Lock and Key

We’re less than a week away from the new beginning of history, and it’s time to prepare.

As soon as it was announced that the CW’s Smallville was going to end after ten seasons, people began speculating about what superhero drama the CW would try to do next. When Geoff Johns showed off test footage of Jamie Reyes transforming into the Blue Beetle, people started to wonder if we might be getting a BB series. It was a perfect scenario as CW tries hard to court that teen demographic and Jamie was already in high school. However, that test was actually for a Blue Beetle appearance in that finale Smallville season. Now it looks like the CW is exploring a Deadman series instead.

When Kris and I were brainstorming what comics would appear in the then unannounced New 52, I had originally pitched a Deadman book that would actually work really well on TV. The basic concept borrows heavily from shows like Quantum Leap and would have Deadman “drawn” to somebody each week that he would “help” through his ghostly powers. Overlaid on that is Deadman searching for clues on who murdered him so he can seek ghostly vengeance or some sort of pyramid scheme where he has to build up enough karma by helping people before he can move on to eternal rest. It would be a great concept for the CW because they could use it to focus on important high school issues like bullying, relationships with your teachers, home life and all the other stuff that would make for a good drama for the teen demographic. Occasionally, Deadman can be pulled to help with bigger issues like bank robberies, international war, or galactic invasions. In that later group, Deadman could be helping out other superheroes as a way to introduce a larger shared universe that could result in spinoff series. If they do that, we could even see Tom Welling back in the blue spandex as Superman needs help that only Deadman can provide.

At Fan Expo Canada this weekend, Dan Didio announced the return of the Justice Society of America to The New 52 in a new book in its early planning stages by James Robinson. The catch? The book would be based on Earth Two instead of the New 52 universe. Grant Morrison has previously confirmed he was still going to do a Multiversity mini series, so we knew that the Multiverse concept would survive the relaunch. Up until now, we did not know that we’d actually get to visit these universes. This way they can keep the Justice League as the original superheroes of the New 52 while still having the Justice Society, a group formed during World War II around. I’m betting that we’ll see other series set in different aspects of the Multiverse and then after Morrison’s Multiversity, either they can start to merge or there would be some permanent way for people to cross from one universe to another for crazy crossover action.