Comic Book Adaptations: No Superheroes but Still a Whole Lot of Bang!

When you hear the words, “comic book,” you may be encouraged to immediately remember Stan Lee’s ever-popular The Amazing Spider-Man, earlier stories like those of Superman or Captain America, or even Mike Mignola’s classic antihero, Hellboy. But not every graphic novel had a superhero. Not every comic was about the Watchmen, the X-Men, Batman, or Buffy. These stories are great, of course — we love a good hero or a good villain. But sometimes, the stories don’t have to follow that formula. In fact, as popular as movie adaptations with superheroes are, some of the best comic book adaptations in film and TV today are those without any superheroes at all. But that said, these comic book adaptations with no superheroes still manage to be super without that formula!

Read More: The 10 Best Comic Book Movies of the Millennium

Scripts from this Article

30 Days Of Night

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

The Walking Dead

Men In Black

A History of Violence

Heavy Metal

V for Vendetta

Constantine

Weird Science

300

30 Days Of Night

The limited series that gave birth to this cult horror classic only had three issues and originated after a failed pitch to make it a vampire movie. But after a while, people saw that Steve Niles’s writing deserved the attention it was finally getting as a comic book. This miniseries then started becoming a source of other material like the sequel series, Dark Days featuring the bloodthirsty Nosferatu creatures we know from the film. Of the frightful comic book adaptation with no superheroes, 30 Days of Night finally brought Niles’s creation to the big screen only five years later.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Impressively designed to look and feel like the graphic novel it was based on, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World has become a much-loved display of teen humor, real musical performances and killer special effects that make it feel like a bona fide product of the 2000s. In the flick based on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s work, the titular character must face off with the “evil exes” of his new love interest if he really wants to be with her. True to form, the trouble that ensues from this in the film is well worth watching as it encompasses the highlights of the graphic novel’s six volumes.

The Walking Dead

This hit television series has run its course for far too long — including spinoff series, to boot! But before it became the biggest contributor to the film and TV boom in Atlanta, this story got its start as a comic book about Rick Grimes, the deputy you know and love. In 193 issues of post-apocalyptic action-thriller goodness, this came in the wake of stories that inspired it, like Resident Evil and Romero’s movies about the Living Dead. With that in mind, the series almost didn’t get published — until the creator lied and said the “zombies” of his movie were actually created by an alien invasion. Luckily for us, that lie got the story out into the zeitgeist, and here we are, many seasons later with content galore about The Walking Dead.

Men in Black

You may have a hard time seeing the similarities right away, but Men in Black does have a six-episode predecessor in comic form: The Men in Black, while short-lived, made a splash as a science-fiction miniseries with a bleak, dark tone. Instead of only extraterrestrial activity, though, the agency we know of today started much like Mulder and Scully, getting dragged into all manner of things supernatural. Other differences include that tone differing from the movies’ tongue-in-cheek levity, the identities of Agent Ecks and Jay, and even the way the agency handles witnesses. Here’s a hint: In the comics, it wasn’t always neuralyzing. Sometimes, it was something far more permanent.

A History of Violence

The story of this movie really hits home — figuratively for us, and literally for the main character, Tom Stall. His name in the graphic novel may be different (Tom McKenna), but that’s on theme, seeing as he’s on the run from the mob in both versions of the story. After having settled down and kept to himself for so long, Tom’s actions to stop a robber put him in the spotlight long enough for the wrong people to realize he’s not so long gone after all. The movie might take a few more liberties of its own, but all in all, each story has gained its own critical acclaim as well.

Read More: A History of Violence: Beat Sheet

Heavy Metal

So, Heavy Metal isn’t a single serial, but a collection of them. Instead of a comic book, this magazine serves as a compendium of dark fantasy, sci-fi, erotica and weird fiction that became a well-known beacon for expressivity. As a magazine, it had freedom to showcase content that American comics of the time couldn’t — attracting artists with well-known penchants for creations that are “not safe for work,” such as the legendary H.R. Giger. The movie, as a result of this, becomes an anthological nightmare from different animation studios working together. Full of the weirdness that made the magazine a hit, the movie embodies a lot of the same elements like graphic violence and gratuitous nudity — making it a spiritual adaptation of the whole magazine, truly the first of its kind.

V for Vendetta

What started as a 10-issue serial became a graphic novel of epic — but dystopian — proportions. First appearing in black and white, this story followed the revolutionist machinations of a man known only as “V,” whose revenge fantasy is actively fueled by a desire to overthrow the tyranny in a futuristic Britain. Of course, though the stories differ in various ways, much like the graphic novel, the V from the movie also finds himself a person to indoctrinate as the future carrier of his violent burning torch: Evey Hammond.

Constantine

Adapted from the original 300-issue series known as John Constantine, Hellblazer, this movie named itself after the main character from the series. Despite this, it otherwise became a very loose adaptation of an investigative storyline from the comics. That said, the story of John Constantine became an icon in the “occult detective” subgenre of fantasy horror fiction — raising hairs and raising eyebrows in a way that inspired the 2005 film as well as Constantine, the short-lived television series.

Weird Science

Heavy Metal wasn’t the only magazine to find its way into a movie. Weird Science, a collection of science fiction stories, provided readers with tons of social messages wrapped up in the growing popularity of 1950s comic books. Much in the vein of Twilight Zone, the stories involved science-fiction “springboard” ideas that evolved into stories with a life of their own. The movie Weird Science accomplishes this same thing as a spiritual successor rather than a true adaptation — but John Hughes makes great use of the canvas to build upon the embrace of science fantasy and teen comedy that are both so iconically tied to the 1980s.

Read More: Once Upon a Generation: The Prolific John Hughes

300

You can’t picture the action in 300 — nor the exaggerated six packs — without thinking of comics, and there’s a good reason why. This story about these mighty Spartan warriors and their Persian invaders started as a Frank Miller miniseries in comic book form inspired by the movie, The 300 Spartans. Its use of greenscreen and other fantastic tools made the film 300 a visually stunning and faithful adaptation, with its comic book sequel later being adapted into another film — 300: Rise of an Empire.

Read More: 300: Rise of an Empire – Vapid Display of Blood on Abs

Action, drama, and fantasy of all kinds come from stories we tell in every medium. A comic book doesn’t always mean you’ll get stories about superheroes — sometimes, it offers a very different experience that’s just as rewarding. Whatever you find in the movie theaters, just know that much of it comes from ideas that sometimes come from other places first. That’s the beauty of storytelling — a creative endeavor that keeps on going, no matter where it winds up. 

Read More: Marveling at Marvel: A Cinematic Universe United