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. Today, we are looking at a cult television show from the late 80s/early 90s that explored time travel, destiny, and some of the most hilarious wigs ever committed to celluloid: Quantum Leap. So, sit back, let us fire up the accelerator and see where we wind up.
For those that are unlucky enough to be unfamiliar with Quantum Leap, the show starred Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett, a physicist who built something called the Quantum Leap Accelerator, which allowed him to travel in time throughout his own lifetime. He has a co-worker who stayed in the ‘present’ named Al, played by Dean Stockwell, who helped guide him through the various ‘leaps’ he would take. Sam would wake up in the body of someone else in history, and would have to fix something that went wrong for this person. Often times it was saving their life, or making sure they meet the love of their life, or something like that. The shoe was dope.
Plus, it had an A+ theme song/opening credits sequence.
There are any number of approaches that a Quantum Leap comic could take, but I want to start with, perhaps the best reason for this property to make the jump into comics: the format of the show is essentially that of a comic to begin with. Each episode tells a (usually) self contained story, with some threads popping up over the course of a season. Even if you made the arcs 2-3 issues long (which I don’t recommend), you’d still be giving creators the opportunity to tell entirely different stories all the time.
This can allow for two equally cool, but very different types of series. It could either be a real showcase for a creative team to stretch their muscles and do stories that jump from tone to tone across their run, or it could be a great excuse to do a series of done in one issues, with rotating creative teams. I think that both could work, and maybe you could have one series with a set creative team, and another telling less continuity heavy stories with different creators.
Let’s dig in to what this could all look like.
A series that picks up where the original television show left off
The end of Quantum Leap‘s fifth season was shot with multiple endings, either to act as a series or season finale. The last thing seen on the show stated that Sam kept leaping, and never returned home. While that’s an ominous and somewhat definitive ending, the show had other plans if picked up for a sixth season. Among the rumored directions were to have Al be able to leap with Sam, and the expansion of the timeline of the show to go into the future. That is where I would pick up a new series, with Al getting into the accelerator and joining Sam in the timestream.
By doing this, you’re aiding the series in two ways. First of all, there will be a natural need for a ‘new’ Al type figure to act as guide through the various leaps. This would be a wonderful place to diversify the show’s mainly white, male cast. But it also gives the readers someone else to root for; one of the difficulties of Quantum Leap has been its relatively single-minded show. Sure, occasionally you’d get to see Gooshie or Al’s first wife, but for the most part, you’re following Sam.
If Sam and Al were both leapers, you could split the focus of the comic and allow them a little autonomy. Hell, you could also do issues/arcs where they are leaping independent of each other, and get an Al-centric issue now and then. Again, the comic would be able to grow out a cast and a world that was sometimes lacking in the original series.
Leaping in a man’s own lifetime
As I mentioned above, there were rumors of the show wanting to go into the future in its sixth season. Well, why limit the directions? It’s easy enough to simply say ‘we upgraded the accelerator, and now we can leap into the past and the future, beyond Sam’s lifetime.’ Or make it a malfunction; somehow, and no one knows why, Sam has lept into an Egyptian pharaoh’s body. Al as an Arthurian Knight! Sam as a Civil War general! Al as a caveman! The possibilities are only limited by the creativity of the writer, though I think it makes sense to stay, more or less, to Sam’s lifetime with most of the stories, to remain true to the spirit of the show. But if we’re talking 12 issues a year, 5 of them could be set outside of Sam’s lifetime, and it would liven things up a bit.
Continued belowMore regular adversaries
While the show dealt occasionally with Alia, an Evil Leaper, so much of Quantum Leap was a ‘bad guy of the week,’ which is pretty standard to procedural shows. While the comic should never lose that thread, keeping folks like the Evil Leapers, or even a congressman who wants to shut down the Quantum Leap program, close to the heart of the comic would be a good thing. They don’t have to appear every issue, or even more than once or twice a year, but some sort of thread that runs throughout the series couldn’t hurt.
Themed miniseries/one shots
In addition to an ongoing series, there are a ton of fun ideas for doing specialty issues or series. One of the most beloved episodes is when Sam lept into Lee Harvey Oswalt. You could do a “Quantum Leap Presidential Adventures” mini around the time of an election. “Quantum Leap Sports Tales” could collect when famous athletes were involved. You get the idea; these stories would be perfect places to let creators go buckwild, and since they are limited, small scale stories, you could likely get top notch creators to sign on to do one issue.
Big picture stuff
If you ever wanted to ‘retire’ Sam and Al, there could be a rescue mission of sorts, with new leapers coming into the timestream to bring our heroes back. This could allow for some really pivotal moments for these characters, who may decide they don’t want to come home. Or maybe, they aren’t as good at this as they used to be, and have to deal with being replaced in their jobs.
But that can also mean training replacements. Go Batman Beyond with this, and let Al and Sam be the mentor figures for younger (and again, more diverse) characters to take over the leaps. With younger leapers, you also can change what their lifetimes are, so if you ‘fix the malfunction’ that got them to travel willy nilly, you can limit the scope temporarily and ground the book in a more set timeframe for a little while.
Or, maybe the Quantum Leap Program realizes that one or two leapers isn’t enough. Maybe there needs to be a team of leapers to handle truly delicate situations. Or, you can diversify the focus and let 2-3 leapers per issue in different times.
This is all just scratching the surface of what Quantum Leap comics could look like. Because of the fluid nature of the concept and the limited pages needed to tell a complete story in the style of the show, the book(s) could go literally anywhere. Let’s hope that Donald P. Bellisario is reading this, and he emails me to ask me to helm this project for him. Surely, when I open that email, there is only one thing I could say.
“Oh boy…”
