Expanding Comics | Small Screen Infusion: StreetHawk

There have been a lot of comics made from television series. Can it go the other way successfully? We think so, we've written about two all ready here & here.

StreetHawk - an all terrain attack motorcycle designed to fight urban crime. Capable of incredible speeds up to 300 miles per hour, and immense fire power ranging from machine guns, to a particle beam, to a miniaturized missile launcher.

Ok, I'm not going to pull any punches here. Unlike Wild Wild West & Burn Notice from our previous posts the StreetHawk television series wasn't executed well at all and quite frankly it showed in more ways than one in nearly every episode but the first three (which seemingly were finished before the producers realized how damn expensive the show would become).

The concept, similar to that of Knight Rider & Air Wolf, is sound. It's so sound in fact that this same concept is successfully re-envisioned in the late 90s with shows like Cobra and Viper. In a nut shell crime is running rampant off the charts so the government has signed off on a state of the art attack motorcycle to fight crime up close and personal.

StreetHawk is intended to be a scalpel, where the regular police are a bit more hammerish, and strike at the heart of the problem. The designer of StreetHawk hand picks his rider but unfortunately he's stuck with Jesse Mach (Rex Harrison - pictured) who's a bit too reckless and has a serious problem with authority but always manages to get the job done. Which is exactly what the StreetHawk program needed.

As I stated above, a sound concept wasn't enough for StreetHawk to survive. The bike, which looked extremely cool (particularly all lit up at night) Was actually really heavy (extra batteries for all of those lights and gadgets), slower than it should be, off balanced, and had such a small fuel tank (reduced in size to make room for batteries) that they had to refuel after nearly every take.



The costs were cutting into profits in a big way so the producers re-tooled the show. They shoved StreetHawk to the "4th reel" (meaning they only brought him out in the last 15 minutes of each episode) so that their pretty boy star with the recognizable face could have a lot more screen time to make the ladies swoon. In addition they stopped all night shooting and did everything they could to reuse the motorcycle footage they'd all ready banked instead of shooting new stuff.

All of this, on top of the biggest slap in the face to the creators of the show: refusing to let them cast an unknown by the name of George Clooney (he plays the antagonist, hired to kill StreetHawk in episode two) as their star must have caused too much grief off camera and the show was canceled just before the first season ended.

THE COMIC

We can rebuild it. Faster. Stronger. Better. Armed with a controlled budget, and learning from the past, the StreetHawk comic would be different. The bike is still state of the art (and by today's terms now with new features like satellite uplink, EMP pulse, etc etc) and one of the kind. The rider? There is a team of them all continuously jockeying for pole position (he/she who gets to ride StreetHawk the next time it's called upon) all of the time.

When not in the field dispensing justice or saving innocents atop the bike agents (riders) of the StreetHawk program would be performing other duties such as research, testifying in front of finance committees, going under cover, and exchanging briefcases with foreign dignitaries in shadowy places.

We'd run the comic with three issue story arches capped off by done in one issues in between to allow for easy jumping on points (and easy trade collection) for new readers and creative teams.

Done in the DCU the StreetHawk program would always be in danger of being folded into the Suicide Squad because Amanda Waller thought she could modify it to take down FLASH if she ever needed too. It would be a constant fight to appease the government so that the program would stay afloat independently without DeadShot being placed as a high level member of the organization.

Done in the Marvel U the StreetHawk program would have been an early prototype of SHIELD that was rescued from mothballs by some enterprising eager beaver senator who'd wanted it for his own reasons. It would be a constant fight to serve and protect the public, always fighting "mutant extinction" orders being issued by peoples unknown.

I'd do everything I could to sneak in other famous vehicles from other television show's without really naming them. You know, an attack helicopter where the pilot and co-pilot wear gray jump suits with smoke glass lenses on their helmets. A lone man with a black Trans-Am with a crazy red light running across the front. A wild eyed punk and an old man crammed into a beautiful red T-top with Coyote on the license plate. All just for the fun of it. :)

Have a great weekend.

Caine