Superheroes have really blown up in the last ten years, in part thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It definitely looks like the craze for superpowered heroes is not slowing down anytime soon. While interest has picked up for superhero properties on the big screen recently, the genre has had a more consistent life on television for years. Superheroes captivated broadcast audience even before television, if you count such radio serials like The Lone Ranger or The Shadow.
Whether in animation or live-action, superheroes have been appearing on TV since the beginning. Even when there was a lull in big screen superhero projects in the 1990s, it doesn’t mean that they weren’t being produced for television. There were consistent superhero shows appearing on screens throughout the decade. Some like Justice League or Static Shock remain fondly remembered by those who watched and are still successful to this day. Others have faded away into obscurity over the years.
It could be due to network exposure, bad timing, or just the show not being great. If the show actually good, or at the very least enjoyably campy, then fandom tends to discard it more often than not. Of course, a worse fate is for a genuinely good show to be axed due to network interference or behind-the-scenes drama.
Whether these shows deserve it or not, they've disappeared from the collective consciousness and are lost to time. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane and see if they really deserved their fates.
Here are 20 Forgettable '00s That Only True Superfans Remember.
Cleopatra 2525
This show is definitely one of the weirder ones. Considering that Sam Raimi is one of the series creators, however, it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. The series follows Cleopatra who, after a botched plastic surgery in 2000, is cryogenically frozen for 525 years.
Waking up in 2525, the young woman finds herself conscripted into a war against the Baileys, armed flying machines that now control the Earth’s surface.
Teaming up with Sarge and Hel, who listen to a mysterious female Voice, the group attempts to take back control of Earth. Cleo herself wows the people of the 26th century by saying pop culture idioms from her time. It lasted 28 episodes across two seasons. The only thing of note to come from it is Gina Torres, who played Hel.
The Middleman
On the former ABC Family, they tried their own hand with a comic-based TV series: The Middleman. Coming from Viper Comics, The Middleman follows Wendy Watson who finds herself in the world of weird and surreal of the Middleman. The motto states that they “fight evil so you don’t have to.” The adventures often require some pretty bold heroics and inventive thinking to save the day.
The series starred Natalie Morales and Matt Keeslar.
While ABC Family ordered a 13-episode first season, it was reduced to 12 due to low ratings.
Critics praised the series for its stylistic similarity to Pushing Daisies and for its entertainingly weird storylines. Maybe it just wasn’t shown on the right network.
The Middleman quickly faded into some undeserved obscurity shortly after.
Blade the Series
The Blade trilogy is considered to be a progenitor of success of the MCU. The success of the films at the box office definitely helped get the funding for Iron Man off the ground. It showed superhero movies could work again. Naturally, a TV series based on the film franchise made sense at the time.
Taking place after the events of Blade: Trinity, this series follows the titular dhampyr (Kirk Jones) as he teams up with recently turned vampire Krista Starr (Jill Wagner) to take down Marcus Van Scribner (Neil Jackson), a high-ranking member of the House of Chthon.
The series lasted about 13-episodes on the then SpikeTV (now Paramount Network). Despite the premiere bringing in big ratings, it ended and was summarily forgotten.
John Doe
Before Dominic Purcell was lighting up as Mick Rory on Legends of Tomorrow, he was part of this little remembered Fox show.
Lasting one season from 2002-03, the show follows a man who washes up on an island off the coast of Seattle with no memories and strange abilities.
Using these abilities to help the police solve crimes, the newly named John Doe attempts to unravel the mystery of who he is, where he came from, and his own powers.
It ran for 21 episodes before being canceled, though it was rerun fairly frequently on Syfy and is available on Hulu. The show did get some praise upon its release, but has faded from memory in subsequent years.
Painkiller Jane
This one season series, based on the Event comics character of the same name created by Jimmy Palmiotti and Joe Quesada, comes from Syfy back in 2007.
The series follows Jane Vasco (Kristanna Loken), a DEA agent forced to join the team of Andre McBride (Rob Stewart) who work for an unspecified agency. McBride’s team identify and neutralizes what they call “neuros;” human mutants with powers that range from reanimation to mind control.
Jane herself is revealed to have abilities of her own: regenerative powers that border on invulnerability. The downside is that she feels all the pain of her injuries before they heal. Something about her abilities, however, leaves her different from the neuros that they hunt.
The Invisible Man
This one is a bit of a strange series: an action-adventure show with buddy cop elements that deals with free choice, determinism, and state bureaucracy. The sci-fi genre definitely deserve credit for staying weird while getting dark.
