Which is better at romance/relationships: The Arrowverse shows or the MCU films

[QuinnFillory]

The Arrowverse and The MCU are two of the biggest (and arguably, the most successful) comic book universes to grace our screens. There are a lot of things that they get right and wrongs. One of the things that gets a big focus in both universes is the romance factor. Most of the heroes in the universes are in relationships or just have love interests. So, which universe is better at the whole romance thing?

[XPac]

I don't watch much of the arrowverse, so I can't say which does it better.

I theory though, I do believe a TV should be able to handle romance much better than a movie. You have 20 hours to convey a relationship instead of just 2. If the MCU is handling this better, then the arrowverse is doing something wrong.

[Gray Lensman]

I don't watch much of the arrowverse, so I can't say which does it better.

I theory though, I do believe a TV should be able to handle romance much better than a movie. You have 20 hours to convey a relationship instead of just 2. If the MCU is handling this better, then the arrowverse is doing something wrong.

Pretty much this. And, anything shown on screen has to be epically bad to be beaten by things that happen off of it.

[TriggerWarning]

Arrowverse in many cases simply because as others said TV shows have much more time to do it whereas the movies get about 10-15 minutes top per movie to explore the romance.

Best example of it is Felicity on Arrow. I know people nowadays love to hate on Felicity but in the early days she was beloved by most as her quirks hadn't grown to irritating levels yet. She also had actual chemistry with Ollie on the show unlike Laurel. So the show runners wisely ditched the whole Green Arrow / Black Canary romance canon from the comics and went with what was working. Some hated it because it wasn't following the comics and then later Felicity's quirks did go from being cute to annoying but it was nonetheless a well developed relationship based on character chemistry and the fact that Felicity didn't have to be forced onto Team Arrow as the skills she brought to the team before the romance was even considered made her an asset.

Conversely a case where its been poorly handled in the Arrowverse is on Flash. Iris is an extremely annoying character and there is little chemistry on screen between her and Barry. Iris, unlike Felicity, also is utterly useless to Team Flash and it takes a lot of forced plotting to make her relevant - like the countless examples where she comes up with scientific ideas rather than the scientists on the team just to make her seem useful.

[TriggerWarning]

I'd also give a huge nod to the Arrowverse for handling gay relationship correctly as they don't even talk about them being gay relationships. They are front and center yet never even made into any kind of big deal. Which is awesome because this is the best way to normalize them to the masses plus it keeps the characters from being the "gay" character whose major defining characteristic is being gay. Curtis on Arrow was gay and had a husband but he was always first and foremost Mr Terrific who made gadgets for the team. Too often on TV when a character is gay everything else becomes secondary. Its sort of what worries about Batwoman because there is so much focus on her being lesbian that I worry it will overshadow everything else about her. And its not as if she's even remotely the first gay character in the Arrowverse or even lead character as Sara is the lead character on Legends and is bisexual but mostly is with women.

While not a comic book show another CW show, The 100, also does it right. Many gay and lesbian characters front and center and no makes into a deal. And the lead character is lesbian - some might say she's bi but she hasn't been with a guy since season one so I view her as a lesbian who didn't accept her own sexuality til early adulthood and will continue to do so unless she ends up with a guy again.

[Tofali]

Neither. Arrowverse is Soap Opera/Superheroics which I find cringe-y and off-putting because they lean on the soapy side too much while MCU is a dehydrated 50s romantic movie or a period Victorian drama romantic plot without the good parts.

[BeastieRunner]

I can't even name one from either that I don't start laughing at how bad it was/is.

Both do the same thing, too, start off with a great idea (i.e. Peter/Gamora, Hulk/Widow, Oliver/Laurel, Siren/Diaz) and proceed to ruin it with nonsensical melodrama or forget about it, sometimes within the same hour.

[godisawesome]

I’m giving it to the MCU strictly on the basis that at no point did I ever go “Oh crap, this is now our official pairing, so everything I liked about the chemistry between the two actors, and possibly even the things I liked about the characterization of one or both, will now be fed into the wood chipper of cheap and sloppy soap opera drama.”

Because that happened a lot with the Arrowverse, just because they have a higher degree of tween soap opera to their DNA compared to the MCU combining a mixture of one-part “obligatory romance they don’t focus on too much” and one part “sitcom.”

