📺 Powers (2015)

Powers began as a groundbreaking comic book series created by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Michael Avon Oeming, first published by Image Comics in 2000. The series carved out a unique niche by combining hard-boiled police procedural storytelling with a world saturated by superheroes. Rather than focusing on the heroes themselves, Powers follows the detectives of the LAPD's Powers Division, who handle crimes involving superpowered individuals. The comic's protagonist, Christian Walker, is a former superhero known as Diamond who lost his abilities and now investigates the very community he once belonged to, alongside his sharp-witted partner Deena Pilgrim.

The 2015 television adaptation brought this world to the screen as the first scripted original series for the PlayStation Network. Developed by Bendis himself alongside novelist and screenwriter Charlie Huston, the show starred Sharlto Copley as Christian Walker and Susan Heyward as Deena Pilgrim. The series maintained the core premise of detectives policing the superhero community while updating the setting to reflect contemporary celebrity and social media culture. The adaptation took creative liberties with certain characters and storylines to fit the episodic format, condensing and remixing elements from the long-running comic series.

The show ran for two seasons, premiering in March 2015 and concluding in July 2016. While it faced the challenge of being exclusive to a gaming platform rather than a traditional network or major streaming service, it developed a dedicated following. The series featured a mix of original cases and storylines inspired by the comics, exploring the seedy underbelly of a world where superpowers are just another commodity. Despite its cancellation after two seasons, Powers remains notable as an early example of a platform-exclusive original series and as a faithful-in-spirit adaptation that brought Bendis's noir-tinged superhero deconstruction to a new medium.