What Other Shows On Marvel’s List Deserve To Be Made?

Sunday, October 17th, 2010 at 8:00am
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What Other Shows On Marvel’s List Deserve To Be Made?  

One of the most interesting things about the news about Marvel TV’s first two series was the revelation of a list that was given by Marvel to ABC executives of possible series adapting Marvel concepts. Hulk and Cloak & Dagger got selected, but what about the other ones? To use a familiar Marvel refrain, U DECIDE!

The Hollywood Reporter had the following series on the Marvel-produced list alongside the Hulk:

• Heroes for Hire (Centering around Luke Cage, sans Iron Fist)
• The Eternals (Focusing on the Kirby backstory of superpowered beings living amongst us in secret inspiring historical myths, rather than any more recent revival)
• Agents of Atlas (The Jeff Parker revival version)
• Alter Ego (A retitled version of Brian Michael Bendis’ Alias)
• Moon Knight (No idea which version of Marvel’s Batman rip-off)
• The Hood (Focused more on the Brian K. Vaughan original series than the character’s latter development in the Avengers books)
• Ka-Zar (Taking the character out of the Savage Land, for budgetary reasons as well as that ever-popular fish-out-of-water dynamic)
• Daughters of the Dragon (The classic Misty Knight/Colleen Wing combo)
• The Punisher (Come on, it’s the Punisher)

Interesting to see that they’re definitely focusing on more “street-level” characters, which seems sensible in order to save on cost and embarrassing effects. Personally, I would’ve loved to have seen Heroes for Hire, Agents of Atlas or Alter Ego out of that line-up – or, ideally, a Daughters of the Dragon series with Luke Cage and Jessica Jones as back-up, but that might just be me – but which of the above shows do you think would hold the best potential for a long-running series? And who would you like to see star in them?


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  • JTRobin

    Would like to see Daredevil a la Smallville, Matt in his early years, before becoming DD, training with Stick, perhaps encountering Wilson Fisk pre-Kingpin. Call it simply, “Man Without Fear”…

  • Jack Knight

    As a massive DC fan, I get angry when I see this because disney/Marvel is jumping on something Warner Bros. should have been doing for two decades now. Disney has always understood that the biggest need is to build the brand. If they own an intellectual property, they don't let it set there for decades.

    My kids were watching Cartoon Network this weekend, and show after show after show came on that could easily be adaptations of IP Warner has owned for years rather than paying for a new idea. Ben 10 as Dial H for Hero, Generator Rex as Cyborg, they could have made Samurai Jack about Katana, Dexter's Lab as the story of a young Lex Luthor, so on and so forth. Disney won't do that. They own these properties, and they will use them. As a super hero fan, I'm glad. They will make great shows. As a DC fan, I'm just gotta sigh….

  • mdk

    The Great Lakes Avengers. Superheroes with lame powers. Laugh riot.

  • http://twitter.com/jephd jephd

    i can see them using either heroes for hire or alter ego as a good starting point which could be used to test other concepts for future development. jess jones investigates rumours of the eternals, luke cage needs some slinky samurai lady help so gives colleen wing a call. I'd actually quite like to see a sort of amalgum of some of the above ideas. maybe h4h starring luke, jess jones, the daughters, maybe cloak and dagger in there too?

  • http://twitter.com/jephd jephd

    theyve already announced an iron fist film so they are probably trying to keep him safe for that

  • Rey Leopard

    I think that you can make a great “Heroes for Hire” without Iron Fist. Just give Luke a great bunch of supporting characters to play off of.

  • Sanders832003

    Hi, uhm long time veiwer first time poster.

    I was wandering about a “powers” show. I know it is a creation of Bendis but it would have that super hero angle and the police procedural. the first few arcs of the comic could be made into a show for a relaytively low cost and it has a more real world take on super heroes. I jst dont know if it wold be a problem because it's a creator owned property

  • Hulkster

    Exactly man.

  • Wolfthomas

    Cable and Deadpool, seriously comedy and action with a classic odd couple. Their convoluted backgrounds could be explained and perhaps simplified (not changed but exclude overly complicated stuff like Jean Grey clones). Also a huge amount of fourth wall breaking to the point where they actually discuss what happened in previous episodes at the start of a new one. Plus an epic start theme song that Deadpool loves and sings on ocaison.

  • Wolfthomas

    *explained over time (and mocked)

  • Puppykicer25

    agents of atlas sucks, i wish jeff parker would get fired already.

  • demoncat_4

    could see Eternals and Kazar work for the sci fi channel ABC not so much . plus Jack's work was kind of a head of its time. including for other media we shall see

    demoncat4

  • God

    Any animated cartoon possibilities, or all just live action? I'd love to see a Devil Dinosaur cartoon for kids. Not too much on the list given here would be appropriate for younger audiences, except maybe Ka-Zar, and that's too much of a Tarzan rip-off to generate much interest.

  • Mason

    Heroes For Hire is NOT Heroes for Hire with just Luke Cage. Fist needs to be there too or there's no point.

  • http://kindabloggy.wordpress.com/ Keith

    I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with Cloak and Dagger. I think approaching television with lesser known properties is the way to go in terms of eliminating preconceived notions. I'm wary of the Hulk adaptation. It seems like it has all types of train wreck potential. I feel Hulk is a concept that should be reserved for the silver screen. I'm just getting all types of Lou Ferrigno flashes and it's making me chuckle.

