Syfy Channel Adapting 4 Comic Book Properties for TV

Syfy is betting big on comic books this year, as they announced ahead of tonight’s upfronts not one, not two, but three comic book-based TV series in the works for the channel.

Over on Deadline, Syfy announced Pax Romana, a comic book series from Jonathan Hickman published by Image Comics would be developed for TV. Circle of Confusion, headed by David Alpert (The Walking Dead TV) will produce, and Syfy veterans Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia of Warehouse 13 are writing the show.

Pax Romana has a modern Special Forces unit going on a time-travel adventure, trying to prevent World War III by taking the fight back - to ancient Rome. [More Comic Book News from Newsarama]

Meanwhile, THR got the announcement of three more comic book bases series coming to Syfy. Frank Miller’s Ronin, David Schulner's Clone, and Charles Soule’s Letter 44 are all in the works for the channel.

Miller’s story will be adapted as a mini-series by Warner Television and DC Entertainment - the original comic book mini-series was published by DC Comics in 1983-84. The titular Ronin is displaced into 21st Century New York to fight demons of both a literal and figurative sense. The TV series will take place “eight centuries” after the Ronin’s former master was killed by a demon, with the ancient warrior waking up in a distant future in the body of a young man named Billy, and back on the hunt for the Demon.

Charles Soule, the increasingly busy and in-demand writer of titles like Inhuman and She-Hulk for Marvel Comics and Red Lanterns and Superman/Wonder Woman for DC Comics, now can add TV to his resume with his

. The series launched just six months ago. Jonathan Mostow of Terminator 3 will write, EP, and direct the pilot, with producers Eric Gitter (Scott Pilgrim) and Peter Schwerin. The series features a newly-elected president who learns of a secret discovery of extraterrestrial life, and the mission of first-contact that is about to end.

Clone is based on the David Schulner graphic novel from Robert Kirkman's Skybound imprint, and centers on a retired soldier who investigates a break-in at his house, only to discover that the burglar is a clone of himself. Creator and writer Schulner (Dracula) will write and executive produce the Universal TV project himself, with Kirkman and Alpert (again).

The comic book TV revolution, with Ronin, now has eight in-development properties from DC Entertainment, including Syfy’s sister-network NBC looking to put Constantine on TV this fall. Syfy’s full upfronts are tonight, April 30, 2014.

This story was provided by Space.com sister site Newsarama. Follow Newsarama on Twitter @Newsarama and on Facebook. Original article on Newsarama.com.