The comics craze on television has reached a pretty high point. The CW will have three DC Comics-based shows on the air this season. ABC has two Marvel productions. Fox has Gotham and the comic-based Lucifer coming up, while CBS is gearing up to introduce Supergirl. Since NBC canceled Constantine however, the network is bereft of a superhero show, and is hoping to curb that with Powerless, a half-hour superhero comedy project.
That’s right, we said comedy project. News broke on Friday that A to Z creator Ben Queen is behind the project, which has a pretty fabulous premise. Powerless would be based on characters from the DC Comics universe who would all be working together in an insurance office, working for a company that is known as one of “the worst” in America. Instead of being told from the perspective of a superhero or heroine who would be saving the day, the employees would be average joes who are envious of the more prominent superheroes and heroines that are celebrities in the society. It’s probably the show that Gotham should have been.
In fact, in a lot of ways it sounds similar to the Gotham Central comic written by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka. The Eisner Award-winning comic is basically a police procedural set in Gotham that follows the lives of the police investigating cases in the area. Heroes, like Batman, and many villains are mentioned throughout the comic’s run, but they aren’t as important as the everyday people working the beat in the city. While Powerless is definitely not a procedural and is more likely to be a comedy in the vein of The Office with a single camera format, it’ll still be about the average people first and the super people second, which sounds pretty cool.
Deadline reports that NBC has ordered a pilot production for Powerless. Clearly, the potential comedy project is still in the early stages of development, so we don’t know much about the office personalities who would star in the project, much less the superheroes and heroines who could pop up, whether through newspaper headlines, cameos or more (although big names like Superman are expected to be out). If Powerless ends up moving forward, I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more about it in the coming months. So, stay tuned to CinemaBlend to learn more.
In the meantime, there are plenty of comic book-based dramas on the air this fall. Gotham and Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D will return for Season 2 this September, while Supergirl, Arrow and The Flash will air in October. The rest of the Marvel and DC dramas are expected to hit at midseason. Here’s the full TV schedule.
