Alas, poor Swamp Thing, we hardly knew thee before a quick and painful demise. Harley Quinn‘s adult-oriented animated antics are a delight, Titans was a surprising success, and Doom Patrol‘s wackiness stood out in a crowded market. Despite these seeming successes and smaller projects on the horizon, DC Universe‘s continued existence seems like an unsure thing at this moment in time.
The streaming service, started by the comic brand to strengthen their television work outside of The CW’s offerings, aimed to offer more grown-up takes on their superheroes. Outside of the four shows already mentioned, the remaining one, Young Justice: Outsiders, doesn’t seem to have made much of a splash. Upcoming shows now seem to have lost exclusivity to the service, with the Stargirl series debuting on both DCU and The CW. The future Green Lantern show will debut on DCU and HBO Max. Doom Patrol‘s second season will be on both services, as well. This doesn’t bode well for DC’s streaming outlet.
Business-wise, this kind of makes sense. Personally, I don’t know many folks who use this service. While critics seemed excited at a more horror-focused Swamp Thing series, it’s one-episode demise put a black mark on the service before it really had a chance to take off. Now, Warner Brothers has said that the launch of HBO Max isn’t supposed to hurt DCU at all, it certainly appears to already be eating into what limited original content DCU has to offer. Why not just combine the services, kind of like what Disney Plus did with ESPN, ya know? Hire me, Hollyweird!
I feel bad for DC, but I’m also hopeful for their future. I thought Harley Quinn & Those Gosh-Dang Birds of Prey was a pretty fun time, and it looked gorgeous. I like that WB is focusing more on individually-driven character stories. That The Batman is sounding like an interesting, different take on the Dark Knight than what we’ve seen before. I also do actually want to watch Doom Patrol to support by boy Brendan Fraiser. So DC Universe may be ending, but the DC brand is far from toast.
from We Got This Covered https://ift.tt/399oShl
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