Why December 2024 is a Pivotal Month for the DC Universe

The first week of December is often very stressful as people prepare for the holidays. The first week of December 2024 was both exciting and bittersweet for fans of DC Comics adaptations, as the end of one legendary chapter in DC adaptation history came to a close, and another exciting era began. The series finale of Superman & Lois aired on The CW on December 2, 2024, marking an end for not just the CW Arrowverse that began back with Arrow in 2012 but also the era of superhero television that began with Smallville more than 20 years ago. Three days later, fans were given their first entry into James Gunn and Peter Safran’s bold new interconnected DCU with Creature Commandos, debuting on Max.

This certainly left fans with some emotional whiplash, as they were still mourning the end of a meaningful era that shaped many of DC’s most popular characters and introduced them to a broader audience while also being excited for what possibilities the future would hold in a new shared universe. This is more healthy to balance both in one’s heart than to immediately reject anything new or the opposite of disregarding everything that came beforehand. December 2024, or DCember if you will, is a big moment for the brand — farewell to the CW DC television shows and hello to the DCU.

Over Two Decades of DC Television Legacy Came to a Conclusion

Superman & Lois was initially conceived as part of The Arrowverse, an interconnected universe of DC series that aired on The CW. It began in 2012 with Arrow and quickly grew over time to encompass series like The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, and Batwoman. Seeds for Superman & Lois had been planted in Supergirl and the crossover event Crisis on Infinite Earths in 2019. Yet by the time the series debuted on The CW in 2021, it had shifted to its separate universe that featured the same actors as Superman and Lois Lane from the Arrowverse.

Crisis on Infinite Earths truly was the peak of The Arrowverse’s popularity, and shortly after, the series began to come to an end. Arrow wrapped up shortly after Crisis on Infinite Earths in 2020, with Black Lightning concluding in 2021. 2022 saw the end of Supergirl and the cancelation of Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman. By 2023, The Flash was the only remaining Arrowverse series on the air when it concluded its nine-season run.

Yet, the CW still has other DC series like Superman & Lois, Gotham Knights, and Stargirl. However, Stargirl concluded its three-season run later that year, and Gotham Knights was canceled after one season. Superman & Lois remained the last DC series on The CW and, sadly, was caught in a storm of corporate changeover in the leadership of The CW, which Nexstar acquired, and new changes at Warner Bros. and DC that seemingly wanted to only have one Superman in the market for 2025 and the decision was made to end Superman & Lois after four seasons.

Despite Superman & Lois not being part of the Arrowverse, the fact that its two lead stars originated the characters in that franchise made the finale of Superman & Lois feel more like the franchise’s proper ending than The Flash did in 2023. Despite the Arrowverse seemingly being over for a year, Superman & Lois‘ touching finale of seeing Clark Kent and Lois Lane grow old together felt like the true goodbye to the franchise.

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Yet it also marked the end of another major landmark, as Superman & Lois‘s conclusion marks one of the first times in The CW’s history that it will not have a DC superhero show in its programming schedule. The CW launched in September 2006 as a merger between The WB and UPN, and when that happened, it inherited legacy shows from both networks, notably Smallville. Smallville debuted Season 6 on the new CW network and ran for the remainder of its 10-season run.

Smallville concluded in May 2011, and within a year, work on a new DC superhero show began: Arrow. Arrow debuted on The CW in October 2012, one year after Smallville concluded and started a new era of DC television that ran until Superman & Lois. Given that Smallville began in 2001 on The WB, that means that, with the brief exception of the 2011 to 2012 television season, for over 23 years, WB’s major network had a DC superhero show on the air.

It feels fitting that the era began with a series about a young Clark Kent growing up to become Superman in Smallville, while the show that brought the legacy to a close was a series about Clark Kent and Lois Lane returning to raise their sons on a farm in Smallville, and giving Superman a final goodbye. Audiences saw the birth, life, and death of the character of Superman on The WB/CW for over 23 years, bringing the legacy to a fitting close. There could not be a better series to close out The Arrowverse’s legacy and The WB/CW history with DC Comics than Superman & Lois.

When One Door Closes, Another One Opens for DC

Superman & Lois marked the end of two eras, but before the dust had settled, the machine was already in motion in the first chapter of the DCU: Creature Commandos. Creature Commandos is an adult-oriented animated series based on a lesser-known comic that originated in the 1980s. It is also the beginning of what James Gunn has dubbed ‘Chapter 1 – Gods and Monsters’, the first part in the new interconnected DC Universe. Gunn’s plans are ambitious as he looks to create an interconnected universe of projects across film, live-action television, animated series, and video games.

Whereas the Marvel Cinematic Universe only recently got into fully integrating their television series as part of their shared universe, The DCU is starting out from the get-go with the animated Creature Commandos being the introduction to this new interconnected universe that will continue in Superman, Peacemaker Season 2, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, Lanterns and more.

This is a significant change of pace for DC, who for years separated the television and film divisions so much that if a movie of a character was in development, a live-action series could not be made, hence why neither Batman nor Wonder Woman appeared on Smallville but characters like Green Arrow and Aquaman did. The Arrowverse and The DCEU were running alongside each other for years, with the only crossover being a brief cameo by Ezra Miller in Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Arrowverse didn’t even get acknowledged in The Flash, a movie that features various multiverse cameos.

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Creature Commandos start is a big turning point for DC, one where the boundaries between mediums like live-action and animation or film and television won’t keep this universe apart but united. It is also exciting to think of being at the start of something new, a new universe with limitless potential. For as fun as the intricate story that the MCU has crafted over the years, it, along with long-running franchises like Star Wars, Marvel, and Pokémon, can sometimes feel limiting creatively and also daunting to get into.

The DCU is a new starting point where the potential is limitless. Which heroes will appear, and what actors will be cast to bring them to life? What stories will be adapted? This is the similar excitement comic book fans felt when publishing initiatives like Marvel’s Ultimate line, DC’s New 52, or even the recent DC Absolute Power. Everything is new, and nobody knows what will happen.

The first week of December 2024 might not feel like a big deal at the moment, but this will likely be a week many fans look back on and remember as a turning point. Superman & Lois will likely be regarded as one of the best depictions of Superman ever and as a high mark in DC television, regardless of it being connected to other stories. With its conclusion, it passed the baton on to James Gunn’s new DCU, which starts with Creature Commandos and will continue seven months later with the release of Superman, which is being hailed as the proper start of the DCU.

Whereas past transitions in DC were marked by a “Crisis” event in the comics or an abrupt cancelation of a film franchise, fans were treated with a proper goodbye for one era in DC’s history with a great finale while also getting the chance to warmly embrace a new beginning with an excellent two-episode premiere that hints at an exciting future or as Superman likes to say, “a better tomorrow.” Creature Commandos is streaming on Max.