There are a lot of comic publishers out there, and some really great movies have been adapted from their works. While the film and TV world may be dominated mostly by two companies, Marvel and DC, these movies hold their own against any movie adapted from the Big Two. Here are 32 great examples of movies adapted from comic books that aren't Marvel or DC.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
When Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird first conceived and published the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book for Mirage Studios, they never could've foreseen the wild success of the media franchise the book turned into. The original indie comic, first hitting shelves in 1984 was dark, and all in black and white. Still, it was an underground hit that soon moved into the streets as a phenomenon.
Hellboy
2004's Hellboy, based on the Dark Horse Comics book by the same name, is one of the most beloved comic book movies of all time, especially one not adapted from a Marvel or DC story. Starring Ron Pearlman as the titular character and directed by Guillermo del Toro, the movie was a big enough hit to spawn a sequel in 2009. Sadly, a third movie completed the trilogy never got off the ground, and a more recent attempt to reboot the series bombed in 2019.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
During its initial run in theaters, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, starring Michael Cera as Pilgrim, was a disappointment. As testament to the original material, a series published by Oni Press, the movie quickly gained cult status and today has fans all over the world.
Sin City
Creator Frank Miller is a legend in the comic book industry. His first hits came working for DC, but after building his reputation, he struck out from DC and began releasing his books through Dark Horse. One of those, Sin City, was a huge success and led to the film adaptation with an all-star cast in 2005.
Dredd
Judge Dredd is one of the most popular comic book anti-heroes outside of Marvel and DC. The series he comes from 2000 AD, first published in 1977 by IPC Magazines, was a hit and two movie adaptations based on the dystopian future cop have been made. The first, 1995 Judge Dredd starring Sylvester Stallone, is not all that great, but the second, 2012 Dredd starring The Boys star Karl Urban, is excellent.
The Crow
1994's The Crow is sadly remembered for the on-set fatality of its star, Brandon Lee, and fewer people recognize that it was adapted from a comic book series published by Caliber Comics. Three more sequels have also been produced and in 2024, 30 years after The Crow's release, the series was rebooted on film.
300
Dark Horse publishing has turned itself into a comic book publishing force in the last 40 years and one of the biggest reasons why is the work of artist and writer Frank Miller. His 300, adapted in 2006 and starring Gerard Butler, was a huge hit with director Zach Snyder earning praise for the style of the film, which was very much in keeping with its origins as a comic.
Weird Science
Okay, pardon the pun, but this is a weird one. John Hughes' 1985 teen comedy classic Weird Science was actually loosely based on a comic book. Weird Science comics, published by EC Magazines in the early '50s only ran for 22 issues, but one "Made of the Future" by Al Feldstein, told the story of a man who creates a woman from a computer. Wild.
Spawn
Todd McFarlane's Image Comics is the third largest publisher in the comic book world and you can count Spawn as a major reason why. The movie adaptation in 1997 of the same name wasn't a big hit, but the comics will always be classics.
Men In Black
Aircel Comics was eventually swallowed up by Marvel in the 1990s, but before that happened, it published five issues of its Men In Black series. Once the series was adapted for the first time in 1997 (after Marvel owned it), it would become one of the biggest franchises of the last three decades.
The Kingsman Series
The publishing history of the Kingsman series is a little convoluted. It does involve Marvel, but Image Comics and Dark Horse have also published books, so we're going to fudge a little here because it's such a fun franchise, both in print on the big screen, we had to include it.
Heavy Metal
1981's Heavy Metal directed by Ivan Reitman is one of the best animated movies for adults ever made. It was adapted using stories from the legendary Heavy Metal magazine that ran for nearly 50 years before ending in 2023.
Atomic Blonde
2016's Atomic Blonde, a Cold War-era spy thriller was adapted from a character in a comic book called The Coldest City by Antony Johnston, first published by Oni Press in 2012. The movie, starring Charlize Theron, was a critical success and performed modestly at the box office.
Timecop
As Jean-Claude Van Damme movies go, Timecop is pretty decent. Released in 1994 and based on a comic book of the same name from Dark Horse, it was a successful hit and launched a moderate franchise with a short-lived TV show and a straight-to-video sequel.
The Killer
2023's The Killer, directed by David Fincher and starring Michael Fassbender was based on a long-running French comic by the same name. The first volume, published in 1998, led to many more over the years before Netflix commissioned the movie.
Dıck Tracy
So this entry is a bit of a stretch, because Dick Tracy was technically a comic strip first, though the character has appeared in comic books since the 1930s. The first adaptation of the hard-boiled detective was a radio show, also in the '30s. In 1990 Warren Beatty adapted the character for the big screen to big office success.
Sabrina the Teenage Witch
The most famous adaptation of the Archie Comics' Sabrina The Teen Age Witch was the TV show starring Melissa Joan Hart as the titular spell caster. The show started as a made-for-TV movie starring Hart and Ryan Reynolds in one of his earliest roles. It aired first aired on Showtime in 1996 before moving to ABC as a TV show later that year. The show ran for seven successful seasons.
