Minor spoilers below, be warned

“The Calm” is the somewhat ominous title of the season three premier of Arrow.  Presumably, this implies “…before the Storm.”  The show opens with Team Arrow working together very smoothly to take down an arms shipment.  As a general rule, when something goes that well for the good guys on this kind of show, it’s a setup.  It was nice to see Roy in costume with a bow, like his comic book version started off as Speedy, Green Arrow’s sidekick.

As the mission comes to a successful end, we also get mini-status updates on the lives of our heroes.  While they beat Deathstroke last season, that doesn’t mean everything is going well for them.  Oliver has lost his company, which means Felicity lost her job, too.  Oddly, this doesn’t seem to be effecting Diggle, which they don’t explain.  Felicity now has a day job, and it’s pretty amusing watching her deal with it and juggle her responsibilities to the team.

One of the cliffhangers from last season was Quentin Lance doubling over and coughing up blood after helping Arrow and company.  Now, he’s back as a Captain, and makes a nice speech praising the Arrow and disbanding the task force that was going after him.  It was a nice little scene, but it shows whoever does the writing knows nothing about how law enforcement works.  If you have a chronic disability (and Q seems to have two, the cane and the heart problems), you can’t wear the uniform and they’ll start the paperwork to have you medically retired.  Oh well, the writers have been consistently screwing up detail about police, why stop now?  Oh, and from Detective to Officer to Captain, skipping Sergeant and Lieutenant?  Not likely.

One of the new characters this season is Ray Palmer, who is apparently taking over Queen Consolidated.  In the comics, Palmer is the alter ego of the Atom, who gets called on by fellow heroes for his scientific genius almost more than his shrinking powers.  Palmer is being played by Brandon Routh, which makes another first as far as I know.  Routh played Superman in Superman Returns, so this is the first time an actor has played two different DC heroes in live action.  Yep, geek trivia.

One of the challenges of doing a show based on Green Arrow is that, despite being around since the 40′s, the character just doesn’t have an impressive rogues gallery, like Superman, Batman, or Flash.  We’ve seen a drug dealer calling himself the Count, selling a drug called Vertigo, based on one of GA’s few foes, Count Vertigo.  The Count is dead, and now someone knew has arisen calling himself Vertigo. He is the episode’s main antagonist, and does improbably well against the supposedly well-trained Arrow.

Something many fans have been clamoring for sort of happens, as Oliver and Felicity actually go on a real date.  Not a diversion, a scheme, an actual date.  Suffice to say it goes badly (like RPG into the restaurant badly), and Oliver retreats into the trope of “My life is too dangerous to let me have a love life.”

Captain Lance (still called Detective by the Arrow folks, just as he was when he was busted down to Officer) is occasionally helping the team in the field, which is not a good idea with his health issues.  Speaking of the Lance family, we get a few more surprises with them.  Laurel seems like she’s actually going to be likable and useful this season, which is a nice change from shrewish and/or addict.  Then we even see Sara come back just in time for Canary to lend Arrow a hand.

The big showdown this episode is at a boxing match where Vertigo hopes to eliminate all his rival crime bosses, and kill a lot of innocent people along the way.  The team goes into action, and the writers throw us another hint of things to come.  In DC Comics, if you touch at all on boxing, you usually end up running across Ted Grant, who is a street level hero called Wildcat.  Well, one of the shots of the ring shows guys in jackets with “Wildcat” on the back.

The team wins in spite of a lot of bad breaks.  You know it’s a bad day when bomb defusing goes awry.  Also, Arrow cleverly decides the best policy to deal with Vertigo’s new drug, which seems to work like Scarecrow’s fear gas (a Batman foe) is to stand there and get hit by it.  Interesting…

There’s a big surprise at the end of the episode that not only did I not see coming, I hadn’t heard any whispers about.  It truly was shocking, and I won’t spoil it here, but I will say it will probably have repercussions through out the entire season, maybe beyond.  I didn’t like it, but I can see, I think, why they did it.

The flashbacks continue, just on a new island.  We see flashes of Oliver in Hong Kong, forced to work for Amanda Waller, and more supporting characters introduced.  I suspect Oliver has a new mentor.

I liked that they brought in Ray Palmer, although I’m not sure about this version.  He seems a bit more ruthless than the good doctor has ever been portrayed.  I’m curious to see what they do with him, and if his costumed identity will eventually show up. Same thing for Ted Grant/Wildcat for that matter.  The also did a nice little nod to the newly debuted Flash tv show, as Barry calls Oliver for advice.

