I’m currently watching The Punisher Season 2, and during most of the episodes I’ve watched I’ve been playing a mobile game in the background and lightly tuning in to the episode; this has been the case for most of the season 2s of the Marvel Netflix properties, and it’s made me realise that it’s a probably a good thing these shows are getting cancelled…
When we first heard Daredevil was getting cancelled, closely followed by his Defender pals we were up in arms, Marvel fans rioted and wept in a Hulk-like rage… However deep down, we knew things were getting worse and maybe it was about time things changed. Since Defenders the ‘MarFlix’ properties have been utterly average, I didn’t overly enjoy any of 2nd series, and to be honest DareDevil is the only hero that’s been consistently great and the one I’ve really looked forward to tuning back into… So it was a shame DareDevil got the boot. I think it’s a problem where the stories aren’t being overly well thought out, or executed well. Defenders was so disappointing it seemed to set a low bar for the others, either that or the shine had worn off completely in my eyes so i didn’t enjoy it as much any more. Now they aren’t bad series at all, give me any of these 10 years ago and i’d have been utterly blown away but compared to the early days, and other comic series such as Preacher or Titans, they just aren’t as exciting or gripping.
Titans is a good example of DC looking at the current Arrowverse and thinking “let’s do something slightly different”… And it working. I think they knew that the Flash series was slightly goofy and cheesy, so they started a new DC universe which is far darker and much more adult. For someone like me this really works as I had got bored with Flash. and Legends for example. It also has lots going on to keep you interested and many interesting characters… Which brings me to my next point… The ‘MarFlix’ series’ tends to have 1 main character, 1 or 2 main side characters and an enemy. The issue is the side characters are 2 dimensional or annoying AF – Luke Cage has Misty Knight, who utterly gets on my tits; Danny Rand has Coleen Wing who’s only great attribute is she can fight; Foggy and Karen in DareDevil also have weak ass stories, and don’t even get me started on Trish from Jessica Jones! Compare these guys to Preacher where you have 3 really interesting, deep and diverse main characters who have long thought out back stories and clear motivations for the way they are and the reason they’re together, it’s a completely different ballgame.
When I start comparing these different series I can see where the issue lies, there’s just so much choice. I’ll never get round to watching everything I have an interest in, so I have to choose the best. When DareDevil first came out, there wasn’t a lot to compete with, plus it’s genuinely really good, so obviously everybody who was craving some visual comic book goodness was rushing to get some. Nowadays pretty much every streaming service and ABC are churning out comic series and really competing with the bar that ‘MarFlix’ set so high originally. I really think these other series (Shout out to Legion) are incredibly well thought out with deep interesting storylines and a story that is appealing to those who aren’t necessarily comic fans. This is funny to me as this what the MCU does so well so it’s odd that they’ve not really transferred it to TV.
We all know that Disney are going to be unleashing some potentially great series on their own streaming service, directly pulled from the MCU, meaning they’ll have a big budget and the actors we’re used to… So I am hoping the money that’s been put into the ‘MarFlix’ series is re-distributed towards this and other franchises. I personally think they should run the Disney programmes and then create a Marvel Knights universe, headed up by Punisher (With better writers) and a more brutal DareDevil, and then introduce characters such as Moon Knight. Who knows they could even make an X23 series!
So Marvel pulling out of Netflix as much as possible is definitely a good thing, as it’s had it’s time and needs time to rest to be brought up to the level of the other comic series around. Let me know your thoughts down below in the comments!