The Rocketeer
Years before Disney reached the dizzying heights of the Avengers movies, the House of Mouse tried to find a hit with The Rocketeer. Based on the 1981 comic of the same name, with a character that paid homage to the heroes of the 1930s. Sadly, the movie was a commercial failure, but fans of the movie still praise it to this day.
Flash Gordon
The character Flash Gordon first hit American newspapers as a comic strip in the 1930s. Over the years, stories of the space-traveling hero have been adapted into every medium imaginable, including serial movies in the 1930s, novels, radio shows, a TV show, a musical, and of course, comic books. The 1980 movie is a wonderfully bizarre adaptation that quickly gained a cult following.
Oldboy
Japanese magazine Futabasha started publishing the serialized story Old Boy in the late '90s and in 2003 Park Chan-wook-directed a phenomenal adaptation in South Korea. It's a dark story, as Japanese magna often is, but it's fantastic. A less-well-received remake by Spike Lee in 2013 isn't as good.
Tank Girl
In one of the most notorious examples of a movie failing to live up to the expectations of fans, 1995's Tank Girl starring Lori Petty was a commercial and critical failure. Fans hated the movie as they did not think it carried the spirit of the character. The comic, first published by Deadline in the UK, continues to be very popular with fans well into the 21st Century.
Mystery Men
1999's Mystery Men bombed at the box office and that's really too bad because it's really a fun movie. Based on the surrealist comic Flaming Carrot Comics, it featured an all-star cast as superhero rejects and has-beens that come together to fight evil. It's funny, and sweet, and really much better than its box office receipts show.
Akira
There is no more famous and popular anime than Akira. The original 1988 film was based on a manga first published in Weekly Young Magazine in Japan, then later imported to the US by Marvel. Akira is one of the most surprising examples of an enduring property that somehow hasn't become one of the biggest franchises on earth.
The Mask
Sometimes it seems like people forget just how huge 1995's The Mask really was. It made over ten times over its budget in theaters and solidified Jim Carrey as one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. For almost 25 years, that made it the most profitable comic book movie of all time until it was surpassed in 2019 by The Joker. It was also a great example of a comic book adaptation, as it was based on the 1991 comic of the same name printed by Dark Horse.
Ghost World
Maybe the most surprising movie on this list is Ghost World. The 2001 movie doesn't feel like a comic book movie, but it was adapted from the cult classic comic of the same name. First published as a serialized story in Fantagraphics' Eightball, the movie didn't find an audience at first, but was lauded by critics and even got an Oscar nomination for best-adapted screenplay. It's since found its audience and is considered a cult classic.
The Old Guard
Images Comics first published The Old Guard in 2017 and just three short years later, Netflix produced a movie based on it. Charlize Theron and Chiwetel Ejiofor lead a stellar cast in the movie that critics and fans loved setting it up for a sequel.
Cowboys & Aliens
Platinum Studios is a fairly new comic book publisher whose work Cowboys & Aliens is the first movie adaptation of their characters. The movie, starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford was a commercial flop, but it's not the worst movie on this list and some critics praised it.
Shortcomings
Rom-coms are not the genre you ever expect to be adaptations of comic books, but 2023's Shortcomings is just that. It's a movie that flew under the radar upon its release, but all you have to do is look at the reviews and see how that's too bad. It's a very well-made movie with enough "from" and "com," and ever drama, to make it worth a watch. It was adapted from a graphic novel of the same name, first published in 2007 by Optic Nerve Comics.
Robot Dreams
2023's Robot Dreams is a unique movie, based on a unique graphic novel. There is no dialog in either. Both, however, are a masterclass in wordless storytelling. The original book was published in 2007 to universal acclaim. It was even one of Oprah Winfrey's Book Club picks.
Extraction
Extraction is loosely based on Ciudad by graphic artist Ande Parks along with the Avengers: End Game directors the Russo Brothers, plus Fernando León González, and Eric Skillman. who also directed the film. The book was released in 2014 with the intention of turning into a movie, which happened in 2020 with Chris Hemsworth starring.
Wanted
It's a bit surprising that Wanted, released in 2008 and starring Angelina Jolie, hasn't had a sequel. It was a success at the box office and has a lot of fans. Some of those fans go back to the original comic book, which was published as a limited series by Top Cow Productions, part of Image.
From Hell
Alan Moore is one of the most revered comic book authors of all time. Many of his books have been adapted, including The Watchman, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and V is for Vendetta. All of those, however, were published by DC. A fourth adaption, actually the first, From Hell was based on a series published by Top Shelf Productions starting in 1989. It stars Johnny Depp Jack The Ripper investigator Frederick Abberline and tells the story of the investigation of those murders.
