The best adaptations of comics to other media?

[C.W.Richeson]

Batman Begins is, of course, at the very top of my list but what TV series, books, cartoons, movies, and other media have done the best job of translating comics?

The 90s X-Men cartoon, which hasn't aged well, did a great job of incorporating a lot of X-Men storylines and characters and is another favorite.

[ShannonA]

I'll offer you two unorthodox answers:

The "Ultimate" comic series did a great job of adapting Marvel comics to a different comic medium.

Queen & Country (which ain't SF, fantasy, or horror) has two novels related to the comic series, which I think are better than the comic series (because they really show off how much more content you can fit in a single novel).

More orthodoxly:

Marvel really knows what it's doing nowadays. Both X-Men and Spider-man did a great job of being good movies, while at the same time being filled with comic-book in-jokes and references.

[Agrias Oaks]

I have to say Hellboy as a movie is excellent. It was a good movie to me (Who has read and enjoyed hellboy comics) and for my friends that don't even know there is a hellboy comic, they found it an enjoyable movie.

Same with the second X-men movie, which IMO was much better then the first one.

I also liked X-Men evolution, which was pretty different from the normal X-men stuff.

[Elizabeth Brooks]

The Crow was a great adaptation of the comic to film. It didn't strictly adapt the story, but it held to the spirit.

[Dave Harfield]

Ultimate Spiderman on the Xbox really feels like it's the comic, from the art to the dialogue.

Plus you get to websling round NYC which is great.:D

[Keyes]

Sin City, by far.

[ChristopherA]

I thought 300 was a very good movie, but I'm not sure that is should be considered an adaption, more of a translation as so much was directly from the graphic novel. I suspect the graphic novel was basically used as the storyboard for the movie.

Sin City was also less of an adaption then most, but it did take a lot more "cut & paste" to make a cohesive storyboard for the movie then 300 did.

-- Christopher Allen

[Quasar]

- Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (animated film) , Batman: TAS, Superman: TAS, Justice League/JLU (animated series)
- The Tick (both animated and live action)
- Sin City (live action film)
- Th Crow (live action film)
- Rocketeer (live action film)

I also really liked the 90's X-men and Spiderman cartoons.

[lazarus]

My dad, my brother, and I saw Spider-man 3 Sunday. We all agreed it felt more like a "comic book" than any other Spidey film.

Sin City, however, may be the most 100% faithful to the comics - not sure, haven't read them.

Laz

[ShannonA]

Sin City, however, may be the most 100% faithful to the comics - not sure, haven't read them.


One of the amazing things about Sin City is that some of the shots in the movie are near exact replicas of panels from the comic.

This page shows some of the comparisons:
http://www.filmrot.com/images/sincity-comparisons/sincity.html

[Yojimbo]

Anything involving Bruce Timm or Paul Dini gets a big thumbs up. From Batman Adventures to Justice League Unlimited, the "Animated DC Universe" kicked ass left and right. Whenever I read a Batman comic, I hear Kevin Conroy in my head.

Visually, Sin City and Ang Lee's Hulk are probably the best film translations of comics -- some of the shots from those look just like comic panels.

For feel and tone, Hellboy and the first Spider-Man did a great job of capturing their respective 2-d universes. I was particularly impressed with Spider-Man when it came out because it felt like an adaptation of a book to a film. Raimi didn't try to come up with an original story or his own "take," the movie did the Green Goblin story almost note for note. It was great. It really felt like the filmmakers respected the comic book art form. And then came Spider-Man 3... but we were talking about the best adaptations.

Hellboy benefitted from having the creator of Hellboy on the set every day. Same as Sin City come to think of it. That means a lot. And it's probably why films like Fantastic Four and Daredevil end up so bad. They're made by Hollywood types or music video directors who think the special effects are the hook rather than people who have respect for and understanding of the medium that originated these characters and made them popular in the first place.

Jim Cannon

[Michael Hopcroft]

Batman the Animated Series is probably top of my list in that department.

I will cast another vote for Hellboy. I haven't read the comics, but that movie was viscerally potent.

[tdl08]

Hi. I'm doing a project about the visual comparisons of comic book-to-film adaptations, and I was wondering if anyone here could:

Give me their opinions on how these adaptations are similar/different to their original comic-book format, or
point me in the directions of books or websites that may be useful


Thank you.