Movies and comics go hand-in-hand. The top grossing films, every summer, are more than often originally based off of a comic book, but most folks already know that. As for the other way around, well, comics based off movie franchises are a hit or a miss. There's been some great books to come out of Dark Horse based off the Star Wars franchise, and most recently Eric Powell, John Carpenter, and Brian Churilla brought the classic adventure film Big Trouble in Little China to Boom Studios in one fantastic start to a series. That go us here at Comic Vine thinking: "What awesome adventure films could work well as a comic book series?" Here's a look at 6 films that could easily have their own comic book series.
6. Willow
Willow almost didn't make the list. It almost went the same way as Time Bandits because we just weren't sure if people remembered this film. Yes, that sounds silly. The 1988 fantasy-adventure film follows Willow Ufgood, a dwarf farmer and magician as he has to protect a baby, Willow, who is prophesied to take down an evil queen. There's a whole cast of cool characters as well, especially Madmartigan, Willow meets on his travels.
For many people who grew up in the 80s, when you say "adventure film," this is one of the first films to pop up. This is the only time we'd think that starting with a straight-up adaptation would be the perfect place to start. Sure, you could continue Willow's adventures after (spoiler alert) Queen Bavmorda was defeated, but an adaptation could pique the interest of a whole new generation of readers. Sure, Marvel did a 3-part mini-series, way back when, but it's time to reinvigorate this story. From there, the world is completely open for Willow to have more adventures.
5. District 9
This 2009 film was about a group of aliens, stranded on Earth and forced to live in a camp. It was shot documentary style and had some nice polish on it. A government agent, named Wikus, becomes infected with the alien's biotechnology and slowly starts to become one of them, learning what it's like to be an alien, held captive. It's a bit more science-fiction than adventure, but it's good enough for us.
What happened after the film ended though? Sure, the ship got away, but not all of the aliens did. There's many different roads you can take this story and all of them seem appropriate for a company like Dark Horse to do. There's a ton of potential with this world and you don't necessarily have to use the characters from the film. The aliens were pretty cool and there's probably lots of folks that would love to see this as an on-going series.
4. Adventures of Baron Munchausen
If you're never seen the Adventures of Baron Munchausen, do yourself a favor and watch this film immediately. This 1988 fantasy-adventure film is about the travels of a man across many different lands, featuring many different "out-there" characters, including the King of the Moon, who had a detachable head, played by Robin Williams. Baron Munchausen really captured the hearts and minds of those who saw the film.
Terry Gilliam and Charles McKeown created this incredibly interesting world, even if they were just tall tales, and re-exploring this world, in comic book format, would be incredible. There's so many stories within this world, that any one of them could be developed into a mini-series, especially King of the Moon. This is a book that would work really well at Boom! Studios, who deals with fantasy quite often.
3. The Fifth Element
The Fifth Element has a special place in every nerd's heart. It's science-fiction full of action, adventure, and Milla Jovovich stealing the hearts of men everywhere. The world the film took place in was just so cool and new. Science fiction fans hadn't seen anything like this before, and because of all this, it became a cult classic.
What happened after the film though? Did Korben Dallas and Leeloo live "happily ever after?" This is something that could easily be explored in comic book format. This is such a new and large world that can easily be expanded upon, even if the creative team didn't follow more adventures from Dallas and Leeloo. This is a franchise that feels like IDW would handle very well, since they do well not only with science fiction, but licensed materials as well.
2. Mad Max
Last year, Warner Bros released a motion comic tied to the upcoming Mad Max video game, which still hasn't released. The motion comic was written by Tom Taylor (EARTH 2) and features the art of Jason Shawn Alexander (LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT). You can view part one and part two here. All these videos do is leave you wanting more.
Why hasn't Mad Max been tapped yet? Folks love a good post-apocalyptic dystopian future, especially one where Tina Turner makes an appearance. With a supposed new film coming out in 2015, this would be the perfect time for a comic book series to launch. This would be a great franchise for Vertigo work on, since the book is a bit more adult and gets pretty violent.
1. Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones has had numerous comic book runs in the past, some at Marvel, but a vast majority at Dark Horse Comics, but aside from the tie-in to the 2008 film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, we haven't seen Indy in any adventures. Now that Disney owns the rights to this character, this could be the perfect time for Marvel to step in and reinvigorate this character and world. There's so much creators can do with this character, taking legends and lore from world history and applying it to a man with a whip and a fear of snakes. Also, it would be pretty awesome to see Indy punch some Nazis again.
Obviously, the comic wouldn't need to revolve around the Nazi Party and Henry Jones, Jr. squaring off, but it is a great antagonist for Indy. Everyone hates Nazis and loves seeing them get punched/shot/faces melted. However, Mola Ram, from Temple of Doom, was a pretty sweet bad guy, proving that other evil folks around the world work as a bad guy. There's no reason Indiana Jones comics shouldn't exist, especially with the large market Marvel could reach with their older readers.
Sorry Ice Pirates fans, but there's our top six. Let us know in the comment section below what adventure films would make great comic book series and who you'd love to see do it!
Mat "Inferiorego" Elfring used to write on his blog a lot, but now he just writes on Twitter, trying to forget Kingdom of the Crystal Skull exists.