10 R-Rated Comic Book Movies We Want To See After Deadpool

Comic books are just for kids, right? They're just fun little adventures where the good guys always win, where no one is ever really hurt and the villains live on to fight another day. What adult in their right mind would read something aimed solely at children... right? Superhero movies have become steadily darker since the X-Men first donned those leather suits and the Joker performed his unique 'magic trick,' but many people still foolishly see comic books as a childish pastime. That looks set to change though with the upcoming release of Deadpool. If the red-band trailer is anything to go by, then Ryan Reynold's umpteenth stab at the superhero genre will be the filthiest, most foul-mouthed comic book movie we've seen in years. Darker doesn't necessarily mean better, just look at the Fantastic Four reboot, but even if Deadpool sucks as hard as Green Lantern did, the film's high profile should still pave the way for a number of R-rated comic book movies, ones that hopefully treat their adult subject matter with respect. Steven Spielberg recently predicted that superhero movies could soon suffer a similar fate to the Western genre, so if studios want to avoid audience fatigue, maybe they should take a gander at these 10 R-rated comic book movies that we want to see after Deadpool. Thank me later, Hollywood. 10) Y: The Last Man Y: The Last Man imagines a world without men (i.e. A perfect world for many). The only known male survivors are Yorick Brown, an amateur escape artist and his pet monkey Ampersand, because... well, monkeys are cool. No one knows exactly why all the living mammals with a Y chromosome died, but society inevitably collapses due to the number of deaths involved, forcing Yorick and the surviving women to try and prevent the extinction of mankind. New Line attempted to produce a Y: The Last Man movie for over a decade, potentially transforming the comic into an epic serial franchise a la Star Wars, but alas, some things are just not meant to be and so the rights recently reverted back to the series creators. The intricacy and depth that the series delved into during its sixty issue run would be impossible to adapt into just one two hour movie, so New Line certainly had the right idea planning their adaptation out to be a potential franchise. The issue here of course is that if the first film doesn't take off, then the studio have potentially wasted millions and are likely to cut their losses, canceling potential sequels. Still, if handled right, Y: The Last Man could become one of the defining post-apocalyptic movies of our generation and the R rating would allow the film to faithfully capture the source material without dumbing the content down to appeal to a teenage market. Also, monkeys are cool. 9) The Boys Imagine that the Avengers took recreational drugs, that the X-Men punched holes through peoples chests and that members of the Fantastic Four died on a regular basis (wishful thinking for some). If that's the kind of comic book team that rocks your boat, then look no further than The Boys, a super-powered CIA task force assembled to confront vigilante heroes when they step out of line. With names like Mother's Milk, Billy Butcher and The Female (of the Species), the Boys aren't your standard characters dreamt up by the likes of Stan Lee. In 90 issues, writer Garth Ennis devised a number of mature storylines that would push the boundaries of what's acceptable in cinemas if The Boys was ever adapted to the big screen. Rumours of such a movie came to prominence in 2008 when Anchorman director Adam McKay discussed his involvement on the project, but little has been heard since. If a studio ever did finally green light an adaptation of The Boys, it's likely that the screenwriters would consider using the team's very first storyline as the bare bones of the project. In this first arc, the team blackmail a young superhero group called Teenage Kix who have been caught using drugs that induce disfiguring mutations and enable them to have super-powered sex with prostitutes without accidentally killing them... so yeah. And you thought the Deadpool trailer was extreme! 8) Ghost Rider There are two types of people in this world. There are those who think Nicolas Cage is... how should we put this delicately... that Nicolas Cage is bat-shit crazy. Utterly insane. Beyond all help. Then there are those who know he's mental, but actually prefer crazy Cage to the award winning actor we grew to love back in the 90's. Choosing to star in the Wicker Man remake may have been the moment Cage should have been full on committed, but those who enjoy his bizarre screen persona must have also taken some delight in the scene where he urinated fire onscreen as Marvel's Ghost Rider. Supernatural characters can be tough to pull off at the best of times, and casting an actual mental patient in the role didn't do the first two Ghost Rider movies any favours, but that wasn't the only issue. If you're going to commit 100% to the idea of a skeleton biker dealing out justice, then a PG-13 rating is not the way to go. In an attempt to keep these movies within the age rating limit, potential scares were toned down, allowing the terrible dialogue and ridiculous acting to come straight to the fore. Some may think Ghost Rider has already blown his chance, but people doubted Guardians of the Galaxy would work and look what happened there. With an appropriate rating that exploits the horror behind his quest for vengeance, Marvel could have another surprise hit on their