While superheroes are undoubtedly popular at the box office, the archetype has also been a huge hit on television, and 2022 is no exception. Superheroes may not dominate television discourse the way they do films, but there are nonetheless more superhero-related products on the air than at any point in time. Now no longer the icons of the printed page, audiences can tune into a variety of streaming platforms and see superheroes come to life week after week in both live-action and animation.
2022 saw the Marvel Cinematic Universe continue its Disney+ expansion with three new television series, the DCU finally premiered its first television series, popular comics finally got small screen adaptations, while many fan-favorites took a bow for their final season, with some canceled prematurely before given the proper time to write a conclusion. With 2022 almost over, and Doom Patrolseason four set to premiere, take a look back at the best superhero series of 2022.
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9 Young Justice: Phantoms Part 2
Warner Bros. Animation
Young Justice: Phantoms was the fourth season of the popular animated series based around various sidekicks in the DC Universe. The first half of the season aired in 2021 with the last episode of Part 1 airing on December 30, 2021. Part 2 picked up on March 31, 2022, and ran until June 9. The second half of the season features three story arcs focusing on Aqualad, Rocket, and Dick Grayson’s Nightwing culminating in an epic final battle between General Zod and his Phantom Zone forces against the various DC heroes.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
The series has reportedly been canceled for the second time, yet the final moments of Young Justice: Phantoms provide a fitting conclusion, as Superboy and Miss Martian, the main couple since the beginning of the series, finally tie the knot. While there is a tease for an upcoming threat at the end, the wedding provides a nice finale to the series, reminding the audience that no matter what dangers lie ahead, the good moments will always shine through.
8 Baymax
Disney+
Disney+ released all six episodes of Baymax on June 29, 2022. The series picks up after the events of Big Hero 6 and sees Baymax using his nursing programming to help various people around his community. While at first the episodes all seem separated, the final episode brings all the plot threads together to show how much of an impact Baymax has had on people’s lives.
As a series, Baymax shows what it means to be a hero in everyday life. Baymax isn’t a hero because of his super suit, but because he can be there for a young girl who needs him during a difficult time or can believe in someone when they can’t believe in themselves. Baymax was a different type of superhero show, but one more should aspire to be.
7 Harley Quinn Season 3
HBO Max
The adult animated series Harley Quinn returned for a third season much to the delight of many fans who were fearful the series would be canceled after season two. Harley Quinn picks up after season two with Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy now a couple, and the series digs into how these two work together and shows the fun if sometimes difficult struggles of being in a healthy relationship. The series continues its great trend of reimagining classic DC characters in humorous ways from Swamp Thing to The Court of Owls.
The biggest creative swing Harley Quinn does is pivoting Batman as the season’s central antagonist, and because of its tone and central character, the show is able to dig into the Batman persona in a way other adaptations cannot. Harley Quinn continues to shine as a fun absurd take on the DC Universe that can be both hilarious while being heartfelt.
6 Stargirl Season 3
The CW
Stargirl season three was recently confirmed to be the series’ final season, and while that is disappointing as it felt like the series still had plenty of stories left to tell with its great cast and colorful mythology, Stargirl season three does bring the series to a fitting conclusion. Stargirl now must come face to face with the original Starman and question her place in the world, and reaffirm that she was never just a placeholder but a hero in her own right.
With a season focusing on many former villains turning into heroic allies because of the good-hearted nature of the main hero, Stargirl reaffirms an old fashion notion of superheroism that remembers that these characters are figures meant to inspire. Stargirl may have had room to grow, but it went out with a strong three-season arc of a girl finding out that not only was she a superhero, but her greatest superpower was her compassion.
5 The Boys Season 3
The Boys season three managed to both up the ante in terms of gore, sex, and shock value it also continued the series trend of using the modern superhero to hold up a mirror to current political issues. The Boys tackled toxic masculinity, the current political divide in the United States, and how cancel culture truly does not impact those with real power. The addition of Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy was a great touch and truly made for an epic showdown between two forms of evil that the title characters do not quite think through.
The stage is set for an exciting status quo shake-up in season 4 that will push the show in more fascinating directions. The Boys is much more than R-rated superheroes, or “this is what superheroes would really be like” but like any good superhero story uses the archetypes to tell a topical story about the world in which it is created.
4 Ms. Marvel
Marvel Studios
Ms. Marvel is a good old fashion superhero series, with its closest comparison being the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films or recently 2019’s Shazam. The show introduced audiences to a new hero, Khamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel. Thanks to the star-making performance by star Iman Vellani, Ms. Marvel immediately won audiences by offering a unique Pakistanian-American girl experience to the superhero story that was so culturally specific that it becomes universal.
Ms. Marvel very much is an audience surrogate for a generation who has grown up with the MCU as the dominant blockbuster franchise, with a combination of great humor while also having a deeply moving personal story about culture, identity, and embracing who one is. Ms. Marvel will next appear in The Marvels, but with how great her series was here is hoping season two is also planned for the future.
3 She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
Disney Platform Distribution
She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, like the title character and her cousin, smashed the conventions of what a Marvel Cinematic Universe entry could be (and was divisive as a result). The series had a great sense of humor and well-rounded characters, with Tatiana Maslany’s performance as Jennifer Walters being an immediate standout in the wider MCU. The series was the first MCU series since WandaVision to truly embrace its status as a television series, telling fun stand-alone episodes while also using each one to tell a larger story about a woman discovering who she wants to be and taking control of her own narrative.
The season finale smashes the fourth wall in a way that could have sunk another show but kept the tone and spirit of the She-Hulk character, making it not only the best MCU series of 2022, but one of the best entries in the franchise.
2 The Sandman
Netflix
While technically not a superhero series in the traditional sense, The Sandman is an adaptation of a popular DC/Vertigo Comic, which itself is a reinvention of a Golden Age DC superhero. The Sandman was years in the making, and when it finally hit Netflix in August 2022 it was a dream come true to many.
Lovingly translated from the original comics while also reworking the series for the sake of an adaptation, The Sandman captured the imagination of not just hardcore fans but new audiences as well to become one of the biggest series of the year. The bonus episode released two weeks following its premiere showed just how creative the series could be and audiences are eagerly awaiting the release of season two.
1 Peacemaker
WarnerMedia Direct
Peacemaker was the superhero series that kicked off 2022 and, despite some admirable competition, could not be topped as the best superhero series of 2022. The show’s delightful opening credits would earn it a spot on this list alone. Peacemaker embraces its smaller, cheaper budget and uses it to its advantage, showing an everyday side of the DCU that gets overlooked in the movies for the more fantastical sites of Atlantis, Gotham, and Kahndaq. This is a world filled with shopping malls, chain restaurants, and suburban houses that highlight the absurdness of the costumes. It does all this while telling an extremely topical story about the evils of white supremacy, the ethics of mercenary black ops teams, and what can someone who has done bad things be good.
Writer and director James Gunn, along with a cast led by John Cena, managed to take one of the biggest villains from the 2021 film The Suicide Squad and give him a level of pathos and reliability that make him one of the most well-rounded and defined heroes in the DCU. It is no wonder Warner Bros. appointed Gunn to lead the DCU franchise into the future.
