Batman: 10 Important Storylines That Have Never Been Adapted – CBR – Comic Book Resources

Batman's been around for over 80 years and starred in some iconic adaptations, but his most important storylines are still locked to the comics.

Batman is easily one of the most popular characters in all of fiction. Making a name for himself as the premiere vigilante of the DC Universe, Batman has pretty much done it all, saving the day on his own and with a variety of teams. He's been around for over eighty years and has starred in some classic stories, ones that have been transferred to other mediums.

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Because of Batman's popularity,his adaptation have been brought to nearly every entertainment medium known to man but there are plenty of amazing stories that haven't been touched by Hollywood, whether on TV or film.

Batman: Year Two, by writer Mike W. Barr and artists Alan Davis and Todd McFarlane, has gotten lost in the shuffle over the years. It's overshadowed by the classic Batman: Year One, with most fans knowing very little about it, but just because it doesn't get the press of the earlier story doesn't meant that is isn't great.

The story highlights Batman's second year of being a crimefighter and sees him clash with the Reaper, Gotham's first vigilante, while dating the Reaper's daughter as Bruce Wayne. There's way more going on than meets the eye, though. While aspects of the story have been used in other mediums (such as Mask of the Phantasm,) Year Twohas never been adapted on its own.

Batman: Red Rain, by writer Doug Moench and artist Kelley Jones, is one of the many Elseworlds stories starring the Caped Crusader and still one of the best. Pitting Batman against Dracula, it sees Batman bitten and becoming a vampire while trying to save Gotham from the ancient menace and his minions.

Batman is a character rife with potential for horror stories and Red Rain is one of the best. It spawned several sequels and is fondly remembered by fans of the time. It's actually quite weird that it hasn't been adapted yet Batman versus Dracula and vampires seems like a no brainer.

Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On Serious Earth, by writer Grant Morrison and artist Dave McKean, is a haunting story, one that doesn't fit the regular mold of a Batman tale. It starts out familiar enough the dangerous inmates of Arkham Asylum have broken free and took over the place. They have one demand for Batman to come inside. What follows is one of the most bizarre Batman stories of them all.

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It's actually kind of obvious why this one hasn't been adapted it's a very psychological Batman story and mostly focuses on the villains, the origins of the asylum, and the Arkham family. While these are things that make it great, they also make it a hard sell for casual audiences who just want to see Batman kick people in the face.

Batman: Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader?, by writer Neil Gaiman and artist Andy Kubert, is probably the most interesting death of Batman story ever. Batman has died many times in comics, but never like this. Created in the wake of Batman's "death" at the end of Final Crisis, this two issue served as a funeral for the Dark Knight, as all of the most important characters in his life met to eulogize the Caped Crusader.

The problem with adapting this story is that it's not really a story in a traditional sense. It's more about the concept of Batman than anything else, as his greatest enemies tell stories about how they killed him at what is basically a funeral for the idea of Batman. It's an amazing story but not one that most audiences would embrace.

Batman: The Return Of Bruce Wayne, by writer Grant Morrison and artists Chris Sprouse, Frazier Irving, Yanick Paquette, George Jeanty, Ryan Sook, and Lee Garbett, spins out of Morrison's meta narrative epic Final Crisis. Batman travels through the timestream, trying to get to his own time after Darkseid stranded him in the past, just as Darkseid wanted him to.

While the appeal of this story is seeing Bruce Wayne interact with the history of Gotham over the centuries and includes things like Puritan witch hunter Bruce Wayne, and pirate Bruce Wayne, without a Final Crisis movie to set it up which is never going to happen a lot of this story's narrative makes no sense.

Batman: Endgame, by writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo, is one of the best Batman versus Joker stories in a long time and possibly the best ever. Joker returns to Gotham City and begins to torment Batman, laying out new clues about a secret the Clown Prince of Crime has discovered, one that will change everything.

Not a lot of Snyder and Capullo's run on Batman has been adapted, which is a shame, and this is probably one of their best stories. It gets genuinely creepy in a few places and really does a great job of setting Joker up as a force of nature. It also would work great as a standalone story with just a few tweaks, making it perfect fodder for adaptation.

Batman: The Black Mirror, by writer Scott Snyder and artists Jock and Francesco Francavilla, takes place when Bruce Wayne was "dead" and stars Dick Grayson as Batman. There are a lot of great Dick Grayson Batman stories (Morrison's entire Batman And Robin could be a series of great animated movies) but this one is one of the best as Batman investigates murders by a surprising culprit.

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This is a great story that hasn't been adapted for two reasons because it stars Dick Grayson as Batman, something that would catch more casual audiences by surprise, and because it's just not as well known as it should be.

Batman: Cataclysm was a story that crossed over into every Batman book of the late '90s. A massive earthquake rocks Gotham City, starting a chain reaction of events that test Batman and his allies in ways they've never been tested before.

Batman is more of a street level hero in his own books, so seeing him try to deal with a massive natural disaster is a novel change. The real interesting part is what happens afterward, as the criminals of Gotham carve up the city into fiefdoms. It's actually kind of mystifying why this hasn't been adapted.

The Dark Knight Returns is one of the most important Batman and comic stories of all time. Written and drawn by Frank Miller, it sees an older Batman trying to stop crime in a very different Gotham City. While it has been adapted, its two sequels haven't and while that makes sense to an extent, it's still a bit odd.

The first sequel, The Dark Knight Strikes Again, has a very bad reputation among fans, one that is both earned and unfair at the same time. The next sequel, DK III, was better received but still not as well loved as the first. It would honestly be interesting to see if these two stories could gain a wider audience through adaptations.

Batman: RIP, by writer Grant Morrison and artist Tony Daniel, was the culmination of the first phase of Morrison's Batman epic. The Black Glove has been targeting Batman and his allies for a while but in this one their plan finally comes to fruition. Cutting Batman off from his fortune and support system, they declare victory. Batman, however, might have a few opinions on that.

While this is an amazing story, there'sseveral things going against it being adapted there would have to be a whole series of movies made to set up everything up and it's all very Grant Morrison-y (which is a good thing for his fans but not so much foraudiences unfamiliar with their work).

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David Harth has been reading comics for close to 30 years. He writes for several websites, makes killer pizza, goes to Disney World more than his budget allows, and has the cutest daughter in the world. He can prove it.

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Batman: 10 Important Storylines That Have Never Been Adapted - CBR - Comic Book Resources

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero