The CW is looking into doing a series based on the Street & Smith pulp novel character The Avenger — and they’re giving it a “biopunk” makeover.
Deadline is reporting Deric Hughes and Ben Raab (Warehouse 13) are working with CBS TV Studios on the project, which reinvents the story to be about a young woman named Alice Benson whose parents have been murdered.
Soon after this happens, she discovers she has a superpower that allows her to change her appearance at will, the result of genetic bio-hacking. If this project goes to series, we’ll see Alice using her new abilities to investigate her parents’ deaths and find out the origins of her new powers.
Neal Baer and Dawn Ostroff will be executive producers. Yes, you read that second name right – she’s baaaaack. Raab and Hughes will be co-executive producers.
Deadline notes that the project is currently untitled. Calling it The Avenger might confuse the series with that British TV show, or that movie with the assembling superheroes. When DC Comics did an Avenger comic book series, they used the title of the first Avenger pulp, “Justice Inc.” Comments on the Deadline post seem to imply this is very different from “The Avenger” mythology to begin with — maybe a completely different title is in order? Guess we will find out if this project gets further than the pilot script stage.
Interesting trivia: Ben Raab, specifically, has worked on pulp characters before, including The Phantom; he’s also written several comics including (ironically) The Avengers and Green Lantern.
1 Comment
Make her a former stage magician and skilled disguise artist whose now in hiding because she witnessed her parents murder and they saw her…
No need for fancy powers, throw in a bit of Burn Notice advice on conventional disguises and stage magic (no giving away the secret of actual tricks only comment on traditional tricks as if for comparison) and have flashbacks to introduce her friends when they aren’t introduced in an actual episode.
The police are looking for her as a suspect the bad guys are also hunting her but she doesn’t know why they killed her parents and throw in a few clues along the way, that she was adopted and she was left in their care when her natural parents marriage collapsed and one side of her family wants her dead or better yet use as a hostage if her natural father is still alive but also in hiding with that as a season 1 climax revelation.
Make her a skilled gymnast with martial arts training maybe exotic weapon knowledge but not a killer being disinclined because of an event in her early teens which still haunts her.
Maybe have her trying to cope with her new life working at a variety of part-time jobs since being undercover she can’t use her old CV but maybe have some friends who live in the same apartment block I’m thinking flats something that doesn’t stick out and she doesn’t have $2000 makeovers or clothes for obvious reason since she’s trying to stay out of the attention of those hunting her.
Okay that last bit is impossible for CW but well…