I didn’t like how they handled Quentin.  He seems to be needlessly reckless, and the writers clearly don’t know how police actually work.  I also don’t get Arrow standing still to get drugged, Vertigo’s really impressive hand to hand skills, or his cryptic warning at the end that Arrow gave the Vertigo name power.

I’m not wild about the ending, but I think I see where they are going with it.  It wasn’t the greatest debut, but I’m curious enough to see how they handle the plots they’ve started.  I’ll be sticking around a while.

I’ve been excited about the Flash show since I first heard about it.  I remember the first one, back in the 80′s.  It was a very enjoyable show, and it ended before its time, largely due to bad luck in scheduling.  After that, DC’s speedster only showed up in cartoons, getting a good amount of screen time in Justice League/Justice League Unlimited, and later the sadly short-lived Young Justice.  Some odd combination of various DC comics speedsters showed up on Smallville, but he went by the most recent codename Impulse.

Then, Arrow debuted on the CW.  It wasn’t a completely faithful version of Green Arrow (obviously, look at the name), but it was really enjoyable, and it was a live action version of a second tier DC Comics hero.  It did so well, they started considering another show, and then, a police scientist named Barry Allen showed up in Starling City.  As any DC Comics fan can tell you, Barry Allen is the Flash.

They started appealing to comic fans from the very start.  Barry, played by Grant Gustin, narrates his story, including the phrase, “I am the fastest man alive,” which was a tag line used in many comic books.  That really set the tone, especially for long-time comic fans.

Overall, I loved this debut.  There were so many nice little touches along the way.  Barry’s father is played by John Wesley Shipp.  Shipp played Barry Allen in the earlier show I mentioned.  There are many familiar names thrown in during the show.  I won’t list them all, as I try not to be THAT guy, but let’s just say that even many of the minor characters have a history in the comics.

I will spend some time on the supporting characters.  The scientist running STAR Labs (another long-time DC institution) is Harrison Wells.  I wondered when he first showed up if his middle initial might be “G.”  From the surprise at the end, I might have been closer than I thought.

Wells’ two assistants are Cisco Ramone and Caitlin Snow.  I really have to believe they have plans down the road for these two lab-rats.  Cisco “Paco” Ramone is the real name of the superhero and former Justice Leaguer known as Vibe.  Caitlin Snow is one of several villains in the comics to use the name Killer Frost.  Frost is usually a Firestorm foe, and Robbie Amell, cousin of Steve (Arrow) Amell and formerly of the Tomorrow People, has been announced as playing Ronnie Raymond, AKA Firestorm the Nuclear Man.

One of the detectives we see a good bit of is Edward Thawne.  Again, in the comics, that name has significance.  Thawne comes from the future, and is the name of the Reverse Flash.  I wonder what they have planned for him.  He mentions that he’s read Barry’s blog, so he does seem to have a lot of interest in our Mr. Allen.

The West family has a complicated connection with the Flash legacy.  In the comics, Iris West eventually marries Barry Allen.  Her nephew, Wally, became Barry’s sidekick Kid-Flash, later replacing Barry as the Flash.  In the comics, the Wests were white until the reboot DC did a few years ago, a move that met with mixed reactions.

You can’t have a hero without a villain, and Barry, as he gets his origin told here, has his foe.  A crook named Maddon (Clyde on the show, Mark in the comics) gets weather related powers.  In the comics, Weather Wizard is one of Flash’s recurring villains, collectively known as the Rogues.  They make a choice at the end of the episode that a lot of TV shows and movies choose to, which I won’t spoil but disagree with.  I’ll put it this way: it’s hard to establish the traditional rivalries between some of these characters this way.

Another of Flash’s more savage foes is Grodd, a superpowerful and ruthless gorilla.  Yes it sounds goofy, but he’s actually a terrifying foe.  When Wells is escorting Barry through the ruins of STAR Labs, we see a broken cage labeled “Grodd.”  Foreshadowing, I suspect.  Wells also tests Barry’s powers at a place with a ruined Ferris Air sign.  Ferris is the company that Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan works at.

There was a lot I loved in this debut.  They followed Barry’s origin pretty closely.  They did a great job with the character.  Before he became a superhero, Barry Allen was a crime scene investigator, and a good one.  He contributes to a case with his brain and skills before the accident that gave him his powers.  Barry actually reminded me a bit of Sherlock Holmes, but in brilliance and social awkwardness.  Also, when Barry gets his powers, he shows an absolute joy in using them.  In the age of so many dark, gritty, anti-heroes, a bright, upbeat character is a very welcome change.

