Top 5 Most Interesting Comics Turned Into Movies Turned Into Comics

2.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie

I think more people are aware of this now, but just in case you didn’t know; the franchise actually did start off in comics, then the classic cartoon we all know and love came out. Then with the help of that, the film was made sticking closer to the original Mirage Comics. This is one actually written and drawn by the original creators of Ninja Turtles and out of all of the entries here is the closest adaptation of the source material. The 1990 film was basically a mishmash of the first couple of the issues of the comics. It is said that the director even torn pages out of the comics and arrange together to help form the story of the film. So think of it this way, have you ever seen those draw it again memes (typically on deviantart) where an artist will take a drawing from the past and then redraw it to see how much their style has changed? That’s what this comic is like. You get to see Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird retell their original comics. It leads to some interesting changes, first getting to see the original Mirage turtles in their now iconic colored (in the originals they were all red) headbands. Also, we get to see some of the film original characters like Tatsu rendered in the classic style.

Like all of these entries, actor likeness is thrown out the window to make this version of the film story look like it could have come from the original series which fascinates me. Lastly, this also makes a minor change in the flashback to the origin. Ok so turtles fans what is the origin? Hamato Yoshi and Tang Shen are in love until she is killed by the rival of her affections, Oroku Saki. Leaving Yoshi’s pet rat Splinter to find his way to the sewer, the turtles and the ooze. This or a basic variation is the origin of most versions (it is for the 1990 film). However the first comic had one major difference. It wasn’t Oroku Saki who was also in love with Tang Shen and rival to Hamato Yoshi, it was his brother Oroku Nagi. After getting rejected by her he begins to beat her then Yoshi arrives and beats him to death and then they and Splinter leave for New York and it’s then Oroku Saki shows up looking for vengeance and kills them both. So you can see why most version simplify it slightly to make it all just Saki before he becomes the Shredder, fair enough. However, this comic actually deviates from the film version to restore to the comic version complete with the original Daredevil origin connection. It almost feels like the creators were like “NO! It HAS to be Nagi first THEN Saki, otherwise it makes no sense!!”

1.) Real Ghostbusters starring in Ghostbusters II

Hey I get to be somewhat topical with this one what with the new reboot out in theaters… and flopping… hard. With that comes a lot of think-pieces on the internet mostly about how much “Ghostbusters II” is such a betrayal to the franchise. It’s funny because this is a film I didn’t realize wasn’t liked until I got to college and really started using the internet. Growing up I loved it (thought it was AS good as the first film) and everyone I knew liked it, so the way time has treated the film since then has amazed me. I still like it, but now know it’s nowhere near as good as the first. Even as a little kid I recognized that it was basically a remake of the first, but overall I still think it’s a decent one. Now again some may consider this cheating, but there was a comic based on the cartoon made between the first movie and this and I know it’s a thin explanation but it’s my list and that’s what I’ll do. Speaking of which let’s talk about the most interesting thing right off the bat. This is an adaptation of the movie in comic form, now I don’t know if they didn’t have the actor’s rights or they just thought this was a cool idea but they decided to use the designs from “The Real Ghostbusters” cartoon series.

The cartoon always implied that most of what happened in the first movie happened in-universe just with any inconsistencies being chalked up to the live-action movie being itself a film based on their lives. And in later seasons the cartoon did make references to the second movie again implying it happened just maybe with some slight changes. Speaking of which we have Louis Tully (Rick Moranis) here, but you may notice he doesn’t look like how he did on the show when he eventually appeared that is because this came out before the show added him so the comic artist had to guess. We also get to see “The Real Ghostbusters” version of Dana Barrett who sadly never appeared on the cartoon, nifty. Also, unlike all of the others on this list this adaptation was spread out over 3 whole issues whereas the others where just one shots. So we get to see most of everything that was in the movie but also some deleted scenes added back into the narrative like Ray being slightly possessed while driving Ecto-1 which somewhat appears during the montage in the film. Louis’ chase of Slimer in the firehouse. We also get the demise of Jack Hardemeyer (this film’s Peck) which I’m told was recently released on the Blu-ray with some other deleted scenes. I love the cartoon so I get a real kick out of this and wish they had done this for the first film as well. Hey companies the kinds of fans for this franchise would eat something like that up, just saying.

 

 

What do you think? Which is the most interesting to you and do you have your own examples?