5 Non MARVEL/DC Comics That Deserve Their Own Movie

The next few years are going to be filled with superheroes. With movies like Guardians of the Galaxy, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and The Fantastic Four coming out, it’ll be nothing but good times for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, the two biggest comic book companies in the world. That’s all well and good, but what about all of the other good comic book titles outside of those companies? There are some great non Marvel/DC comics out there that will never get the time on the big screen that they rightly deserve. I know most of you could name 10 off the top of your heads, but here’s my top 5:

#5 BONE

Let’s start off with a movie that kids and adults will appreciate. I know this because I first read it as a kid at a Scholastic Book Fair and never looked back. Bone focuses on the Bone cousins, who look like walking marshmallow men. These cousins—named Fone Bone, Phoncible “Phoney” Bone, and Smiley Bone—have been run out of their hometown of Boneville (yes it’s called Boneville, accept it) after Phoney’s campaign for mayor goes bad. After crossing a desert, the cousins are separated but reunite in a mysterious valley and set on a journey to free it from giant rat creatures and other dark entities. A movie was supposed to be in the works a few years back, but nothing came out of it. I see this as a good flick for a company like Pixar. With the right voices and their incredible visuals, this movie could as big as Toy Story.

#4 SEX CRIMINALS

Probably the complete opposite of the last entry, Sex Criminals is the newest hit to the comic book world. Though only six issues have been released so far, I’m already calling this the Breaking Bad of comics. The story is about Jon and Suzie, two normal people with a very abnormal gift: whenever they have sex, they can somehow stop time. Freaked out at first, the couple decide to stay together and do that most obvious thing: use their gifts to rob a couple of banks! Even if the story doesn’t keep you interested, you can’t deny the extraordinary artwork, which on film would probably look like a Zack Snyder wet dream. The first five issues are already on paperback and has gotten praise from TIME Magazine and Rolling Stone. What else do you need to convince Hollywood to make this brazen sex comedy a reality?

#3 THE SIXTH GUN

Historically, Americans have always loved Westerns. You know what’s even better than a Western? A supernatural western! Oni Press’ The Sixth Gun is a post American Civil War story of ancient weapons (particularly six pistols) and supernatural occurrences. “The Six” show up across the world, with the wielder of each pistol gaining an ability unique to that weapon, and is connected to that pistol until his or her death. The history of the weapons and their ultimate purpose is shrouded in a deep Cajun style mystery, which is just fine for a Louisiana native like myself. NBC was planning on making a TV movie adaptation of the book, but passed on it and made shows like Almost Human instead, which was a hit. Oh wait…no it wasn’t. Whether it becomes a TV movie or otherwise, as long as they stick to the source material, I’m pretty sure it’ll be better than Cowboys & Aliens.

#2 WITCHBLADE

Personally I’ve only read about 8 issues of Witchblade (I can only afford so many comics), but I know what a gem it is. The series follows Sara Pezzini, a NYPD detective who comes into possession of the Witchblade, a supernatural, sentient artifact in the form of a gauntlet which bonds with a female host and provides them with a variety of powers (and a provocative exo armor) in order to fight evil. Sara struggles to hone the powers of the gauntlet while investigating cases that have no rational explanation to the normal world. No one can argue the potential that this book has to be a solid film, since it’s already been made into a short lived TV show and anime. Even without that, the book is already at 175 issues, making it the longest running independent title with a female lead. I’m all for having more women in the comic book adaptations, and this would be the next best thing since we’ll probably never get a decent Wonder Woman film.

#1 INVINCIBLE

Imagine a comic book with Spider-Man-esque stories and Superman level battles and you’ve got Invincible, which next to Spawn is Image Comics’ flagship title. The story centers around Mark Grayson who is a Human/Viltrumite (imagine the Sayians from DBZ without ape transformations) hybrid and one of the greatest heroes on Earth. In his short career as a superhero, he’s had to deal with human bombs, robot zombies, alien squids, an army of dimensional counterparts, the Viltrumite race, and about a hundred other problems. The book has spawned multiple spin offs and even has a book called Invincible Universe so we can keep track of all these characters. The thing that makes Invincible one of my all-time favorites is that it shows that even the most powerful being can’t do it all. A lot of times, Invincible does the right thing and saves the day…and sometimes he royally f@#^s up! But over the top action and emotional storytelling make it worth it. If Image ever gets another movie deal, it has to be for this title.

What titles do you think deserve a shot at a movie? Drop a comment and let us know!