Many superhero shows have only run for one season – but some series pull off this single season better than others. Across the history of the MCU timeline, the DCU timeline, and all that came before them, the superhero genre has seen an influx of shows run their course, though these series often run for wildly different amounts of time.
While the superhero genre has had its fair share of shows that have run for several seasons, these worlds have also seen an assortment of series that have only gotten one lone season altogether. That said, plenty of these one-season-long shows have managed to do a lot with the relatively brief amount of time they ultimately have story-wise.
The Penguin
The Penguin isn’t just one of the best superhero shows of all time to have one season – it’s simply one of the best superhero shows of all time. The care that goes into the writing, acting, and everything surrounding these fields is clear in every minute of The Batman‘s spinoff show, and it pays off in droves throughout.
Oftentimes, more grounded superhero shows can suffer from taking themselves a little too seriously, or for seeming to force this serious nature in their stories. The Penguin manages to maneuver around these pitfalls with style, ensuring its story still keeps a balanced tone where possible, despite the fact it doesn’t hold back in terms of devastating plot twists.
Having released in an era where many may find themselves once again underestimating the superhero genre and the stories it can tell, The Penguin is a major reminder that this realm has the potential to create some deeply nuanced characters and stories that grip you from start to finish – even in the span of one singular season.
WandaVision
While WandaVision has metaphorical season 2’s in the form of Agatha All Along and seemingly in the form of the upcoming Vision series, the plan for the MCU appears to be to keep WandaVision itself to a single season – particularly given Scarlet Witch’s death in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness happens not long after the show.
WandaVision setting its characters in an old-fashioned sitcom – raising infinite questions about how everyone ended up there, and why their lives are now so different, especially since Vision died in Avengers: Infinity War – was a recipe for success, and the story only built more intrigue as it continued, especially around what was making Westview’s citizens act so oddly.
Unlike many shows that hinge on similar mysteries, WandaVision was able to stick the landing with the reveal of what was behind all of this, and did so in a way that made audiences feel even more for Wanda, even as it sowed the seeds to show that the Scarlet Witch’s story was about to take a darker turn still.
The Defenders
Admittedly, while The Defenders itself only ran for a single season, it does work best for audiences who’ve seen all the prior seasons of the respective other Netflix-Marvel shows that built up to the team coming together, with Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist all tying in together to the plot of the single-season 2017 release.
That said, The Defenders works whether you’ve seen every last episode of these series or none at all – though viewers certainly benefit from catching at least some of these installments beforehand.
This alone is a pretty impressive feat, as The Defenders unveils the vigilante team, justifies their team-up, and provides them with an in-depth group story and detailed side plots all in the span of eight episodes.
The Defenders also gets to show off several of the best Marvel comic castings to date, including Charlie Cox’s Daredevil, whose doomed romance with Elektra and complicated dynamics with the rest of the Defenders make him in many ways the heart of the show – though this is just one of a range of great performances in the series.
Batman: Caped Crusader
Batman’s animated show catalog is a seriously strong one – and so it’s no surprise that the installments of the Dark Knight’s animated roster that happen to be a single season long are also some of the best superhero shows you can find in the genre.
Batman: Caped Crusader is a look at how Batman: The Animated Series can live on today without a series simply attempting to entirely mirror it, as Caped Crusader keeps the noir tone, the focus on character-driven stories, and the penchant for striking shots while reimagining the Batman mythos in a manner that lets the show feel like its own thing.
Though Batman: Caped Crusader season 2 is reportedly impending – and Caped Crusader season 1’s ending teased an exciting look of the show’s Joker – the first season alone gets a whole lot right in terms of how to depict its titular hero in ways that are as entertaining for the eye and for the mind.
X-Men ’97
Few series are able to blend nostalgia with the feeling of a fresh beginning as well as X-Men ’97, be they releases inside the superhero genre or not.
Bringing a series back over two decades after it ended is not a small task for any show, but X-Men ’97 managed to do so in a way that made the revival of the X-Men: The Animated Series story feel almost inevitable in the best way, instead of like an obligatory attempt at returning to the past.
With a wide ensemble cast – and a predilection for focusing on several X-Men characters who’ve been arguably criminally underlooked in Marvel’s on-screen history thus far – X-Men ’97 has it all for X-Men fans, and still has considerable charm and appeal for those who previously haven’t been invested in Marvel’s mutant hero team.