As much as I enjoyed it, I won’t say it was perfect.  One classic scene in Barry’s origin is him in a diner, watching a plate fall.  His powers kick in and he sees it slow and even stop.  In the comics, he catches it.  Here, he watches it fall.  Not a big deal, but I think every time you decide to change from your source material, there should be a reason.  I don’t see that the story was in any improved by that change.

In the comics, Barry Allen eventually killed his arch-nemesis Professor Zoom, the Reverse Flash.  Barry went on trial for it, and a great source of strength for him was the support of his parents.  When Allen returned from the dead a few years ago, they rewrote his history.  Now, fitting the ever darker age of comics, his mother was murdered and his father blamed for it.  They went with this version on the show, which I find a bit sad.  Here his mother seems to have been killed by some version of Reverse Flash.

My few complaints to one side, I loved this show.  I was expecting to like it, and it was better than I hoped.  I love all the little touches they included, the way they handled Barry, and the hints at what’s to come.  Jesse Martin’s Joe West, a new character, I expected to be annoyed by, but Martin turned in a great performance, and he wasn’t the stereotype antagonist I expected.  They didn’t need to do the cameo by Arrow, but they handled it well.

I was very excited to watch this, and immensely enjoyed it.  I can’t wait to see what they do next, and who from Flash’s long history comes up next.

Agents of SHIELD continues its second season with “Making Friends and Influencing People.”  Coulson and his team are still in the difficult position of trying to protect the world while on the run from almost everyone.  Hydra is running around the world, grabbing up any of the remaining SHIELD agents they can find, and then submitting them to the “Faustus process.”   Dr. Faustus is a long time villain in Marvel comics, known for brainwashing his enemies.

The episode spends a fair amount of time with Simmons, the missing member of the team.  Until now, she’s only been seen as Fitz’s hallucination.  They make it look like she’s walked away from the struggle entirely until we see where she’s working.  It was an amusingly done sequence, and answered the questions about where she’s been and what she’s been up to.

Following up on the two part clash with the Absorbing Man, AKA “Crusher” Creel, we see the return of one of the few powered villains from last season– Donnie Gill, known as Blizzard in the comics.  Gill is a former SHIELD scientist who gained powers in an accident when last we saw him.  Now, he’s running around loose, being hunted by Hydra, which brings him to the attention of Coulson and company.  Much of the episode is the race to recruit, capture, or kill Gill.

Among the twists and turns along the way was a scene with Fitz confronting Ward, the team’s Hydra traitor.  Ward was responsible for Fitz’s injuries and brain damage.  Let’s just say that Fitz is not in the most forgiving mood during their conversation, understandably enough.

Skye has gone from kind of helpless tech girl in season one to dangerous field agent this season.  It seems a bit rushed to me.  That sort of training takes a long time.  How long ago were the events of Winter Soldier at ths point?  She’s certainly showing an aptitude for shooting.

Ward is still justifying his actions.  He belittles SHIELD’s compassion for people.  I actually think he’s making himself more unlikable as we see more of him.  Credit where it’s due, he was given the chance to excuse his actions by using the brainwashing excuse, since that plays such a big part in the episode, and he didn’t do it.

I think one of my favorite pieces of the new season is the sort of odd working relationship growing between the brain-damaged Fitz and newcomer Mac.  Mac is a competent tech, if not at the brilliant levels Fitz was.  But, for whatever reason, they seem to be bonding, and Mac is picking up on what Fitz means during some of those painful pauses in his speech.  Some fans online are calling Mac the “Fitz-Whisperer.”

I continue to find the show enjoyable.  The entire cast is fun to watch, although Clark Gregg’s Coulson and Ming-Na Wen’s May steal the show every scene they are in.  The series had some problems last season, especially around the middle.  But, since the tie in with Winter Soldier, I really think the show has gotten a LOT better.  I like that they’re using more actual villains.  I did find it odd that they dropped Talbot’s hunting them and Coulson’s trances completely this episode, but there’s only so much time per show.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the season, especially some more of the characters I’ve heard will be showing up.

