While DC Studios co CEO James Gunn has said the DCU will cross into animation, and it already has with Creature Commandos, DC's animated adaptations of comic book stories will likely continue as well. They may continue under the banner of Elseworlds stories, or they may just be disconnected from anything related to the DCU at all. We've had some excellent adaptations of comic book stories including Superman: Red Son, The Dark Knight Returns, and Under the Red Hood, but there's an almost infinite bank to pull from. Here's five DC stories I think would be great for animated adaptations:
#1 Dark Knights Metal
Dark Knights Metal introduced us to some terrifying version of Batman mixed with members of the Justice League. The Drowned, an evil and female version of Batman mixed with Aquaman, The Merciless, a version of Bruce mixed with Ares, The Devastator, Batman mixed with Doomsday, The Murder Machine, essentially an AI Alfred made evil and mixed with Cyborg and Batman, The Dawnbreaker, another female variant of Bats mixed with a Lantern, The Red Death, evil Batman with the Speed Force, and the fan favorite to come out of this story: The Batman Who Laughs, a version of Bruce infected with Joker toxin. That was a mouthful, so thanks for staying with me. These evil Dark Knights are from The Dark Multiverse and are led by an otherworldly entity against the Justice League. This could easily be made into several parts or even a series.
#2 Doomsday Clock
The idea around this comic was this: the Watchmen world and Earth-Prime come together. Batman and Rorschach. The Comedian and the Joker. The main event: a conflict between Doctor Manhattan and Superman. The series ran for twelve issues and, looking back on it, I remember very much enjoying it. It read like a modern interpretation of Watchmen in which the main DC characters frequently took a back seat. An animated Watchmen was released recently, and many people online have said Zack Snyder’s Watchmen was before its time, so maybe it’s time to give Doomsday Clock the animated treatment.
#3 The Absolute Universe
If you've been keeping up on these comics, you'll know the Absolute Universe is a brand new series that only has three issues for Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman each. They're all complete reimaginings of classic tales. Batman has no money. Superman has no family. Wonder Woman has no Amazons. These issues have certainly been jarring to a lot of DC Comics readers as they are very different from the usual comics, but many love the series. Flash, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter are set to get the Absolute treatment in the coming months and, when the Absolute Universe is more fleshed out, it could make for a great animated movie or, once again, a series of movies or shows.
#4 Batman: Three Jokers
Part of DC’S Black Label grouping of comics, a label that allows writers to tell more mature kinds of stories, Three Jokers excelled at intense storytelling and mysteries. In the New 52, Batman finds himself atop the Mobius chair, becomes the god of knowledge, and asks the chair who the Joker really is. It was left as a cliffhanger for a long time until Three Jokers came around. The story revolves around Batman trying to figure out who the Joker is after the chair tells him there are three different people who are the Joker. It's an excellent series that features some of the Batfamily including Batgirl and Red Hood, my personal favorite member of the Batfamily.
#5 Justice League: Forever Evil
The New 52 era of DC Comics wasn’t for everyone. When the New 52 began, I was just getting into comic books, so I look back on it with a positive feeling, even if some of the narrative choices made were odd. Forever Evil was a huge standout. The story revolves around an evil version of the Justice League from Earth-3 called the Crime Syndicate invading Earth-Prime and wreaking havoc. It’s a bleak, dark story that begs for an R rated animated adaptation.
#6 Green Lantern: Blackest Night
Out of all the stories on this list, I almost didn’t include this one because I assumed it had already been made and flew under my radar. To my surprise, Blackest Night has never been reformatted for animation. The story introduces us to Nekron, the holder of the Black Lantern ring that can summon the dead. The story takes place during a time in DC Comics in which characters like Bruce Wayne and Barry Alan are dead, making it even more personal when they are brought back to life as, more or less, zombies.
The last story I thought of including was Identity Crisis, my personal DC Comics story of all time, but that one may be too dark for a lot of viewers.
What do you think about these comics? Could they make for entertaining animated adaptations. Let me know in the comments!