It’s a well-known rule among comic fans that adaptations to other media rarely stand up to the original. But sometimes, on very rare occasions, a new medium brings life to a story that transcends paper and ink, or improves on rough concepts with an expert second draft. What are those occasions to you?
For me, a few immediately come to mind: the animated film Batman: Under the Red Hood cuts out much of the cruft from the original comic book story by Winick. The author himself has said he prefers the film version. The other is “Mogo Doesn’t Socialize,” a vignette featured about 49 minutes into the anthology film Green Lantern: Emerald Knights. It’s a nearly impossible task to live up to Alan Moore’s source material, but here, they succeeded with flying colors.
But maybe the best example is Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, loosely based on the often forgotten “Batman: Year Two” storyline, elevated to what may be the greatest Batman story ever told.
