'The Flash' vs. 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.': Which Is the Better Superhero Show?
The two superhero shows that air on Tuesday nights provide a sharp contrast in storytelling and tone. The CW’s The Flash and ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. derive from competing comics companies — Flash is a long-time DC Comics character; S.H.I.E.L.D. draws from the vast Marvel Comics mythology for a variety of characters. And in some ways, it’s their comic-book sources that help describe the shows’ strengths and weaknesses.
Like Flash himself, the TV show is sleek and fast-moving — most of the time. In bringing Barry Allen as the Scarlet Speedster to TV, the series captures the feeling of superpower as an exhilarating thrill. That stands in welcome contrast to the weight-of-the-world gloominess that’s become the standard mode for so many comic-book adaptations made in the wake of Frank Miller’s 1986 The Dark Knight Returns.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had a trickier goal to achieve: creating a superhero show that mostly lacks people with superpowers. The series learned from its initial episodes that this challenge, combined with its murky-dark visuals, made for a slow-moving show, and has taken steps to correct it, most notably giving a key character, Skye, potent powers she’s only now learning to control.
In each of these shows, one of the best performances is from a character who seems to be antagonistic to the hero. In The Flash, Tom Cavanaugh has been very effective — believably academic, even more believably devious — as Dr. Harrison Wells, recently revealed as Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash. Meanwhile, in S.H.I.E.L.D., Kyle MacLachlan is so energetically over-the-top as Skye’s maniacal dad Cal, you can’t watch anyone else when he’s on the screen.
The Flash has fun, zip, and cleverness going for it. It also has a few elements that prevent it from being top-notch. The whole Barry-Iris almost-but-not-quite romance is dull, lacking luster. And while some of the same people who make Arrow also work on Flash, the latter hasn’t built as strong a support team for the hero. Specifically, Dr. Caitlin Snow, tucked away in a Central City lab, is no Felicity Smoak — the former is thinly drawn and lacks chemistry with Barry. Fans are hoping Arrow’s Felicity makes a return visit to Central City, because there were sparks aplenty when she was there. I wish The Flash would come up with a more permanent fix for a good, Felicity-less Flash universe.
Related: The Best Female Comic Book Heroes on TV, Ranked
S.H.I.E.L.D. suffered from a lackluster first season in which both the audience and the producers had to figure out whether occasionally invoking Thor or Captain America or The Hulk was enough to attract non-fanboys to what is, at its heart, really an action-adventure spy drama.
In recent weeks, however, S.H.I.E.L.D. has recalibrated itself in occasionally smart ways. The most drastically altered character has been Skye, who began the series a nattering naïf and now possesses something close to superpowers that are still being defined and refined. The show has wisely given group leader Phil Coulson more to do (literally: last week’s fight scenes were easily his best). Other wise moves: folding in Agent Melinda May as an authority figure alongside Coulson, and Bobbi Morse (aka Mockingbird) as a fierce fighter with strong, knotty ties to the ongoing plot. And as I said earlier, S.H.I.E.L.D. has a really terrific nutty villain with whom you can sympathize in Cal.
Toting up all the pros and cons, I’d still give The Flash the edge as a show that knows what it’s doing and executes its goals well.
Of course, there’s now another element in play on Tuesday nights: The CW’s iZombie. It’s not a superhero show — its exceptional entity is undead — but when it comes to imaginative fantasy programming, it’s already giving both The Flash and S.H.I.E.L.D. brisk competition.
The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on ABC.
