For a lot of people their first entry into the world of comic books is through material derived from comic book sources. Be it Batman through the Adam West series of the 1960’s or the X-Men universe through Fox’s Animated series from the 1990’s. But this isn’t a one way street, many TV and movie franchises have expanded their universes, and additional revenue streams, from telling additional stories whether canon or not in this medium.
One of the most famous examples, until recently, was Dark Horses Star Wars Expanded Universe stories. But Star Wars isn’t alone in expanding its universes via the comic book medium. During the 1990’s, the now defunct, Topps company licensed The X-Files from Fox, before DC and now IDW produced parallel and continuing storylines.
The list of televisual and film franchises that have continued on after the series wrapped or have been cancelled has been covered by numerous people across numerous sites all around the web. But what I’d like to do here is cover series that I feel could and should continue in the comic book world.
Okay so there has been a bit of a gap between this post and the previous post, Stargate, the good news on that is that since then American Mythology have begun putting out Stargate: Atlantis comics. The delay in part is that there isn’t always anything that I would happily continue reading in comic form once it’s ended/been cancelled and not everything translates particularly well. Who the hell was buying IDWs CSI comics in the mid-2000s?
Penny Dreadful however would be a perfect fit for comic books, it does after-all follow a similar thread to Alan Moore’s LXG, literary characters now in the public domain joining forces to fight threats both of a supernatural and of a human nature. A fourth season in comics would be great, John Logan the series creator has been adamant that by the mid-point of season 2 he planned to end the series at the end of season 3.
Personally this doesn’t quite ring true to myself, there were too many new characters and possible plot threads introduced during the course of season 3 for the show to just end there. Whilst I accept that Vanessa Ives, portrayed by Eva Green, storyline had run its course Logan and the production company have given us a world far to rich to let it end with her death.
Whilst the characters and story lines of Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney), Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) and Lily/Brona Croft (Billie Piper) may also have reached their inevitable and intertwined conclusions there is certainly no reason that they could not appear at various points in the future.
There is however, I believe, still life and stories to be told concerning the characters of Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett), Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton) and Kaetenay (Wes Studi), particularly given the revelation concerning Kaetenay in the final episodes of the series. The elder statesmen dynamic between him and Sir Malcolm with the young buck in Ethan had potential, especially if they returned to North America.
The supporting character of Ferdinand Lyle (Simon Russell Beale) leaving after 6 episodes to help a friend investigate Imoteps tomb in Cairo opened up another possible avenue for the writers. As does the introduction of his friend Catriona Hartdegen (Perdita Weeks) a particularly skilled gun fighter and fencer who more than holds her own during the shows climactic battle with Dracula and his minions. The introduction of Dr. Jekyll as a colleague of Dr. Frankenstein’s was also a character that could have been expanded upon in later episodes especially with the, off screen, death of his father bestowing upon him the title of Hyde.
The character that I’ll miss the most and who was truly the heart of the show however was The Creature (Rory Kinnear), every scene he was in elevated the show and the performances of those who interacted with him.
Over the course of three seasons Penny Dreadful, scared and entertained in equal measure and I for one will miss it’s presence in the schedule.