Best Superhero TV Series Of All Time, Ranked

Summary

• Superhero TV shows offer a unique way to explore characters closer to their original comic book roots.
• Series like Smallville, Loki, Jessica Jones, and Arrow have successfully brought superheroes to life on TV.
• Animated shows like Young Justice and X-Men: The Animated Series have also made a significant impact in the superhero TV genre.

There have been a huge number of television shows throughout the history of the medium that focus on the adventures of various beloved superheroes. Although cinematic offerings have become the more popular way to showcase superheroes in recent years, television arguably works better for presenting the characters in a more similar way to their original comic book counterparts.

From the golden era of superhero shows decades ago to the animated popularity of the 90s, and the newest shows that have come with the wave of films, superhero shows never vanished entirely. These series are just some of the vast number of beloved shows that have kept entire fandoms reading comic books at different times.

10

Smallville

The Standard Bearer For Modern Superheroes

• Ran From 2001-2011
• Ran For 217 Episodes
• Created By Alfred Gough & Miles Millar
• Starring: Tom Welling, Allison Mack & Michael Rosenbaum

Superman is a standard-bearer for superheroes over the years but has been so prominent in television that a long-running series was a difficult idea to pull off in 2001. Instead of just doing a normal Superman story, this difficulty prompted a series focusing on the adventures of a teenage Clark Kent finding his way as a hero, prior to truly becoming Superman.

This take on the mythos, which spread far from just being about Clark and included much of the DC Universe in one form or another, saw many amazing stories. The freedom of not being part of a universe of any kind really freed Smallville up, allowing it to become a much more wide-spanning show compared to many of its contemporaries, and its legacy remains that of an untarnished piece of excellence in the genre.

9

Loki

The Height Of MCU Television

• Ran From 2021-2023
• Ran For 12 Episodes
• Created By Michael Waldron
• Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino & Jonathan Majors

Although the MCU has received some pushback from the large number of series added to the huge franchise through Disney Plus, this hasn’t stopped a couple of individual shows from achieving greatness. The most notable is Loki, which sounded from the get-go like a vanity project set to show off Tom Hiddleston’s character because of his major role in the MCU up to that point.

If the show was a grand finale for the character within the MCU, it couldn’t have been a better one. It rounded Loki off as a hero and God with the kind of glorious purpose he’d always sought. Though it remains to be seen if the show also ended the threat of Kang the Conqueror, it was truly fantastic, particularly in the second season, reminding fans that the MCU is well capable of producing phenomenal television.

8

Marvel’s Jessica Jones

A Different Breed Of Superhero

• Ran From 2015-2019
• Ran For 39 Episodes
• Created By Melissa Rosenberg
• Starring: Krysten Ritter, Rachael Taylor & Eka Darville

Part of Netflix’s original attempt to create shows that could fit into the MCU before Disney Plus ever existed, Jessica Jones starred Krysten Ritter as a gritty detective with superpowers in the perfect kind of street-level series for the genre. The monstrous turn by David Tennant in the first season as the villainous Kilgrave was one of the major factors in bringing about huge success and love for this series.

Exploring the idea of why somebody would want to turn away from the life of a superhero, Jessica Jones showcased great characters, conjoined with The Defenders, and featuring a great deal of heartbreak from Jessica’s brutal past to themes of addiction and Trish’s severe fall from grace in the third season.

7

Batman

The Original Caped Crusader

• Ran From 1966-1968
• Ran For 120 Episodes
• Created By William Dozier
• Starring: Adam West, Burt Ward & Alan Napier

There are few shows that can claim to have the style, flair or long-lasting impact that the original Batman series from 1966 had. Featuring Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin, and featuring iconic takes on many of the Batman villains still well-known today, this show was a true triumph.

Resulting in a film as well as a series, and remaining iconic for its campy style and humor, Batman is a beloved classic series. The show used many comic tropes, including the style that comics featured at the time, and making most stories two or three parts spread over several episodes. Adam West’s take on the character remains one of the most loved of all time, despite the character’s darker nature becoming more popular in recent years.

6

Young Justice

The Best Of DC’s Animated Team-Up Shows

• Ran From 2010-2022
• Ran For 99 Episodes
• Created By Brandon Vietti & Greg Weisman
• Starring: Nolan North, Danica McKellar & Jesse McCartney

The animated side of superhero television is too often overlooked. Incredible series have come from both Marvel and DC, including Young Justice. This show, featuring sidekicks and younger versions of heroes from the Justice League, saw the youthful group operating outside the limits of other, more established teams.

