As Fox develops its Batman-adjacent series Gotham and NBC works up Constantine, The CW is doing its damnedest to ensure that it remains the network for DC Comics adaptations, even if that means adapting the characters no one else necessarily wants. So, on the heels of yesterday’s news of a show based on The Avenger, today comes word that The CW is also developing one around Hourman, a DC hero who’s been seen in several different iterations since 1940. In his initial appearances, Hourman (a.k.a. Rex Tyler) was a chemist who became addicted to his own vitamin, Miraclo, which gave him superhuman strength and speed for exactly an hour—all for the low, low price of $19.99 a bottle plus a free pill organizer, so you can plan your crime-stopping week.
As this conceit now seems rather silly (especially in an age where you can get that sort of thing from the friendly chemists in your local park), this new Hourman will instead concentrate on his other superpower: the ability to see one hour into the future, which allows him to prevent very specifically timed tragedies, spoil TV shows for everyone, and—according to The Hollywood Reporter—maybe also help him “win back his ex-wife and son,” by impressing them with his quest for redemption and/or helping them avoid traffic. Anyway, whether Hourman will actually make it to series alongside Arrow and The Flash, or wait in limbo alongside Deadman and Amazon, remains a mystery—the kind not even a guy with the incredible ability to see an hour into the future can solve.