Originally on Syfy back in the day, The Invisible Man follows thief Darien Fawkes (Vincent Ventresca).
An agency implants Fawkes with a gland that turns him invisible.
On the flip side, it will also drive him insane without a counteragent given to him by the agency. It ensures that he will remain dependent on them.
Over the two-season series, Fawkes would stop assassinations and go up against the governmental higher-ups so he can remove the gland. The show was canceled due to cost issues and infighting between Syfy and USA. No one seems to really remember it today.
Mutant X
While this show is pretty much a cult favorite, it’s been forgotten by the world at large. This first-run syndicated TV show focuses on the New Mutants, who possess powers thanks to genetic engineering due to government experiments. The members of the team were subject to experiments. The team itself seeks out New Mutants in order to protect them from the people who want to harm them.
The production itself was mired in turmoil due to multiple lawsuits between Marvel and Fox. There were concerns as to whether Mutant X was too similar to X-Men. Then it was between Fox and the production companies. It eventually dismantled Fireworks Entertainment, which spelled the end of the show.
The Legion of Superheroes
While the Legion have appeared in other properties as guest or recurring cast, they never really had their own show for the longest time. From 2006-2008, however, that changed with the WB Kids! Legion of Superheroes cartoon.
While it didn’t really take much from comics outside of the characters, the show did have its own logic and aesthetic.
In the first season, a young Superman joins the team, allowing audiences to follow a familiar character in a new world. In the second season, however, things took a hard turn into darker territory with Superman’s 41st century clone bringing the team to his time to fight Imperiex, who conquered most of the galaxy. The show ended by the WB Kids! was taken over by 4Kids.
Jeremiah
Hailing from J. Michael Straczynskl, this series focuses on the aftermath of a catastrophic event which destroyed most people over the age of 13. Years later, Jeremiah (Luke Perry), a loner travelling cross country, teams up with Kurdy Malloy (Malcolm Jamal-Warner) to find the Valhalla Sector as Jeremiah believes his father is still alive.
The series focuses on the structure of this new and unfamiliar world that has sprung up after the big event.
Jeremiah lasted for two seasons on Showtime from 2002 to 2004 with Straczynski as the showrunner for the first two. Due to change in management, however, the show was canceled before the second season premiered. Fans launched a passionate campaign to show the remaining episodes of the second season and to renew the show for a third. Despite the second season finishing, the show was canceled.
Witchblade
One of the higher-rated shows that has been lost to time, Witchblade aired on TNT from 2001-2002. The series, based on the popular comic series, follows Detective Sara “Pez” Pezzini (Yancy Butler), who controls the powerful ancient weapon the Witchblade.
The series was one of the highest rated shows on TNT at the time.
It was also critically acclaimed and popular with audiences. Needless to say, it was a shock when it was canceled after the second season.
Since then, there have been other Witchblade properties, though none as popular as the TV series, which has faded into obscurity.
Human Target
Christopher Chance may have recently made an appearance on Arrow, but that wasn't the character's first time on TV. On FOX, there was a two-season show based on the character, who entirely integrates himself into his client’s lives in order to protect them. The series starred Mark Valley, Chi McBride, Jackie Earle Haley, Indria Vama, and Janet Montgomery.
It scored favorable reviews with critics and the stunt work was consistently praised, but FOX axed it in 2011. It has since faded from memory.
Still he has appeared in the Arrowverse, played by Wil Traval, which is a shame since Valley did a great job on his own series.
Bionic Woman
Remakes have been around since before the boom that seems to have hit this decade. In 2007, one of those remakes was of Bionic Woman, originally a counterpart of the '70s series Six Million Dollar Man.
The revamped version of the show focuses on bartender Jaime Sommers (Michelle Ryan) as she tries to get used to her new powers, raise her kid sister (Lucy Hale), and work for the government agent who gave her abilities.
The series seemed destined for the chopping block with largely negative reviews and low ratings.
What didn’t help matters was this was the year the WGA went on strike, which halted production for a time. Eventually, it was one of many shows that faced that axe and faded to obscurity.
Flash Gordon
]While the Flash Gordon film has a cult following, the 2007 television series has been largely forgotten. Airing on the Syfy Channel, the series follows Steven “Flash” Gordon (Eric Johnson), who travels through a rift in space to the planet Mongo.
Flash and his friends as the battle the dictator Ming (John Ralston), who controls the only good drinking water of the planet. The group tends to go back and forth between Earth and Mongo through the rift as the fight ramps up.
