While a few British comic strips have made their way to the big screen over the last twenty years or so, including the likes of Judge Dredd, Watchmen, Tank Girl, Kick Ass and The Kingsman, they haven’t been anywhere near as prolific as their US counterparts. With Marvel leading the way with Guardians Of The Galaxy 2, Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange all on the cards, the world of comic book heroes has never been so wide ranging and successful, but that silver screen age of comic books hasn’t translated to the wealth of UK publications.
DC Comics is forging ahead with its own large-scale movie schedule with the recent release of Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice preceding both Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman, so it would be good to see a few more British strips getting the attention that they deserve. In an attempt to redress the balance a little in terms of awareness, we’ve put together a list of great British comics that could stack up to the all-consuming might of the Marvel cinematic universe. While there are a couple of well known comics book heroes in there, the majority will not be household names, but we think they’ve got a lot of potential to be just that with the right big screen treatment.
1 – Harlem Heroes
This lesser known 2000 AD original line-up story is set in 2050 and features a Harlem-based aeroball team called the Heroes competing in the futuristic sport, which features jets packs and an amalgamation of basketball, football and mixed martial arts. If you throw in a diamond in the rough storyline, some epic special effects and sinister match-fixing plot twists, you’ve definitely got the makings of a box office hit on your hands.
2 – Dan Dare
The British space hero has definitely got the potential to transition over to the movie world if a decent script could be developed. We’d be inclined to update things a little from the late 1990s timeline that it was originally set in when it was first published in Eagle in 1950, putting it closer to the mid 21st century with the arrival of alien races to our solar system.
With Dan as our best pilot, he’d need to tackle both attacking and friendly races as they arrive in response to our development of light speed space travel. That’s the plot covered, now it just needs a friendly movie production company to connect the space dust.
3 – M.A.C.H. 1
The plot for M.A.C.H. 1, another 2000 AD gem, is genius, making it an easy entrant to our top ten. It predicted nano-technology (referring to it as compu-puncture) years before it would go on to be science fact, featuring an origin story for its hero, British Secret Service agent John Probe, who volunteers to a government programme to use tiny computerised implants to enhance his strength, speed and agility to keep the world safe.
4 – Bananaman
OK, so this would definitely be more of a action comedy than a serious superhero adventure, but who wouldn’t want to see Eric and his banana-fuelled heroics at the cinema? Casting would be key to this working as a film, but if Paddington can get a movie reboot then there’s no reason Bananaman can’t too.
5 – Space Captain Dave Garrett
Space Captain Dave Garrett may not be a name that the average ten year old is familiar with right now, but you could say the same for Guardians Of The Galaxy characters Peter Quill and a Rocket Racoon before the film was released. It’s a little known strip that featured in the Collins Boys’ Annual with only three stories in existence, but we think it’s got the making of an epic movie with Dave taking up the challenge of being Earth’s first intergalactic space explorer.
Heading out alone in the first ship designed for travel faster than the speed of light, he’d be flying out into the great unknown. It would be a bit like Star Trek meets Interstellar in a single person voyage of discovery, which is a lot more probable than the massive ships and crew from the U.S.S. Enterprise.
6 – Kelly’s Eye
This is another genius nugget of brilliance from the annals of British comic strips. It featured in Valiant and revolved around its hero Tim Kelly, who sported a very natty gem stone around his neck called the Eye of Zoltec, which carried with it ancient Mayan magic that made him invulnerable. Our update would be a bit like Indiana Jones meets Doctor Strange to deliver a sprawling adventure with a lot of magical CGI brilliance. Add in Doctor Diamond’s Time Clock and you’ve got a lot of possibilities.
7 – Robot Archie
Robot movies are always a winner and Archie is one of the earliest examples in comic book history having arrived bacck in 1952 originally in Lion #1. Controlled remotely by his inventor, Professor Ritchie, he used his mechanical strength and resilience to fight crime and devastating monster attacks from The Sludge.
8 – Jet-Ace Logan
Back to the wonders of outer space, Jet-Ace Logan transitioned from Jim Logan being a futuristic RAF space pilot to more of a law enforcement officer in the Solar Police, which sounds like the makings of a movie if ever we’ve heard one. It has some similarities to Dan Dare, but then we figured if we hedge our bets there’s more chance of one of them going on to be a reality.
9 – Strontium Dog
The name is a little on the unconventional side, but that aside Strontium Dog has got a lot of legs (bad joke, moving on). It’s another hard-hitting 2000 AD strip and with mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha marauding throughout the galaxy in a bid to get his targets and collect the bounty, it doesn’t pull any punches. He’s got X-Ray vision, mind reading skills, a little telekinesis, wicked tech and the kind of military tactics that The Punisher would be proud of.
