Whether it’sThe Walking DeadorThe Boys, some comic books read as if they were made to be adapted into a TV show. And even if comic book audiences are used to seeing an original series optioned and adapted to TV or film, some of the most impressive, shocking, and well-constructed comics deserve to be expanded into even bigger spotlights.
With sprawling and ongoing TV shows now more coveted (by some) than blockbuster films, it’s time Hollywood gave more thought into what television shows they can bring to the market.Andthese comic series wouldn’t just work as TV shows, but change the game completely.
10’One Hand/Six Fingers' Can Change The Way People View Television
Ram V, Dan Watters, Laurence Campbell, Sumit Kumar, Lee Loughridge, Aditya Bidikar
ThroughThe One HandandSix Fingers, Image Comics offers two congruent narratives told throughtwo intertwined perspectives, andtwo detective stories told alongside each other. InThe One Hand, Detective Ari Nassar is forced to re-open a previously closed case revolving around the One Hand Killer, whileThe Six Fingersfocuses on the killer himself, Johannes Vale, who struggles to understand why or how he committed the crime.
Adapting both stories to television at the same time would make for an ambitious experiment,effectively two different shows airing at the same time, perhaps back to back, each giving new context to the other. Such an experimental attempt at a crossover hasn’t been seen in years sinceBuffyandAngelwere still on-air, and would make for a fun spectacle.
9’Minor Arcana' is A New Kind of Fantasy
Jeff Lemire, Steve Wands
Jeff Lemire previously found success in TV land through a Netflix adaptation of hisSweet Toothseries, and while there are plenty ofessential Jeff Lemire comicsthat could be chosen next to adapt, we hope his most recent is next in line. The series in question is calledMinor Arcana, following its heroine Theresa as she cares for her ailing mother.Her mother has had a reputation as a psychic fraud, but Theresa will soon discover that the magic is far more real than she ever would have expected.
Minor Arcanarecently ended its first arc, which means that Hollywood has ample time to start production on adapting that first chapter before Lemire gets too deep into his next. There’s no better magic than Hollywood magic, and they would know just how to bring such a magical tale to life.
8’Nemesis' Turns Hollywood’s Favorite Superhero Into A Villain
Mark Millar, Steve McNiven, Dave McCaig, Chris Eliopoulos
With Batman’s place atop the Hollywood hero pantheon, it’s incredible that a studio hasn’t already invested in the concept ofNemesis. When originally announced in 2009 and subsequently released in 2010, the project sported the promotional tagline,“What if Batman was The Joker?“Such a pitch instantly hooked readers, andMark Millar’s evil Batman remains activein a new era of stories today.
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Hollywood has attempted to adaptNemesisbefore, but largely due to delays and rights lapsing, it’s becoming easier said than done to make a movie out of Nemesis. Perhaps this is a sign that Nemesis is destined to be a television show instead?
7’Radiant Black' Has a Shared Universe Ripe for Hollywood
Kyle Higgins, Marcelo Costa, Becca Carey
Due to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, every Hollywood studio is anxiously searching for the next shared universe of properties. And they needlook no further thanRadiant Black, a superhero franchise that already sports its own shared universe acrossmultiple comic books: the Massive-Verse. The comic sports several superheroes gifted with their own Radiant to combat the alien pressures that the galaxy has to offer.
The story continues, as there are newsecrets of the Massive-Verseready to be unlocked. The series often gets name-dropped asone comic world worth adapting to television, and it’s easy to see why. Inspired by thePower Rangersfranchise,Radiant Blackis deeply rooted in sci-fialongside superheroics, proving anything can happen, to anyone, at every turn.
6’Chew' Has Been in Development Hell For Much, Much Too Long
John Layman, Rob Guillory
Popeye gets his powers from eating spinach, Superman receives power from the sun (though that wasn’t always the case), butTony Chu gets his powers from eating people. A former detective for the Philadelphia Police Department, Chu is a cibopath; someone who receives psychic visions via taste. Devour a tongue from a serial killer cook, for example, and he can learn who the victims were. That last part gets Chu fired from the PPD, but hired by the FDA, kicking off his journey in this series.
Chewhas gained a legacy asone of Image Comics' best series, yet its road to the small screen has been a struggle. Showtime once had plans to adaptChew, but seeing as news of the matter first broke in 2011, nothing has manifested from it. Which remains a crying shame, becauseChewis a brilliantly unique ideathat still has unparalleled potential.
