2022 was a tumultuous year for the comic book film. In this four part series, William Gatevackes takes a look at the past, present and possible future of the genre. You can read Part One here, Part Two here and Part Three here.

The Rest

Marvel and DC aren’t the only game in town, and the success of films based on their properties compelled Hollywood to look towards the independent comic scene, both big and small, for properties to develop. These adaptations usually score bigger on TV and in Streaming (The Walking Dead, The Boys, Umbrella Academy), but there have been some forays into film that have been successful and there are a number of projects that are currently in the works.

Let’s take a look at five independent properties to see if they have a chance of keep the comic book film going for the foreseeable future.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

It’s probably not valid anymore to trumpet the fact that the Turtles were created by two men with their tax refunds, because one of the creators, Kevin Eastman, sold his share to his partner Peter Laird almost 25 years ago, and Laird sold all the rights to Viacom almost 15 years ago. But the origin story is a good one and shows the resilience and popularity of the concept.

Any film company in the comic book film market should look at the Turtles franchise for keys on how to stay in the public consciousness. The Turtles have been on TV or in movies consistently since 1987. When the concept gets a little stale, it takes 3 to 4 years off and comes back with a new incarnation.

We are currently coming out of one of those breaks. The Turtles last animated series ended in 2020, which means it’s time for a reboot. That reboot comes in August with a new computer animated film called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. And if that isn’t to your liking, Colin and Casey Jost have been working on a live-action reboot since 2021. Even if the comic book movie genre as a whole goes into the toilet, I get the feeling that the Turtles will still be around.

Valiant Universe

Pity the Valiant Comics Cinematic Universe.

The pandemic wreaked havoc with comic book film genre, but none quite felt the impact as much as the planned slate of Valiant films. It all started in 2012, when Bloodshot was optioned to film by Sony.  Three years later, the comic book company partnered with DMG Entertainment to produce their own films and TV shows. The plan was ambitious without being overreaching. There would be five films initially developed–the Bloodshot film, one based on Harbinger, sequels to both, then a crossover film, Harbinger Wars. 

Bloodshot was the first out of the gate. It centered on a mercenary who was brought back to life through an infusion of nanites. The nanites gave him superpowers, which he used to track down the people who killed his wife. In the lead, they cast Vin Diesel, an actor whose films have cumulatively earned well north of $10 billion at the global box office. The film had a modest budget of $45 million, a paltry sum for a comic book adaptation. It would take a disaster of biblical proportions for the film to not at least make its money back.

And that is just what we got. The film was released three weeks before the world started shutting down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film only made $37 million worldwide before things shut down and the film was released on Video On Demand not long after.

Diesel has stated in December of 2020 that the Bloodshot sequel was still in development. Harbinger was also still in development as of June of 2022. So, the pandemic might not have killed the franchise. Part of me wants the cinematic universe to continue, as Valiant has a lot of interesting characters and concepts that would work well on the big screen. But I also fear the next installment as well. I don’t know if the world could handle a war or pestilence at this time.

Hellboy

Back in December of 2019, I declared the Hellboy film franchise dead.  Apparently, no one told creator Mike Mignola this because he’s trying to resuscitate it.

That was the year of the ill-conceived Hellboy reboot. Mignola, tired of waiting for Guillermo del Toro to finally get around to making a Hellboy 3, decided to go on without him. He made the mistake of thinking an R rating would be an adequate replacement for del Toro’s artistry. It wasn’t. Even national treasure David Harbour couldn’t save the film from being a total bomb. It was savaged by the critics and made only $44 million worldwide against a $50 budget, without a pandemic to blame for its failure.

I seriously believe that would be the end of the Hellboy  franchise. Imagine my surprise to find out that Mignola was going back to the well once again. Hellboy and the Crooked Man is being planned with an April 2023 production start date. The script will be written by Mignola and Christopher Golden (who also wrote the script for the reboot, a script that reboot director Neil Marshall called “shit“).

Directing this time will be Brian Taylor, who with partner Mark Neveldine co-directed the Crank films and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Taking over for Harbour is an actor by the name of Jack Kesy (The Strain). The film will adapt a story from the comic of the same name. It promises to be a “folk horror” tale set in the Appalachian Mountains.

I expect similar results to the 2019 reboot. Hellboy seems to be a character nobody wants to see. The only thing we have to look forward to is who Mignola will pick for his next reboot from the downward spiral of creative talents he seems to be going down. Can I hope for a reboot by Uwe Boll and Pauly Shore?

Spawn

And then there’s Spawn

Spawn hit the big screen back in 1997 and was a not a resounding success. Ever since, creator Todd McFarlane has hinted at a new film to come at us. Every few years, he would make a comment about a new Spawn film would be coming, but it never did.

But that was before 2018, when it was announced that Jamie Foxx would be starring in the forthcoming Spawn reboot. McFarlane would be directing, and the film would be coming from Blumhouse Productions. the reboot was advertised as a hard R rated film, because why wouldn’t it be.

Since then, not much of anything. It seems a majority of the time was devoted to tweaking McFarlane’s script for the film. As of 2020, Jason Blum has said that the film is still in active development and in February, McFarlane was still crowing that the film was coming, although hedging his promise of an R rating as the film got bigger and bigger in scope. Hopefully it will arrive sometime before comic book films fall out of popularity.

Invincible

Robert Kirkman’s second most well-known property after The Walking Dead was announced for the big screen back in 2017. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were announced to write and direct the film for Universal. The pair, who at the time were adapting Preacher for AMC and would go on to produce The Boys for Amazon Prime, so there was cause for excitement.

Then 2021 hit. And an animated Invincible TV series debuted on Amazon Prime. Produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg . This meant the film was dead, right?

Not so fast, said Robert Kirkman in January. The feature film version was still in development, and the animated show will do nothing to effect that.

I consider that optimistic. You can get away with a lot more in animation and on streaming than you could do in a live action film. There’s a high likely hood that the film version will be a watered-down version of the comic. It would be interesting to see if Universal would still be interested in that.

Closing

Everything in entertainment is cyclical. Things that are popular one day might be passe a few years later. It happens. Comic book films have had over two decades of dominance at the box office. But cracks are starting to appear in its armor. For the first time in years, the comic book film seems to be teetering at the apex of its popularity. Will it only go down from here? Yes, if the quality continues to suffer and the other mistakes they are currently making go on. There is time and opportunity to right the ship, but we might be seeing the beginning of the end of comic book film’s mastery of the film world.