Mutate Into Movies

By: JP Chabot

WEIRD COMIC BOOKS, GREAT FLICKS

Hollywood has realized that comic adaptations are big business, but studios are only pulling from the top of the well.

They can’t keep making Batman movies forever and expect to keep it fresh, even if they cast Ben Affleck. It’s high time the studios sought other resources. Blockbuster movies have been made from obscure comics before, such as Men in Black and Blade.

Below are some more outlandish comic titles they could try adapting, if they felt like being creative for once.

[one_third]1NEXTWAVE Five obscure and dysfunctional heroes band together to fight zany foes like men in pterodactyl suits, chimpanzees dressed as Wolverine, and a Nick Fury parody named Dirk Anger who pilots a flying submarine.Catchphrases include “My robot brain needs beer,” and “tick tick tick BOOM!” Get Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) to direct and audience brains will melt.[/one_third]
[one_third]2WE3 A dog, a cat and a rabbit escape from their cages and try to find their way home. The twist is they’re all military cyborgs armed with powerful weaponry fused to their bodies—the army’s attempt to create soldiers to replace humans and spare lives. The humans and animals are sympathetic. Making the animals look believable is a challenge. Having Jim Henson’s Creature Shop work on the cyber-pets would be perfect.[/one_third]
[one_third_last]3TOP TEN In a city where everyone has superpowers, law enforcement needs to be just as strange to match. Presented as a cop drama where the police wear capes and power armor, they deal with super-murder-mysteries and giant drunken Godzillas who need to be given a ride home, treating it all as just another day on the job. The quirky, humanistic Joel and Ethan Coen would be perfect to direct.[/one_third_last]

[one_half]4USAGI Set in feudal Japan, everyone is depicted as cartoonish animal-people, with the protagonist being a “long-eared samurai,” the titular rabbit-man Usagi. As a masterless samurai, or “ronin,” he wanders the earth, delivering justice and killing evil bandits and ninjas. He faces off against his nemesis, the demon-possessed Jei, who seeks to steal the holy Grasscutter sword. It’s heartwarming, exciting, sad and sometimes hilarious.[/one_half]
[one_half_last]5Johnny the Homicidal Maniac Invader Zim’s creator Jhonen Vasquez earned his claim to fame with this bizarre black comedy about a psycho killer who mysteriously can’t stop killing, even if he tries. It’s as if the universe is conspiring against him. Weird supernatural elements and bitter social commentary pepper the pages. There are also funny vignettes like a clingy child chasing his own mother down and hanging onto the roof of her car like the T-1000 in Terminator 2. The dark and odd director Tim Burton could do wonders with this material.[/one_half_last]