The first season lasted 21 episodes and was canceled on a cliffhanger, which is kind of the worst. It was not well-received.
Dark Angel
Anyone who grew up watching Syfy reruns in the 2000s will have vague recollections of this show appearing on screen.
Dark Angel takes place in the distant future of 2019 as the US rebuilds following an EMP pulse that wiped out almost all of the technology. Jessica Alba stars as Max Guevara, a genetically enhanced super soldier who escaped as a child along with others from a secret government agency known as Manticore.
The series is notable for having several popular stars before they became better known, like Alba, Michael Weatherly and Jensen Ackles.
Dark Angel was fairly beloved in its day, but the second season took a sharp downturn and Fox cancelled it. Despite a second life in reruns on Syfy, it was pretty much forgotten.
Who Wants To Be A Superhero?
This is probably the weirdest show that time has forgotten, but what a delightfully weird show this was. Who Wants to be a Superhero? was a reality program competition series where a group of people try to get their superhero character made into an actual comic. They dressed as the heroes and lived as them in the house while competing in heroic challenges.
Stan Lee was the judge for the series.
The series hailed from Syfy and lasted for two seasons. The prizes included the hero getting their own comic written by Lee, a spot in a Syfy original movie, and a trip to Universal Studios Florida. There was even a version in the U.K.
Now and Again
This little remembered CBS gem aired for one season. It’s a shame because the premise was interesting. The government has created the perfect human body (Eric Close) but needs a brain to put in it. When John Goodman’s character, Michael Wiseman, gets run over by a train, his brain is put into his body. The downside is that he belongs to the government now and can never see his friends and family again.
Michael runs operations under the watchful eye of Doctor Theodore Morris while also trying to figure out how to reconnect with his family.
Now and Again's first season ended with the Wiseman family preparing to go on the run. CBS canceled the series due to low-ratings not justifying the expense.
Birds of Prey
While a Birds of Prey movie is currently in development in the DCEU, there was a short-lived television series on The WB.
Set several years after Batman apparently abandoned Gotham, the Birds of Prey fight crime from the shadows.
Helena Kyle/Huntress (Ashely Scott), Barbara Gordon/Oracle (Dina Meyer), and Dinah Redmond (Rachel Skarsten) fight to protect to keep the streets of Gotham safe. Meanwhile Dr. Harleen Quinzel (Mia Sar) manipulates events from the shadows in order to get her revenge for what happened to her beloved Mistah J.
The series lasted for 13 episodes. Despite promising numbers in the pilot, ratings fell sharply in subsequent weeks. You have to wonder if things would be different if it ended up spinning off from the much more popular Smallville.
The Zeta Project
While the DC Animated Universe of the '90s to the '00s produced some quality animated shows, it doesn’t mean there weren’t some flops as well. One of those was definitely The Zeta Project.
The show follows Zeta, an infiltration unit sent to seek and destroy, and spins off from Batman Beyond. Zeta, or Zee, has to prove his innocence.
He and his friend, an orphan named Ro, go on the run from those who seek to reclaim Zee and whoever reprogrammed him as they try to prove his personhood. It lasted from 2001-02 and 26 episodes. It was heavily serialized, with each episode containing a clue or a direction to the next one.
Krypto the Superdog
Sometimes there are just bizarre choices for animated series. One of them is definitely this two-season long show focusing on Superman’s canine sidekick.
The series was created by Alan Burnett and Paul Dini, who both worked on Batman: The Animated Series.
Living with a nine-year-old named Kevin Whitney, who knows about his powers, Krypto poses as an ordinary dog during the day while performing superheroics. It features the furrier counterparts of DC superheroes, such as Ace the Bathound and Streaky the Supercat.
The show is definitely cute, but ultimately nothing to write home about. It ran for 39 episodes from 2005-2006 and was definitely geared for a much younger audience. No one really seems to remember it. The series also isn’t available for streaming through any legal means.
Spectacular Spider-Man
Created by Greg Weisman, the mastermind behind Gargoyles and Young Justice, the critically acclaimed Spectacular Spider-Man series follows Peter Parker (voiced by Josh Keaton) as he navigates superpowers and high school.
From an art style all its own to teenagers who sounded like teenagers, the series cultivated a dedicated fan following.
It’s even been listed as one of the great animated series of all times by TV Guide. After its cancellation, however, it has fallen in obscurity. None of the subsequent Spider-Man cartoons have reach the same level of acclaim. It’s a pity that when Disney bought the rights to Marvel, this wasn't part of the package.
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Do you remember any of these superhero shows from the 2000s? Let us know in the comments!