Rob Liefeld is best known, these days, for the Merc with a Mouth himself, Deadpool, but he has a long career in comics, including his own line of superheroes, the Extreme Universe. And now, it’ll come to Netflix as a series of superhero movies.
He’ll be creating the series with the assistance of Oscar-winning screenwriter (and also Batman & Robin scribe) Akiva Goldsman, but the Extreme Universe dates back to 1997 where it was published under the Awesome Comics imprint until essentially shutting down in 2000. It’s been returning to comics with relaunches and the like ever since. It’s a bit difficult to describe if you’re not into comics, but basically, imagine Marvel’s roster, but filtered through everything a Surge-maddened teenage boy would consider absolutely awesome. The cinematic universe has been in the works for a while, as Liefeld’s messy departure from DC Comics in 2012 was informed, at least in part, by the development of a Bloodstrike movie.
As to what we can expect from the Extreme Cinematic Universe, well, there are a lot of superteams, a lot of conspiracies, and the comics were, during their brief three-year existence, never shy about bumping somebody off to advance the plot. More recently, a 2015 story, written and drawn by Liefeld, had a hero’s severed penis in a jar as a key plot point, with everybody including said hero chasing after his member, sort of It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World, except not family-friendly.
It’s unlikely we’ll have superhero penis-chopping shenanigans on Netflix, but we doubt they’ll want a carbon copy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But, done right, and if they embrace the unapologetic macho cheese of the whole thing with the right degree of self-awareness, we could have something highly entertaining. But if they do go full Bobbit, the least they can do is have a crossover with Big Mouth, and let the Hormone Monster weigh in.
(via SlashFilm)