Law & Order: Criminal Intent To Do Episode Inspired by ‘Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark’

Continuing in the franchise's history of doing stories "ripped from the headlines", long-running USA Network series Law & Order: Criminal Intent plans to take the real life antics and accidents from Broadway's Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark and turn it into an episode of its new season.

As reported by TVLine, an upcoming episode features a "high-flying, fast-crashing show called Icarus". No one from either the TV series or the beleaguered Broadway musical has confirmed or denied this interesting development, but it seems the Dick Wolf-driven drama isn't pulling any punches. Former Turn Off The Dark director Julie Taymor's Criminal Intent counterpart is being described as "high-strung and larger than life", as well as a "born-again drunk". Going after the rock star duo of Bono and Edge from U2 that helped conceive the musical, this episode of Law & Order is casting for a character named "Arno", described as "a secretly bisexual rock-star composer who's cheating on the  misses with a colleague."

Definitely a must watch.  But with this news, it brings to mind a few other real life comic stories that could be tailor-made for Law & Order's formulaic retooling. Attention screenwriters — here are your springboards:

Siegels & Shusters vs. DC Comics: The disagreements over ownership of characters has been a part of American comics since they first started making real money in the early 1900s. Tom Spurgeon calls it "the original sin". Imagine what Dick Wolf and Co. could do with a refashioned story about the murder of the publisher of a DC Comics type company in the midst of a fierce legal battle over the creation of a Superman type character?

Granito-Gate: When a long-time convention guest and artist is discovered to be a fraud by fans and fellow professionals, his untimely death opens a murder mystery where the question isn't "who did it?" but "who didn't?"

Showdown at Comic Con: At the east coast nerd prom, New York Comic Con, Detectives Goren and Eames discover the seedy after-hours life for comic creators. Trading shots at hotel bars, late-night card games, the secret world of con-groupies. And of course… murder.