It’s no secret that we are currently living in a golden age of TV, thanks to the abundance of streaming services available. Never before has the general public had access to this much content. One of the biggest contributors to the golden age of TV is the comic book genre. In 2022, fans and casual viewers were introduced to characters, new and old, thanks to shows like Peacemaker, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk.
‘Peacemaker‘
The year kicked off with fans being introduced, or should I say reintroduced, to the world of Peacemaker. We got our introduction to him in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad when John Cena’s performance as the character managed to grab everyone’s attention. HBO Max’s Peacemaker gives us more of Cena as the titular character and then some. After the events of The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker must still complete missions for the U.S. government under Amanda Waller.
Throughout the course of the show, we see him encounter aliens, neo-Nazis and his own personal demons. The show was a hit with fans and critics and a Season 2 is confirmed to be on the way at some point. This is the only live-action DC Comics show that premiered this year, but there are others on the horizon. A John Stewart-led Green Lantern show is on the horizon, along with shows about The Penguin and Arkham Asylum. The future of DC shows is looking very bright.
‘Moon Knight’
While Warner Bros continues to develop their DC comics shows for HBO Max, Disney is hard at work pumping out MCU shows for Disney+ this year. Moon Knight is the first of these shows to premiere. The show stars Oscar Isaac as a man with dissociative identity disorder (DID), whose two personalities deal with him being the avatar for an ancient Egyptian god. Although it isn’t as brutal and violent as originally promised, the show still manages to be enjoyable.
Isaac switching back and forth between Marc Spector and Steven Grant is the perfect showcase of his skills as an actor. This, combined with F. Murray Abraham’s fantastic performance as Khonshu, creates some hilarious and memorable scenes. No superhero show is complete without its antagonist, and Ethan Hawke is perfect as Arthur Morrow. His calm, but menacing, delivery of lines really shows off the cult leader influence that helped inspire his performance.
The show was praised when it aired and was nominated for several awards. Moon Knight even managed to win two: The Saturn Award for Best Actor in a TV Series and a Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special.
‘Ms. Marvel’
The next Marvel Disney+show that premiered this year, after Moon Knight, was Ms. Marvel. Ms. Marvel is a unique show because it’s the first time that the MCU has had some significant representation for Muslims and South Asian people. It follows a young Pakistani American girl named Kamala Khan, who gains superpowers thanks to her very special DNA. She finds herself struggling to fit in at school until she gains her powers. From then on, she begins to embrace her life with powers.
What really makes people fall in love with the show is how relatable Kamala is. She was written to represent the people who grew up with the MCU films and embodies that role perfectly. She’s a huge Avengers fangirl and obsesses over anything related to them — and even names herself after Captain Marvel. When reminiscing about this show, what most will probably talk about is the representation of Muslim culture. Ms. Marvel takes a culture that isn’t known to many and put it on display for everyone to see and learn about. It’s similar to what was done with Black Panther back in 2018.
‘She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’
Another Marvel show that also manages to be the topic of conversation is She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. The show is talked about for all the right and wrong reasons. A vocal minority is upset that the show has a female character and touches on some feminist themes. Others praise the show for being downright hilarious. It may be the funniest thing the MCU produced in a long time.
The humor comes from the fact that it’s a legal sitcom comedy. Every week, Jennifer Walters — aka She-Hulk — deals with her new hulk powers while also dealing with the criminal justice system as a defense attorney. Her cases usually involve people with powers, so she’s perfect for the job. One of the best parts of the show is how it gives some much needed screen time to Bruce Banner.
We were robbed of seeing his transformation into his current hulk form, but, thankfully, the scenes with Jennifer shed some light on his character while giving Jennifer some character development as well. No one knows if it will receive a season 2, but, like the previously mentioned MCU shows, this won’t be the last time we see these characters in the MCU.
After a strong showing in 2022, comic book television has a bright future ahead. Shows like Secret Invasion, Echo, the untitled Green Lantern series and The Penguin series show that there are plenty of things to look forward to. That doesn’t even include other TV series that are returning for another season. Fans will have a lot to look forward to next year.
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