63% Of People Think This Is The Best Non-Marvel/non-DC Superhero TV Series
In spite of the hopes of filmmakers like James Cameron (via Indie Wire), superhero fatigue doesn't seem to be setting in anytime soon. While COVID-19 gave us a break from most of the superhero movies we expected to see in 2020, we'll be seeing them soon enough, either on the streaming services or in the theaters during safer times. In the meantime, superhero media is continuing to break new ground in the way it tells stories — and the kinds of stories it tells — particularly with great TV shows. The Disney+ hit miniseries WandaVision is a prime example, but it's hardly the only one. Other examples include the adult animated series Harley Quinn, the wonderfully bizarre Doom Patrol, and the trippy thriller series Legion.
But while Marvel and DC may have done more with superheroes than most, the characters created by these two companies aren't the only superheroes to be found. There are dozens of comic book companies outside the Big Two, and an increasing number of their stories can be found on the small screen. Not to mention, there are plenty of examples of completely original superhero TV shows with good and bad guys who weren't pulled from any comics.
We were curious which non-DC/non-Marvel superhero TV series most fans would call the best, so Looper set up on a poll on its YouTube channel giving respondents four TV series that fit the bill. The survey resulted in a clear winner — and none of the other choices even came close.
It's no contest: The Boys beat out all the other choices
Approximately 188 thousand people responded to Looper's poll from all across the globe. Coming in at 63%, the winner is clear: the respondents' favorite non-DC/non-Marvel TV series is Amazon Prime's The Boys. Based on the violent comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, The Boys shows viewers a world where superheroes — or "supes" as they're called in the series — are all pampered employees of the same corporation, and all tend to be much more dedicated to social media influencing than they are to truth and justice.
At a distant second, with 15% of the vote, is Heroes, the NBC series from the mid-to-late 2000s, in which a seemingly random collection of people around the globe spontaneously develop superhuman abilities after a solar eclipse. Not far behind, at 10%, is Todd McFarlane's Spawn, the animated series that premiered on HBO in 1997. And finally, with 4% of the vote, is the second live-action version of The Tick, starring Peter Serafinowicz as the titular hero and Griffin Newman as his sidekick Arthur.
Of those who voted, 7% chose "Other," and some of them let us know in the comments which series they'd choose. Among the write-in series most often mentioned are Netflix's The Umbrella Academy, the nineties animated version of The Tick, and the early eighties classic comedy drama about a superhero who can fly but can't figure out how to land – The Greatest American Hero.