Can The Spectre Work as a TV Drama?

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
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Can The Spectre Work as a TV Drama?



Fox is developing a TV series based on a DC comics character with a long history.

TV shows based on comic book heroes seem to do either pretty well or just terrible. Smallville has enjoyed ten seasons on the CW, and Batman: The Animated Series was well received. the Wonder Woman show [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/tag/the+cape] never got off the ground. Fox Studios seems committed to making comic book TV shows work, however, as it has hired a writer to develop a pilot based on The Spectre character.

Brandon Camp is the lucky scribe picked to write the script, which according to the Hollywood Reporter will be an adaptation of The Spectre's original storyline of the spirit of a New York City police officer meting out justice.

The Spectre has been around for a long time. The character was first introduced in 1940 as the spirit of a murdered cop who exacted vengeance on his killers. Over the course of the Golden, Silver and Bronze Ages, the Spectre was a member of various superhero groups like the Justice League and the Justice Society of America serving as one of DC's occult characters like Doctor Fate. In the last twenty five years, the Spectre was given more backstory as the spirit of one of the fallen angels that fought with Lucifer before repenting and serving as God's embodiment of anger on Earth. All of the versions of the Spectre were therefore human hosts of this spirit. During the Crisis on Infinite Earths and Zero Hour stories, the Spectre's powers of God's anger were instrumental in defeating the Anti-Monitor and Parallax.

The Spectre's history gets even more muddied when Hal Jordan gets involved. The former Green Lantern had transformed into the ultra bad guy Parallax but then his spirit entered the Spectre and began a redemptive mission in response to fan outcry. After Jordan's spirit is cleansed of Parallax, the Spectre has no human host and it goes on a rampage.

How much of that will end up in the show is anybody's guess, but the possibilities for drama in the same vein as Dexter with more supernatural elements seem pretty compelling.

Source: Hollywood Reporter [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/fox-developing-dc-comics-spectre-235506?]

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The Ultimate 2

Lord Of Madness
May 13, 2009
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Hmmm sounds interesting, it could probably work with the right writer. At best it could be a pretty successful show with a unique premise. At it's worst it could fall right in league with the 1997 CBS Justice League Pilot, or the Reb Brown Captain America movies. If Fox does do this I will tune in to the first episode to see what it's like.
 

Scarim Coral

Jumped the ship
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Oct 29, 2010
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If the drama version will be something similar to the animated short version used in that film "Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths" then it would be good.
However these days I don't have that much faith with DC when it comes to live action (although when it comes to animated stuff I got nothing to worry about).
 

malestrithe

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Aug 18, 2008
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I would see it as a sort of a Colombo-esque show with it spending more time with the killer, and establish why this person deserves what they get before they get it, then it might be great. Otherwise, it would get boring in a hurry. I like the Spectre, he is one of my favorite characters, but he simply cannot carry a story by himself. He is too powerful and can end things as quickly as they start. He works more as foil than anything else.
 

Not-here-anymore

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Nov 18, 2009
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Spectre is waaay overpowered for a TV show. The second he finds out who the bad guy of the day is, bam. Done.

You know which DC character would be awesome with their own show? Booster Gold.
 

Realitycrash

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Dec 12, 2010
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"Spirit of Gods Vengeance"? If this is the tone for it to take, I am skeptic to say the least.
I preferred Brimstone, and they canceled that after what..One season? Though sure, that was about the spirit of one dead cop seeking redemption from hell by hunting down escaped demons..
 

Realitycrash

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J03bot said:
Spectre is waaay overpowered for a TV show. The second he finds out who the bad guy of the day is, bam. Done.

You know which DC character would be awesome with their own show? Booster Gold.
..And then have every other DC character show up as cameo, one in each episode, to pick on him?
I LIKE IT!
 

Soxafloppin

Coxa no longer floppin'
Jun 22, 2009
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J03bot said:
Spectre is waaay overpowered for a TV show. The second he finds out who the bad guy of the day is, bam. Done.

You know which DC character would be awesome with their own show? Booster Gold.
He made an appearance in Smallville and was actually pretty good.
 

marscentral

Where's the Kaboom?
Dec 26, 2009
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The Spectre is one of my favourite characters. It's hard to see how they could make a TV series with him, but perhaps a supernatural detective show with occasional cameos from other DC heroes is probably the way to go. Since the Spectre is rarely in danger himself, I guess the drama would be having him try to solve and punish the murder before other people get hurt and deciding whether to go full fire and brimstone on someone or show mercy.
 

agentorange98

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Aug 30, 2011
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No, no it can't it would have to be grissly and brutal like his recent "Tales of the Unexpected" miniseries with lots of gore and shockingly violent crimes that wouldn't fly on main stream TV
 

Mortuorum

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Oct 20, 2010
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Most TV writers don't get superheroes. My guess is it'll be a fairly straightforward detective drama with a few supernatural references thrown in as an afterthought. I'd like to be pleasantly surprised through.