10 DC Graphic Novels That Should Be Animated Movies

The Dark Knight Returns is a prodigious book. Frank Miller takes everyone’s favorite Batman and places him right in the thick of a futuristic Gotham teetering on self-destruction. Miller’s vision has Bruce quitting the superhero gang after the death of Jason Todd and coming out of retirement to take on the street gang, The Mutants, that have gotten so crazed and out of control they have practically left no Gotham to protect. It comes to us in the form of a direct-to-video movie (DTV) that is still only half the story. It will also be the 16th DTV from WB/DC since 2007 when they release Superman: Doomsday retelling the Death of Superman arc, and they have been amazingly consistent as far as quality. Not perfect, but steady quality nonetheless. There seem to be no signs of slowing down either with The Dark Knight Returns getting a sequel, plus Flashpoint and Superman: Brainiac are already in the pipeline. Here are 10 more I think they should make, or maybe just hope they make.

10. Teen Titans: The Judas Contract

The Judas Contract was actually already planned to be a DTV back when they realized they could actually make a go of this thing. I mistakenly thought for a long time that it was going to be in the same continuity as the anime inspired Titans cartoon from a few years ago. Now I can’t seem to find anything proving that right. That said, it might be a good idea to use it to fill the 5 year gap between the 2 seasons of the awesome DC series Young Justice. At the start of Young Justice Season 2, Robin is now Nightwing and Kid Flash has retired from the cape biz, both of which happen during The Judas Contract arc. Plus Beast Boy is suddenly a regular cast member and he happens to play a big part in The Judas Contract, which focuses on his relationship with Terra and her relationship with Deathstroke. Aqualad can fill in for Cyborg and Miss Martian for Raven. Now that I think of it, if Young Justice doesn’t embrace The Judas Contract (DTV or none), that would be a big misstep on their part.

9. Green Lantern: Rebirth

For those who don’t know GL: Rebirth tells the story of Hal Jordan’s resurrection and return to the Green Lantern mantle and is essentially the beginning of Geoff Johns’ amazing run on Green Lantern franchise. It is here that he introduces the idea of the emotional avatars like Parallax who actually possessed Hal during his mentally unstable rampage that led to his death. I am not really sure how they would go about adapting this one. Hal has been the go to Lantern for the cartoons ever since his return. In both the GL and Young Justice series, as well as 4 DTVs (2 GL ones and 2 JLA ones). Either way, I really love Rebirth. I think it does a great job of characterizing each of the GL’s showing how they are all different but all perfect to bear the rings. It also puts all the best things about the GL franchise into a nice package. I would love to see Phil LaMarr return to John Stewart, and for that matter Nathan Fillion for the role of Hal Jordan. If he can’t be the live action version, at least he can be awesome as the voice. Plus Thomas F Wilson (Biff from Back to the Future) would make a great Guy.

8. Villains United

Part of the lead up to the Infinite Crisis, Lex Luthor brought together some of the most powerful villains of the DC Universe to make up the Secret Society of Super-Villains. The enigmatic Mockingbird brings together some of the supervillains left behind by that group to work as a black-ops wetwork team tasked with taking the group down. Mockingbird ended up being the real Lex Luthor while the other Lex was from an alternate reality. Confused yet? Anyway, the DC DTV’s haven’t been above making certain changes so that the stories are more stand alone than the DC comic universe that is constantly engulfed in some kind of crossover event (this will come up again with some of my suggestions). It would be pretty easy to substitute Amanda Waller for Mockingbird and the Suicide Squad for the Secret Six (especially considering there really isn’t a big difference between the two teams). It stars some really cool villains like Deadshot and Chesire as well as a renewed Catman, who in his previous appearance was a fat slob getting his butt whooped by Green Arrow. The group had a great dynamic not unlike The A-Team or The Expendables. When the going got tough, they gelled, otherwise, they had no issue busting each other’s balls.

7. Day of Vengeance

This is another lead up to Infinite Crisis event. It involved the incarcerated Jean Loring, ex-wife of Ray Palmer, becoming the new Eclipso and manipulating The Spectre, rendered host-less by the events of Green Lantern: Rebirth. She directed him towards every powerful magic-user in the DC Universe. We see him take on the likes of Dr. Fate and the Lords of Order and Chaos with ease. A ragtag group of magic users including the sometimes villainous, Enchantress, the street level hero, Ragman, and the butt of Aquaman-like jokes, Blue Devil. They have a similar camaraderie as the Secret Six from Villains United, but they have that heroic underdog spirit as well. All of them seem to have Indiana Jones’ sense of irony in the face of danger, that constant why-the-hell-am-I-here cynicism, yet an overwhelming sense to do good. The short lived series Shadowpact would emerge from it, which I liked very much, and helped make Blue Devil of all people seem like a heavy-hitter, even though he still hasn’t been able to take off.

