Top 25 Comic Book Adaptations

[Deadshot 666]

Rules and Notes

-They have to be based from comic book so things like inFamous and Chronicle don’t count

- It can be from anything including games and books

- This is my opinion while you most likely won’t agree with it at least respect it

-Feel Free to ask why certain adaption didn’t get on the list and feel free to give to give your opinion as well if it’s done in respectful matter

 

 

Honorable Mentions

Max Fleischer's Superman shorts

Turtles Forever

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

V for Vendetta

Road to Perdition

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

Spider-Man 2

 

 

25) The Rocketter

Where a lot of comic-book movies have characters that dark,moody and depressing it’s always refreshing to get a film like the Rocketter while it’s not to faithful to it’s source material it does have the spirit,sweetness and the charm that helped make the Dave Stevens comic so enjoyable.It’s serves as a great homage to the golden age of comics and the 1940's of cinema.It’s a great family movie with The Rocketeer tapping into that desire people have to fly and being very enjoyable to watch.It’s also worth noting the Eisner nominee team of Mark Waid and Chris Samnee who both work on the best current superhero comic Daredevil this summer will be doing The Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom which should easily will be a great mini series.

 

24) American Splendor

 

Where a fair number of people just see comics as stories only about Superheroes which couldn't be further from the truth and movies like American Splendor show that the comic medium can be about almost anything such as nerdy file clerk deciding to make a comic-book on the amazing feats of ordinariness and then later fighting off cancer."The cast captures the characters of the story with Paul Giamatti channing the frequently downtrodden and grumpy Pekar beautifully.The writer on the comic the late Harvey Pekar even shows up in the film with not-quite-documentary type footage."Having an 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and using the comics medium to the films advantage are all the more reason to give this film a shot if you haven't seen it yet.

 

23) The Walking Dead

http://the-ever-so-odious.tumblr.com/post/19470229941/the-walking-dead-from-page-to-screen-rick

Possibly the most successful live-action adaption of a comic to show so-far has made so pretty huge diversions from Robert Kirkman’s original comic series while still hitting some of the same beats it still captures the bleakness of the black and white pages.What helped the AMC series is that Robert Kirkman is an executive producer and writer for the show which helps hold true to the depressing spirt of the books and he isn't afraid to put new spin on stories or characters.And while The Walking Dead is more about survival then killing zombies it still is world over run with them and they do help create some excellent scenes.With the series is heading into it’s 3rd season it hopefully can continue the pace of where the tail end of season 2 left off on.

 

 

22) Young Justice

Every frame of Young Justice is jam-packed with characters(over 150 so far),plot threads and in-jokes from the DC universe.It helps having creators who played huge parts in The Spectacular Spider-Man and Batman: Under the Red Hood.Focusing with a young roster of heroes it shares what Weisman’s other hit show Spider-Man had balancing teen drama,wit and slick action with well told ongoing story.The series has had great animation,characters and designs and it’s also becoming surprising dense.In time it again easily become the best superhero team show.

 

21)Superman

The film that helped establishment the superhero movie genre and set the golden standard for the genre which persists to this day featuring some of the best casting for a superhero movie.People saw and still see Christopher Reeve as the perfect Superman.The movie lived up to it’s tag-line you will believe a man can fly with some of best effects for it's time and featured an amazing score by John Williams.It’s a well done movie about one of the most popular superheroes and ended up adding to mythos of the character.

[Deadshot 666]

20) The Tick

Easily the best parody of the superhero genre based around Ben Edlund comic book series(now an executive producer and writer for The CW's Supernatural).It featured villains like Bi-Polar Bear,Chairface Chippendale and the Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight.It had very clever writing shown by catch-phases like "SPOOOOOOOON!" and very memorable quotes such as "Breadmaster, your culinary crime wave has crashed on the shores of justice!" .The voices are perfectly cast and the animation captures the illogical (and often insane) nature of the Tick's world.

 

19)Iron Man

The movie that started the Avengers Saga helped set the bar for how good a Marvel Studio movie could be.It took a character who wasn’t very well known to the casual audience and made him household name.The movie was perfectly casted led by Robert Downey, Jr who brings the charm, energy, and quirky humor that Tony Stark has in the comics.The movie also has great special effects selling people on Marvel Universe.It was well told modern superhero origin story.

 

18) Batman:Year One

It may be called Batman:Year One but this story based on the classic Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli tale is more about James Gordon and his beginning in the Gotham police department.Bryan Cranston does excellent job on Frank Miller’s dialogue delivering it better than anyone could and capturing Noir feel perfectly.He’s easily the best person to play James Gordon thus far.Batman:Year One is by far these most important Batman story in the last 50 years and it’s also seen as the best Batman story ever created.While almost all of the voice acting is good and the animation captures Mazzucchelli’s style taking tons of panels of the comic and barley leaving out anything from the comic.And again it turned out to be another gem from the DC animated movies department.

