Joss Whedon’s Marvel Spin-Off “S.H.I.E.L.D” Will Air on ABC This Fall (Video)

Today was black Tuesday for television fans across the globe as Hollywood studios dropped the axe on over 30 shows that aired their final seasons this past year. But while there are a pile of weeping fanboys and girls around the country mourning the loss of shows like Fringe, a whole new crop of geek is about to hit major cable. After the success of last summer’s blockbuster hit The Avengers, the network ABC is hopping on the Joss Whedon train and have green-lit the spin-off series S.H.I.E.L.D which will begin airing Tuesday’s this fall.

The debut of S.H.I.E.L.D is a way for ABC to rebuild it’s Tuesday night lineup which has suffered in recent years. With the success of Dancing with the Stars, the network has been able to survive by airing a solid hour block of DWTS on Tuesday as an extension of the original Monday airing of the show. The Joss Whedon project will replace DWTS’ old 8 p.m. ET slot and kick off the night with an hour of comic book goodness sure to please both die-hard fans of the film as well as those who found themselves enjoying a movie about superheros they otherwise may not have watched.

It’s not the first time a comic book show has debuted on network television and if it takes off, it won’t be the first success either. Heroes debuted on NBC back in 2006 and became a hit with fans and still holds a respectable cult following.

But a third faction of fans will be tuning into S.H.I.E.L.D and that’s die-hard Joss Whedon fans. Whedon developed a following back in the 90s with the hit Buffy the Vampire Slayer and he grew both his audience and his lore with the short-lived cult classic Firefly which aired for just half a season on FOX before getting the plug pulled.

Since then, Firefly has become one of the most popular science fiction shows of all-time and served as the basis of Whedon’s one-off film Serenity which jump started his film career and led eventually to The Avengers.

Unlike Firefly, Whedon’s new show is bound to be a hit right off the bat based solely on the success of the film it’s spinning off of. He’s a God amongst geeks everywhere and now he’s back on cable. Whedon has gone from a guy with a show where a high school girl kills vampires to a man about to concur two different mediums in the span of a few years.