TVSquad

Recently, the cast of The Middleman, the comic book-based ABC Family show about a secret agent crime fighter and his female sidekick, reunited at Comic-Con for a panel and a table reading of the unreleased final episode of the series, which is soon to be a comic.

Middleman creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach talked to Laura Hudson from our sister site Comics Alliance before the panel about how comics gave him the freedom to create Stormtroopers riding missile-equipped kangaroos, whether the show could ever come back to TV, and why Batman: Streets of Gotham writer Paul Dini is the godfather of it all.

We previewed this interview yesterday, but CA has kindly let us reprint the entire interview here. More after the jump.

So I guess this is official word that ABC Family is not going to pick up The Middleman for a second season? It's a damn shame because I thought the show was one of the sharpest and most entertaining shows on television. TNT picked up Leverage for a second season and it's also a "fun" show. Maybe the producers should shop the show to another network. In the meantime, things are coming back full circle as word has slipped that ABC Family will be bringing the series finale to comics this summer.

Ironically, the series will be published by Viper Comics, which is the company that published the original Middleman comics that inspired the television series. The graphic novel, titled "The Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse" is being written by creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Hans Beimler. So in a way you could also call this just the next Middelman comic story. Sure there were some minor continuity variations, but we should get all that trademark snappy dialogue and wacky encounters the show was famous for. And maybe the TV variation of the story behind Wendy Watson's father.

Brian K. Vaughan, creator of Runaways and writer for the Buffy comics, announced on his website that he has joined Lost as an Executive Story Editor. According to Vaughan, he is neither an executive or an editor, and the title is Hollywood speak for joining the writing staff.

As for what that means for the show... I'm leaning toward not much. Not that Brian K. Vaughan isn't a talented guy, he clearly is, but I don't have much confidence that he will really be allowed to do all he can. Lost has always had talented writers. Although, they have had some trouble hanging on to them. David Fury hopped a boat off the island and went to hang out with Jack Bauer. Javier Grillo-Marxuach later followed suit and made his way to Medium.

Javier Grillo-Marxuach, a supervising producer and writer on Lost, is leaving the show. He was hired on about two years ago when Lost was just a gleam in J.J. Abrams' eye. On his website, Javi says his gig on Lost was only meant to be a couple of months so he could help create long-term story arcs and basically plan out the series (and write a pilot!). Two years, seven episodes, and "one hanging hobbit" later, Javi said it's the right time for him to leave and let the other writers take the show where it needs to go.

Javi has been one of the most high-profile writers of the show, frequently producing the Radio Free Javi podcasts about Lost and his other interests, including comic books. He also is a frequent contributor to The Fuselage, the ABC-sanctioned forum about the show.

Javier Grillo-Marxuach, a writer and supervising producer for Lost, is really expanding his horizons. On top of co-writing two episodes this season, Orientation and Collision, he also hosts a regular Lost video podcast and regularly posts updates on The Fuselage. He's also been writing an indie-comic called The Middleman, which apparently got him noticed by Marvel Comics. He's working on the Super-Skrull miniseries, an old school villian who once battled The Fantastic Four, Thor and Captain Marvel. Grillo-Marxuach is re-working Super-Skrull, to transform him from a villian to a hero. There will be four issues, starting in March.

Grillo-Marxuach said, "It's nice to do The Middleman, which is my own thing, but it's really cool, much in the same way as my work on Lost, that I get to be part of something much bigger."

It turns out the date on the x-ray MRI in Jack's flashback was just an oversight by the production folks on Lost. A fan site caught the date during last week's show and we all wondered if it was a hint about when Lost happens, or just a mistake. Turns out it was just a mistake. Javier Grillo-Marxuach, writer and supervising producer for Lost, confirms the glitch over at The Fuselage. No fun!

[Thanks, Izzy & Gaz!]

If you're a fan of Lost and are looking for something, anything, by co-creator Damon Lindelof, you might be interested to know he'll be offering his writing talent to Marvel Comics for The Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk, which should hit comic book stores in December. Of course, this isn't too strange for those involved with Lost. Paul Dini, a writer on the show, was also a writer for cartoons like Tiny Toons and Batman: The Animated Series. I actually knew this, though it took me until today to make the connection. Also, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, a writer/producer, penned The Middle Man for Viper comics, which is a comic series I've never heard of, but since this is the Web I'm sure someone will clue me in as to what that is exactly.