hands if they chose to put their own spin on a Ghost Rider movie. Audiences may eventually tire of generic superhero movies, so horror is certainly an avenue worth pursuing and now that Doctor Strange has been slated for release, the supernatural certainly has its place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 7) Doom Patrol If the X-Men are strange, then the Doom Patrol are just a f**king messed up, but that's what makes them so brilliant. Although they were created a few short months before Marvel's merry band of mutants, the Doom Patrol suffered in comparison to the X-Men over the years, despite sharing numerous similarities with one another. After fading into obscurity for a few decades, things changed when industry legend Grant Morrison jumped on board and injected new life into the team. Founding member Robotman fought alongside new characters such as Dorothy Spinner, an ape-faced girl whose imaginary friends aided her in battle and Danny the Street, a teleporting road that possessed the personality of a male transvestite... somehow. The surrealism and general messed-up nature of Morrison's take on the Doom Patrol makes a feature film adaptation extremely unlikely, but if handled right, this would be a fanboy's dream. Watching Crazy Jane take on the Beard Hunter with one of her 64 super-powered personalities would be insane in the best way possible. Just imagine Rebis the divine hermaphrodite fighting The Quiz, a villain who has every superpower that has never been thought of. For those who have never read this particular run of the Doom Patrol, these last few sentences probably sound like the ravings of Nicolas Cage on a good day, but it turns out that's just standard for Grant Morrison. Now do yourself a favour and purchase his first Doom Patrol graphic novel at once. I'll be waiting here patiently for your thanks and a petition to begin production on a Doom Patrol movie ASAP. 6) Animal Man Batman, Spider-Man, Ant-Man... It was only a matter of time before someone took the easy option and just threw them all together into one collective 'Animal Man,' combining the abilities of the entire animal kingdom. For his first twenty years, Buddy Baker was a second-tier hero that no one really cared about, but in the 1980's, Grant Morrison (busy man) revamped the character with a more mature outlook, exploring themes of environmentalism and animal rights. In 2011, Animal Man was relaunched once again and quickly became one of the most successful comics in DC's New 52 line, diving headfirst into the horror genre with undead creatures and images of disturbing body horror. Sound strange? Well, Marvel's recent successes have proven how effective it can be to combine super heroics with other genres. Ant-Man is essentially a heist movie and Captain America: Winter Soldier captures the spirit of 1970's conspiracy thrillers, so why not take a gamble on a super hero horror movie? Deadpool may hit cinema screens first, but the fact that Wade Wilson is aware of his own fictional existence isn't unique to his character. During Morrison's run on Animal Man, Baker also became self aware, pre-dating Deadpool's meta antics by a number of years. If this attribute becomes prominent in the Deadpool movie, an Animal Man movie could follow a similar path, as long as it doesn't detract from the horror element. 5) Wolverine: Old Man Logan Hugh Jackman literally is Wolverine, so the news that he plans to leave the franchise after Wolverine 3 hit fans hard. Little is known about the upcoming sequel yet, but rumours suggest that Jackman's final appearance as Ol' Canucklehead will be set in a era not yet seen in the movies, leading many to believe that we may finally be seeing an adaptation of the limited series Old Man Logan. Unsurprisingly, Old Man Logan features an older version of Wolverine, one who lives in a future where the United States has been conquered and divided up between the world's most prominent super villains. As the series progresses, we learn that on the night everything went to hell, Wolverine slaughtered his fellow teammates after being tricked into believing that they were villains attacking the X-Mansion. Scenes like this beg for a R rated adaptation, where Logan can finally lose control and eviscerate his enemies in one of the Canadian's signature berserker rages. Fox have done a great job with Wolverine so far - X-Men Origins: Wolverine didn't happen, just don't talk about it anymore and it'll go away - but Logan's always been constrained by the PG-13 rating of his movies. The man uses giant knives that spring out of his hands for christ's sake! We should be seeing blood and guts every time we hear his claws go 'snikt! Honestly though, it's hard to think of a more popular hero better suited to starring in a R-rated movie, aside from Deadpool of course. 4) Crossed Zombies are everywhere these days. Well, maybe not literally, because you'd probably have more important things to do than read this article if the apocalypse had hit, but the last decade has seen the undead become more entrenched in popular culture than ever before. This surge in popularity is due in large part to the phenomenal success of The Walking Dead, but if you think the show's grotesque deaths and zombie kills are too tame still, you may want to check out the comic book Crossed. Just brace yourself first... Crossed works on the premise that an infection has taken hold of the earths population, turnings its victims into crazed deviants who deliberately spread the disease through bodily fluids. Death by a horses penis, f**king a dolphin's blowhole, raping a married couple and shredding their child to pieces while their infected buddies watch on and masturbate... these aren't exactly your friendly neighbourhood zombies. Admittedly, a faithful adaptation of Crossed would be a publicist's nightmare. Equally, if a studio actually tried to make this film and inevitably downplayed the adult content, this would cause outrage among the fans, so the likelihood of Crossed being filmed is basically zero. Coincidentally, zero is also the number of f*ks that series creator Garth Ennis gives about people who are offended by his work. Let's make this happen somehow. 