8 Underrated Comic Books That Deserve Their Own TV Show

6. Batwoman

Batwoman DC Comics
DC Comics

By far the best Bat-family member to have emerged over the past decade, Kate Kane's Batwoman - a former military academy undergraduate and heiress to the Kane family empire - quickly asserted herself as one of DC's best up and coming heroes in 2006, taking a leading role in '52', and subsequently landing a long-adored ongoing under the guidance of Haden Blackman and J. H. Williams III. An icon of LGBT* representation in the medium, Kate's stories examined a whole other aspect of Gotham and, by extension, the Bat-family itself, sporting her own rogues gallery and in-turn offering a quality most other Bat-books failed to replicate even in their peak years during the 'Reborn' event.

Of course, a Batwoman film should always be a prospect given the character's cinematic potential. Considering the current state of DC's blockbusters, however, I think it's best we all agree that TV offers a much safer option for Kate to make an eventual page-to-screen transition, away from the homicidal antics of Bat-fleck and a tremendously woeful Jared Leto Joker to boot.

If anything, a small screen adaptation presents a whole host of opportunities for a Batwoman series to flourish, and would enable show-runners to operate without the fear of the toxifying big-screen presence of the DCEU stepping on their toes. Take inspiration from her opening solo series, and you'd have the best Bat-show on TV in an instant.

Advertisement
In this post: 
Hellboy
 
Posted On: 
Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.