The DCW: Ranking Superhero Series and Gaming Advice

Thanks to my wife I’ve been a (mostly) faithful watcher of the various DC television properties on CW and CBS for the past 3 years. (Though now that they are all on CW, we should call them the DCW in my opinion.) Along the way I’ve seen the good and the bad episodes, what works and doesn’t. Here I'll rank of the series and seasons in terms of overall quality and discuss what worked (or didn’t) relates to gaming.

DCW: The Rankings

Arrow Season #2 and Flash Session #1

These two lead the pack, hitting the right character notes, providing us excellent villains, and keeping me on the edge of my seat. For the Arrow, the cost of Oliver Queen’s secrets catches up to him. Slade’s master plan might be insane but it makes sense from within his insanity and costs Oliver dearly. Meanwhile on the Flash, Barry Allen provides us a much more optimistic take on superheroes compared to the Flash while the villain remains one step ahead with each episode ending teaser.

Arrow Season #1

this is my baseline for the various properties as a whole. A solid introduction for a street level hero. I hear the writers intended to begin with a Batman series instead but I’m happy they didn’t. The Green Arrow flavored with Batman’s style comes off as much more original and fresh than the now tired alternative. There were some downsides (Laurel’s characterization was erratic at best) but on the whole it was an enjoyable series.

Supergirl Season #1

I’m still working through this series (since my wife surprisingly wasn’t interested) but I feel like it is roughly the equal to the first season of Arrow. Supergirl comes off much more upbeat than the other heroes (even the Flash). Kara has a much healthier social life and handles her dual identity more competently than her male counterparts (there’s no attempt to hide things from family for one). The series uses much fewer social cringe moments than I feared (one of my pet peeves).

Flash Season #2

This season felt like a let down after Season 1, even it was a good season overall. Barry slid into the brooding space normally occupied by Oliver: angsting over his choices, keeping secrets, and being more of a loner. It's like he unlearned the lessons of the previous season. The retread of the need for more speed also detracted from the season (using only Speedsters as major villains is real flaw in the series). My wife also hated the time remnant technobabble. Also there was more Barry acting awkward than I wanted to see (for instance, he is terrible at impersonating himself).

Arrow Season #4

A vast improvement of the previous season (see below), it suffered from too much heavy lifting to launch Legends of Tomorrow. The villain was a joy however with snappy dialog, a decent apocalyptic plan, and bringing together many older B-villains together in a natural way. The first half of the series also benefitted from one of the rare healthy romantic relationships I’ve seen portrayed on TV (at least involving leads). I am very tired of romantic tension. Of course the writers break it up stupidly towards the end.

Legends of Tomorrow Season #1

So much went wrong with this series.

The main villain under performed (an issue I mostly attribute to the writing as I felt that the actor worked better as season progressed). Vandal Savage needed more dimension. An explicit reason for taking over the world would have helped.

They also made poor use of the lesser villains with the exception of Chronos (which makes me wish they used that actor better on the Flash). The bounty hunters who followed Chronos were given a big build up and then died pathetically whereas the Pilgrim (the final agent of the Time Masters) was given only an episode to shine. I personally would have watched Pilgrim for half a season. (Bonus: I think making Vandal Savage the founder of Time Masters would have worked better as the eventual rationale for the Time Master’s actions).

Worse than all of that however was the nerfing of the heroes to keep them from killing Savage early on. There were good plot reasons for this but the writers could have foreshadowed better why the heroes lost. Perhaps the characters could ask each other why they made some of their stupid choices or make their failures look more like the result of unlikely events.

Finally the cast of heroes was overall good but too large and uneven. The Atom was bland and his romantic subplot sucked. Hawkgirl seemed oddly conflicted and reluctant. On the other hand White Canary and Captain Cold (and especially their interactions) are awesome and ended up carrying the show.

Arrow Season #3

Oh this muddled mess.

Killing your main character midseason is not a cliffhanger. We are all too genre savvy for that.

The worst version of Ra’s al Ghul yet. He seemed too tired (and out of shape) to be menacing.

Merlin’s ridiculous...plan? So hunted by an army of killers, you frame your daughter for murder to force your enemy (the Arrow) to kill the leader of the League of Assassins. Even though everyone, including you, believe the Arrow can’t win. All in the hopes he will call off the attacks when he takes over the League. I like the idea that he planned to lead the League of Assassins himself from the start better, even if the show undermines that theory halfway through. I like my villains, even the B-plot ones, competent.

Predictions

So what is likely for the 2016-2017 season?

Arrow Season #5

I feel the plot for this show is stronger when they are not doing service to another series. There are no new series to launch so this may work out well. Flashpoint is going to be the major issue here. How much does it alter the Arrow continuity? Assuming the effects are minor, then if they can create a good villain (logical plans, good actor, and some character depth) then things look good. Plus for the Laurel haters, she’s now dead. This might aspire to reach the heights of Season 1.

Flash Season #3

Flashpoint could be awesome (I do love timey wimey stuff) or it could suck. Partly it depends on your tolerance for bad science (as a physicist I just have to accept this for the superhero genre in general, others may not be so forgiving). I still suspect putting the timeline back together could be used as a backdoor to integrate Supergirl into the main continuity. I hear rumors that the new villain is a speedster which is disappointing. Here’s to hoping it is as good as Season 2. :(

Legends of Tomorrow Season #2

We lost Snart (which sucks) and the Hawk people (which is fine) for this season. Hopefully their replacements are good. Though honestly the cast could use a trim (I vote for the Atom). I hope they allow the heroes to be competent this time. If they do that then it can surpass the (admittedly low) bar set by Season 1 and perhaps rise to the level of the other series.

Supergirl Season #2

I need to finish Season 1 but I see no reason that this couldn’t be great. Due to the move in filming location we’ll see less Cat Grant but as Kara’s interactions with her are one of the few places I find anything (and rarely at that) to dislike about the series, I don’t think this is a net detriment.

Lessons Learned

Okay let’s get back to gaming. What do these success and failures advise us for our own stories at home?

First off, villains matter. A great hero needs a good villain. The best seasons are characterized as much by the season villain as by the developments of the heroes. Slade, Reverse Flash, and Damian Dhark were all matched by great seasons. The same can be said of the weakest villains. Vandal Savage came off as two-dimensional and it helped diminish the protagonists. If a living atomic explosion, a super genius, and a time traveler can’t stop an immortal stalker with a knife fetish, how heroic can they be? Ra’s tired flabby look calls into question how skilled the Arrow really is.

Villains need to be menacing. They need dimension and personality. And they need to threaten the heroes.

The next lesson (and the crucial failing of Legends of Tomorrow) is that characters need agency. If they are skilled and awesome, let them be awesome. Don’t nerfing them in order to keep your villain alive. Don’t turn their victories into defeats for the sake of “drama”. We need to care about the protagonists, whether they be player characters or superheroes. One way we do that is through reveling into their competency, both their own and in the foes they face.

Finally, treat your audience well. Reward their interest by teasing secrets and let them enjoy being right from time to time. We like to be surprised when we can see it coming.

Roleplaying is unique in that the cast and the audience are the same people. This is both a challenge and an opportunity. As a game master, you can hear your audience in real-time and can incorporate their ideas into the story so they can feel good for guess at the truth.

If you absolutely need to nerf the heroes or unsettle events, strongly hint why things occurred the way they did. If they lost make it clear why the enemy had the upper hand so they can plot to overcome that obstacle next time.