15 Best TV Shows Based On DC Comics, Ranked!

Marvel and DC dominate the American comic book scene, and as Hollywood fell in love with superheroes, their characters fill up the big and small screens too. Marvel has plenty of solid television shows, but honestly, DC Comics has often maintained the edge over its distinguished competition. 

During the 1970s and 1980s, the Superfriends cartoons defined the Justice League for a generation. During the 2010s, the CW was a haven for DC Comics shows as audiences kept up with the ups and downs of the Arrowverse.

Most recently, Creature Commandos kicked off James Gunn’s new DC Universe on film. With so many different options to choose from, which ones reign on top?

Here are our choices for the 15 best DC Comics TV series of all time!

15. iZombie

We already mentioned the CW as the king of 2010s live-action DC TV, thanks to superhero shows like Arrow and The Flash. But the most unique of this pack of shows was iZombie.

iZombie is based on a horror comic series by writer Chris Roberson and artist Michael Allred about a zombie gravedigger who can experience others’ memories by eating their brains. In the TV series, Liv (Rose McIver)—a punny name change from Gwen in the comic—is reimagined as a medical intern who solves murders.

This melds the comic premise into TV with a tried-and-true format—the police procedural, but with a supernatural twist. Comics, like TV, should be episodic and keep you coming back for more. iZombie does that in both mediums.

14. The Penguin

As The Batman, Part II hits delay after delay, Bat-fans could tide themselves over with a different trip back to Gotham City: The Penguin.

Colin Farrell (hidden beneath make-up but acting his heart out) reprises his role as Oz Cobb. Oz is trying to move up from middle management to kingpin, but obstacle after obstacle obstructs him; how high can a flightless bird soar?

With its home on HBO, it’s only fitting that The Penguin riffs on The Sopranos so much, down to giving Oz some mommy issues and never letting him be anything but the scummiest of antiheroes.

The show’s breakout star, though, is Cristin Milioti as mob princess Sofia Falcone—somehow, she’s both scarier and more sympathetic than Oz.

13. Peacemaker

A sequel to James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker has the same blend of dark humor and heart. It follows the eponymous vigilante, real name Christopher Smith (John Cena).

As his debut established, Peacemaker is so dedicated to peace and patriotism that he’ll do anything — no matter how reprehensible — in defense of them. Peacemaker, the show, interrogates how a person could become someone like Peacemaker. 

The answer? A horribly abusive and racist father, Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick). With a supporting cast as eccentric as he is, Peacemaker delves into his past and builds a better future for himself.

The show is most famous for its exemplary title sequence. It shows the main cast in a dance and fireworks performance and sets every episode off on the right foot.

12. Doom Patrol

It’s fair to say that the DC-media only streaming service DC Universe wasn’t a huge success. (Nowadays, it’s a comic reading subscription platform only.) However, it did result in some memorable original programming.

One of the DC Universe shows is Doom Patrol, based on the most eccentric superhero team. It even outlasted its streamer of origin, moving to Max for its third and fourth seasons.

The show centers on superpowered outcasts who live under the tutelage of Dr. Niles “The Chief” Caulder (Timothy Dalton).

Doom Patrol has often been compared to X-Men, but this series is more offbeat. It breaks the fourth wall and offers an absurdist blend of goofy comedy and terror.

11. Smallville

Superboy by way of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Smallville retold the early years of Clark Kent (Tom Welling) before he became Superman. The early seasons intertwined a monster of the week formula with teen drama, making Superman hip for early aughts kids.

As Smallville went on for ten seasons, the fun of the ride became seeing how the normal pieces of Superman fell into place one by one. Clark begins the series being friends with Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), but of course that slowly falls apart.

He falls in love with the girl next door, Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk), but everyone knows that’s not meant to be — not when Lois Lane (Erica Durance) enters the picture.

By the final seasons, Smallville had shed any reticence towards its comic book roots and dove headfirst into the strange and vast world of DC: the Justice Society, the New Gods, the Legion of Superheroes, etc. It may have still been called Smallville but it had become much more.

 10. Superman: The Animated Series

Speaking of Superman, the original Fleischer Studios Superman cartoon shorts defined the character and set the template for future superhero cinema. The series that comes the closest to recapturing them is the 1990s Superman: The Animated Series, overseen by Bruce Timm and co.

Timm’s character designs evoked those 1940s Superman shorts, but Superman: The Animated Series brought the Man of Steel into the contemporary world. Metropolis was a modern city if not one of the future; the series often delved into science-fiction plots, from clones gone awry to alien invaders.

If only one part of the show left its mark on history, it’s easily Clancy Brown’s unforgettable performance as arch-villain Lex Luthor: confident, cunning, brilliant, but with the touch of thwarted arrogance that defines Luthor.

9. The Batman (2004)

There are a lot of Batman cartoons out there, and one of the more inventive and dynamic is 2004’s The Batman. The basics are all there; Bruce Wayne/Batman (Rino Romano) protects Gotham City from its superstitious and cowardly lot of criminals.

Many of those criminals, though, look a bit different than usual. The Batman‘s art design, courtesy of Jeff Matsuda, is its main draw; it’s slick and sharp with an anime twinge but still recognizably Batman. 

The Batman slowly becomes a more traditional show, bringing in Batgirl, Robin, and finally, the Justice League, but it remains superbly entertaining and action-packed up to the series finale.

8. Harley Quinn

Harley Quinn is DC’s most unexpected success story. From a minor Batman villain to one of the setting’s pre-eminent stars, it was only a matter of time before she got her own TV show.