    Of the options given, Eternals sounds compelling. I've actually thought for awhile now that Runaways would work better as a weekly series than a movie. Every time I sat down to read an issue, I could literally see it in episodic form. I think I placed the entire cast of Veronica Mars into the roles of all the characters.

  • Beacon

    A lot of these seem to be kind of missing the point …

    Heroes for Hire without Luke and Danny buddy comedy?

    Ka-Zar outside the Savage Land?

    A watered down safe-for-TV Alias (they should just call it the Pulse if they’re going to neuter it again)?

    As for the others …

    I’m not sure the Eternals will catch on with the mainstream.

    Likewise, an Agents of Atlas show (like the comic itself) will probably be too weird to gain more than a small loyal cult following. I’d really love to see it though.

    Moon Knight is just begging for a lawsuit no matter how much fun it would be to see multiple-personality Batman on TV.

    I always thought BKV’s Hood had a lot of potential as an HBO series.

    Daughters of the Dragon has a lot of potential if they can manage to snag some breakout actresses.

    The Punisher is one of those things that seems like a no-brainer on paper but always manages to get messed up by suits.

  • Shurron Farmer

    I would rather see Marvel revive some their recently-too-cancelled animated series: Wolverine and the X-Men, Spectacular Spider-Man, and Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes.

  • Josh.

    Heroes for Hire without Iron Fist? What's the point?

  • Jaded Devil

    Wow, thanks for the sterling conversation, brainiac. Enjoy that MENSA membership.

  • Frequentcontributor

    Heroes for Hire could be cool if handled like Leverage, where you've got a really strong group of core characters holding the show together, but Leverage also has great heist stuff, which H4H wouldn't; I'd be afraid that it would go a bad A-team route. Just like hopefully the new Hulk show won't be too tied into the structure of the old one (make it more sciencey with dark military conspiracies…).

    Punisher is the one that could be done best if handled by the right people. The movies flopped because they weren't very good, but a show along the lines of AMC's lineup could be great. Don't even call it “The Punisher”. You could call it Castle, but only if you killed Nathan Fillion first. Or “Punishment” could be a cool title. It's a cop going to crazy lengths to avenge his murdered family: Add in some great criminal characters and you've got a hit, then just let the bullets and explosions fly.

    And I'd totally watch a Daily Bugle show. Already lots of great side characters there (with a young nerdy teen named Peter something running around in the background…).

  • Bicycle-Repairman

    How about Michael Jai White as Luke Cage? He starred in the blaxploitation parody “Black Dynamite”.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-wqmnJrOFM

  • Not Harrison Ford

    I suppose that since Disney owns Marvel now they don't have to rename Alias Alter Ego.

  • http://twitter.com/jephd jephd

    already in active development mate. if i read recent bendis/oeming interviews recently they are about to start naming names (showrunner, stars etc) snot coming from marvel studios though.

  • Matthewaos

    Moon Knight is not a Batman rip off.

  • Pbloome78

    look here is something easy moon knight rips off batman as batman rips off the shadow

  • Bicycle-Repairman

    “Moon Knight is just begging for a lawsuit no matter how much fun it would be to see multiple-personality Batman on TV.”

    I don't see any grounds for a plagiarism lawsuit against Marvel. Moon Knight and Batman don't have much in common besides being wealthy men who assume costumed secret identities to fight crime and using some similar equipment. Besides, Batman was hardly an original concept, containing similarities to the Scarlet Pimpernel, Zorro, the Shadow, the Phantom Detective, the Phantom, the Spider, the Green Hornet, and “The Bat Whispers”.

  • DaVeO

    Luke Cage can certainly be Hero for Hire, he did have the business before Iron Fist came along. Iron Fist can come in halfway through the season then join at the end. Daughters of the Dragon as occasional guest stars then added to the cast. Guest appearances by other heroes/mercs like Paladin, Black Cat, Silver Sable, Shroud, and Punisher. Could work, really could. Urban street fights and kung-fu.

  • Doctanno

    like to see a NAMOR film; INVADERS; DEFENDERS or another whith the SUB-MARINER.

  • DaVeO

    As an aside, I think Agents of Atlas could be a really good cartoon. The hitch would be that Warner Bros would have to make it to be cool. :)

  • Yetanotheranon

    That makes it sound interesting, in a way that the title — “Moon Knight” — does not. I haven't read the character, but that makes me much more like most TV viewers than the Marvel faithful. I'm interested in how you describe the concept, but the title is a turn-off.

    “Moon Knight”? Seriously.

  • Ebon

    “Heroes For Hire” isn't Heroes For Hire, it's Luke Cage. “Daughters Of The Dragon” could work in a Cagney & Lacey way although the name could use some revising. “The Hood” or “Alter Ego” would probably work best within the confines of a tv show although I'm more interested in the Daily Bugle show someone mentioned in the thread. That could work really well as a show and you'd have Spidey and Jessica Jones as recurring characters.

  • Gcrump

    you forgot Gamora

  • http://watch-broadbandtv.com zacouf

    The Punisher also could with this work because he in the position, the program Support is not necessary, around television, unless it is done extremely well in the cable or pay them on television.

  • Ryanmcconnell1066

    i would love to see daughters of The Dragon , it will be good , it will show kick-ass females , we really need to see this , i would love this series to come out !!!

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