Between the finale of the first season of the show, and the tie-ins with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, SHIELD starts off season two in bad shape.  The agency was once a major government power, and now is a handful of agents on the run.  SHIELD was revealed to be infiltrated by Hydra, scientists so evil that even the Nazis thought they were pretty bad.  To the general public, the distinction between Hydra thugs and loyal SHIELD agents is pretty much non-existent.

So, our heroes are on the run, operating underground.  Before, SHIELD was an agency with some covert aspects. Now they are hiding from the government, law enforcement, the public, and one man in particular.  Glenn Talbot has been promoted to Brigadier General since the end of last season.  In the comics, Talbot obsessively hunted the Hulk for years.  Now, that mania seems to be focused on SHIELD.  This is not going to do anything to make Coulson and company’s job easier.

The season opener showed the first live action adaptation of a classic Marvel villain, the Absorbing Man.  In the comics, “Crusher” Creel can turn into whatever he touches.  He seems to do something similar on the show, making him a very powerful foe for a group of non-powered agents.  From the images shown at the end of the episode, he will be a recurring foe.

The opening gave a nod to a different part of the Marvel cinematic universe.  In the late 1940′s, we see several supporting characters from Captain America: The First Avenger.  In addition to a few of the Howling Commandos, they also showed us Agent Carter, who has already been approved for a new, spinoff tv show.  I’m very excited about that, and it was nice seeing her and the others.

The team of agents have more to worry about than supervillians and obsessive Generals.  The finale was tough on them.  One’s being held prisoner, one’s not recovering well from injuries, and another is… well, you’ll have to see the episode.  I was surprised.

The opening scene in the modern era shows the agents, with a few added allies, in action against yet another corrupt SHIELD agent.  The action was nice, and it was set in Alexandria, VA, where I presently live, so that was amusing.  Coulson, the director of the very reduced SHIELD, has a lot stacked up against him, and he sees that things are worse than he thought.  Other personal favorites include Ming Na Wen as the bad ass Agent May, who is back and deadly as ever; and Patton Oswalt, playing various agents named Koenig.  There’s a mystery about whatever his past is: clones? LMDs? Siblings?  We’ll find out eventually, I suspect.  And, of course, Clark Gregg is great as Coulson.

Last season, J. August Richards did a great job as Deathlok.  SHIELD is a fraction of its former self, Deathlok is one of the few supers that would work with them, and… nothing.  He’s not there, not mentioned, nothing at all.  I’m hoping that gap gets addressed soon.

That’s about my only complaint for the season opener.  I’m still enjoying it, and looking forward to seeing where they go next.

Gotham, the new series on Fox, finally premiered after a lot of anticipation.  Billed as the pre-quel to Batman, it starts with the Wayne murders, which started Bruce on the path to the Dark Knight.  Much like Smallville focused on Clark Kent’s glossed-over high school years, Gotham is set in the wake of the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne.

The focus of the show is on rookie detective James Gordon, a long way from his days as Commissioner.  Drawing on the background created by Frank Miller in his “Batman: Year One” story, Gordon is a war vet.  He survived the war, as did his idealism.  As the show starts, Gordon has just made Detective.  The Gotham City Police Department is a corrupt mess, and Gordon is not fitting in with it, which speaks well of him.

While there are many ties to the Batman mythos, I’d argue this isn’t really a Batman show.  We’re long before Bruce dons the cape and cowl, and while there are a lot of familiar names, none of them have donned costumes yet.  It’s a crime drama, after a fashion.  Gordon is dealing with a looming gang war, a compromised police department, and a promise he made to young Bruce Wayne.

The Batman supporting cast showing up adds flavor, but also comes with some difficulties regarding storylines.  Every name comic book fans (like me) recognize comes with a host of limitations.  We know Oswald Cobblepot won’t die before he becomes the Penguin, etc.  The only new major character so far is Fish Mooney , played delightfully by Jada Pinkett Smith.  She’s wonderfully vicious, a menacing presence in a stunning dress.

They are exploring some of the unknown aspects of the characters.  Barbara Kean eventually becomes Barbara Gordon in the comics, later mother of another Barbara, better known as Batgirl.  Here, it’s strongly hinted that Barbara has a romantic past with Detective Rene Montoya.  Montoya was a comic book character, known as both a tough Gotham detective and a strong gay character, which are not as common as they should be.  I suppose this means Barbara is bi, which is an interesting twist.

