Spotlight On Gotham And More | DC Weekly

It’s a great time to be a DC fan. with the success of Aquaman in theaters and SHAZAM! around the corner, a second week of Young Justice: Outsiders episodes, the return of some our favorite DC television shows like Gotham last week and The Flash next week and not to mention the source for all these shows and films, comic books it has been easy for us to follow some of our favorite DC characters. Last week we got into the debut of the long awaited return of Young Justice, so this week we will shift our focus more on the return of the final season of Gotham.

As we all know last season of Fox’s Gotham ended up with Gotham City being cut off from the rest of the world. Which lead to this fifth season of Gotham titled No Man’s Land, that is inspired by the 1999 DC Comics’ story with the same title that ran through monthly in Batman, Detective Comics, Batman: Shadow of the Bat and Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight and some other spin-offs. In the comics Gotham suffered a 7.6 earthquake during the previous story arc titled Cataclysm which results with the US government declaring Gotham a “no man’s land” destroying all bridges to the city and setting up blockade to prevent people from entering or exiting. Leaving various gangs, super-villains and the GCPD to battle for territory in the city. One of my favorite things about this story arc is the fact that every now and then there would be an updated map showing the changes in territory for the city, giving us a clear look at who was in charge of what, it’s a fantastic story that I would highly recommend.

Last week we finally got our first look at Fox’s television version of No Man’s Land with the first episode titled Year Zero. Without giving too much away we basically got re-introduced to the players of Gotham but in a setting where they all control certain areas of Gotham. This week’s episode titled Trespassers introduced us two a few new gangs that have emerged as well as a new character. One of the gangs felt like a throwback to when Joel Schumacher was directing Batman and that is a time no one wants to remember.

Overall as excited as I was to see this story arc play out on television, for me it has been overstuffed and empty, let me explain. Part of what I had always liked about Gotham was the attention they gave to some of it’s villains, for example Olswald Cobblepot, played by Robin Lord Taylor and Edward Nygma, played by Cory Michael Smith. With an already established group of villains No Mans Land offers the perfect opportunity to see these characters shine and the still probably will but two episodes in we have already been introduced to two additional gangs with a few more probably left to go as we have seen Mutant like characters in the trailers and not to mention the eventual return of Jeremiah and the debut of Bane.

With so many characters crammed into a smaller season, I am very curious to see how they are going to fit in an appearance (if any) of Bruce Wayne, played by David Mazouz becoming Batman? I know many people don’t like Ben McKenzie’s James Gordon, but it would have been great if this series would have just focused on his character’s rise with a young Bruce Wayne as a supporting character from the beginning. He is currently the main person in Gotham doing everything he can to keep hope alive. I hope that the writers have given him a well deserved ending to this chapter in his life.

As a Batman fan I have always enjoyed the nods to certain characters and stories, but also cringed at some of their terribly executed ones (I’m looking at you Mr. Freeze). Let’s hope that the next few episodes can deliver a little more substance with the characters we have been invested in and less new additions that we really won’t care much about. One way or another we are in for a wild ride so let’s hope it’s a good one. FOX’s Gotham airs every Thursday night at 8pm on FOX.

Speaking of returning DC shows on television, next week we will see the mid-season return of the scarlet speedster, The Flash on the CW. Check out the trailer below if case you haven’t yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=70&v=lzqSdyVMq9Y

As we can see things have apparently gotten really bad, as Cicada, played by Chris Klein, has somehow managed to cripple Nora, played by Jessica Parker Kennedy. Speaking of Nora, what is her relationship with Eobard Thawne, played by Tom Cavanagh? I really thought that there wouldn’t be a villain that I would care about less than Savitar, but Cicada may be The Flash‘s weakest villain to date. I honestly just want to get through this season… fast. The Flash will make it’s mid-season debut next Tuesday, January 15th, at 8pm on The CW.

Here is also information on the other DC shows that will be back on television soon all also on The CW:

Supergirl – Sunday, January 20th at 8pm

Arrow – Monday, January 21st at 8pm

Black Lightning – Monday, January 21st at 9pm

As for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, that mid-season premiere has been held off until sometime in April after Black Lightning concludes.

Also today was the release of three more episodes of Young Justice: Outsiders titled Private Security, Away Mission and Rescue Op. After this set of episodes we really start getting a sense of the reason why this season is titled Outsiders. With so many UN restrictions on the Justice League, outside teams have started to form. So far this season is developing at very good pace and it’s been fantastic to see the creative team continue with the established timeline so we can appreciate the characters’ growth in the series. When we met some of them they were all bright eyed teens looking to be heroes, now they find themselves older looking for something more in their lives, with the introduction of new young heroes, eventually the series will just have to be titled, Justice.

Speaking of Young Justice: Outsiders, which releases three episodes every Friday exclusively on DC Universe’s streaming service, there is a short documentary series that focuses on the making of the series that is hosted by Whitney Moore who is a DC Daily host as well as the voice of Courtney Whitmore aka Stargirl on the series. The series is comprised of five ten minute episodes that will each be released following the premiere of the episodes on Tuesdays. This week’s episode talks about some of the themes of the series including the contrast between the real world human trafficking epidemic and it’s relation to the shows’ meta-human trafficking crisis. Make sure to check it out only on the DC Universe streaming service!

Also have you noticed the hidden message in the episode titles? Really neat stuff from the Young Justice creative team! Check it out!

YOUNG JUSTICE: OUTSIDERS’ EPISODE TITLES HIDE AN OMINOUS MESSAGE

Before we wrap this up I wanted to congratulate director James Wan, Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson and the rest of the cast of Warner Bros. Pictures’ Aquaman for the milestone that they are projected to reach on Saturday of passing one billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Which months ago I would have called you crazy to think it could do that due to the fact that not only is Aquaman not as popular as other Justice League members, but also because of good competition with films like Bumblebee and Mary Poppins Returns. It will be the first film of the DCEU to reach that mark and only five other films last year in total, three of them being Disney films. Let’s remember that at one point even Warner Bros. poked fun at this film in their Teen Titans Go! To The Movies trailer with the quote “If Aquaman can get a movie, anyone can”.

SHAZAM! now has some pretty big flippers to fill come April, hopefully it does well! We’ll wrap this up with my top DC comic books from this week. For more in-depth coverage on these titles and others be sure to listen to The Comic Source Podcast!

5. Green Arrow #48 written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly with artwork by Javier Fernandez
4. Green Lantern #3 written by Grant Morrison with artwork by Liam Sharp
3. Justice League #15 written by Scott Snyder & James Tynion IV with artwork by Jim Cheung, Steven Segovia and Mark Morales
2. Batman #62 written by Tom King with artwork by Mitch Gerads
1. Young Justice #1 written by Brian Michael Bendis with artwork Patrick Gleason

Thoughts on Gotham and Young Justice: Outsiders so far? Let us know in the comment section below!

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