Matt Fraction’s ‘Sex Criminals’ Is Headed to Television

Few comic book writers are as hot right now as the wife-and-husband team of Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction, so it’s not all that surprising that the couple has signed a deal with Universal to develop their work into television shows. What is a little surprising is that this duo found their success creating deeply personal and wildly experimental comics, which means that some of the best comic book writers working today are going to adapt some of the best comics currently being published. This could be something special.

The news comes to us via Deadline, who say that DeConnick and Fraction will also develop original concepts alongside adaptations of their work. First on their plate, however, is a series based on Fraction’s Sex Criminals, which he co-created with artist Chip Zdarksy.

The critically lauded, award-winning series is the definition of NSFW, following a couple who realize that they can freeze time when they orgasm. What follows isn’t just a sci-fi heist story, but an all-too-real and brutally honest examination of sexuality and compatibility in relationships. Oh, and it’s really, really funny. It’s the kind of comic that is so good that it demands a movie or TV adaptation while simultaneously being too bizarre and raw to ever catch the eye of a major network or studio. Or so we thought.

The article doesn’t reveal what else is a priority for DeConnick and Fraction, but they have plenty of options. Fraction has also written the Hollywood noir Satellite Sam with Howard Chaykin, a gender-swapped science fiction take on The Odyssey with Christian Ward called ODY-C, and the trippy sci-fi spy series Casanova with Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba. DeConnick is responsible for the horror Western Pretty Deadly with Emma Rios, and the brand-new-but-promising Bitch Planet with Valentine De Landro, which follows the inmates incarcerated in an all-female space prison for acting out in a patriarchal dystopia. That’s one of the strongest creator-owned libraries in comics today.

Although both writers have their fair of experience working on superhero stories (DeConnick’s Captain Marvel with David Lopez is wonderful, and Fraction’s about-to-end Hawkeye run, with David Aja and Annie Wu, has been nothing short of astounding), it’s refreshing to see their independent work get recognized in a landscape dominated by masks and capes. There are tons of crummy comics with great loglines Universal could have pursued. Instead, they went and got two of the most talented people working in comics to help bring their weird and wonderful work to the screen. This is promising and exciting news.