It’s amazing to see the transformation in just a decade when, back then, we’d be lucky to get one comic book game every few years, regardless of whether it was good or not. Now that we’ve taken a look at some of the best comic book video games ever released, we’re going to head on over to fantasy land, as we round up some comic book video games that we wish would happen.
Spawn
Todd McFarlane’s Spawn was one of the standout comic books back in the 90s. It rubbed shoulders with Marvel’s and DC’s comic books, even outselling them in some cases. As a result of its popularity, Spawn got a feature film, an animated series, as well as action figures. There were even video games released based on Spawn. However, for all the adaptations in multiple media platforms that Spawn received, none were remotely as good as the comic book series. With Spawn appearing in 2019’s Mortal Kombat 11 as a playable character and a Spawn feature film reboot reportedly in the works, it’s the perfect time to try and revive Spawn. We believe a Spawn game made from the same mold as 2018’s Darksiders 3 and God of War would work perfectly on next-gen consoles.
Blade
Whether you like it or not, the commercial success of the Blade trilogy of films that featured the eccentric Wesley Snipes is the reason why comic book movie adaptations are so popular today. So, it only stands to reason that a proper Blade video game be made. We already know that Mahershala Ali is set to take on the role of Blade in an upcoming cinematic reboot and with that on the horizon as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, who’s to say that a Blade by someone with the resources of Square Enix wouldn’t be met with both critical and commercial acclaim? While Marvel’s Avengers wasn’t as big of a hit as initially thought of, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is shaping up to be a much better game. If it succeeds, Square Enix should look into the possibility of an action RPG starring the half-human and half-vampire Daywalker, which should tie in nicely into MCU’s upcoming Blade film.
Astro City
Astro City is an underrated superhero comic that, at its very core, is all about the ordinary people that find themselves caught in a world with superpowered beings. The comic is set in an alternate reality where the general public has known about superheroes for at least a century and is set in a fictional city where everyone has a story to tell. It doesn’t matter if it’s the superheroes or the villains or the average joes. All of them are dealing with something at some point, making the comics relatable to everyone. Thus, it makes sense to make a point-and-click video game based on Astro City. Considering all the superpowered beings that we’ll all get to play later this year and in the years to come, a more narrative-focused story with relatable beings set in an interesting world would be a breath of fresh air. Should Telltale Games ever make The Wolf Among Us 2, Astro City would be a nice follow-up project that would feel both familiar and new to their fans.
Fear Agent
Many tend to get bored trying to make sense of Fear Agent’s story, especially as time travel gets involved in later issues. However, if you put all of that aside, Fear Agent tells a darkly humorous tale that involves a drunken space mercenary (of sorts) named Heathrow Huston as he completes one space job after another all the while bantering with Annie, the snarky AI of his spaceship. If you get Dead Space, which was also written by Rick Remender, the writer of Fear Agent, and mix it with Disco Elysium along with a few sprinkles of a renegade Shepard, you’ll get something that would closely resemble Fear Agent.
Monstress
There just isn’t enough steampunk games out there. Even cyberpunk is a highly underrated genre, regardless of how infamous it’s become because of Cyberpunk 2077. Having said that, a comic book series set in a steampunk world would help solve this problem. Enter, Monstress. A collaboration between Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda, the fantasy comic book series, Monstress, won a Hugo Award. It follows an enslaved girl named Maika Halfwolf, who, true to her namesake, is living with a wolf beast inside of her. But, she’s not alone. The entire world is filled with other sorceresses and animal shapeshifters, who have been at war against each other for a long time. Should video game developers be looking for inspiration for the next open-world title with worldbuilding potential and a protagonist that can carry an entire franchise, studios can do a lot worse than make a game out of Monstress.
30 Days of Night
Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith’s 30 Days of Night has the perfect premise for a survival horror video game. The title essentially sells itself and with a story that revolves around surviving for a month in a small Alaskan town that’s been taken over by vampires, you’d think that some studio would have picked up the game’s story by now. Whereas Arkane Studios’ Redfall is a more action-oriented take on a similar story, something more based on 30 Days of Night would be more stealth-oriented with survival mechanics. Just imagine if the upcoming PS5-exclusive, Abandoned, had vampires and you’ve got a hit.
Battle Angel Alita
Technically, Battle Angel Alita already has a video game. Unfortunately, Gunnm: Martian Memory was released only in Japan for the original PlayStation back in 1998. Casey Holtz, the designer of the upcoming PS5 exclusive, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, reportedly tried to pitch a game based on Yukito Kishiro’s cyberpunk manga back in 2005 but was ultimately denied. Considering that Ubisoft is already making video games based on James Cameron’s Avatar universe, they might as well take the chance and ask Cameron if they could also work together on a Battle Angel Alita video game.
John Constantine
Why oh why a John Constantine video game isn’t already in the works is something that’s beyond us. We might have gotten a video game adaptation years ago, but it was more in line with the Keanu Reeves film, which, although was criminally underrated, didn’t exactly make for good source material for a video game. Something more in line with the original Hellblazer series would do a lot better. With John Constantine, the potential is limitless. He’s not just a magician. He’s a charismatic anti-hero that’s made deals with multiple devils only to have them turn on each other. We saw this kind of scenario play out in the Injustice comics as Constantine pitted Trigon against Mister Mxyzptlk. John Constantine would definitely do well as a narrative-driven video game similar to Telltale’s adaptations. However, John’s got enough tricks up his proverbial sleeve to star in his own survival horror video game with a supernatural twist, sort of like the lovechild of Remedy Entertainment’s Control and Capcom’s Resident Evil games.
Dept. H
Dept. H is a series of undersea sci-fi mystery comics that follows a special investigator named Mia who is sent to a deep-sea research station where she uncovers a supernatural crime scene filled with an overarching sense of dread as an impending flood threatens to end the lives of everyone on board. Alien: Isolation provides a great template for Dept. H to follow, what with its tight and claustrophobic corridors and a setting that’s alien to most people.
Colder
It’s hard to feel genuinely scared and horrified when reading a comic book. The drawings are right there, so it leaves very little to your imagination. This is very much unlike in books and novels where a cleverly written story can make you conjure images in your head that will make you stay up at night for days if not weeks at a time. Then again, most comic books aren’t Colder, which is just pure nightmare fuel. We wouldn’t really want to spoil what Colder is all about, but let’s just as that Declan Thomas, the protagonist, has the ability to look at another person’s madness and even cure it, all the while he’s being chased by a demonic predator. With there being a severe lack of psychological horror games these days, Colder would fill in that niche quite nicely.
