Inspired by the impending arrival of the Superman and Lois TV Series set in the Arrowverse, I figured I'd shared my favourite comic book TV series so far (fingers crossed that Superman and Lois makes this list in 12 months time).
Honourable Mentions: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Jessica Jones, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Arrow, Titans, Runaways, Blade, Luke Cage, The Flash, The Punisher, The Defenders, Constantine
#5. The Incredible Hulk
Growing up in the late 80s, one of my first spots of exposure to Marvel was courtesy of the fantastic Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno series of The Incredible Hulk. Or rather, the TV movies that capped off the series. My dad taped The Trial of the Incredible Hulk and the Death of the Incredible Hulk on VHS for me when I was very young as something that had thought would interest me and he was indeed correct. The Trial of the Hulk introduced me to Daredevil and the Death of Hulk introduced me to Thor but, most importantly, they introduced me to the ridiculously cool series of The Incredible Hulk which I still go back to every now and again.
#4. Smallville
This is one of those series where I couldn't get into it until around season 6 or so but once I did I ended up binging everything that came before (during the down time between S6 and S7). I was never a big Superman fan but at the time of Season 6, I was a massive Green Arrow fan and Season 6 saw Justin Hartley portray a very good version of Oliver Queen that made me want to keep watching Smallville. Then we got Bart Allen (who was my favourite version of the Flash at the time), Cyborg and Aquaman as a sort of mini-Justice League. The series then featured Metallo, Doomsday, Bizarro and Darkseid. The only downside was that we never got to see Clark become Superman until the final episode.
#3. Batman (1960s)
Another staple of my childhood, the 60s Batman series was camp and amusing as a result leading to it being something that could be easily viewed by my whole household. I've recently introduced my son to this series and he absolutely loves it too. Adam West and Burt Ward were perfect as the dynamic duo and the rogues gallery were showcased perfectly to the point that certain characters originated here and became part of Batman's comic book cast as a result (Mr. Freeze for example).
#2. Spider-Man (1970s)
Oh man I loved this. I have the three TV movies on VHS and then the whole series started showing on Sky (which at the time had 8 channels), which I got hooked on. I remember it blowing my tiny little mind that the show was from the 70s but an episode featured Spidey being cloned, which was the main storyline in the on-going Spider-Man comics at the time (I was reading the UK Astonishing series that reprinted the US stuff but with a few years delay - I say was, this comic is still ongoing). I remember all the cool stuff like Spidey and his beautiful hair jumping out of the way of a car then developing one webshooter for some reason (he made one, why couldn't he make a second?), him jumping out of the way of a car to discover that he could stick to walls and then the awesome sight if him crawling up walls (even if I could see the wires attached to him).
#1. Daredevil (Netflix)
There couldn't be any other comic book show at the number one spot for me. This series was so good that me and my flat-mate, Shout out to Big Philly Brown, started watching the first episode at around 8am on launch day (it was a saturday) and ended up not leaving the flat or doing anything until we'd watched every episode. Then the second season dropped and was somehow better and gave us a ridiculously good version of the Punisher (I was a huge fan of Thomas Jane's version but this version quickly took over). The Defenders wasn't great but Charlie Cox as Daredevil made that show great by carrying on as he had before, then Season 3 and the return of Kingpin were great too. The saddest thing about this series is that we're never going to get a season 4...
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