The land of comic books is a fertile ground of rich entertainment just waiting to be mined! Recently it has been announced that the Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming title, Powers, will finally be brought to the small screen via FX. THIS is 
awesome!
POWERS, Brian Bendis (W), Michael Oeming (A), Publishers Various
Powers is a quintessential “Capes through the looking glass” title, a book where the tropes of superheroism are the set dressings to stories about average lives touched and shaped by the superhuman world. The main protagonists are detectives Deena Pilgrim and Christian Walker, cops who work the super-hero related homicide desk of a busy city.
During the run of Powers both characters try to solve superhero related homicides, often ending up horribly mismatched from a powers related perspective as they are gun toting cops in a world with many superpowered criminals and heroes. Through the run of the book powered beings are hailed as heroes, outlawed and banned by the government and worshiped as celebrities. The dialog is fresh, the plots stellar and the human feelings genuine…in short it’s great TV!
Powers has been around for many years and was the break-out book for these two creators. Both Michael Avon Oeming and Brian Michael Bendis are pretty much legends in the field. Powers as a TV property has been in development hell for longer than anyone can remember. Personally I think it’s going to be a heck of a better watch than the disappointing Walking Dead show, launched last year from the Image comic book of the same name.
TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN’
Five years back Hollywood bought up ever comic it could for big screen exploitation. Now we see TV as the bright new launch pad for continued comic book longevity! Why not? The Smurfs, The Incredible Hulk, The Tick and Wonder Woman were all successful shows and all launched from the pages of comics.
More and more TV shows are getting second leases in the funny pages. Dark Horse alone has been turning heads and pages with Buffy Season 8, DethKlok based on the Metalocalyps show from Adult Swim, and has recently acquired the rights to a new Avatar: The Last Airbender comic. The Muppet Show is still doing well at Boom! Studios, and even Kolchak the Night Stalker is alive and well (for him) in the pages of Moonstone comic books.
Comics jump to TV and TV jumps to comics!
There’s still some great comics laying around waiting for the small screen chance to shine! Mouseguard, another high profile book associated with Michael Oeming could be a great animated drama. Terry Moore’s Strangers in Paradise, a bizarre love story centered around two women, one man and a global conspiratorial organization has enough pep for any network, as does David Laptham’s Stray Bullets.
Television is an amazing way for comic books to grow beyond its current audience and bring fresh takes to beloved classics. The list of TV shows that would make sensational comics is almost as long as the list of amazing comics dying to get a shot at showbiz!
I can’t wait for things to get REALLY weird: TV shows based on comic books that were once tv shows! Comic books pretending to be TV shows that never existed… TV mash-ups that never aired printed in comic books! “Mr. Kotter meets Alf vs Batman, the TV show based on the comic book based on these TV shows!”
