5 Obscure Marvel Comics that Could Be Great TV Shows

Spellbinders

Far and away the obscure comic on this list, Spellbinders was a short-lived teen drama that Marvel published 2005. Created by Mike Carey and Mike Perkins, the mini-series followed Chicago teen Kim Vesco as her family relocated to Salem, Massachusetts. Soon after arriving, Kim finds herself thrust into a long-standing conflict between the area’s magical empowered youths and its muggles. Like all good young adult genre fiction, Spellbinders featured secretly evil boyfriends, lots of coming of age drama and high school gatherings that happen to coincide with the end of the world.

Though the series only ran for six issues, it got a lot of world-building in that could be expanded into a vast mythology. While Spellbinders took place in the Marvel Universe, it wasn’t intended to appeal to the published established audience. It was part of an imprint called Marvel Next that designed to draw in younger readers who weren’t well versed in Marvel continuity. As such, it featured no superheroes or villains and was instead focused on building its own mystical world.

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With its Y.A. themes, insularity and naturalism, Spellbinders could resonate with audiences hungry for supernatural angst in post-Vampire Diaries world. And with the network’s focus on genre shows and upcoming slate of Marvel adaptations, it could be the series Freeform needs to breakthrough to the mainstream.