In this opinion commentary, the host argues that the DC TV Universe (DCTVU) is superior to the DC Cinematic Universe (DCCU). He structures his case into four evaluation categories: (1) Character Development, where he claims the long‑running TV series allow deeper investment in heroes like Supergirl, Barry Allen, and Oliver Queen, whereas DCCU films focus on spectacle and provide limited backstory for characters such as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. (2) Look/CGI, where he acknowledges the higher budgets of DCCU movies but praises DCTVU for delivering impressive visual effects on a modest TV budget, noting specific episodes of The Flash and Supergirl. (3) Storylines, where he criticizes DCCU choices (e.g., the unpopular Superman version in Man of Steel and the problematic Green Lantern film) and lauds DCTVU for a wider variety of stories ranging from serious to wacky, made possible by many episodes and seasons. (4) Team‑ups/Leagues, where he contrasts the rushed, limited cross‑overs in DCCU with the natural, multi‑year crossover events in DCTVU (Arrow/Flash crossovers, Legends of Tomorrow, and Earth‑2 Supergirl). He assigns points per category, giving DCTVU three points and DCCU one, and ends with a call for viewer comments and subscription.
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Hey guys, welcome back. Today I want to deal with the 800-pound gorilla in the room. Is the DCTV Universe better than the DC Cinematic Universe? I believe it is, and I'm going to give reasons as to why I believe the DCTV Universe is better than the DC Cinematic Universe. I will break this down into 4 categories Category 1: Character Development. Category 2: The Look of the Show (CGI). Category 3: Storylines. Category 4: Team-ups and Leads. First, in character development, I want to say that I'm totally invested in many of the DCTV Universe characters, whereas with DC Cinematic Universe, I am not. Now to be fair, that's due in large part to the DCTV Universe being able to have many episodes to develop their characters. However, we know that a well-done film with a good storyline and right actors can make up for that. So with many of the DC TV shows, from Supergirl trying to adjust to life on Earth, or Barry Allen as the Flash losing his mother, from the Arrow handling a closet full of personal demons, we've had years in their respective standalone shows to get to know these characters quite well. Whereas the DC Cinematic Universe hasn't given us enough standalone movies. They have chose to spend more time in destruction and action sequences that did very little to tell a great story about why they were engaged in such activities to begin with. Superman from Man of Steel embarked on just tons of destruction, as well as in the end having to kill Zod in a horrible and gruesome manner. Batman was hell-bent on wanting to fight and destroy Superman without even taking the time to first engage the character to understand him psychologically. And whereas Wonder Woman, the most promising of the DC Cinematic Universe characters at this point, did have impressive scenes, we still have no backstory on her. She just kind of appeared into the universe thus far. So I have to give a point to DCTV Universe as far as character development. Now, in our next category, the look of the show, CGI. Now of course, when you have a big budget movie, generally things look a great deal better, and understandably so. However, to my surprise, the DCTV Universe is almost doing as well of a job with very little budget. That has to make some Hollywood bigwigs go, "What are we doing here?" There are many episodes of The Flash and Supergirl where they were able to pull off just amazing CGI on such a limited budget. I was very impressed. As well, I get to see this type of stuff every week with no problem, whereas the DC Cinematic Universe takes years to give us 5 minutes of a scene, which I do admit looks better than DCTV Universe. However, just barely. It's not exactly a runaway here. DCTV is holding its own in a manner I've never seen done before on TV. So good job, DCTV Universe. I will give the point, however, to the DC Cinematic Universe. I'd just like to remind you all that the DC Cinematic Universe movies all are far beyond $200 million. So that point goes to the DC Cinematic Universe. We now arrive at storylines. My goodness, you think with a treasure chest of comic book stories to pull from that coming up with a great story for a comic book show would be as easy as just showing up to work and getting started. However, in the DC Cinematic Universe, where they could have simply taken some of the stories and fine-tuned them, they still managed to come up with what seems to be troublesome storylines that many fans believe they could do better. In Man of Steel, they chose a version of Superman that was the least popular in comic book sales. I fail to understand the logic of that, however, that's what happened. The Green Lantern story— also pretty ridiculous. The only story they seemed to get right was the Batman storylines. The only problem though is that the Christian Bale Batman doesn't even exist in the direction that the DC Universe is going now, so not sure what stories we'll get in the future, however, so far, not very impressive. DC TV Universe again has a slight edge because we get to see so many different types of stories, from the serious to the wacky. So it's kind of hard not to tell a great story when you have many opportunities. However, as the DC Cinematic Universe had an unfair advantage on budget, so DC TV gets to tell more stories. I'll call it even and give the point to DC TV Universe. And in our final category, I want to cover team-ups and leagues. So, we had Batman vs Superman. Kind of got a glimpse into what some of the team-ups will look like. It didn't really move me. As I said earlier, I did like Wonder Woman, and I think I'd just like to see her better alone in her own movie than making them work together, which just felt rushed to me. They haven't had the time to cross each other's paths in a way that would have been more beneficial to merge them all together into a team, whereas in the DCTV Universe, they did it in a natural way, introducing each other to one another. TV shows like Arrow and The Flash had years to develop and do crossovers. They then moved on to The Legends of Tomorrow, which merged off The Flash and The Flash off Arrow. Finally, they get to Supergirl, all of which took over several years to accomplish. Compare it to the DC Cinematic Universe, where we're getting tons of characters we haven't even met yet, and they're— this league on us. So after watching the DCTV Universe crossover week, the way it was done was awesome. It was entertaining. I bought it. I also liked how Supergirl doesn't— universe so that they don't have to be so confident where it's almost like all the characters aren't needed per world. It's enough to have a character like The Flash to handle one world. So Supergirl exists in a parallel Earth called Earth-2, so she only crosses over sometimes when needed, which works well. I like the approach to that. So without question, DCTV Universe gets that point. So in the final tally of the score, we have DCTV Universe with 3 out of 4 points and category, and the DC Cinematic Universe with a score of 1 out of 4 in each category. So tell me what you think, guys. In the DC Cinematic— is the DC Cinematic Universe better? Comment below, help us shine some light on this. And if you like videos like this, be sure and like and subscribe. Take care, folks.