Big Week for TV Comic Book Shows

I've read some comics. I've got more comics to read. When I finish the new ones from this week, I'll post a review.

Meanwhile, I'm buying the trades of Captain America that brought back Bucky. There are a lot more of them than I realized, so it'll take me a while to read 'em all. I've gotten a bit obsessed with Bucky and it might have to do with Sebastian Stan playing him in the movies. Maybe. Possibly.

I also loved the season finales of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD (Wowzers!), Arrow (Nicely tied up a lot of plot points, and Thea as Speedy!), and we've got the Flash finale on Tuesday, which looks like it will be awesome, too.

Other TV items made me very happy this week. Not only did Supergirl get picked up by CBS for the fall, but the trailer was released and it looks fantastic. This is the Kara Zor-El I loved growing up in the '60s. I don't mind any changes they make. I just want the characterization to be right and from what I saw in the trailer, it's perfect. And since CBS owns the CW, there could possibly be crossovers with Flash and Arrow.

Another DC show is heading for the CW as a mid-season show, also from the makers of Flash and Arrow, using characters from those shows and more. The trailer has spoilers but it has me so jazzed, I can barely contain my excitement. Legends of Tomorrow features Arthur Darvill of Doctor Who (Rory!) as Rip Hunter (!!!). The DC TVU is expanding at a nice rate. I wish Constantine hadn't been canceled, but I'm pleased with all the DC we'll be getting on TV next season, because Gotham, though in a different part of the DCU TV 'verse, will also be back.

Also, Agent Carter will be back, along with Agents of SHIELD, so that's a relief. I really enjoyed Agent Carter.

Other news that made me happy this week is the promise of more crossovers between Flash and Arrow. While crossovers can be annoying in the comics because they're so overdone and involve too many titles/issues these days, they're so much fun on TV.

Also, a fan came up with a wonderful female Avengers team, with a token male, basically a gender reversal for the actual Avengers of the first movie.

And finally, after 33 minutes in NYCC's queue from hell, and another 70 minutes trying to actually buy tickets, I managed to get a 4-day pass. Which was a better outcome than last year when I missed out on the 4-day pass and had to buy dailies in order to get Thursday.

A Rant and a Mea Culpa

First the rant:

Spoilers to follow, if you didn't see this week's episode of Marvel Agents of SHIELD.

This article on Tor.com really gets to the heart of my problem with the series so far. I enjoy it well enough, but I don't consider it must-watch TV yet. It's too generic an action show. It doesn't really feel like part of the Marvel-verse. I kept hoping Captain America or Iron-Man or someone would swoop in at the end of the episode and rescue Coulson, because... Coulson! I get that they wanted the show to be about the non-super-powered beings at SHIELD who take care of the stuff the Avengers, et al, can't, but by building the show around Coulson, one of a very few non-powered beings who is connected to the Avengers, means not having those super-powered beings be part of the show in some capacity makes for a dull show, especially at the slow pace the mysteries of Coulson's death and Skye's parents are being played out. In addition, as a cliffhanger, this was dullsville. I'm betting tonight's Arrow will school SHIELD on how to do a mid-season cliffhanger/finale (and when did mid-season become a thing?).

Arrow started as a show about a non-powered hero and has kept powers out of the show, until slowly introducing them, probably with the Flash tonight, but maybe later on, yet has moved storylines in 2 timelines forward at a pace that keeps ratcheting up the tension/suspense without defusing it, feeding us info at just the right times. SHIELD feels old hat while Arrow feels fresh and exciting. The folks behind SHIELD could take a few lessons from the folks running Arrow.

And the mea culpa: I'm behind on my comics reading again, partly due to being too tired to read due to not sleeping enough and partly because I was getting out my holiday cards. The comics stacks keep growing. *sigh*

Arrow

I thought the first preview looked intriguing, but this longer one is downright enticing.  I never watched Smallville, but I might actually watch Arrow this fall.

Comics on TV

I enjoy Numb3rs, but with Stargate: Atlantis opposite it, I only watch when Stargate isn't on or is a rerun. Today was one of those nights, fortunately, because Wil Wheaton was on and it was about comics. The show was fun, with a nice guest star turn by Christopher Lloyd, which led to a wonderful last scene when his character visited the lead characters, including their father, played by Lloyd's former co-star Judd Hirsch from Taxi. Wil Wheaton, as an obnoxious comic book creator/collector/investor, was also good. For some reason, he does well with annoying characters, but at least (spoiler...) he wasn't the bad guy. As for the comic con aspect of the show, it seemed to be one of the better depictions of comic book fangirls and fanboys, except, y'know, for the lack of fangirls.