/Response: Comics That You Think Should Be TV Shows

(Welcome to /Response, the companion piece to our /Answers series and a space where /Film readers can chime in and offer their two cents on a particular question.)

Earlier this week, the /Film team wrote about the comic books that we think should be made into TV shows. We then opened the floor to our readers: which comics do you want to see adapted? And you let us know!

We have collected our favorite answers (edited for length and clarity) below. Next week's question: who are your favorite movie parents? Send your (at least one paragraph, please) answer to slashfilmpitches@gmail.com!

Grant McKay has done the impossible. He's created a way to visit multiple universes and has decided to travel to them using the tech that made it all possible — "The Pillar". Traveling through multiple universes may seem pretty easy, but for Grant and team, things take a very bad turn. When the Pillar is sabotaged, Grant and his "Dimensionauts" are thrust deeper and deeper into "The Eververse" — the name given to the multiple Earths they visit, and the deeper they go, the more erratic and unstable the Pillar becomes.

No longer is this about a historic walk onto the other side. It becomes a race against time to get back home — with death, diseases, mysterious creatures, magical beings and sometimes themselves standing in the way

Black Science has been able to give a pinpoint focus to an otherwise very broad story, but writer Rick Remender and artist Matteo Scalera have found a focus that makes everything come together so well: family. The lengths Grant and his alternative selves will go to to save his children, and by extension his team, is nothing short of breathtaking. This is a protagonist who is constantly being beaten down and, in some cases, killed, only for him to come back and continue where his past self left off.

This show would be mind-bending  and edge-of-your-seat thrilling. While getting home would be the end goal, the sheer difficulty these characters must go through to get there is what makes this series so mesmerizing and gripping to watch. It's science-fiction and fantasy run amok, but it's science-fiction and fantasy done in such a way that it feels fresh. (Ellis Ripley)

Since Locke & Key is already in the works, I think we are begging for an Ex Machina series. For those unfamiliar, Ex Machina is basically a twist on the Nathan Petrelli storyline from Heroes, with a superhero being elected mayor of New York City. The story balances superhero action, political jockeying, and personal intrigue.

The main character, Mitchell Hundred (superhero name: The Great Machine), is portrayed as an unlikely, overwhelmed hero. He's someone who slowly recognizes the weight and affect of his powers on himself and many others. The story tackles interesting questions like what comes after a superhero comes to light? How do superheroes deal with the limits of their powers? And is the government a superhero? Short answer: No.

Beyond having interesting drama and conflict, when you read Ex Machina, it feels like a TV show. Every issue features some sort of hammer dropping with the omen of building something larger and it compels you to keep reading. Ex Machina has the right tone, interesting story lines, and powerful characters to make it on the Great Machine in our living rooms. (Seth Finck)

Comparing Dark Horse Comics' The Mask to the Jim Carrey movie is like comparing night to day. The comics are like if Tex Avery met the Terminator: the cartoonish violence of a Bugs Bunny cartoon, but the real-life consequences of a Scorcese gangster drama.

Was The Mask the hero Edge City deserved? It depends on who was wearing it. Sometimes The Mask could be like a crazed private detective, keeping the streets safe, and sometimes he could be a corrupt force of nature that even his fellow criminals feared and had no idea how to stop. Regardless of who wore it, the character was always the same but his intentions could suddenly turn on a dime. The Mask's silent arch enemy Walter is a character audiences need to experience. You won't hear him laughing at any wisecracks. (Robert Fitl)

Marvel hasn't had a lot of female-led projects – Agent Carter and Jessica Jones are the only two in television, and there is nothing in the movies until Captain Marvel comes out. But there is another marvel that Marvel should have us marvel at: Ms. Marvel.

This is my favorite comic series and it's the only one I still currently read. In fact, it brought me back to reading comics after a long absence. Kamala Khan is a Pakistani-American Muslim Teenager who lives in New Jersey and gains powers (she can shapeshift) and names herself after her idol, Captain Marvel.

In the comics, she's a huge fangirl of other superheroes, so cameos from various people in the MCU would be very entertaining. At the same time, her "domestic" story is just as compelling. Her strict traditional parents are trying to get Kamala to live like them, and she is more modern, and worries about things like crushes and homework. That creates tension that you'd see in any prime time drama which could draw the "regular" viewers in as well. It's a crime that this hasn't been adapted yet. (Matt Vernier)

Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassidy would make a fantastic television show. It's about a secret organization trying to protect the world from and preserve weird phenomenon and happenings – like an island full of kaiju, ghosts cops, aliens, ancient monsters, and more. They keep the world strange while an evil pastiche of the Fantastic Four try to use these phenomena for their own means.

