THE FIVE BEST SUPERHERO SHOWS EVER

1. Watchmen HBO, 2019

Damon Lindelof’s take on the iconic Eighties deconstruction of superheroes had masked cops battling white supremacists, time travel, murdered clones, and all kinds of wild ideas that had no business fitting together, but did. By not copying the story of the original Watchmen, Lindelof re-created its magic.

2. Batman ABC, 1966-68

The camp classic was briefly a mod sensation, then spent decades viewed as a joke fans were eager to erase from existence. Eventually, it was reappraised for the joy that it was rather than the dour slog so many modern Bat stories had become. Who do you want saving your life: a gruff ball of angst, or a hero who’ll dance the Batusi with you?

3. Daredevil Netflix, 2015-18 Jessica Jones’ psychologically taut first season was the high point of the uneven run of Netflix Marvel shows, but Daredevil was more consistently good thanks to memorable villains like Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin and some of the most impressively choreographed fight scenes ever put on TV.

4. Legends of Tomorrow

CW, 2016-present

The DC Comics shows are best when they remember to be fun, not angsty. Even after a forgettable debut season, no other Arrow spinoffs have been nearly as light or charming as this tale of heroes traveling through time to fix their mistakes.

5. The Middleman

ABC Family, 2008

An unjustly forgotten but delightful show about a woman who joins a secret agency tasked with protecting the world from aliens, intelligent apes who quote the Godfather films, and . . . a cursed tuba from the Titanic?

Imagine the happiest parts of Batman ’66, Buffy, and The Tick thrown into a blender. Put it on Disney+ already!