Tyler Boss
Dead Dog’s Biteis a four-part mystery thriller following Joe Bradley on the search for her missing friend, Cormac Guffin. Yes, Mac Guffin. Get it?Dead Dog’s Biteis littered with a tongue-in-cheek, deadpan tone masked behind a haunting mystery. The series promotes itself as"Twin PeaksmeetsLady Bird"and that’s the best possible descriptor for a tale like this. Either that orScooby-Doo for adults.
The clever quirkiness echoes a tone out of a Wes Anderson script, while the book’s use of shadows and space provides a hollowness that’s absolutely terrifying. The book uses up every ounce of space as a character in itself, making the reader feel uneasy, as if anything can pull itself out of the shadows.Such an inspired brand of weird and unsettling perfectly matches whatTwin Peaksachieved in the 90s. That kind of TV was a hit in the 90s, and today,Dead Dog’s Bitecould duplicate it.
4’I Walk With Monsters' is The Right Kind of Brutal
Paul Cornell, Sally Cantirino, Dearbhla Kelly
I Walk with Monstersis simultaneously unnerving and euphoric. It follows Jacey on a mission to find the mysterious predator known only as “The Important Man” who took her brother, traveling around the world with David, who uses his monstrous transformation to kill every predator in her path until they find her brother’s captor. Think Showtime’sDexter, if Dexter Morgan’s metaphorical ‘Dark Passenger’ was a literal beast who aided him in killing criminals.
It can be haunting in its portrayal of dangerous men, yet nothing feels more satisfying than to see these heinous men torn to shreds by David,much like the aforementionedDexter, albeit with a taste for the otherworldly. Similar toanotherDexter-hybrid,Beneath the Trees…,I Walk With Monstersis just waiting to be adapted. And likeDexter, the catharsis that comes from watching bad men get their comeuppance offers replay value on top of a binge-worthy story.
3’Abbott' Has Potential To Be TV’s New Premiere Detective
Saladin Ahmed, Sami Kivelä, Jason Wordie, Jim Campbell
Meet Elena Abbott, a journalist living in Detroit, Michigan and working forThe Detroit Dailynewspaper circa 1972. A series of grisly murders (including human legs detached from their body, and a decapitated horse’s head) begin to plague the city,possessing a supernatural connotation that echoes the murder of a past lover of Elena’s, Samir, forcing her to play equal parts investigative reporter and detective to solve the case.
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Abbottwas originally a five-part miniseries thatgrew enough acclaim and intrigue to warrant an entire trilogy, expanding into two sequels:Abbott: 1973andAbbott: 1979. There’s plenty of material to choose from, and when the story puts a classic twist on both detective noir and journalism drama, it’s bingeworthy weekly television that would surely keep viewers coming back for more in the vein ofTrue Detective.
2’Irredeemable' Could Be TV’s Next Obsession After Invincible
Mark Waid, Peter Krause, Andrew Dalhouse, Ed Dukeshire
Imagine for a second ifInvinciblewas centered not around the title character, but his father. Specifically, examining how his fellow heroes andthe rest of the world reactto Omni-Man’s defection. That is basically the plot ofIrredeemable, showing what happens when the world’s greatest hero, The Plutonian, descends into villainy as he suddenly embarks on a mission of slaughtering humanity. Much likeInvincible, the series starts with The Plutonian murdering the good guys. The survivors are beside themselves as they attempt to investigate what inspired such a dramatic shift of character.
Irredeemableworks for the same reason thatInvincibleworks as both a show and a comic:it rejects superhero clichésin favor of putting a dark, bloody spin on classic tropes.Invinciblehas happily found an audience in TV land, and there is no reason whyIrredeemablewouldn’t achieve similar success with a television show adaptation of its own.
1’The Power Fantasy' is a Modern Subversion of Superhero Stories
Kieron Gillen, Caspar Wijngaard, Rian Hughes, Clayton Cowles
The Power Fantasywas first announced as writer Kieron Gillen’screator-owned follow-up toX-Menfor Image Comics. As it turns out, anyone reeled in from Gillen’sX-Menrun and picked up the first were pleasantly surprised by a debut thatobliterates all possible expectations. The story is actually, largely,a subversion of superhero tales likeX-Menthat highlights not only the responsibilities, but the dangers of superpowers existing in a real life climate among six individuals.
In a climate where the superhero genre is bigger than ever, everyone is familiar with its tropes. As such, now would be the perfect time to televiseThe Power Fantasyas a subversion of Hollywood’s most persistent genre. Already subverting expectations, this would make for a timely television show.
