7 Comic Books Way Better Than Their Movie Adaptations

As much as comic book movies have defined pop culture for over 20 years, anyone who’s followed them knows how difficult that has been. For every movie that broke the box office and became a cultural milestone, there were far more that were written off as garbage for their poor visuals and lazy writing, and while some movies like that will be treated better years after the fact, most of them will only be remembered for how terrible they were.

There are far more terrible comic book movies than anyone can count, and the worst are those that try to adapt a specific comic book. While many comic book movies sort of pick and choose what they’ll be adapting, there are still plenty that try for a straightforward adaptation of a comic, and when those fail as spectacularly as they do, it stings far worse than an average comic book movie. It’s especially bad when the source material is genuinely iconic, and that failure is more apparent than ever with a few adaptations in particular.

All-Star Superman

Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman is probably one of the most iconic Superman stories ever written, if not the most iconic. While the story has plenty of the weirdness that’s been associated with Superman’s brand, All-Star Superman is focused primarily on what makes Superman human and how that guides him to inspire everyone, even in his last days on Earth. The result is an emotional epic that gets to the core of what makes Superman so great, and with Frank Quietly’s gorgeous artwork complementing it, there’s plenty to love at every turn.

By comparison, the animated adaptation sort of misses the mark. While the animation and voice acting are great, not only does All-Star Superman’s episodic format not work in film, but the short runtime meant that a lot of content had to be cut out or changed, so it never feels as goofy or as heartfelt as the comic did. The All-Star Superman movie is fun to watch, but if anyone wants to understand what makes the story special, then they need to read the comic.

Batman: Hush

Batman: Hush is another prime example of an animated adaptation failing its source material. Not only did the ugly art style and boring animation of the DC Animated Movie Universe do a major disservice to Jim Lee and Scott Williams’ work on the comic, but it also had to adapt the story to fit in with the DCAMU’s narrative and often bizarre character writing, which made the film feel tonally confusing more often than not.

What really killed the film, though, was its ending. Not only did it completely change the reveal of Hush’s identity to something far more ridiculous, but it led to an ending with none of the emotional depth the original story had, making the film feel like a waste of time from start to finish. The Batman: Hush comic is a bit overrated, but even then, it deserved far better than what it was given.

The Crow Vs. The Crow (2024)

The Crow, both the original comic by James O’Barr and the 1994 film starring the late Brandon Lee, were major cult classics from the ’90s for how well they combined gothic themes with a superhero aesthetic, and with reboots being so common nowadays, it’s not surprising that The Crow would be on the table as well. After almost 20 years of development hell and constantly changing directors and stars, the movie finally came out in 2024, and calling it a travesty would be an understatement.

2024’s The Crow puts far more focus on the romance than the original did, ironically doing so in a way that made it feel boring and uninspired, and when combined with a lack of action until the final act and some truly lackluster visuals and direction, there’s just nothing to get excited about. It fails as both a follow-up to the comic and the original film, and its box office failure is more than deserved.

Watchmen

Zack Snyder’s Watchmen is often considered one of the worst comic book movies of all time, if not the worst, and it’s easy to see why. The increase in action and gore makes it feel far more generic a superhero story than the comic ever did, and with how much it simplifies the story and moral complexity of the comic, it’s a largely lackluster take on such a legendary story that deserves being as divisive as it is.

At the very least, though, Watchmen isn’t a boring movie; despite its changes, the story is still easy to follow and has at least some of the comic’s emotional beats, and as with his other films, Zack Snyder’s direction made the cinematography utterly gorgeous from start to finish. As bad as Watchmen is, it isn’t unwatchable, and at the very least, the animated Watchmen films do provide a slightly more authentic alternative for fans.

Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow Vs. Supergirl

By all accounts, the DCU’s Supergirl should have been a smash hit; not only was it coming off the heels of James Gunn’s Superman, but it was adapting the legendary Supergirl comic Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, so it should have been great. Unfortunately, not only does Supergirl poorly adapt Woman of Tomorrow with boring character redesigns, an uninspired color palette, and a complete misunderstanding of the comic’s themes, but even as its own thing, it doesn’t work due to its lackluster action and incredibly poor choice of music, both the songs themselves and when they were played in the film.

Supergirl is far from the worst comic book movie around, but when looking at the original comic and at how great Superman was, it’s hard not to see it as a disappointment. With how the DCU is only just getting off the ground, fans will probably be seeing more of Milly Alcock in the future, and hopefully, whatever new story she’s given will be far better than whatever Supergirl was supposed to be.

The Dark Phoenix Saga Vs. Dark Phoenix

“The Dark Phoenix Saga” is probably one of the most iconic X-Men stories in the history of the franchise, and that makes it so disappointing that the X-Men films have always butchered it. X-Men: The Last Stand adapted parts of it and failed miserably, and 13 years later, it received a full adaptation in 2019’s Dark Phoenix, but it was somehow even worse with its rushed pacing, baffling writing choices, and all-around lackluster action and visuals.

“The Dark Phoenix Saga” is the kind of story that needs a lot of time to be properly adapted, which is why X-Men: The Animated Series is the only example of a good adaptation, so with only one film left in Fox’s X-Men franchise, it doesn’t make sense that they went with “The Dark Phoenix Saga” again and arguably made it worse than the last attempt. There’s nothing defensible about Dark Phoenix, and hopefully, when the MCU finally gets to the X-Men, they either give the story time to develop or just avoid it outright.

Alan Moore’s comics have a terrible track record with adaptations to the point that he rarely ever allows his name to be credited, and the worst of the bunch might be The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Just like Watchmen, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen dumbs down the comic’s clever writing to make it more of a generic action movie, and with how boring the writing and ugly the visuals are, it doesn’t even succeed at that.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen fails both visually and narratively in every regard; what should have been a fun, metafictional superhero story is turned into a nonsensical piece of schlock, and after over 20 years, there’s nothing redeemable about it. The film was so bad that it made Sean Connery retire from acting, and that fact alone makes it hard to see it as anything other than the biggest case of a comic book being way worse than its movie adaptation.