Prime Video Deserves Credit For Releasing 4 Superhero Shows Better Than Marvel Or DC

Published Oct 17, 2026, 10:30 AM EDT

Adrienne Tyler is a movies & TV features writer, with a focus on horror. She has written for Netflix, FanSided, & more. She was a regular guest on the Netfreaks podcast and was a YouTuber at some point. Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once.

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Prime Video has an extensive catalog of TV shows from different genres, and it deserves credit for having four superhero shows that are better than Marvel and DC. The superhero genre went through a successful revival with the emergence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe, both bringing connected universes with some of their most popular characters. Thanks to them, a new wave of superhero movies and TV shows started, many of them going for a darker and more realistic approach.

Superhero shows like Doom Patrol, The Umbrella Academy, and Watchmen are some of the most notable ones from this new wave, bringing darkness and a more mature tone – but now that the MCU and the DC Universe have also extended to TV, they have taken over. However, there are other superhero shows that don’t belong to Marvel or DC and were even better than what these extensive universes have produced so far.

One platform that has stood out with its TV superhero content is Prime Video, but as good as they are, they have been overshadowed by those from the MCU and the DC Universe. Prime Video definitely deserves more praise for its superhero shows, more so as it produced four that are much better than most of the MCU and DC Universe TV shows: The Boys, Gen V, The Tick, and Invincible.

Prime Video Has 4 Superhero Shows Better Than Marvel Or DC

Credit: Jan Thijs / ©Amazon / Courtesy Everett Collection

First came The Tick, based on Ben Edlund’s comic book character of the same name, and the second live-action adaptation after Fox’s canceled 2001 series. The Tick follows the title character (played by Peter Serafinowicz), a near-invulnerable superhero wearing a blue tick suit who fights crime in the City. With the help of his sidekick, Arthur (Griffin Newman), they discover that the supervillain The Terror still has a lot of power over the city’s underworld.

Despite its quality and critical success, The Tick was canceled after two seasons, but it stands as one of Prime Video’s best shows thanks to its lighter tone, self-aware comedy, and for being its own world that doesn’t require prior knowledge to be enjoyed.

In 2019, Prime Video released The Boys, based on Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s comic book series of the same name. The Boys takes viewers into a world where superpowered people work for Vought International, which manages their public image and more to make them look like heroes, when, in reality, they are corrupt, selfish, and commit various crimes. The Boys is a group of vigilantes who look to bring Vought down and expose their “heroes.”

One of the biggest strengths of The Boys is its darker and more mature tone, along with its graphic violence, complex stories, and morally ambiguous characters, offering more depth and better-developed characters and stories than Marvel and DC. Four years later, The Boys’ spinoff Gen V was released, following young Supers who test their moral boundaries for a spot in Vought’s elite team.

Last but not least, Invincible arrived in 2021, and it’s the only one of these shows that’s still active. Based on the comic book series by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley, Invincible follows Mark Grayson (voiced by Steven Yeun), the son of Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons), the most powerful superhero. When Mark begins to develop superpowers, he fights crime as the hero “Invincible”, but, in the process, he learns some dark truths about his father. Invincible has a lot more depth than Marvel and DC’s shows, exploring more mature themes and subverting traditional superhero tropes.

Prime Video’s four big superhero TV shows offer more variety than the MCU and DC Universe’s shows, with better-developed stories, more emotional depth, and a lot more engaging stories, with the bonus of not needing prior knowledge of comic books, movies, or other shows, which makes them a lot more accessible.

Prime Video's Marvel & DC Shows Are Pretty Good Too

Courtesy of Prime

Although the MCU and the DC Universe belong to other companies and thus have their content streaming on other platforms, Prime Video is home to two Marvel and DC shows that are also pretty good. First is the animated show Batman: Caped Crusader, developed by Bruce Timm and which premiered on Prime Video in 2024. Caped Crusader is a reimagining of the world of Batman, taking viewers into a darker Gotham City inspired by the Dark Knight’s stories from the 1940s and 1960s.

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Caped Crusader focuses on a young Bruce Wayne (voiced by Hamish Linklater) in his early years as Batman, and while the audience follows him as he fights crime, the show also focuses on Batman’s detective side. Caped Crusader’s second season arrived in July 2026, and at the time of writing, there’s no official word on a third season yet.

Also released in 2026 was Marvel’s Spider-Noir, developed by Oren Uziel. Set in 1930s New York City, Spider-Noir follows Ben Reilly (Nicolas Cage), a former superhero known as the Spider who now works as a private detective. When an intriguing case comes his way, Reilly must become the Spider one more time. Spider-Noir was praised by critics and general audiences for its tone, performances, and visuals, but, unfortunately, it was canceled after just one season.