With Smallville’s 10-season run coming to a close in 2011, The CW seems to be working overtime looking for a new superhero show to take its place. And while that new Batman live-action series is still just a (probably false) rumor at this point, the network has now officially committed to developing a show around lesser-known DC character and Teen Titans member Raven, signing Diego Gutierrez (a former Joss Whedon assistant turned executive producer of V and Without A Trace) to write a pilot as a potential Smallville replacement.
The Raven (a.k.a. Rachel Roth) is a half-human, half-demon empath—meaning she can telepathically feel others’ emotions, steal them, implant new emotions, and absorb others’ physical pain—who can also teleport her soul away from her body using her “soul self, ” and who has the power to manipulate and generate shadows and darkness. And while, in terms of forthcoming comic-book-to-TV-adaptations, Raven is not nearly as popular a character as Wonder Woman or The Incredible Hulk, perhaps it could do what Smallville did for the Justice League and lead the way toward a live-action incarnation of Teen Titans, which would be pretty cool.