Heroes of The Small Screen

Alex Heritage
4 min readJun 25, 2021

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We all still have one of these right?

We are absolutely overloaded with superheroes right now, on our big screens, small screens and with a multitude of spin-offs and crossovers still to come it makes perfect sense to figure out which comic properties should get that (some would say overdue) television treatment:

5. The Adventures of Tintin

“We must be on something, Snowy, people don’t try to kill you just for sightseeing.”

I’m surprised that Hergés Tintin hasn’t been tapped for any other adaptations. Especially after the Spielberg helmed feature in 2011. Whilst there have been animated films, televised cartoons and radio plays in the past, since 2011 there hasn’t been a single thing about any other addition to the franchise, especially in regard to a sequel to the feature film. Moving Tintin to the small screen would make the most sense because of this, although, not in the sense of a long running series like so much Network Television. Something more akin to Sherlock in length. Three episodes per season, each an adaptation of a different book. Tintin is one of my favourite fictional characters, the film is excellent and it would be wonderful to see more of Tintin in the world.

4. Fanboys Vs Zombies

“If you can’t kiss him, at least spit in his mouth.”

I remember enjoying this comic more than I thought I would. A group of friends get trapped at a comic convention by a zombie plague and must rely on each other and their knowledge of zombies and pop culture to survive. Given the success of shows such as Community and The Walking Dead, it’s safe to say that nerds are big business as well as big draws. Fanboys Vs Zombies is extremely genre savvy and loves to play with convention alongside snappy dialogue and very likeable characters. It would probably end up as The Walking Dead but with a much lighter tone, which is by no means a bad thing.

3. Dredd

“Mama is not the law…I am the law”

Much like Tintin, Dredd has also had a solid feature film with nothing to follow it up. The character of Judge Dredd is a cop in the futuristic dystopia of Mega-City One, who deals out judgement on crime and the appropriate punishment, whether it’s incarceration or outright execution. This property is prime for the hyper-violent serialisation that fans have been campaigning for since the film itself underperformed at the box office. Whilst, according to Karl Urban, there have been “conversations” supposedly happening for a series called “Judge Dredd: Mega-City One”, nothing else regarding this has appeared. Hopefully those conversations bear fruit eventually.

2. Chew

“It…it tastes ANGRY”

This is a weird one, but a good one. Chew follows FDA Agent Tony Chu, who has the very backhanded superpower of receiving physic visions from everything he eats. Everything he eats. Make no mistake this is a very darkly comedic source material, but wildly creative at the same time. A good amount of twists and turns are presented in those first few issues of the comic and from my research I do know that the premise and powers on display are expanded upon in great detail. Apparently there was a television series in development a few years ago but it never got off the ground, if there are any people still trying to breathe life into it, I can only hope they succeed.

1. Sex Criminals:

“Don’t judge us.”

This is a very unique premise. Two people, Suzie and Jon, meet at a party and sleep with each other. Through this, they discover that they share the ability to freeze time when they reach orgasm. This comic tickled my funny bone in the best way. The characters are likeable, the premise creative and is prime adaptation material, especially given all the jokes about the sex scenes in Game of Thrones, HBO should pick this up and just one up all of us and make the sex scenes in this even more hilarious, which wouldn’t be too difficult given that everything else in the immediate vicinity will freeze.

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