Marvel's 'Damage Control' Gets Script Order From ABC

ABC is ordering another Marvel TV series. Ben Karlin, who worked as a producer on The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Modern Family, is exec producer on a new comedy called Damage Control, inspired by a set of short Marvel Comics series originally published in 1989.

The show, which has a script order from ABC, is about the people who clean up after superhero activity in the Marvel universe. Given the scale of stuff that happens in Marvel stories, this group has a lot of work to do.

THR reports that Damage Control is designed as a single-camera half-hour comedy. Here's the decriptopn:

Damage Control centers on the overworked and underpaid clean up crew of the Marvel Universe. Their specialty is dealing with the aftermath of the unique fallout from superhero conflicts, like returning lost ray guns to their rightful owners, rescheduling a wedding venue after it has been vaporized in a battle or even tracking down a missing prize African parrot that's been turned to stone or goo. Sometimes the most important heroes are the ones behind the scenes.

Since the show is on ABC it's fair to expect that we'll see some interaction between Damage Control and Agents of SHIELD; eventually, the two shows could be pretty closely related, but that will depend on how the development of the new series goes.

On the big screen Marvel's movies are far more oriented towards comedy than similar films from DC and Warner Bros., but on TV the DC series arguably have a better handle on humor. It might be fun to see a Marvel show explicitly oriented as a comedy. Because Damage Control enters into a set of Marvel shows and movies that are already somewhat in tune with the toll superheroes can take on the "real world," ground work is already laid for a show like this.

DC also has a "people without powers" show in the works called Powerless — in fact, our write-up of that from a few weeks ago even name-checked Damage Control.

Ben Karlin will exec produce with David Miner (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Parks and Recreation) and, of course, Jeph Loeb of Marvel Television.