After years of adapting video games and books (and also getting all those anime distribution rights), Netflix is pivoting back to superhero stories. And its grand return is a series for Powers, the comic created by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Oeming.
If that name sounds at all familiar to you, it’s probably because you owned a PlayStation 3 in 2015. Back then, there was a live-action series starring Sharlto Copley and Susan Heyward that lasted two seasons and was exclusive to PlayStation Network as its first bit of original scripted television. This new version goes the animated route, with Bendis writing the pilot and Oeming handling the show’s visual development.
First released in 2000, Powers follows Chicago cops Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim, who take on cases involving superpowered people, collectively referred to by the series’ title. Across its initial 20-year run, the comic moved around from Image to Marvel via its Icon imprint. As of 2025, it’s now at Dark Horse, where it’s been continued with Powers 25, a 12-issue miniseries meant to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
Bendis and Oeming have picked a good time to adapt their comic: adult animation’s become a gateway to adapt indie books like Invincible and Sex Criminals, something Netflix previously took at stab at with Jupiter’s Legacy (based on the Image and Dark Horse comic) and its animated spinoff Super Crooks. We’ll see how Powers fares in animation when it lands on Netflix in the coming years.
[via the Hollywood Reporter]
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