By Are you sick of superhero-movie-adjacent TV shows yet? Marvel sure hopes not, because they and ABC have announced their intentions to adapt on-again, off-again comic series Damage Control as a live-action comedy set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its ever-growing cache of television properties.
In Marvel comics, Damage Control is a comedy comic that follows what’s essentially a cleanup crew that often gets called in to clear rubble and rebuild after heroes and villains clash; they’re often a convenient way to explain why the entire planet (or at least New York City) isn’t a huge pile of scrap. It sounds like the adaptation would follow in much the same vein, which makes a lot of sense considering that, you know, one of the most recent MCU movies blew up an entire Eastern European city. Assuming it comes to fruition, Damage Control would be the eighth series tying into Marvel’s movie mega-franchise known to be airing or in development, joining Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter on ABC and Daredevil on Netflix, as well as upcoming series Most Wanted (ABC) and Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist (Netflix).
On its face, I’m of two minds about the whole thing. On the one hand, the MCU has proven that it’s a versatile mega-franchise capable of branching into various genres; also, as good as Agents of SHIELD has gotten and as great as Daredevil and Agent Carter were in their debut seasons, they’re largely serious (if fun) affairs and something specifically comedic would be a refreshing change of pace for Marvel’s TV offerings. That said, if we’re to believe the Most Wanted spinoff is still happening, that puts the MCU up to roughly six series a year (more as the Netflix series continue to debut), which is a lot of investment to ask for from viewers. Ultimately, though, the series will live and die on its quality, which hasn’t always been Marvel’s strong suit when it comes to its TV outings, at least not right out of the gate.