Image Comics’ Criminal to Be Adapted for TV by Prime Video

Right now, Prime Video is on a pretty good streak with adapting various properties to TV. Between Critical Role, Jack Reacher, and Invincible, plus its various original series, the streamer is good about finding something for a particular niche.

Per Deadline, Prime Video is currently finalizing plans to adapt Image Comics’ crime series Criminal. Written by Ed Brubaker (Batman, Uncanny X-Men) and drawn by Sean Phillips (Hellblazer, Kill or Be Killed), the series already has Brubaker tapped as an executive producer and showrunner, and a writers room is reportedly already going. The comics writer has been a part of the TV world for years, and most recently was the executive producer and head writer for HBO Max’s Batman: Caped Crusader, which is currently being shopped around to other streamers.

Released in 2006, Criminal has previously been described by Brubaker as “the interweaving saga of several generations of families tied together by the crimes and murders of the past.” Each story arc is self-contained and focuses on a different set of characters living in Center City, all of whom frequent the same bar and have similar upbringings in the crime world. The book was originally part of Marvel Comics’ Icon imprint before being republished by Image in 2019, and its last issue released back in 2020. Brubaker and Phillips have been longtime collaborators for years, having created fellow Image books Kill or Be Killed, Fatale, and The Fade during the 2010s.

At time of writing, Amazon hasn’t confirmed Deadline’s report, but Brubaker has a history with the streamer, having executive produced and written for its 2019 series Too Old to Die Young with Nicholas Winding Refn. That, and two of Prime Video’s bigger series at the moment, The Boys and Invincible, are based on indie comics. It feels like something in the streamer’s wheelhouse, so we should hear official confirmation at some point in the near future.

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