Now that Young Justice has finally gotten the sort of conclusion it deserved, the show can be viewed as an amazing whole. With each season very much telling a separate story and being unique in identity, Young Justice is a great example of how B characters can create an A plus show.

5

Arrow

The Flagship For An Entire Universe

• Ran From 2012-2020
• Ran For 170 Episodes
• Created By Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim & Andrew Kreisberg
• Starring: Stephen Amell, David Ramsey & Emily Bett Rickards

The Arrowverse, as it came to be known, was the best thing for an entire decade in superhero television. The series began in 2012 and ran for eight seasons while featuring several successful spin-off series, multiple huge crossover episodes, and managing to become the focal point for an entire superhero universe that some fans called better than the DCEU which was starting at around the same time.

Without heroes like Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman (almost) ever showing up, the Arrowverse focused on lesser heroes, had major season-long villains and briefer stories, and managed to pull off some amazing concepts. Arrow itself had the perfect blend of comic-book elements with a more serious, grounded style that kept the show running for much longer than most superhero shows manage.

4

The Boys

The Ultimate Work In Superhero Deconstruction

• Ran From 2019-Present
• Ran For 40 Episodes
• Created By Eric Kripke
• Starring: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid & Erin Moriarty

Although it isn’t set within DC or Marvel, that fact has only worked in the favor of The Boys. Based on the Dynamite Entertainment comic series, The Boys features a superhero group similar to the Justice League, but in a world where the heroes are uncaring Gods and media phenomenons who do no actual hero work.

The series has evolved constantly and featured the adventures of the group trying to bring down characters like the terrifying Homelander. As the series approaches its final season, the political overtones and social themes have continued to help it stay relevant and on top of the trending lists every time a new season is released.

3

X-Men: The Animated Series

The Classic Beloved Take On Mutants

• Ran From 1992-1997
• Ran For 76 Episodes
• Created By: Larry Houston, Eric Lewald & Julia Lewald
• Starring: Cedric Smith, George Buza & Cal Dodd

There are few shows, particularly animated ones, that make such an impact on a generation that they are revived decades later. However, the recent X-Men ‘97 series has done just that, continuing the adventures of this classic animated show which delighted audiences and showcased the X-Men on the screen arguably better than anything else has done to date.

Not only did this series run through many different social issues like religion, divorce and racism, it also told amazing versions of several major X-Men storylines, like Apocalypse, the Savage Lands, and the Dark Phoenix, while other major villains like Magneto and Mr Sinister appeared in many different stories. The vast cast of characters and famous history make this show a slam dunk every week, and it remains highly watchable for any comic lover.

2

Marvel’s Daredevil

The Most Astounding Marvel Property

• Ran From 2015-2018
• Ran For 39 Episodes
• Created By Drew Goddard
• Starring: Charlie Cox, Deborah Ann Woll & Elden Henson

The undoubted highlight of the Netflix era of Marvel shows was the legendary run as Charlie Cox in the role of Daredevil. Between astounding one-shot fight scenes, fantastic stories about the origin of a hero, the rivalry with the Punisher and the return as a broken hero, the three seasons of Daredevil were all simply breathtaking.

So powerful it led to a previously unplanned Punisher spin-off series, Daredevil headlined the Defenders team, and both Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk reprised their roles in other MCU projects which can’t be said of anyone else from the Netflix series. The show is also being reborn in Daredevil: Born Again, which is a triumph for fans and the showrunners alike, proving the legacy of this show to be simply massive.

1

Batman: The Animated Series

The Ultimate Form Of Superhero Television

• Ran From 1992-1995
• Ran For 85 Episodes
• Created By: Bruce Timm & Eric Radomski
• Starring: Kevin Conroy, Efrem Zimbalist Jr & Bob Hastings

Animation allows superhero series to do things that would otherwise take huge budgets. Batman: The Animated Series made use of the form to create the most complete and beloved version of a superhero and their mythos that has ever been shown off on-screen. A comic book brought to life, this established Batman as fans know him today in many ways.

To see the true legacy of this series, fans have to look no further than Harley Quinn, who wasn’t actually created in a comic book but made her way there after being an original creation for the animated series. The show defined many characters with versions that permeated through every form of Batman stories, brought adult themes to an animated show, and paved the way for animated television to evolve hugely. It also saw the creation of the DCAU and legendary voice performances from the likes of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill.