Fox recently confirmed that it has purchased the production rights for a television adaptation of DC’s comics hero story The Spectre.
In The Spectre, a murdered police officer is brought back to earth in the form of the Spectre of Death, a supernatural being who brings justice to criminals when the mortal police cannot or will not do so themselves.
This is one of the DC characters who has been tossed around in the canon a lot, and whose story is pretty much mashed now, so there are numerous versions of the character the producers and writers could draw from for this version.
Looking at Fox’s other shows in their current lineup however, like Fringe, they will likely take the opportunity to make another supernatural mystery show.
As such I can see this Spectre actually doing detective work and solving crimes, rather than just avenging them supernaturally.
In the comics, the Spectre is revealed to be a non-corporeal being, essentially the incarnation of vengeance.
He is one of the strongest beings in the DC universe (stronger, faster, and capable of greater feats even than Superman), but is also one of the most limited. He is nearly all-powerful.
Only divine artifacts and other incarnations can even slow him down, but he can only act in specific situations in which he is required to exact revenge, where otherwise no one would, and he requires a willing, angry, corporeal host to act in the physical world.
Whether the show will use that part of the canon is unknown, but I’m going to call it unlikely.
The series was created by Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily, Bill Gerber will produce. No word on any actors or production schedules yet.
If The Spectre follows a typical production schedule, we might see the pilot as early as the 2012 Fall season open.
