Michael B. Jordan and Joe Robert Cole Snag Another Comic-Book Franchise With Netflix’s Failsafe

Michael B. Jordan Photo: Han Myung-Gu/Getty Images for Disney

The comics have been good to Michael B. Jordan and writer Joe Robert Cole. Their Marvel Comics adaptation collaboration, Black Panther, was a record-shattering (well, until Avengers: Infinity War) success and a critical darling, and now the duo may be teaming up once again to translate a much more obscure property: an indie comic called Failsafe. Deadline reports that Cole (who co-wrote Panther with director Ryan Coogler) is penning a script based on the series, with Jordan first in line to star if he likes what Cole comes up with. Netflix is helming the effort.

If you haven’t heard of Failsafe, fear not; basically no one has. It’s a title from small publisher Vault Comics that only launched last April. It’s less a superhero story than a cyberpunk one, following a nanotech-powered supersoldier named John Ravane as he attempts to take out similarly superpowered sleeper agents who want to take over the country. Of course, all is not as it seems, and conspiracies run to the highest echelons. Written by F.J. DeSanto (who’s co-producing the Netflix adaptation) and Todd Farmer, with pencils from Federico Dallocchio, the comic hasn’t even finished its publication run yet — a further testament to Hollywood’s hunger for four-color source material.

Michael B. Jordan May Do Netflix Cyberpunk Tale Failsafe