Hollywood loves adaptations – duh.  They use them to gain instant audience recognition and also avoid actually developing an original idea. But think about it…when a movie is based on a book (even a mediocre one), the trailers can’t shut up about it.  But when a movie comes out based on comics, it’s either just universally known or they don’t say a word about it -  as if they must trick America into liking a movie adapted from ‘lowbrow’ source material. Well, it seems to have worked. Here are five movies you saw without knowing where they came from…

The Mask (1994)

Not quite the wacky zany Jim Carrey comedy, “The Mask” comic series is much darker and edgier. When Stanley Ipkiss puts on the mask, he does not become silly and cartoonish while trying to win the girl. Instead he goes on a murdering spree, killing almost everyone who gets in his way. Following Ipkiss’s death, the story of the mask continues on for about 20 more issues, as it is worn by various other characters, which follow similar violent paths. That’s not all publisher Dark Horse had to offer in the 90s: they also had a number of comics that were suited towards certain “adult” aspects, from “Barb Wire,” which would feature more soft core shots of Pamela Anderson than you could shake a…uh…stick at, to “Virus,” “Mystery Men” and even “Timecop,” which would then get the TV treatment in 1997. So much random B-films from the 90s were the product of material owned by Dark Horse that we can even blame them for producing “Son of the Mask.”  Of course, they also gave us “Sin City,” the “Hellboy” sequels and “30 Days Of Night” (as producer only, the comic was published by IDW).

Men in Black (1997)

The movie is a bit lighter and more focused than the comics.  In the comics, the Men in Black investigate not only extraterrestrial occurrences, but paranormal as well. Will Smith gets in a few more laughs than his comic book counterpart, and other members of the agency that were featured in the original depiction get nudged to the side. The original stories published by Aircel and then Malibu Comics  weren’t so much whacky alien fun as Agent J’s continual blowing aliens away AND witnesses. While none of Malibu’s other titles got into the film world, they did receive the licensing rights for such cult titles as “Dollman,” “Demonic Toys,” “Plan 9″–yes, that Plan 9–and even an “Alien Nation” crossover with the “Planet of the Apes.” Something tells us that these sound better in hindsight since most of Malibu’s other titles are stuck in contractual hell after being acquired by Marvel Comics, so we’ll never really get to see such famous Malibu characters as…um…Prime…and The Nightman…

…uh…guess that’s why.

Ghost World (2001)

Scarlett Johansson and Thora Birch star in this cult classic. It’s a strange adaptation.  Most of the actual graphic novel gets changed on the screen and Steve Buscemi plays a third lead character that’s  not in the original source material–but traces of him can be found throughout Daniel Clowes’ Eightball. Yet the tone is so remarkably similar and the characters are so spot on, the movie actually feels like a faithful adaptation. It wouldn’t work nearly as well in another adaption for “Art School Confidential,” which teamed Terry Zwigoff with Clowes once again for the script while the former took the lens duty. It’s a bit less optimistic than “Ghost World,” but still brings home the dreary cynicism that Clowes made clear with his characters’ eternal sweat and glass-eyed stares.

Alien vs. Predator (2004)

While both franchises are individually original concepts in their film form, it was through comics that the two worlds first met in 1989–once again, due to Dark Horse.  We can only hope that this trend continues and in a couple of years we’ll see other comic crossovers turned into action-packed mindless films. The richness of their back-story inspired such a fan outcry that their histories were ret-conned (comic nerd for “…let’s just reboot it”) so the two have always been after each other.  Our personal vote goes to “Aliens vs. Predator vs. The Terminator”–which actually ties up their universe with Ellen Ripley and Newt!–or “Superman Vs. Aliens,” “Batman vs. Predator (volumes 1-3),” “Robocop vs. Terminator,” “Superman and Batman vs. Aliens and Predator.” And yes, they’re all real. So much, it helped inspire Sandy Collora’s Batman: Dead End short film:

Wanted (2008)

All the heroes are dead and super villains run the planet. They have wiped the world’s memories clear of the times before they ruled the world from the shadows. Sound familiar? Well, it probably won’t if you’ve only seen the movie, which is so radically different from the comic book, we wonder why they even bothered keeping the characters’ names the same. This came from Mark Millar, noted comics writer who couldn’t get his foot into Hollywood’s door even if he hacked it off and mailed it. So he turned to making comics–first through U.K. mag 2000 A.D., who are famously the home for “Judge Dredd,” and then through original properties he’d sell as creator owned content through Image/DC and Marvel Comics’ Icon. Those two works? Wanted and a little film called Kick-Ass.

Did you guys know these films had comic book roots?  Which do you think succeeded and which do you think failed?  Shout to us in the comments below!