From ‘Superman & Lois’ To ‘Daredevil’, Here Are The 7 Best Superhero TV Show Finales Of All Time
The success of Amazon’s Gen V and The Boys, DCU’s Peacemaker, and the MCU’s Daredevil: Born Again has ignited speculation of the resurgence of the golden age of Superhero TV. However, most shows blow their popularity at the very end when creators fail to capture the value of episodes of character development and world-building, resulting in forgettable endings.
While unplanned cancellation is to blame for most inconclusive endings, it is also disappointing that most successful shows get dragged way beyond their natural life, making it difficult to end them effectively. Multiple hit shows have still managed to end on a high note, retaining the relevance of their plot into their final episode. From emotional goodbyes and superheroes passing on the baton to epic battles that leave fans heartbroken but satisfied all at once, here is a look at the 10 superhero shows with the most memorable final episodes.
The Umbrella Academy – “End of the Beginning”
RELATED: From General Zod To Bizarro, Here Are The 6 Most Misunderstood Superman Villains
Based on Gerard Way’s comic books, The Umbrella Academy follows seven adoptive siblings from the dysfunctional Hargreeves family whose journey into super-heroism is a result of twisted manipulations of reality by their billionaire father. In the show, the siblings spend their entire lives jumping between timelines to rewrite their father’s mistakes to prevent an apocalypse.
The show’s dark premise and intricate storyline brought one of the most interesting original superhero stories to life across a four-season run. As expected, the Season four finale, “End of the Beginning,” proved divisive as the superheroes met a heroic but equally tragic ending. The finale clarifies the show’s greatest conflict, explaining why the threat doesn’t go away no matter how many timelines the siblings save. In the end, all seven superheroes painfully make the ultimate sacrifice, leading to a bittersweet ending, but one that conclusively resolves the show’s main plot while keeping all main characters relevant.
Superman & Lois – “It Went By So Fast”
This show was the survivor of CW’s Arrowverse, taking the story of Superman into his old age, a feat no Superman film or show had attempted in the past. After successfully delinking the show from the bedevilled Arrowverse, the creators carved their own path away from Earth-Prime, creating a universe where Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman and his little family fight familiar threats, but on his own terms. The show built up nicely for the finale, putting everything in place for an epic battle with an unpredictable ending.
The fourth season’s final episode brings the Kent family together in battle against the dual threat of Lex Luthor and Doomsday, with the strongest version of each villain on display. Although weakened, Superman, relying on a human heart, puts up his best display yet. Most importantly, the episode brings Superman’s whole family on board, allowing the two Kent boys to taste real battle before their father retires, proving that Superman’s death doesn’t leave the Earth defenseless, marking a dream ending for any Superman family.
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier – “One World One People”
The second show by Marvel Entertainment, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, is the MCU show that established Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) as the new Captain America. The show delivered on its promise, doing everything to prove the point that Steve Rogers leaving the role didn’t mean the end of the character. With America needing its hero in the face of a terrorist attack and instability after the Blip, Captain America had to regain relevance quickly if the character was to play a role in the MCU’s future.
With just six episodes to deliver, its character development had to be rapid as conflict intensified quickly, pushing Wilson to his full potential within the first few episodes. As expected, contemporary issues play a role in the buildup, but the show doesn’t lose focus on the main plot. Marvel continued their habit of using the finale to build up the MCU’s upcoming films and shows. However, the finale, “One World One People,” does justice to the show’s main plot, giving Sam Wilson a battle worthy of Captain America and a largely satisfactory ending.
The Penguin – “A Great or Little Thing”
Matt Reeves’s Batverse scored a real gem in the Colin Farrell-led show, which produced the best version of one of Batmanman’s most hated Gotham mobsters. The show started by endearing fans to The Penguin, bringing his resilience and even a touch of tenderness to light, leading viewers to believe that he may not be so evil after all. The show’s entire build-up gets fans to root for Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone and Rhenzy Feliz’s Vic as fellow underdogs up against an evil world alongside The Penguin.
Then came The Penguin’s crowning moment, as the finale was supposed to be, which turned into the most gut-wrenching of endings as the grey line fades and the lead character’s redeeming qualities vanish completely. The Penguin is reborn as a monster in the finale, killing the only loyal friend he had left and embracing the very life of the evil mob bosses he just eliminated. Batman remains the ultimate hero of the Batverse, and the show gave fans every reason to want Batman to take The Penguin down, making it one of the most befitting endings to a superhero show in recent years.
X-Men: The Animated Series – “Graduation Day”
X-Men ’97 has quickly become the MCU’s most popular animated series, but that is mostly because it largely rides on this memorable finale. Running from 1992 to 1997, X-Men: The Animated Series brought Professor Xavier and his students to life in a gripping tale. Tensions between humans and mutants continue growing throughout the show’s five seasons, with Xavier becoming the voice of reason, encouraging coexistence, while Magneto is a little extreme and prefers a mutant uprising.
In the finale, Xavier gets incapacitated when an anti-mutant activist, Henry Peter Gyrich, explodes an energy disruptor that only affects mutants. However, while on his deathbed, the real impact of his years of training emerges as his students come together, not just to save him, but to continue his work of ensuring coexistence between humans and mutants. His message, “understanding and compassion must continue even after we are gone,” has remained the guiding light of the X-Men right into their new era in the MCU over two decades later.
Daredevil – “A New Napkin”
Daredevil: Born Again is another MCU show that has benefited immensely from a well-executed superhero show finale. It was largely the most successful of the Netflix shows, which have since folded into the MCU after Marvel Television ended its partnership with the streaming giant. The show established Matt Murdock as the ultimate street hero of Hell’s Kitchen, beating criminals silly while keeping his warm, close-knit circle of friends safe.
The underlying theme of the show, peace through restraint, reverberates throughout the show; its full potential comes in the finale when Murdock takes on Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) in the show’s most epic battles. After he has taken so much from him, the stakes are high going into the finale, with fans expecting Daredevil to break and finally give in to the darkness, but the episode becomes a purification moment as the hero is only reborn, leading to the new beginning that birthed Daredevil: Born Again.
Watchmen – “See How They Fly”
Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen quickly became one of the most interesting superhero shows in modern history despite embracing a simple, slow-burning approach to an explosive narrative with super-high stakes. On the surface, the show is all about a police officer turned vigilante trying to stop a white supremacist terrorist group in Tulsa, Oklahoma. However, what starts as a murder investigation folds into a superhero tale with the lead character, Angela Abar (Regina King), finding herself at the center of an intricate combination of stories that tie some of the most important events in history.
Despite being a little rushed, the show retains the comics’ core message that compromise is sometimes necessary, as superheroes are forced to accept that killing millions of people to save billions is sometimes the best way to save the world. Its first eight episodes seem to collectively build up to an explosive ending as the survival of the human race is at stake once again. However, the finale proves to be one of the most shocking twists in TV history as the bad guys’ plot turns on its head while Angela becomes a god, the very fate the bad guys worked so hard to achieve.