 

17)Thor

A movie that could have easily been failure but due to some fantastic casting,clever writing,great special effects,and fun story it felted like a true Marvel movie.Like Iron Man it had charm and humour that overall helped the movie and characters with some funny character bits.While the core of the cast deliver good performances Tom Hiddleston steals the show representing the god of mischief very well.It also had Hawkeye in it who did nothing.

 

 

16)All-Star Superman

Based on Grant Morrison’s and Frank Quitely’s 12 issue masterpiece which is my favourite superhero comic ever written capturing everything people love about Superman and is also the perfect tribute to the silver age.The story is about Superman dying and him completing several tasks before his death.While the movie is only 70 minutes long it does a successful job fitting in the important parts of the story capturing both Morrison’s vision and cleaned up style of Quitely’s artwork though fantastic scripting,animation and acting.While it may not have everything i loved from the comic it does contain some of the best moments you will properly see in a superman movie and displays how great Superman is.It also as an ending that almost got same emotional punch the comic got from of me.

[Deadshot 666]

15) Justice League Unlimited

In many ways Justice League Unlimited was big step for Bruce Timm’s team by starting to have overarching stories and focusing on more characters than any of their other shows did and introducing more unfamiliar ones as well.The best example of their overarching stories is their Cadmus arc being told in several one-shot episodes that work to build bigger picture.The animation,voice acting and characterization were most of time top-notch.And It was also delight to see 2nd and 3rd rate character like Booster Gold(who is not green lantern ),The Question(who is the best minor character on the show),Deadman,Suicide Squad and so many others that made appearances that were very well adapted,The show was using character even comics wern’t currently using.Episodes in JLU were great and put clever spin on a fair number of comic-book plots while putting there stamp on these characters and their stories.This series is everything you could of ask for in Justice League show.

 

 

14) Wonder Woman

In DC’s trinity Wonder Woman has been taking a backseat not getting the attention of Superman or Batman has to the general public.But in 2009 she finally got the spotlight with animated movie retelling her origin story.Co-Written by Gail Simone who has written some of the finest stories about the character had proved the movie was in good hands with Simone’s typical humorous writing,faithful characters and well done story.It also had great vocal performances and animation.Their might never be a live-action Wonder Woman movie but at least there’s this animated gem that’s probably would be better than any live action movie about her can be.

 

13) Batman Beyond:Return of The Joker

Batman Beyond:Return of The Joker was dark and mature movie that had to get an unrated version because of couple of it’s grim scenes.The scenes that caused a rated version of the movie set in the past was so energetic and little unsettling becoming one of my favourite scenes in any comic-book movie.Like most things featuring Mark Hamill as the Joker he delivers at the time his most chilling and maybe his best performance.It's also cool seeing Joker fighting the new Batman.This well-done story is the best thing to come out of Batman Beyond which itself was good show.

 

 

12)Captain America:The First Avenger

Where Thor was a huge risk for Marvel,Captain American was almost or even a bigger risk with it fully committing to the WWII setting and tone in such a way that gives First Avenger it’s own identity and style over other Superhero movies.It sold you on the WW2 era and explained everything about the character very well with a brilliant war bonds musical number capturing 1940‘s vibe.It had nice amount of easter eggs like Human Torch and featured maybe the best casting in Marvel Studios movies.It was again another faithful adaptation by Marvel respecting the character and it’s source material.It’s so far the only Marvel Studios movie that ended on a very earned,very sincere emotional beat.

 

 

11) Batman Begins

Batman Begins aimed to have a darker and more realistic tone and to make us care about Bruce Wayne/Batman and well it was a success.It focused around fear and the death of the Wayne’s that lead him into to becoming Batman.The movie is nearly perfect up until he becomes Batman with it doing amazing job of delivering theme’s of the movie and making people care about Bruce Wayne.It puts great twist on Batman mythos as well as tying the villains into the themes of the movie without making them feel focused.It re-established Batman for the movie going audiences and made the characters and setting believable,It was great start for the Nolan trilogy.