It has elements of The X-Files, Lost and Indiana Jones, with all kinds of pop culture ideas remixed into new ideas. We see other superheroes, a city in a jungle very much like Black Panther's Wakanda, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, and a group very similar to the Justice League. For people really familiar with comic sources, it's a feast to see how Ellis remixes things and how his main characters interact with them. (Jacob Harrington)

Artist Fiona Staples and writer Brian K. Vaughan's science fiction epic is nearing its 50th issue, which gives any network ample material to build plenty of seasons. The Image comic book series revolves around a husband and wife, Marko and Alana, who come from two warring species and, after birthing a hybrid baby, go on the run. Think Romeo and Juliet, except this story spans dozens of colorful (and strange) characters and intriguing (and dangerous) science fiction settings.

The comic is mature enough for a premium cable service (plenty of sex and violence), such as HBO, but this isn't just Game of Thrones in space. It's a beautiful story of love, loss and redemption, and would service HBO's 10-episode-a-season formula quite well. From The Will, a bounty hunter with a soft spot for a murderous spider-lady (fans would either hate to love him or love to hate him), to Izabel, a teenage ghost "babysitter" for the child at the heart of the series, this show would entice even non-comic book readers to its cast of diverse characters, and its story would keep them coming back for more. (Travis Clark)

Think of the three most popular genre television series currently en vogue: Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, and Westworld. Now imagine a curious amalgam of all their fantastical elements (i.e., dark magic, zombies, epic Western vistas, weird mythology, etc.), and you get Brian Hurtt and Cullen Bunn's best-selling The Sixth Gun, a supernatural horror-fantasy comic situated in the Old American West. The comic follows the journey of roguish gunslinger/bounty hunter Drake Sinclair, and farm girl Becky Montcrief and the mystery and bloodshed surrounding "The Six Guns," cursed weapons imbued with otherworldly powers that grant their users abilities unique to each gun until they day they die. Throughout the series, Drake and Becky must contend with dark forces hellbent on taking down the world with these guns as the stakes continue to escalate with each passing book. Originally set to be adapted as a NBC television series by Lost producer Carlton Cuse (Michiel Huisman and Laura Ramsey were cast in the lead roles) the initial pilot was unfortunately passed over back in 2013.

But as we've seen in feature films recently, genre storytelling has entered a new Golden Age. The Sixth Gun is more than distinctive enough to stand on its own among popular cable fare. The storytelling is dramatic, kinetic, and incredibly well-paced, from each individual issue, to each collected volume, and while functioning as a cohesive narrative. The worldbuilding in this comic is masterful; it boasts an incredibly tangible feel while teeming with zombie Confederate armies, ghost wolves, mummies, and occult curiosities. The writing, characterizations, and tone of the book really fuel the dialogue and the narration, and the comic's art boasts splendid character designs, backgrounds, and environmental scenery that could easily prove indelible among genre television. The Sixth Gun is a unique, entertaining, and visually arresting comic ripe with mystery, horror, and bloodshed and a successful television adaption would give genre audiences what they crave: pure, unadulterated fun. (Mike Silangil)

The mind of Brian K. Vaughan has brought multiple fresh and creative offerings to the comics world, like Ex Machina, Saga, or Runaways (which is already on its way to Hulu), that are all ripe for the TV adaptation picking. But for my money, none of them are riper than the immersively imagined Y: The Last Man, from DC's Vertigo imprint. Of course, the post-apocalyptic epic is nothing new to comics or TV, but in Y, Vaughan puts a clever twist on the phrase "last man on earth" by taking it a little more literally than previous iterations of the theme. After a sudden and mysterious plague hits, our hero Yorick is the last living human on earth with a Y chromosome. The women are fine.

Now, this may sound like the set-up for some grindhouse sexploitation, and occasionally there's a tongue-in-cheek reference to this idea, but the comic is kept on a level well above absurd male fantasy by its remarkable realism. Vaughan is dealing with a farfetched concept, but he takes a practical approach, exploring in-depth the questions that would arise if this situation were to happen in the real world. What about transgender people? What about unborn males? How many airline pilots or truck drivers are left? Will Israel become a major world power thanks to their mandatory military service requirement for women? Who's next in the line of succession to the U.S. presidency?

It's cerebral, makes-you-think kind of writing at times, but it's never lacking a sense of adventure and genuine fun. There's plenty of humor, too, mostly from Yorick, the lovable loser who's full of quick wit and pop culture references, and whose most productive skill set is escape magic. He's exactly the kind of persona that can anchor a 60-issue comic book epic with a global set of storylines and characters, and if cast well, he'd be exactly the kind of leading man to carry several seasons on the small screen.

There's word that this is a project already in development, with Vaughan himself (no stranger to screenwriting himself) attached. Here's hoping things speed up for this eagerly awaited adaptation. (Jordan Hart)