You’d think a show that features a superwoman clad in black rubber doing battle against 10 former Playboy Playmates would be on the Spice Channel, not the Sci-Fi Channel.
    But before you get too much of the wrong idea, "Black Scorpion" is a show for kids.
    Well, kind of.
   "It’s for everyone, from boys who read comic books to their fathers who read Playboy," says co-creator Craig Nevius.
    And it’s that, umm, larger appeal that Sci-Fi hopes will help expand its audience, at least from hardcore sci-fi geeks to comic book geeks as well.
    "To tell you the truth, it doesn’t belong on Sci-Fi. But that’s why they took it, to broaden their audience," says Nevius.
    The show takes a campy comic book approach-- think Adam West’s "Batman"-- to the exploits of Darcy Walker, a bad-ass cop by day, and an even badder-ass Black Scorpion by night. Mild-mannered goes out in favor of over-the-top, as mad scientists, aptly-named villains like Breathtaker (played by West), Clockwise, Speedbump, and their Playmate cronies, terrorize the City of Angels.
    Ironically enough, it’s also the show’s comic book feel that justifies the use of former Playmates in the show (and seven more women who were not Playmates but modeled in Playboy, Nevius adds).
   "Comic books have changed a lot over the years. They’ve become a lot sexier. And our girls look like they’re ripped off the pages of a comic book," says Nevius. "When it came time to do the show, we said let’s go all out with it. We’re going after Adam West, so let’s go after the comic book women too."
    But while the comic book approach is fine by itself, "Black Scorpion" hardly fits in with its neighbors on Sci-Fi. Nowhere is that more apparent than with "Black Scorpion’s" lead-out on Friday night, the popular but dark space drama "Farscape."
    And in its three weeks on the air, "Black Scorpion" hasn’t really been a ratings success, averaging just over 700,000 viewers per episode.
    But what might be more important for Sci-Fi is whether this show and its sisters on other networks are heralding a new trend in primetime television: action series with scantily clad female leads who kick men’s asses.
    True, "Xena: Warrior Princess" is in its last season, after years on Saturday afternoons in syndication. But just scrolling through the rest of the syndicated series' roster gives an idea of how prevalent this type of heroine has become.
     "Xena" begat "Sheena," "Relic Hunter," "Cleopatra: 2525" and "Queen of Swords," just to name a few.
     And out of syndication and into primetime, Sci-Fi’s "Black Scorpion" is joined by Fox’s "Dark Angel," and TNT will enter the genre this summer with a series based on the comic book hero "Witchblade."
   "Black Scorpion" airs on the Sci-Fi Channel Friday nights at 8 p.m.

- Elizabeth White is a staff writer for Media Life.

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