Harley Quinn (now in its fifth season on Max) is a lot like Harley (Kaley Cuoco) herself; spunky, irreverent, and full of energy. The show features Miss Quinn, having just dumped Mistah J (Alan Tudyk), trying to prove herself and become Gotham’s greatest super-villain.

She recruits a team to help her, foremost among them her moodier best friend (and future girlfriend) Poison Ivy, voiced by Lake Bell. Harley Quinn turns the DC universe into an R-rated parody of itself, and the results are so hilarious and fun.

7. Young Justice

Young Justice is a show about the Justice League’s sidekicks forming their own team, trying to prove their worth as heroes. Sounds simple, right? It is in some ways, but the show doesn’t stop there. It’s one of the most comprehensive adaptations of DC Comics, leaving as many stones turned over as it can.

The series begins with a six-member team, but that number keeps growing. The show balances an enormous, world-spanning ensemble of heroes and villains, written with the maturity and deftness you’d expect from Gargoyles creator Greg Weisman.

The centering of the young heroes is more than a kid-friendly gimmick; Young Justice is a generational saga about one of the most fantastical fictional universes.

6. Watchmen

Watchmen writes itself as a sequel to the iconic comic by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the most famous “what if superheroes were real” story out there. The original Watchmen was bracingly political, tied to Cold War-era feelings that the world might end in fire.

Watchmen, as continued by Damon Lindelof, pushes the original comic’s alternate history conceit further, showing an alternate world where the U.S. government is more proactively making amends for racism. So, reactionary forces are pushing back against those reparations just as hard.

Like the original, Watchmen is episodic even as it tells a multi-part story; each episode stands on its own terms. Both the original characters, such as Regina King’s Angela, and the returning ones, like Jean Smart’s Laurie — the former Silk Spectre — leave an impression worthy of the original story.

5. Batman: The Brave and the Bold

The Brave and the Bold was a DC comic in which every issue was a team-up of two or more heroes. Batman: The Brave and the Bold revived that premise as a cartoon, featuring the Caped Crusader (Diedrich Bader) team up with a different guest star every episode. 

The regular rotating cast included Blue Beetle, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and more. The series employed a two-in-one episode structure: a brief cold open featuring Batman teaming up with one hero before the longer team-up with another hero begins.

Due to the many guest stars, this Batman ventured far outside Gotham City and into the more outlandish corners of DC comics. This was a show unafraid to go all out; it even did a musical episode, “Mayhem of the Music Meister,” during its first season.

The show’s tentpole was just as endearing as the guest stars and wild stories—Bader was perfectly cast as a less broody but still uptight Batman.

4. Teen Titans

One of the most beloved Cartoon Network programs ever, Teen Titans followed the five-person team of Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Raven, and Beast Boy as they enjoyed the life any kid wants: no school, living with your friends, and no parents, plus you get to be a superhero!

Developed by Glenn Murakami, Teen Titans took the best-selling 1980s comic run (by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez) and combined it with an anime-infused style. The J-Pop theme song is the icing on the cake.

So while Teen Titans is an action show, it’s just as much a comedy. The show was most anime-ish when it came to the characters’ exaggerated reactions, usually signified by a shift to a simplified art style.

That’s not to say it couldn’t be dramatic when needed; season 2 adapted the dark comic storyline The Judas Contract about a traitor in the Titan ranks.

3. Batman (1966)

Batman defined what “comic book” means to a generation. While pop culture has moved past its campy approach, the show remains important and is more than a cultural artifact.

It’s important to remember that the show accurately portrayed the Batman comics of the 1950s and 1960s. It brought them to life with a touch of absurdist comedy, but not in a demeaning fashion.

The show’s infamous onomatopoeia sound effects, “bam!” or “pow!” for every punch Batman lands, are even a fun way of rendering comic books’ lettered sound effects onscreen.

Adam West and Burt Ward are unforgettable together as a dynamic duo, no matter how hard more serious Batman stories try to leave their takes in the past.

2. Justice League Unlimited

The culmination of a decade of DC animation, Justice League united comics’ greatest heroes back onscreen — but this wasn’t your dad’s Superfriends. Episodic and action-packed, the show found a balance of character in an ensemble where every member risks hogging the screen.

The show employed an innovative trick by making every episode a two-or-three parter, allowing the series to tell stories with depth and structure usually off-limits to 20-minute animation. The follow-up series Justice League Unlimited dropped this, but it made up for it with an even bigger ensemble (each episode highlighting a handful of them) and more mature, serialized writing. 

The Project Cadmus arc, where the U.S. government begins developing contingency plans for if the Justice League tries to cease control, is the high point of that. It informed the show’s young audience about the civil liberties issues of the day (there’s literally an episode called “Patriot Act”) while never growing dull.

1. Batman: The Animated Series

It had to be this. 30+ years after it first premiered, Batman: The Animated Series continues to be held up as a great achievement in American animation and the definitive take on Batman. 

It’s the most well-executed take on “classical” Batman, featuring all the essential villains and just the right tone; adventurous but gothic, and dark but not pretentious. Designed to look right out of the 1930s, Batman: The Animated Series had an art deco look mixed with film noir storytelling.

The downright inimitable performances by Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill as the Joker have likewise helped the show maintain its legacy.

The show was so good that it broke the usually ironclad 65-episode limit for cartoons, getting 20 additional episodes and then 24 more thanks to the sequel series The New Batman Adventures. Among those 109, there are precious few rocks and plenty of diamonds to select.

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What is your favorite DC Comics TV show? Let us know in the comments!

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