For years, Marvel has been rumored to have been developing Damage Control as its first live-action comedy series. But it looks like it could be the New Warriors who have that distinction if a new report pans out.
According to TVLine, Marvel TV and ABC Studios are in the early stages of planning a New Warriors television series that would be a half-hour comedy series. It should be pointed out that the New Warriors comic wasn’t really a comedy, although there was that one miniseries that essentially turned the team into reality show cast members…which is not exactly fondly remembered.
The New Warriors shouldn’t have worked as a concept.Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz assembled a mismatched group of C-list heroes including Nova, Firestar, Justice, Speedball, Namorita, and the skateboard riding Night Thrasher. But the group struck a chord with readers in the ’90s within the pages of their ongoing series by Fabian Nicieza and Mark Bagley. The team has never quite recaptured its popularity from that era, although there have been a few attempts to revive the title.
Related: Marvel’s Squirrel Girl Gets Her Own Comic Book Series
The TVLine report doesn’t offer many clues about which heroes would be featured in the series, but it did say that the show would follow “a superhero squad made up of teenagers, one of whom would include Doreen Green (aka Squirrel Girl).” For those of you unfamiliar with Squirrel Girl, she’s was a lesser known creation of Steve Ditko who has become a fan favorite character. Marvel apparently feels that she is a potential breakout heroine, and she has even starred in her own comic book series. Squirrel Girl has never actually been in the New Warriors, but Luke Cage, Daredevil, and Jessica Jones were never Defenders; and that’s not stopping Marvel TV from putting them together on Netflix under that banner.
Getting back to Squirrel Girl, the long-running joke was that no supervillain could defeat her because she inexplicably won every fight, even against Doctor Doom and Thanos. More recent appearances of Squirrel Girl outside of her own comic have depicted her as a much more competent fighter, including the time that she beat up Wolverine during Brian Michael Bendis’ New Avengers run.
Apparently, Marvel TV and ABC Studios don’t have a home for the New Warriors series, and they plan to shop it around to cable outlets and streaming sites. It doesn’t sound like this series would fit the tone of Netflix’s originals, but Hulu recently picked up Marvel’s Runaways, which means that it could be in play for this series.
Marvel has yet to confirm the initial report for this potential New Warriors series, but if a deal comes together we may find out more in the near future.