TV shows *should* be able to do romance better, but if the goal of the producers with almost any romance is creating more conflict and drama, and if they aren’t picky about how it does so, than it’s going to basically take two steps back for every one step forward.

[regnak]

MCU not because it is good at romance but because the Arrowverse is so incredibly amazingly terrible at it.

[shades of eternity]

The Arrowverse is a merry go round of lameness.

The exception is Legends of Tomarrow where they developed a relationship using knockoff ikea furniture.

[Frontier]

I’m giving it to the MCU strictly on the basis that at no point did I ever go “Oh crap, this is now our official pairing, so everything I liked about the chemistry between the two actors, and possibly even the things I liked about the characterization of one or both, will now be fed into the wood chipper of cheap and sloppy soap opera drama.”

Because that happened a lot with the Arrowverse, just because they have a higher degree of tween soap opera to their DNA compared to the MCU combining a mixture of one-part “obligatory romance they don’t focus on too much” and one part “sitcom.”

TV shows *should* be able to do romance better, but if the goal of the producers with almost any romance is creating more conflict and drama, and if they aren’t picky about how it does so, than it’s going to basically take two steps back for every one step forward.

I think one benefit of the MCU is definitely that they don't dwell on romantic drama or the angst of it, even if it also at the same time leaves the romances or relationships feeling a little shallow or just thrown-in.

Like, was there any real romantic chemistry between Scott and Hope? It felt like they were only paired together just because they're Ant-Man and The Wasp. I felt more compelled by Hank and Janet's reunion then any scene between Scott and Hope.

And I'm a big fan of Wanda and Vision's relationship but even I can see that 90% of their relationship development happened off-screen. It relied a lot on the actors conveying the characters' feelings and love for one another.

Bruce never mentions the love of his life once Mark Ruffalo takes over and not many people cared about the Widow romance versus doing something with Bucky (since they wrote themselves into a corner with Clint).

Let's also not forget about poor Sharon Carter.

I haven't seen Far From Home yet but apparently Peter's fallen for the Mary Jane equivalent completely off-screen between movies when they had very little relationship to speak of in Homecoming.

Probably one of the main exceptions are Tony and Pepper since they developed that across a trilogy and T'Challa and Nakia.

[AJBopp]

It seems to me rather like asking whether dandelions or milkweed produce better flowers.

[Bat-Meal]

It seems to me rather like asking whether dandelions or milkweed produce better flowers.

Yeah, a better comparison might be Arrowverse vs. Marvel Netflix and MCU vs. DCEU.
Since films and television are a different format in narrative structure and the amount of time they have to tell a story and develop character relationships.

[Immortal Weapon]

Every single romance in the arrowverse is trash. It isn't helped that those romances tend to take over the shows and overshadow everything else that's going on. That's painful when when you hate the characters (Felicity), they have zero chemistry (Barry and Iris) and just plain uninteresting (Sara and Ava).

[Jim Kelly]

I still haven't got around to watching most of the MCU movies yet. But I don't expect them to showcase romance. I guess they have to have some obligatory romance scenes to qualify as date movies--and so people can take bathroom breaks--but that's not their bread and butter. I did see CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER and I thought that was a very mediocre movie--and one of the things that bugged me was the forced romance between Steve and Peggy, when they really didn't have much character development together. Steve had a lot more chemistry with Bucky--and I would have believed they were in love and that's why losing Bucky is so tragic for Steve. And on the CW, they could have done a storyline like that and the CW audience would have accepted it. Which is one of the things I love about the CW shows.

Soap opera is the bread and butter of the CW. So I think complaints about the romances are offside. If you don't know that about the CW, you're not tuned in. And you should figure it out after five minutes of watching just about any show on the channel. There are times when they mess up horribly, but the relationships between the characters is also the best thing in the Arrowverse. Lena and Kara might not be lovers in the physical sense, but they do love each other and that's what drives the drama. I'm always happy to see Ava and Sara together and the writers have done a good job of making that relationship work without falling into the usual traps. I admire the marriage between Barry and Iris, because they decided early on to make that marriage strong and not do the usual soap opera things, where they break up over stupid things--even when they fight over the serious issues in their lives, they still find a way through it and support each other.

For all that people might complain about the CW's love stories serving an audience which skews young and female--it speaks highly of an audience when they are so accepting of every kind of relationship under the sun.