We see quite a few of the people who will become Batman’s rogues gallery.  The one that surprised me the most was Edward Nygma.  In the comics, he’s the brilliant villain the Riddler.  Here, he appears to work for Gotham PD’s Forensic’s Unit.  One thing this show seems to be establishing is that all of Batman’s major male foes are many years older than he is.  Bruce is child (his age at the time of the murders in the comics is usually eight), while Penguin and Riddler are both adults.  Catwoman and Poison Ivy both seem to be the same as young Bruce, give or take a year or two.  Selina, later Catwoman, is a street kid and thief; Ivy is the young daughter of a man killed by a plot involving both GCPD and the mob.

Gordon’s partner in the series is Harvey Bullock.  In the comics, he’s a slob and a man of very questionable reputation at times.  Here, he’s a corrupt cop.  He’s part of the system, bought and paid for.  He did show a spark of being a good cop when he tried to help Gordon out of a lethal situation, although that didn’t work out well for either of them.

Just like the CW’s Arrow, there are a few little Easter Eggs thrown in for comics fans.  A street address mentioned at one point was on “Grundy.”  Solomon Grundy is a long time DC villain, often clashing with Batman among others.  There’s also a stand up comic auditioning in Fish Mooney ’s club.  Of course, Batman’s best known foe is the Joker.  Is the comic him?  No way of knowing yet, but wondering about things like that are a part of the fun.

This is certainly a grim show, but that’s fitting for Gotham.  It’s always been a dark city.  Watching the writers dodge between elements of Batman’s past is going to be interesting.  Since the show is on Fox, it won’t be connecting to any of the other hero shows on the various other networks this fall.  While making for less promotional opportunities, it also allows for more freedom with the plot.

I thought this was a well done start.  I’m intrigued.  I’ll certainly be watching a few more episodes.  But then, I’m very much a fan of Batman, and DC Comics characters.

I really had no intention of buying any of the “Futures End” stories.  One of my objections to the “DCNU” as many call the rebooted DC Universe, is that it’s a very dark, grim, foreboding place.  That has a place, and works wonderfully well for Batman, Dr. Strange, or the Punisher, but as a line-wide trend, it’s not something I like.  When the Futures End promos started coming out, they talked about a darker future for the DC heroes.  Since it was already darker than I wanted, I decided I would pass.

I made the mistake of mentioning that on Twitter.  To my surprise, both Bryan Q. Miller and Gail Simone told me that I should really give the Batgirl issue a try.  Miller wrote the Steph Brown Batgirl, one of my favorite versions of the character, and Simone is in general one of my favorite comic writers.  If both of them were recommending it, I guessed I’d give it a shot.

I’m very glad I did.  Gail Simone managed to sneak a ray of light into the “dark future.”  Several things fans have been complaining about since the reboot happened are addressed in this issue.  We see the return of some beloved characters, and some favorite versions of others who have been in the DCNU.

Avoiding spoilers, I’ll just say that there are some wonderful surprises.  Barbara is here, and she’s gathered a team around her.  She suffers a tragic loss as the story starts, and, in those first few pages, I wondered if I’d made a mistake.  But, since I’d already bought it, I pressed on.

Would you believe there’s a League of Batgirls?  I wouldn’t have, but that’s what we get by the end.  Two characters I really enjoyed in the role, plus another who seems to have a lot of potential, are working as field agents for a shadowy figure, a bit like a cross between Charlie’s Angels and Birds of Prey.  We get to see who this Bette Noir is, and how she got that way, and what became of Barbara after she made a really questionable choice in mentors.

As an aside, the “Bette” name may be a tip of the cowl to another character.  Bette Kane was the original Bat-Girl, back in the Golden Age of comics.  She later became the reserve Teen Titan Flamebird, and most recently was revealed to be Kate (Batwoman) Kane’s cousin.  Bette went through some rough times in the Batwoman book before gaining yet another new identity, Hawkfire.

Gail worked some magic here.  I bought the issue reluctantly and I think it was my favorite of that week.  It was great seeing these ladies together again.  I know that Futures End is yet another possible future, the comic equivalent of “Christmas Yet To Come.”  Most of what I’ve seen of Futures End I’d be fine living without.  But I dearly hope we get to see these Batgirls again, all of them.

I loved the issue, and I recommend it to anyone who has ever been a fan of any Batgirl, or even just those who like strong female leads.  It was a welcome surprise by a talented writer. Javier Garron turned in some very fine art, as well.

Oh, and my thanks to Gail and Bryan both for convincing me to get this, and for many years of great Batgirl stories.