit, but there it is. A nice, short, little ditty about how lately I’ve just been casually chilling with the DC Universe. The Marvel Cinematic Universe still holds my heart, but I’m exploring some friendship options outside of that circle. Arrow and The Flash are highly recommended. Gotham still needs to step up and knock one out of the park.