Swamp Thing. Cancelled For All The Wrong Reasons.

First thing we heard after the news dropped that the Swamp Thing series had been cancelled before the second episode even aired was that the reason was financial.  As awful as the thought that accountancy and miscalculation was the reason we lost an innovative comic book property was, it seems that the real reason was even less palatable.

Admittedly, this is one of those "no one will confirm this" stories, but it rings true enough that I'm thinking its more true than not.  The word on the street is that the real reason Swamp Thing got the axe was that it didn't fit the corporate view of a comic book super hero show.  Apparently, the upper, upper echelon of Warner Bros (like the offices above the DC executives offices) didn't like the (how was this a surprise?) fact that Swamp Thing wasn't a procedural super hero show like Arrow or The Flash.

It lines up with the rumor that Warner Bros might be looking to fold the DC Universe streaming service into the soon to roll out WarnerMedia streaming service.  What makes DC Universe so appealing as a stream is the idea that there's a comic book centric platform that is made with fans of the genre in mind.  To consolidate it with the parent company's stream just takes the bite right out of it.  Not a surprise, but a cryin' shame.

When it was announced that Marvel parent Disney was to gain control of Fox, including returning the Marvel properties that Fox held (X-Men, Deadpool and Fantastic Four, plus their supporting characters and villains) a LOT of fans jumped for joy.  My own reaction was more guarded.  Marvel drops 3 movies a year and Fox has been producing 2 or 3 Marvel property based movies a year as well.  Does anyone really see Disney putting out 5 or 6 Marvel movies a year going forward?  Not likely.  While it's nice that we will see a Marvel universe that has access to pretty much every Marvel character to play with, we won't see more Marvel but less in the long run.

My bet is that if the WarnerMedia stream sucks up DC Universe, the same will be true.  Warner will likely have a budget and plan for X number of original programs for the stream and the number of DC shows will be a small percentage of that number.  Given the tendency of corporate entities like Warner Bros to prefer tried and true formulaic shows over risky out of the box shows like Swamp Thing, we're in for an era of comic book shows that all look and feel very, very familiar.  It'll be assembly line, CW style stuff until the public loses interest in the genre.

It's troubling.  If my prediction is correct, the eventual waning interest in whatever DC properties run on Warner's stream will give the powers that be the excuse to drop expensive super hero productions in favour of cheaper to produce cops, lawyers and reality junk.  It's a self fulfilling prophecy that is easy to see coming.

Being right will NOT make me happy.  At all.