[Deadshot 666]

10) Batman:Under the Red Hood

This is the first time Jason Todd is the main focused in a Batman story outside of the comics(Not counting the funny Brave and Bold joke about his death).To be honest Jason Todd was my least favorite Robin who was mainly famous for being killed in Batman:A Death in the Family.Which i never thought i would see an animated adaptation of The Joker "killing" Jason Todd but there it is in the pre-credit sequence and it’s even creepier than it was in Death in the Family.Judd Winick who wrote both the movie and the comic it’s based on made ultra-violent and full of pathos story of Jason Todd's return to life including so many shocking and memorable moments.The movie is packed full of action,plot,characters and emotion making great use of it’s time.It features good animation,good voice acting lead by Neil Patrick Harris,Jensen Ackles and John DiMaggio.And I got to say the emotional impact of the final scene left my jaw hanging out.

 

 

9) X-men First Class

Where the first four X-men movies were flawed ranging in quantity but all were pretty forgettable for me.So i wasn’t really excited about First Class but the more i learned the more i got excited for the movie.Which improved on the earlier movies getting me invested in the story and characters.It limited Wolverine who took over the previous movies to one pretty funny line.It gave lesser known X-Men the time to shine and told Charles and Erik story very well.It got the Cold War atmosphere down and also gave just as good if not better action than previous movies did.

 

 

http://kh13.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/smiley-cool.png Superman:The Animated Series

With the success of B:TAS it would come as no surprise that the same team would try their luck again at the another most popular DC superhero and like Batman it was huge success.While series got off to shaking start it soon found it’s legs maybe being better than Batman:The animated Series.The series paid tribute to both the classic Superman of old and the newer "modern" Superman with the show taking the best elements of both.The series didn’t make Kent a bumbling idiot that the live-action movies made him out to be and had cast of great characters especially Darkseid.The series had everything that made Batman:TAS great and featured 2nd best episode the Bruce Timm team did with The Late Mr.Kent.It had guest appearances of characters like The Flash,Aquaman,Lobo and even Batman.

 

What made show even better in my eyes was series finale ending with their main character who just happens to be an international icon for truth and justice and all the good that humanity can aspire to feared and mistrusted by society is just incredible.Leading to the fact Lex Luthor won his goal was always to defeat Superman, either outright or in the eyes of the people, and in the end his goal had been achieved. Lex might have not done it outright, and he might not have been responsible for the people of Earth turning their backs on Superman, but the result is the same and at the end of this show most of the people of Earth are terrified of Superman,and I think that is a pretty damned cool and brave choice to make.

 

7)Batman:Arkham City

Rocksteady’s sequel to surprisingly great Arkham Asylum rose the streaks and cleaned up the problems that were in the first game.It had a well presented story written by Paul Dini who’s well known for his work in the Animated Verse and his great runs on Detective.Like Arkham Asylum did Arkham City was jammed back of references that only comic-book fans would get.It gave a chance for having lesser known character to shine in the general public like Mad Hatter,Hugo Strange and others.While having lesser known characters in the game it was able to fit in fan favourites like Mister Freeze,Catwoman and Joker played by Mark Hamill who once again steals the show.It’s refined game-play, the addition of being open world,improvements on boss fights and making you feel like Batman are some of the other reasons that this is the prime example of how to make a superhero game amazing and just not cash in.I must add how freaking awesome the ending is to this game.

 

6)Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm

Out of all the origin stories done on the character none of them have been as good as this one.What makes Mask Of The Phantasm so special to me is the moments it spends in flashbacks with Bruce Wayne building up to be Batman and guilt about feeling happy with his new love interest Andrea Beaumont who is easily the best love interest that Batman has gotten on silver screen.It uses ideas from Batman:Year One but modifies them to fit the mood of the story.It’s emotional and makes us care about characters better than any other Batman movie as done.It even has the Joker in it with Mark Hamill stealing every scene he’s in.You also find out who The Joker was before being the Joker.Scenes in this movie are easily still some best scenes in a Superhero movie you can fine.Every scene is handled with care with clever writing,acting and animation so it’s sad that this movie was box office bomb due to poor advertising and awareness.

[Deadshot 666]

5) Justice League: The New Frontier

If you didn’t know i love things that are set in the 1950‘s and I love super heros.The New Frontier based on one of my favourite comic-books as both of these things.Bridging the gap from the end of the golden age to the beginning of the silver age in the DC Universe.In the 1950‘s a fearful America who is no longer open to idea of super-heros and has outlaw majority of the Golden Age of Heros expect for two,Well this story is more about next generation of super heros like Hal Jordan and Barry Allen.While this movie can’t fit everything in from the comic is makes references to a lot of things like The Losers,Wildcat boxing and John Wilson while not feeling force it helps add depth to the movie.It’s a near flawless adaptation and with more time it would have been a perfect adaptation with incredible voice acting and animation that is some of finest to come out of Bruce Timm stable which perfectly matches Darwyn Cooke's amazing art style from the book.Seeing moments i love from the comic like first scene between Wonder Woman and Superman,Any scene with Carol Ferris and Hal Jordan and some so many other scenes were just a pure delight to watch .(This is the best movie with Hal Jordon btw).I still get chills every time President Kennedy's speech plays over the end of the movie