X-Men ’97 also manages to pull off a challenge that the original X-Men: The Animated Series set up in terms of ensuring the show has lighter spinoff episodes that work by themselves, alongside bigger, more epic overarching stories – a trend that hopefully can continue in season 2 of the show when it releases in 2026.
Swamp Thing
Despite being a fascinating character in DC’s mythos – and a figure who has decades of detailed and engaging comic stories behind them – Swamp Thing has been tragically underappreciated and under-adapted when it comes to the big and small screens. Following two 80s films and a 90s show, the green goliath returned to live-action in 2019, via the Swamp Thing show.
Swamp Thing was gothic and horror-esque while also exploring much of the heart of Swamp Thing himself – sometimes literally – delving into Alec Holland’s story in a way that left plenty clamoring for more, and making the show’s cancelation the subject of considerable scorn. However, to Swamp Thing season 1’s credit, the show gets a lot done in this time alone.
Delving into a corner of the franchise that DC often steers away from on-screen – both in terms of its creepier elements, and in terms of focusing on a more disregarded character – Swamp Thing has a distinct appeal that’s like few other releases thus far, and truly teases how exciting it could be to get Swamp Thing in the DCU.
Ms. Marvel
Other than perhaps Spider-Man: Homecoming, it’s hard to say there’s a release in the MCU that reflects the age-old comic tale of a teen hero deciding to use their powers for the sake of good more than Ms. Marvel, and the inherent charm of this premise is clear from the first seconds of the series to its final shots.
Bouncy and fun but not afraid to have more somber moments and plot points, Ms. Marvel is a solid introduction to the story of Kamala Khan and what drives her to become a hero – and the complicated chain of events that her early hero career revolves around.
This is both in terms of the newfound powers she gains, and in terms of the morals instilled in her by her family, which build her unquenchable desire to look out for and help others however she can. Altogether, these various elements come together to make Ms. Marvel’s lone season decidedly enjoyable.
Daredevil: Born Again
While Daredevil: Born Again will not remain a show with a single season for long – as Daredevil: Born Again season 2 is inbound for March 2026 – the show is for the time being one of the best examples of what a single season of superhero television can do if given the right tools for the proverbial job.
With top-grade performances wall-to-wall, a storyline that rips your heart out from its very first moments and leans into making its striking opening into a story that grips you throughout, and several dazzling fight sequences that also show off the series’ TV-MA rating, it’s hard to not be impressed by at least part of Born Again.
Though Daredevil: Born Again season 1 very much sets up its sequel season throughout, it also works on its own as an impactful tale about grief, and about the rocky road to recovery after loss, and the trials that come along the way – even for hardened vigilantes.
The New Batman Adventures
The New Batman Adventures covers a fascinating corner of Batman’s history, with the show serving as a way to continue on from Batman: The Animated Series following the prior series’ ending. With key figures from the original show like Bruce Timm returning, the stage was set for The New Batman Adventures to take on the torch in a big way.
Mercifully, The New Batman Adventures manages to do so, all while delving more into the wider cast around Batman, giving the show a unique perspective that evolves it beyond just being a follow-up to The Animated Series. That said, this does also appear to have played a role in its legacy being less well-known comparatively, which is a shame.
With a varied cast of characters that includes delightful reprisals from Mark Hamill’s Joker and Kevin Conroy’s Batman, The New Batman Adventures is in many ways the dream in terms of a superhero show that has one season – partially because its connection to Batman: The Animated Series means there’s plenty more to enjoy if you like the show.
Hawkeye
Hawkeye is one of the most well-deserved MCU shows in the franchise’s entire roster, given that, by the time of its release, every other member of the MCU’s original Avengers team had gotten their own movie. While Hawkeye didn’t get his own feature-length film, the Disney+ series is arguably better than a movie would have been on several levels.
Thanks to its episodic nature, Hawkeye is able to focus itself in several different directions, showing Clint’s life after being an Avenger and then retiring, the events that effectively bring him out of retirement, and him training Kate Bishop as his successor of sorts.
For a movie, this could take things in too many angles – but for Hawkeye, it creates a varied story that fleshes out several untapped aspects of Barton’s world.
Hawkeye is a great look into the story of a character who’s often been relegated to the backburner – and forcibly been made into the underdog in terms of his less all-powerful skill set compared to other Avengers – meaning its heartfelt depiction of Clint as a three-dimensional character, mentor, and a sometimes-reluctant hero is all the more endearing.