3) Moon Knight The name Moon Knight sounds more like a male escort service than the moniker of a masked vigilante, and for a while, he was just as tacky as one. Who cares about some Batman wannabe that uses his wealth to fight crime when you've already got the real deal? Aside from giving him the occasional stint as an Avenger, writers seemed unsure of how to approach Moon Knight until relatively recently, twisting his persona into something surprisingly unique within the Marvel Universe. Let's face it. Most superheroes are a little bit unbalanced, Batman has pointy ears for god's sake, but in recent years, Moon Knight has been transformed into the Nicolas Cage of the comic book world (there he is again!). Whether he really is an avatar for Khonsu, the Egyptian god of the moon, or just your bog standard nut job, Moon Knight is hardcore in his fight for justice, carving a crescent shape into the foreheads of his criminal victims. If Deadpool succeeds, it will prove that there is a market for unconventional anti-heroes, providing Marvel with the chance to create an R-rated Moon Knight feature that explores his fractured psyche in a way that remains faithful to his more mature adventures. Moon Knight has always struggled with his multiple personalities, but recent comics took this a step further, leading to a particularly severe psychotic break where he imagined Spider-Man, Wolverine and Captain America were fighting alongside him in every battle. Imagine that on the big screen. That's a Marvel fanboy's wet dream right there. 2) The Authority The Authority is one of those milestone comics that comes along every so often and changes the entire superhero genre. Warren Ellis may have created the series as a pastiche of DC's premier super team, the Justice League of America, but The Authority became incredibly successful in their own right with storylines that covered a huge range of metaphysical themes, ranging from the existence of God to humanity's place in the universe. Like the aforementioned Doom Patrol, the central members of the Authority aren't your everyday vigilantes. Jack Hawksmoor possesses a psychic bond with cityscapes, leader Jenny Sparks embodies the spirit of the 20th century and power couple Apollo and Midnighter are among the first openly gay heroes to marry in a comic book. Discussion of the superhero genre's lifespan is worrying for studios like Marvel and DC who are banking on the continued success of their comic book properties, so producers need to take a chance on a team like The Authority. Sure, the intellectually mature themes explored within the Authority won't be accessible to younger demographics and there will still be (unwarranted) reservations about depicting a homosexual relationship between heroes on screen, but there is a huge audience out there who craves movies of this ilk. 1) The Killing Joke Batman has an identity crisis. One minute, he's screaming at criminals like he's smoked a whole pack of Malboro's and the next, he's jogging around, throwing out puns left and right as he fends off sharks with his Bat-shark repellent. Despite this, one iconic Batman persona we are yet to see on screen is the R-rated version, one who will go to almost any length to protect Gotham City. Up until now, rating restrictions have prevented film makers from faithfully adapting some of Batman's most important stories, including A Death In The Family and The Long Halloween, but the potential success of Deadpool could open the doors for the Caped Crusader's darkest movie yet. Alan Moore (Watchmen, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), created the definitive origin story for the Joker in Batman: The Killing Joke. While the Clown Prince of Crime strived to break Jim Gordon's spirit in the present, readers delved into the Joker's past through a series of increasingly disturbing flashbacks. No other comic has captured the psychology of the Joker in such a chillingly accurate way, particularly in the book's most famous scene where he shoots Batgirl in the spine, permanently paralyzing Gordon's daughter. An animated adaptation of the story is slated for release in 2016, featuring Mark Hamill's return as the voice of the Joker, but it's unlikely that this will be rated R. To remain faithful to Moore's original comic, a live action version of The Killing Joke needs to be made, one that showcases the Joker's psychosis in the most disturbing way possible. The influence of The Killing Joke can be seen throughout a number of the Batman movies released so far, but DC now needs to fully commit. With future Batman sequels already lined up, perhaps Ben Affleck's Caped Crusader could one day take on the Joker in revenge for the paralysis of Barbara Gordon. Tell us, which one of these R rated comic books should be adapted first? Can you think of any more suggestions? And do you think the public will ever tire of comic book movies? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.