10 – The Amazing Mr X
Britain’s first superhero, The Amazing Mr X, originally appeared in the Dandy back in 1944 when it was still part adventure comic as well as the fun side that it became famous for. It told the story of Les Manners, who used his superhuman strength to fight petty local crime, but for a film he’d probably need to be at least a little torn between the safety of his home town and the bigger issues in the wider world.
First of all, Prince Valiant is an American comic strip, and not an obscure one. The creator, Hal Foster, was born Canadian but spent his entire adult life in the U.S. and created Prince Valiant for an American newspaper after drawing Tarzan for a few years. It has been adapted into film (both theatrical and TV) and animation every few decades.
Dan Dare is overdue for a live action film, but it was turned into an animated feature and series. And M.A.C.H. 1 suspiciously resembles the clothing and hair Lee Majors wore on the “Six Million Dollar Man” TV show and before negotiating movie rights it would be best if a studio’s lawyers compare the old strips to the then-contemporary “Six Million Dollar Man” comics published by Charlton.
Flesh from 2000AD is perfect for a film, can never understand why it’s never been done.
I remember in Roy of the Rovers, there was a story I think was called The Team That Went To War.
It was about a football team whose players all joined the war effort. It followed each player, and their efforts. It wasn’t schmaltzy, and they didn’t all come back from the war.
I’d love to see it on the big screen.
Dan Dare was being prepared for a TV series back in the 80s (concept art by Brian Bolland, Brendan McCarthy). It never got off the ground but could have been something special… From an old interview with Brendan McCarthy: “Our idea was for Johnny Rotten to play the Mekon, but he wasn’t into it. They went to John Cleese who was into it, but because he was so tall we had to electronically matte him into all his shots and shrink him down. It became too expensive. Eventually they ended up with an Asian midget with a lisp.” (Fantasy Advertiser 99, 1986.)
Strontium Dogs. Always my contender for a film. Racial hatred, an angry and defient young hero, a bunch of grizzled old bounty hunters by his side (Mcnulty etc). Survival in the grimest of futures. Mix a typical foray into a strange land after a bounty with portrait of a mutant flash backs and you could have a great film
How about the WWII vampire strip ‘Fiends Of The Eastern Front’ ? Thinking of a much larger budget ‘The Keep’…
Pat Mills admitted MACH 1 was a blatant rip off of the Six Million Dollar Man in order to get the comic selling steadily from the off. Probe’s look was even modeled on Lee Majors. As for Nano technology, well they made a few re-union movies in the late 80’s & early 90’s one of which featured Sandra Bullock in her first acting job, playing someone given new bionics – which used nano technology. It’s been done. Then it was done again with the reimangined Bionic Woman series. That didn’t turn out well.
Flesh- gets my thumbs up dinosaurs vs Cowboys. What about ‘Janus Stark’ the escapologist from Hurricane comic? Or the Trigan Empire?
Rogue Trooper! It’s got everything: the lone wolf hero, sweet weapons, post-apocalyptic landscapes and an epic tale of betrayal and revenge. Definitely one of the best things ever to come out of British comics.
Revere Witch Boy of London Town – sort it! failing that (not sure of nationality) ABC WARRIORS – C’MON!
Cool list, but it would have been nice to see some entries from the Girls’ comics too. Valda and Supercats stand out as two brilliant stories, drawing on fantasy and science fiction respectively, and Sing A Song of Terror and Electra of the Evil Eye would both make excellent psychological horror films.
The Leopard of Lime Street was a favorite.
Maybe could be a film.
No Zenith? I know Morrisons little superheroes vs Cthulhu monsters jaunt is a legal minefield but surely should be in there.
I’d also have thought Bad company would make an interesting little movie or series for the right ensemble cast
With post apocalypse being a popular theme atm Disaster 1990 would have potential, though personally I’d rather see a Time quake TV series.
And in the stories for girls, ballad of Halo Jones any one,? Girls.sci fi, shopping, Alan Moore though he’ll disown it.
OMG I can’t believe I forgot Laser Eraser and Pressbutton
She’s a gorgeous mercenary, he’s an insane cyborg that hates plants and has a big button that stimulates him action comedy aimed at the Deadpool audience so there
And Luthor Arkright more baroque than even the most steamy steampunk multi dimesional massively british and smart as 2 whips
There’s a big stack of untapped source material out there – Sam Slade (comedy adventure, lots of goofy robots), Rogue Trooper (Rambo-esque action, set in space), Nemesis The Warlock (Gothic futuristic horror/fantasy) … even something like Ace Trucking Co. (Convoy/Smokey And The Bandit in space) would work.
I think you can guess what comic I read in my younger days …