Franchises have begun to form the heart of pop culture, with sprawling continuities dominating not just the world of movies but also extending across many other forms of media. Many of the most popular movie franchises have proven themselves successful on both the big and small screens alike, and often branch out into video games, novels, toys, and comic books. When the world created alongside a movie’s story is compelling or interesting enough, fans clamor to see more of it, creating the desire for the franchise to expand into other media. Not only does this maximize its chances to achieve lasting popularity, but it helps the franchise reach as many people as possible.
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Not too long ago, we looked at some franchises whose comic book sequels were better than the actual movie follow-ups. However, it turns out that there are actually even more examples of this phenomenon than one might think, with many examples of great sequels coming in comic book form rather than any cinematic story. Each of the following movie franchises has at some point offered up a comic book sequel that by far outshone the movies that came after their successful film debuts.
5) Hellraiser
Though the Hellraiser continuity is pretty iconic in its own right, it’s rarely considered one of the best horror movie franchises. That reputational disappointment stems from the fact that, while the original movie was great, every one of its cinematic sequels to date has been generally pretty poor. The movie franchise has been struggling to recreate the original movie’s brilliance for decades, even though the comic book follow-up already outlined the formula for a great Hellraiser sequel story.
The movie sequels seemed to follow the idea that to become a successful horror franchise, there must be a single, easily identifiable villain for fans to latch onto. This saw the movies lean heavily on the Cenobite Pinhead, but this really missed the whole point of the original movie’s story. The comic book series, published primarily by Epic Comics and Marvel, better understood that the franchise wasn’t specifically about Pinhead, but rather about the horrifying implications of pursuing experiences beyond normal human limits. As a result, the Hellraisercomics proved to be a far better sequel to the original movie than any of its actual follow-ups.
4) Blade Runner
Even alongside the incredibly stiff competition of Alien, Blade Runner is often considered Ridley Scott’s best sci-fi movie. Based on Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the movie became a sci-fi classic, though no official movie sequel came to fruition until 2017’s Blade Runner 2049. While the sequel was itself an incredible movie, there are ways that the tie-in comics that followed up on the original movie were actually far better.
A key part of Blade Runner‘s appeal is the fascinatingly bleak cyberpunk future it imagines. While Blade Runner 2049 does a great job of making this future look even more interesting, the comics go a step further and actually fully expand upon the world, building a more complete picture of the franchise’s wider story in the process. By exploring the stories of other characters and fleshing out the world established by the original movie, the comics are, in a sense, a better continuation of its story than the official movie sequel.
3) Bill and Ted
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure brilliantly injected comedy into its science fiction idea, putting two lovable goof-offs at the center of the world’s utopian future. The movie was a huge success, spawning a 1991 sequel, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, and a third movie in 2020, Bill & Ted Face the Music. While the sequels were a lot of fun, they couldn’t quite match the original movie’s quality. However, the comic book series published by Marvel shortly after the release of the second movie actually served as a far better sequel.
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Comic Book didn’t outshine the movies in concept or narrative ideas, but simply on the merit of the format being better suited to the franchise’s characters. Bill and Ted’s time-travelling adventures were perfect comic book fodder, lending themselves perfectly to shorter stories in an episodic format. While most great time-travel movies need sequels, the consistently raised stakes in the Bill & Ted movie sequels ultimately undermined the fun of the original film. Thankfully, the comics perfectly captured that vibe, making them far better follow-ups than the actual films in the franchise.
2) The Dark Crystal
1982’s The Dark Crystal was a groundbreaking movie that was pretty undervalued in its time, but has since been more favorably reappraised and secured a cult following. While the great fantasy movie never should have flopped, it did mark the beginning of a franchise that has spanned multiple forms of media, with an official TV follow-up premiering in 2019 on Netflix. While the TV show’s prequel story fleshed out the world of The Dark Crystal, the franchise’s comic books are still the best addition since the original movie.
The planned movie sequel for the movie was ultimately adapted into a 12-issue comic book series, and other comics served as prequels to the movie, fully expanding The Dark Crystal‘s eye-catching fantasy world of Thra. The comics proved a far better format to continue the story, still allowing for a visual sense of wonder without the high production cost of a movie or TV show and without the verbose and expository nature of a prose story. The Dark Crystal franchise remains a beloved fantasy story, though it’s clear that the comic book sequels remain the strongest follow-up to the original movie.
1) Dragonslayer
Dragonslayer is a criminally forgotten fantasy gem that really deserved far better. The 1981 movie followed the quest of a young sorcerer in a fictional medieval kingdom as he sets out to hunt a dragon, and while it received some positive reviews, it was a box office bomb. The movie’s poor performance ruined any chance of a legitimate movie sequel, but its story was further explored and expanded upon in a novelization, a board game, and a comic book.
The comic book was by far the best addition to the franchise outside of the original movie. While fans have long abandoned hope for any sort of sequel, the comic book adaptation of the film’s story that was published by Marvel in 1981 remains an excellent companion to the movie. As it never received any actual sequel, the excellent comic book tie-in seems destined to always be the best addition to the short-lived fantasy franchise.
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