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jRENcSFJU4

 

 

4) The Dark Knight

Is their anything more to be said about the most successful and also the best superhero movie that hasn’t already been said.This film set the bar for the genre taking some of the best elements from some of the best Batman stories and mixing them in their own mythos of Batman.With things like having Harvey Dent playing bigger role than his alter ego Two-face and Heath Ledger delivering a brilliant performance feeling almost like The Killing Joke’s version of the character remaining me of why i enjoy the Bat verse so much.Nolan has mixed the suspense, intrigue, and realism that some thought were impossible for a comic book movie.

 

3) The Spectacular Spider-Man

Out of all adaptations that have been done about the character including the movies this one is the best.Being accessible to kids, yet continually filled with wit, charm and cleverness that everyone would appreciate.The Spectacular creators Greg Weisman and Victor Cook clearly had nothing but respect for the history of Spider-Man balancing both Peter Parker’s struggles as high school student and his crime fighting career as Spider-Man getting the drama of both while not overdoing it like certain trilogy did and still remaining fun.It successfully put new spins on characters like Gwen Stacy(maybe my favourite version of the character),Eddie Brock,Harry Osborn,Green Goblin and even more obscure characters like Tombstone and Frederick Foswell.While the animation may look bit simple when it’s in motion it looks incredible getting both speed and energy that you need for Spider-Man show.Everything in this showed worked from the ongoing plot to the wonderful theme song.The show was truly spectacular capturing everything people love about Spider-Man and deserved way more than the two seasons it got.

 

2)Batman:The Animated Series

Why Batman:TAS is ranked so high is it not only got me into comic-books or i grew up watching the show as kid and still watch it every now and then but because it was revolutionary when it come out.It changed the superhero animation landscape so dramatically never before had animated superhero series been treated with such love and respect with such a high level of craft.It was seemingly aimed at adults that Fox started airing it in prime time! It was dark and the bad guys shot bullets.It was incredibly immersive, stylized and compelling version of Gotham City. It got so much right in adapting the Bat mythos where villains were some of the best-ever for a Batman story and it also had an original score for every episode.It redesigned characters like Mr.Freeze,Two-Face,Clock King and Clayface adding depth to them that was later added to the comics such as Mr.Freeze’s origin story.

Not only did they redesign characters and make them better it also created characters like Renee Montaya (Who stared in one of the best Batman comics Gotham Central),The Grey Ghost and fan favourite Harley Quinn who were all added to the comics.This show instead of having a theme song as it’s intro had mini-movie that displayed Batman better than almost any other medium outside of the comics and composer Shirley Walker made one hell sound track for the series.Because of what Batman: The Animated Series achieved, we come to expect that level of quality and pathos and drama from all of our superhero cartoons, even if those towering heights are never quite met.

 

1)It’s Superman!

The current line of Superman comics are disappointing by trying to reinvent Superman by making him more of loner and arrogant person for me were things i just didn’t want in a Superman story.So i went looking for other Superman stories i havn’t read and i came upon It’s Superman which is retelling of Superman’s origin story set right around the time Superman was first being first published.It doesn’t try to modernize the character but instead it takes a whole new spin at the mythos.The story itself does wonderful job with Clark Kent who is shy, quiet and insecure he feels alone due to fact he can’t relate to people,He feels like alien which exactly what he is but this is also most the "human" version of Clark Kent that i’ve seen in long time.He makes mistakes and uses his powers to his advantage but it still it leads to what he’s coming to become.The other major characters that are familiar are Lois Lane and Lex Luthor who also feel fresh and new being possibly the most interesting versions of both characters.

 

While it ends in very familiar place,the journey getting to there with Giant Robots!Clark Kent riding the rails like a hobo,Hollywood and much more are simply incredible and always had me interested for the whole thing.It captures the 1930's vibe with details from movies to even the brands of cigarettes and also music.It’s feels unlike any other Superman story while still being faithful to the characters it makes for one of the most engaging and compelling Superman stories ever made.

 

 

 

10 Things i would love to see get adapted

Runaways

Ex Machina

Y:The Last Man

Gotham Central

The New York Four

Locke and Key

American Vampire

Criminal

WE3

Blankets

Edited April 26, 2012 by Deadshot

[AwersomeOne 109]

lol awesomness young justice made the cut, and of course spectacular spiderman and batman tas made the top lol (idk why they canceled spectacular spiderman) man deadshot you always provide me with my comic fix lol (batman rules lol)

[Loki 1,184]

You couldnt find a Thor poster with me in it? I stole the show after all.

