TV and films have always drawn inspiration from literature, but in recent decades, they have been focusing a lot on comic books. The best examples of this are the MCU and the DCEU, but they aren’t the only ones. Other comic companies also have incredible stories that should have their own adaptation.
These comics have enough interesting characters and storylines to make for a fine movie or even a long-standing series. Additionally, some of them include moments that would benefit from dynamic and auditive elements. Hopefully, a producing company will give them an adaptation soon.
10/10 The Audience Would Love Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me
By Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell have been widely praised by book critics for their work on Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me. This graphic novel, published in 2019, tells the story of Frederica “Freddy” Riley, a teenager in a complicated on-and-off relationship with her high school queen bee, Laura Dean.
After the success of Heartstopper and The Half of It, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me is the perfect source material for Netflix or any other streaming site looking to produce a new LGBTQ+ series. It’s also the perfect comic to read for anyone who liked Heartstopper. Since it’s, at its deepest, a coming-of-age story, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me presents an emotional ride to which anyone can relate.
9/10 The Wicked + The Divine Has Lots Of Material To Explore
By Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie
The Wicked + The Divine follows Laura, a teenager who fangirls over a group of reincarnated deities. In the series, she narrates the lives of all these characters. The reincarnated gods have superhuman abilities, but they’re doomed to die in two years, continuing a cycle that has been happening for centuries.
The Wicked + The Divine deals with a various universal topics, and it also makes a point to be as diverse as possible. Additionally, a great deal of its stories is influenced by pop music. For example, Lucifer looks just like David Bowie, while Sakhmet is partially inspired by Rihanna. An adaptation would be sure to feature a stellar soundtrack.
8/10 The Deadliest Bouquet Is Short But Thrilling
By Erica Schultz, Carola Borelli, and Gab Contreras
After Jasmine Hawthorn, a prolific Nazi hunter, is murdered in her flower shop, her three daughters — Rose, Poppy, and Violet — must solve this mystery while dealing with their mother’s past. On top of having the police sniff around their family’s affairs, Rose, Poppy, and Violet have to work out their innate differences.
The interesting thing about the Deadliest Bouquet is that it’s both an exploration of dysfunctional family dynamics and a thriller. It’s only five issues, but from the beginning, it presents several questions readers can’t help but obsess about. Deadliest Bouquet would make a totally bingeable mini-series.
7/10 Bitch Planet Is Pure Feminist Sci-Fi
By Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro
A 10-issue series, Bitch Planet is set on the Auxiliary Compliance Outpost, a space prison where humanity sends women who refuse to comply with patriarchal rules. The series explores their lives in this dystopian jail while also revealing their pasts through flashbacks.
Bitch Planet reclaims the exploitation genre to deliver a true social critique — think Orange is the New Black meets George Orwell. The series focuses on these women and how their sexualities, races, or even dreams make them a threat to men. This storyline, combined with its incredible aesthetic, would make a compelling show if properly adapted.
6/10 Renegade Rule Has Potential To Become A Cultural Staple
By Ben Kahn, Rachel Silverstein, and Sam Beck
Renegade Rule centers on the Manhattan Mist, a quartet of queer girls who play a virtual capture-the-flag-like sport called Renegade Rule. This series tells their stories as they try to win a Renegade Rule national competition to help one of them get economical help for her mother’s health issues.
The wholesome relationship between the members of the Manhattan Mist, together with the complexity of the virtual world they inhabit while playing, could be easily used to make a great film. In a time when online video games are all the rage, audiences would love this story.
5/10 Wynd’s Universe Only Keeps Expanding
By James Tynion IV and Michael Dialynas
Set in Pipetown, a world where magic is an offense punishable by death, Wynd follows the titular young boy who must hide who he really is. Together with his best friend Oakley and Thorn, his eventual love interest, Wynd embarks on a journey to understand his true nature.
This fantastic coming-of-age story parallels Wynd’s secret magical abilities with his sexual orientation. Queer television is currently expanding more and more, but so far, fans haven’t gotten a true fantasy tale. Wynd would be an excellent option, especially considering the authors keep working on new storylines for this franchise.
4/10 Mystery Society Has An Incredible Aesthetic
By Steve Niles and Fiona Staples
Nick Hammond and Anastasia Collins are the Mystery Society, an organization with the sole objective of understanding all paranormal phenomena in the world. Together with a bizarre group of people — Secret Skrull the Ghoul, two Area 51 twins, and a robot with the brain of Jules Verne — they try to find the skull of Edgar Allan Poe.
Any media company should take advantage of Mystery Society‘s bizarre characters and incredible steampunk vibes. The series may be short, but there’s a lot of space to create new mysteries around real-life cultural references. It’s also been a while since a steampunk show delighted the audiences.
3/10 Barbalien: Red Planet Could Shed Light Onto Important Issues
By Tate Brombal, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, and Jordie Bellaire
Mark Markz, a shapeshifting Martian living on Earth, tells his story as a gay man while he works as a police officer during the 1980s AIDS crisis. Barbalien: Red Planet explores Markz’s struggle with his own identity, especially as his fellow officers express violence against LGBTQ+ people.
Barbalien: Red Planet is a part of the Hammer Universe, so it could be the beginning of a series of adaptations from the Black Hammer franchise. Even if that’s not the case — given that Jeff Lemire is still looking for a home for it — Mark Markz’s story is a self-contained tale with a lot of depth.
2/10 Sex Criminals Has A Unique Premise
By Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky
Librarian Suzie meets Jon, a frustrated actor working as a banker, and discovers they can both freeze time while having sex. Together, they plan to rob a bank as their love blossoms, but things get complicated when they discover other individuals with similar sex-related superpowers.
Sex Criminals‘ premise about sex-related superpowers is only the tip of the iceberg. The series has a lot of enthralling characters and complex sci-fi lore with an edge to it. Mature audiences would love it as much as they love The Boys, which features a similar vibe. Sex Criminals would certainly be a show with a bizarre story, but it would work.
1/10 Saga’s Creators Are Sadly Opposed To Adapting The Comic
By Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Often described as “Star Wars meets Game of Thrones,” Saga centers on Alana and Marco, two aliens from different enemy races trying to escape their respective authorities to raise their daughter, Hazel. The 60-issues series, often narrated by an adult Hazel, details the couple’s adventures through space.
Saga is an incredible space opera that allows for many interesting topics, especially regarding ethnicity and social conventions. All its characters are highly relatable, but it also has its fair share of action. Unfortunately, Vaughan and Staples already announced they wouldn’t like Saga to become a TV series or a film saga. According to Vaughan, the whole point of making it a comic was “to do absolutely everything [they] couldn’t do in a movie or a TV show.”