6. Batman: Hush

This one might be tricky considering it probably should have taken place before Batman: Under the Red Hood. I think this was the first book to even think about bringing Jason Todd back from the dead. Of course, it ended up being Clayface trying to mess with Batman. The story itself is a who’s who of Batman’s rogues gallery as they all start acting mildly out of character attracting more attention than usual. Batman gets suspicious and believes there is a grand mastermind behind it all. It drives him a bit mad, and he obsessively investigates any of his rogues that haven’t gone a little nutty. The best part about this story might be the focus on the relationship between Batman and Catwoman. The story puts their sexual tension aside and takes a realistic look at what it could mean for them to be a couple. With such a big cast of characters, as much of the original Conroy-Hamil era cast that can be locked down should be. Not to mention, there is a pretty bad-ass scene where Bats gets the best of Superman, who just happens to be under Poison Ivy’s spell.

5. The Flash: Rogue War

This is another arc that is intrinsically connected to a major crossover event. After the events of the Identity Crisis arc (or at least the secret events revealed in that arc), the decision by some of the superheroes (including Barry Allen/Flash) to use methods other than your conventional reform to stop super-villains for good. This pits pretty much all of Flash’s rogues against each other with Flash/Wally West stuck in the middle. As a Wally-face who really misses his existence from the new 52, I would hope they would go forward with him, but who am I kidding, they’d definitely go with Barry. The real stars are the Rogues anyway. Flash’s Rogues are a weird bunch because even though their personalities got updated over the years, their appearance and codenames never did. They still seem like the group of villains th tatime forgot, but that old-fashioned-ness is part of their charm. Just because they are outdated that doesn’t mean they are to be underestimated.

4. Batman: Dark Victory

It is really hard not to put a bunch of Batman stories on this list because, as everyone I am sure will agree, Batman is fucking awesome. The creators always seem to know just what and how to update his classic pulp stories. This one is essentially a retelling of Dick Grayson’s origin as Robin. It is also a sequel to my favorite Batman story, Long Halloween. The aftermath of that story is played out here. With a turf war between Two-Face’s gang and what remains of the Falcone family, a new serial killer, The Hangman, starts taking out law enforcers. Not only does it continue the story set in Long Halloween, it also ties up some loose ends from Frank Miller’s Year One (which has already been a DTV).

3. Batman: The Long Halloween

The Long Halloween is one of my favorite Batman stories. It is certainly a landmark story being the perfect balance of dark tone and pulpy goodness that has characterized the franchise ever since. Yes, Frank Miller’s Year One and Dennis O’Neil’s influence on the ongoing series all played their part in introducing this tone and pace, but introductions only go so far. You still need someone to carry the torch when it is all said and done. The story revolves around the murders perpetrated by Holiday, a serial killer who was killing mobsters on each different holiday, leaving a gift associated with that holiday as a calling card. It is another guide to Batman’s rogues like Hush, but none of them come even close to being as interesting as Calender Man, who is reimagined as a poetic Hannibal Lecter-esque imprisoned helper to Batman. While all of these things moves the plot, it will always be remembered for being the modern retelling of Harvey Dent’s transformation into Two-Face.

2. Kingdom Come

Kingdom Come wants to be on the same level as Watchmen as a social commentary on superheroes as if they were real, but it fails to be anything more than something pulpy. For this, it would make an awesome DTV instead of that grand live-action movie so many message boards are clamoring for. The creative team of Alex Ross and Mark Waid seem to be traditionalist (I know Ross is for a fact, he refuses to even draw Kyle Rayner). The whole story seems like a condemnation for the “Xtreme 90s” of overly violent vigilantes. In this future world, they have gotten so violent they no longer care about collateral damage including the lives of innocents caught in the crossfire. As a result, Superman puts together a Justice League specifically to stand against these violent “heroes” in a stand-off that rivals Marvel’s Civil War. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor is pulling the strings to get the metahumans to wipe each other out using his own team, and Batman puts together a new line-up of Outsiders to try to stop the war. The awesome epic fight scenes alone would be worth animating.

1. The Killing Joke

The Killing Joke is quite possibly one of the best comics ever written. It comes from the endlessly imaginative mind of Alan Moore who sought to give The Joker an origin all the while using Joker’s unreliable narrator to still keep the mystery. This is one of the sickest displays the Joker ever perpetrates as he paralyzes Barbara Gordon and then tries to drive Commissioner Gordon crazy with the evidence. If the quality of the story is not good enough reason to make this then there is always the fact that Mark Hamil has said that Batman: Arkham City the video game will be his last role as the Joker UNLESS they ever decide to make The Killing Joke. At this point, if you don’t hear Hamil’s voice as you read the Joker, than you must have just picked up your first issue.