[animemylove 439]

where's Nicholas Cage's Ghost Rider? lol

[Deadshot 666]

where's Nicholas Cage's Ghost Rider? lol

 

I couldn't finish the movie

 

You couldnt find a Thor poster with me in it? I stole the show after all.

 

I did but i didn't used it.

 

lol awesomness young justice made the cut, and of course spectacular spiderman and batman tas made the top lol (idk why they canceled spectacular spiderman) man deadshot you always provide me with my comic fix lol (batman rules lol)

 

Thanks,

Young Justice continues to get better and better.

 

Spectacular Spider-Man cancelled because "The series stopped production with a renewal dependent upon the ratings for season 2 on the U.S. Disney channel and the sales of the DVDs.Newsarama reported that the series' cancellation occurred just after The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment in December 2009.

 

Batman's easily has most quality adaptations followed by Superman.

 

I do plan on updating list after all of major comic-book releases come out this summer

 

 

Things that i still need to watch.

Kick-ass

Smallville (I’ve only watched first season and couple of other episodes but i do plan on watching the show over the summer)

The Incredible Hulk(Tv show)

Tales From the Crypt

 

It's also worth noting that may 5th is free comic-book day and here's comic that are being offered for free

http://www.freecomicbookday.com/Home/1/1/27/981

You can find out if there comic-book shop near you by using

http://www.comicshoplocator.com/Home/1/1/57/575

then going to that comic-book shops website to see if there involve in free comic book day

There's also comixology that is best place to buy digital comics

http://www.comixology.com/

Edited April 26, 2012 by Deadshot

[animemylove 439]

what about teen titans?

Edited April 26, 2012 by animemylove

[AwersomeOne 109]

deadshot, dude, you should check out my latest amv (young justice http://kh13.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/happy.png) and waaah free comics? aww i dont think i have a comic book store (well idk for sure i need to check google)

Edited April 27, 2012 by AwersomeOne

[Deadshot 666]

what about teen titans?

 

Teen Titans for me is somewhat mixed bag

Where a lot people who like the show grew up with it,It came out in a time where i wasn't interested in superheroes so i watched it later on and i never felt like it lived up to it's source material.I also don't feel it's something like Batman:The animated series where everyone can enjoy it no matter the age and you can re-watch it later and it's just as good if not better than people remembered it.With that being said it's unfair to compare this with those type of shows since they were trying to do different things.The show is enjoyable and as some really well done episodes.It also comes into play that it's superhero team themed show which takes way from character development and as far less interesting stories for me than a show about one main hero would be.Still Teen Titans is good show.

 

deadshot, dude, you should check out my latest amv (young justice http://kh13.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/happy.png) and waaah free comics? aww i dont think i have a comic book store (well idk for sure i need to check google)

 

Sure i would check it out.Just try the link for that comic locator site and comixology might be giving those comic for free as well.The have free comic-book day to get more people reading comics since medium is very small.

 

Other things that weren't on list that i'll touch on

Batman 1960's show:Is an enjoyable show for it's silver age elements

 

Sin City:Is the most faithful live-action comic-book movie to it’s source material.It’s also better than comic itself since you don’t have to deal with Miller as much and it’s use of colours is very well done being very stylized.

 

Watchmen:Commonly known as the Citizen Kane of comics,Watchmen is the highest selling comic-book and first superhero comic i ever read.The film is great adaptation and it fits in pretty much everything from the comic-book.And i have to say Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach was perfect casting.Still i think the comic is little over rated

 

A History of Violence

A movie about a man who tries to put his mobster life behind him.This movie is full of violence and sex but has some very well done themes to it about how violence can affect a person.

Edited April 28, 2012 by Deadshot

[animemylove 439]

looking forward to the avengers? from what i hear Andy Kubert said it's even better than the first Ironman movie (my favorite marvel title so far) .. I only know because i go to the kubert school .. and apparently there's a jaw dropper at the end of the credits!

[Deadshot 666]

looking forward to the avengers? from what i hear Andy Kubert said it's even better than the first Ironman movie (my favorite marvel title so far) .. I only know because i go to the kubert school .. and apparently there's a jaw dropper at the end of the credits!

 

Yeah I'm looking forward to Avengers but more because Joss Whedon is involved in it who has done tons of great things like Firefly and astounding x-men which happens to be my favourite X-Men story than seeing all of the heroes fighting together but that's awesome as well.That's good it seems like Marvel likes to do that.