The Best TV Show Never Made - Gotham Central

Imagine a television series that took place in Gotham City. Oh wait, that already happened. It was called Birds of Prey and focused on Oracle, Black Canary and Huntress. It came and went quietly. But imagine that it was done RIGHT, by making it in the Chris Nolan age where realism, grit and epic storytelling were the main themes.

Gotham Central started off as an experiment in 2003 by the best crime writers in the comics genre - Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, two guys who know how to write genuine detective stories as well as police procedurals. Their idea was to do crime stories set in the city of Batman but with the costumed freaks firmly in the background. The main characters were formerly supporting ones themselves - Maggie Sawyer who previously was the head of Metropolis' Major Crimes Unit now transferred to Gotham, Crispus Allen from Detective Comics and the animated DVD Batman: Gotham Knight, Renee Montoya from Bruce Timm's Batman Animated and Marcus Driver, an entirely new character. Their stories focused on solid police procedurals that sometimes involved supervillains, sometimes not - and Batman's presence (if not the man himself) shadowing in the background. Many of the characters, of which there are almost 20 officers, look down upon their supposed need to always contact Batman to solve their cases. And while most refuse to accept his help when they hedge their own abilities to solve crimes, they do understand his necessity in taking down some of the supervillains when their own firepower isn't enough.

So combining top-notch storytelling and clever cameos by Batman and his Rogues Gallery (plus some cameos from the Titans and Flash's Rogues), what do you get? Eisner and Harvey Award attention in the first year for writing, series and inking. You had serious DC character development unmatched in other series, Montoya (who most of us remember as the plucky detective alongside Harvey Bullock and Jim Gordon in the DCAU) becomes a lesbian and starts her path into leaving the GCPD and turning into the next Question, and Crispus Allen is on his way into becoming the next Spectre. And it was a thrill to see how seemingly regular crimes ended up involving characters like The Joker, Mad Hatter, Two Face or Catwoman. Or vice versa, where you would think costume freaks are involved but you are not sure. Maybe not.

But funny enough, the series was a commercial failure. It was like a critically acclaimed art house movie that wins top honors at all the film festivals and yet never finds its audience. It ran for 40 issues before the writers could no longer justify its existence despite continually racking up awards.

And end footnote was that, ironically, TV execs at Warner Bros (owners of DC and producers of the Nolan films) LOVED the comic series. Although they were nonplussed with Birds of Prey's failure, their confidence in the quality of writing and character development (imagine Hill Street Blues or CSI, but with Batman in it!) would make it a reality if not for the fact that there is a moratorium on all Batman TV shows as long as the film saga will keep going. So we got that.

Crossover Works of Warren Ellis

Despite being more known for Planetary and Transmetropolitan (and to a certain degree, G.I. Joe Resolute), it's actually Warren Ellis' smaller works that got optioned for movies and television. No doubt because the story arcs are more self-contained or in one series case, the whole thing was written as television scripts in mind.

RED:

Paul Moses is a retired CIA agent who specialized in "foreign acquisitions", which is spook shorthand for "assassination" who is quietly and happily retired and living a secluded life where the most exciting thing he opts to do is speak to his Agency handler about family and other banal things. However, his record of service is still on file at the CIA and the new incoming Director is given a summary of actions. Typically as per any political nominee without real experience, he freaks out and immediately demands Moses be killed to prevent any political fallout. A team of assassins visits who he promptly dispatches. Once he recognizes them and clocks on what is happening, he goes berserk and sets off for vengeance with extreme prejudice against his former employers. A solid revenge shoot-em-up tale that shows just how dark the human soul can get. Although the writing is sparse, the artwork by Cully Hamner is stunning as it is concise.

The movie will apparently be starring Bruce Willis as Paul Moses, and directed by Robert Schwentke.

GLOBAL FREQUENCY:

Are you on the Global Frequency? One of the more high concept ideas of comics, Global Frequency was written in episodic format, perfect for a television show. The idea is that a private covert intelligence operation solves the world's hidden problems. With 1,001 operatives at its disposal, the lead characters of Miranda Zero and central operator Aleph can call upon any one of them to take on an assignment. Each operative is a master of his or her field, be it a special tactic, personal skill, science or feat of engineering. They run from ex-soldiers, scientists, thieves, professors, athletes, police, spies, or those who defy description. Each assignment is equally hard to describe - a village in Norway that has succumbed to the arrival of an angel, an alien virus hits New York city and spreads like an idea, old Cold War weapons that have degraded and posed a threat. One case involves a Russian ex-Spetznaz man who has the ability to generate worm holes and because he took part in quantum experiments long ago, is connected to a nuclear device in Siberia that when detonated there, ground zero is wherever he is standing. In this case his retirement choice of San Francisco. All assignments and operatives are non-governmental despite being G8 funded - for if a government officially acknowledges any of it, they are also automatically responsible for most of the problems. The final story where a global population reduction device from the 1960s in orbit goes awry is particularly heinous. A combination of the X-Files, the old 1980s TV show Masquerade, and Mission: Impossible.

Each story was done by a different artist, but the covers were spectacular - each one a composite by Brian Wood (creator DMZ and Supermarket). They capture the sophistication of the writing and the grass-roots flair of each story. While not every story works, as some merely degrade in depictions of ultra-violence (one story even only focuses on an exceptionally brutal hand to hand fight), the ones involving high concept ideas are truly worth reading.

There WAS a television pilot made, with Michelle Forbes (Ensign Ro Laren of Star Trek: TNG) as Miranda Zero and Aimee Garcia as Aleph. However, WB didn't pick it up for whatever reason they had at the time. I can imagine that the special effects and location shooting were probably pretty cost-prohibitive. Global Frequency works best as an episode-based TV show, maybe even as a mini-series as although there is no central narrative, there are far too many ideas and abilities to create a movie out of it.