NBC planning Witchblade TV series

Because apparently we don’t have enough superhero shows, another ‘90s comic book icon is getting a live-action TV feature. And it is none other than Witchblade, the heroine whose superpower is to wear an extremely uncomfortable-looking metal bikini!

NBC has expressed interest in the lucrative comic book genre, and so it is collaborating with Carol Mendelsohn and Caroline Dries, the showrunners of “CSI” and “Vampire Diaries” respectively, to create an adaptation of the Top Cow comic “Witchblade.”

This Sony Pictures Television spectacle will revolve around Sara Pezzini, a young, athletic, and intelligent NYPD homicide detective. She’s hot on the trail of a serial killer when blam! a supernatural gauntlet imbues her with fantastic powers. The gauntlet is in fact a sentient artifact that bonds with extraordinary women, and it has been doing so for centuries – Sara just happens to be its latest host.

So what can Sara do with the Witchblade? Well, she can transform the thing into a variety of armaments, from swords, to shields, to chains. It protects her from harm, because obviously it covers all her important bits. It also grants Sara the ability to strike poses that would break an ordinary woman’s back.

“Witchblade” was created by Marc Silvestri, Brian Haberlin, Davil Wohl, and Michael Turner. It debuted in 1995 through Image Comics-imprint Top Cow, and ended after 185 issues in 2015.

“Witchblade” has been adapted before into various formats. TNT began airing a live action TV series in 2001. It starred Yancy Butler as Sara. Despite its popularity, it was cancelled in 2002.

In 2006, a collaboration between Top Cow and Japanese animation studio GONZO resulted in a 24-episode “Witchblade” anime. This focused on a new character, Masane Amaha, who is a single mother struggling to provide for her young daughter. A “Witchblade” manga and Japanese novel were also produced, each with its own unique heroine.

Dries will serve as scriptwriter and executive producer alongside Brian young, a writer and executive producer on “Vampire Diaries.” Mendelsohn, Julie Weitz, Top Cow founder and owner Silvestri, and Top Cow luminary Matt Hawkins will also be executive producers.

American comics publisher Top Cow Productions is Image Comics’ partner studio. Image Comics is well-known for a variety of graphic novels, chief among them Robert Kirkman’s “The Walking Dead,” which most people know from its immensely popular AMC TV series of the same name.

In related news, a cinematic universe based on the Extreme Universe, another Image Comics property, is being planned. Does this mean we’ll also see “Witchblade” on the big screen, one day? Only time will tell. — BM, GMA News