The Six Million Dollar Man: Kevin Smith Keeps Steve Austin Alive

You may recall that, back in the 1990s, there was talk of Kevin Smith making a movie out of The Six Million Dollar Man? Well, that didn’t get a go-ahead but you can still see what he had in mind.

Dynamite Entertainment is currently publishing a series of comic books, The Bionic Man, based on Smith’s movie script. The medium makes perfect sense as Smith once noted, “True story: when I turned in a script for The Six Million Dollar Man back in ’98, there was an exec who dismissed it as being more like a comic book than a movie.”

The first issue was published in August and did so well that Dynamite had to go back the the press for a second printing. The comic is being co-written by Smith and Phil Hester and drawn by Jonathan Lau. Legendary artist Alex Ross creates the amazing covers.

The familiar origin of Colonel Steve Austin’s transformation has been updated a bit for the 21st century but is still very recognizable. Many fans of the old school TV series have commented that the comic takes them back to their childhood when they could barely wait for the next episode of The Six Million Dollar Man.

“Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. ‘Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world’s first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better. Stronger. Faster.’”

In the seventh issue of The Bionic Man (due out on February 22nd), Steve discovers that being an O.S.I. agent is truly a lifetime commitment, sometimes an involuntary one. He’s also reunited with Jaime Sommers for the first time since his catastrophic accident. (Note to Jaime: consider giving up on her parachuting hobby and stick to the tennis courts.)

What do you think? Do you like the sound of Smith’s comic? Are you curious enough to pick it up?

Image courtesy Dynamite Entertainment.

More about: The Bionic Woman (1976), The Six Million Dollar Man

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