Welcome back to We Want Comics, a column exploring intellectual properties, whether they’re movies, TV shows, novels or video games, that we want adapted into comic books. This week I’m looking at one of my favorite sitcoms, NBC’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I considered a column on this fabulous show last year when it was briefly canceled by its original network, Fox, but just because it was saved doesn’t mean the series can’t expand to another medium. Here are nine suggestions for a Brooklyn Nine-Nine comic book:
Brooklyn Nine-Nine – The Movie:
Before I start suggesting biographies of our favorite characters, let’s talk about what a “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” comic could do that the TV series can’t: have a writer and artist go completely nuts with it, creating a story that completely smashes the boundaries of the show. Maybe dedicate a whole six-issue series to Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) daydreaming about being in a Die Hard movie (like in the season 6 trailer), or one of those fantasy novels he loves so much? It’s a comic: anything should be possible.
Captain Holt:
There have been numerous flashbacks on the show to Captain Raymond Holt (Andre Braugher)’s past as a badass detective in the ’70s and ’80s (complete with “era appropriate” moustache), but there’s still plenty that could be explored, namely his decision to come out as gay in a less tolerant time, and how he met his husband Kevin. (We could also meet Montez and Dillman, the two best detectives he ever worked with.) Writer David F. Walker may be a good pick for such a series given his work on Dynamite’s “Shaft” series.
Hitchcock and Scully:
The series recently did an episode revealing that bumbling old overweight detectives Hitchcock and Scully (Dirk Blocker and Joel McKinnon Miller) were pretty hot back in the ’80s, when they looked like Wyatt Nash and Alan Ritchson until they succumbed to a hot wing addiction. (We also know Hitchcock and Scully were active in the ’70s, and looked a lot more like their older selves for some reason.) It would be funny – and perhaps surprisingly poignant – for a writer to delve into the duo’s history and their weight struggles, as well as for an artist to draw all those fluctuating body shapes.
FDNY:
This is probably something the TV series should flesh out, given it’s such a broad canvas you may as well create an original comic. But since there have been a few guest appearances on the show from Patton Oswalt and Rob Riggle as members of the Fire Department, it would be interesting to see what hijinks they get up to when they’re not clashing with their counterparts in the 99. Oswalt’s a busy man but he’s no stranger to writing comics, so it’d be great if he wanted to contribute.
The Pontiac Bandit:
Ah, Doug Judy (Craig Robinson), the Pontiac Bandit, car thief, and Jake Peralta’s unlikely brother from another mother. Doug roughly appears once a year on the show, typically fleeing New York after screwing over Jake one more time, so it’d be great to see what he’d get up to while away, and how his heart of gold would manifest in other situations.
Rosa Diaz – Local Woman of Mystery:
If only one character got a comic book about their high school years, it would have to be Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz), because then you can do lots of sequels: Det. Diaz studied ballet and archery, was a gymnast, went to medical and business school, and has a pilot’s license. (Oh, and that might not be her real name.) Gabby Rivera would be a good choice for writer, and not because she wrote Marvel’s “America” (a character Beatriz has campaigned to play): she would know how to convincingly explore when Rosa realized she was bisexual, and how she might’ve become withdrawn as a result.
Adrian Pimento Undercover:
Diaz’s old flame, the frankly unhinged Det. Pimento (Jason Mantzoukas), spent twelve years working undercover for mobster Jimmy “The Butcher” Figgis (Eric Roberts). A series documenting his nightmarish journey could be a delightfully dark spin-off that goes well beyond what’s allowed on the show – Pimento could be the violent and bleakly funny subject Gerry Duggan and John McCrea should take on after they were forced to pull the plug on “Dead Rabbit.”
Continued belowThe Terry Jeffords Story:
If we could have two comics series about our favorite characters at school, then our second choice would definitely be lovable beefcake Sgt. Terry Jeffords (Terry Crews). We know Terry spent his junior year in Japan, where he experienced heartbreak and became a catalog model (“I was a starving student! Terry needed the yen!”). We also know he spent time as a hip-hop artist known as Sir Dance-a-Lot, and had a pretty low period where he became morbidly obese. Ron Wimberly (“Prince of Cats“) would be a good choice of writer/artist, given his use of bright colors and interest in Japanese art.
And Now for Something Completely Different:
Where would comic books be without crossovers? It is a truth universally acknowledged comics with the same target audience will inevitably team-up, and it would be the perfect opportunity to bring back the characters from Andy Samberg’s criminally underrated music mockumentary, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. Kurt Russell and Bruce Campbell characters have teamed up in series like “Big Trouble in Little China/Escape From New York” and “Army of Darkness/Bubba Ho-Tep,” so it’d be fun to see two of Samberg’s characters together – or you could subvert expectations by having Conner4Real not appear with Peralta at all.
Do these ideas leave you as happy as Amy Santiago listening to a history of barrels, or wanting to burn everything like Rosa? (Yeah, we had a lot of options.) As always, give us your thoughts in the comments section below, and we’ll be back in two weeks with suggestions for another expanded universe. Nine-Nine! (On second thought, let’s not, Holt hates it when Jake says that.)
