The Batman will hit theaters in just a few days, and, as such, we’re trying to capitalize on hype for the film by drawing connections between the movie and what we cover here — comics. We’ve previously done Batman, A Comics History Explained (Very Important) as well as our All-Time Best Batman Comics picks. This article was originally going to be a rundown of which Batman stories have been made into movies, including which stories we think contributed to The Batman.

But that would be a very short list of books, which are already on most other “Top Batman Comics” lists anyway. Classics you’ve no doubt heard of like Year One, The Long Halloween, The Killing Joke, etc. So, we’re doing things differently…without further ado, here’s our official, non-exhaustive list of Batman comics that haven’t been made into movies, but definitely should be.

What Should The Next Batman Movie Be?

Batman: The Cult
Writer: Jim Starlin
Artist: Berni Wrightson
Colorist: Bill Wray
Letterer: John Costanza
A mysterious religious cult enters Gotham City and begins to make moves against politicians and major players--even making an attempt on Commissioner Gordon's life. It's up to Batman to stop them, but they look to make the Dark Knight one of their own...and they just might succeed!
Why It Should be a Movie: Honestly, the fact that this one hasn’t been made into a movie is baffling. Is it the lack of recognizable Batman rogues? The odd art style? Because this one has everything. It’s a tight 4 issues, so no worries about how to make it all fit or where to cut it off. It’s got a brand new villain, so there’s no need to figure out how to introduce Joker or Catwoman to a new audience; it’s all right there. It’s got intimate and emotional character moments, and it’s got massive action scenes with huge fights. Frankly, it’s everything you could ask for in a blueprint for a Batman blockbuster. Given what we’ve seen from The Batman, I think this story is well within the wheelhouse of Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson, so if somebody could slip a copy in front of either of them, or DC’s very own Mattson Tomlin, that would be great. (Harry Kassen)

Batman: Dark Knight, Dark City
Writer: Peter Milligan
Penciller: Kieron Dwyer
Inker: Dennis Janke
Colorist: Adrienne Roy
Letterer: John Costanza
In this epic tale written by Peter Milligan (RED LANTERNS, JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK, SKREEMER), Batman is led through a labyrinthine urban maze by his old nemesis the Riddler, who seems to have changed into an abominable monster with one purpose: to drive Batman insane. In his quest, the Riddler is working with an occultist who has summoned a demon to stop Batman-but in the process, the Riddler himself is slowly changing into a nightmarish beast!
Why It Should be a Movie: The Riddler is getting a lot of love as the main villain in this year’s The Batman, but I think what we really need is an adaptation of this 1990 classic. Milligan and Dwyer’s foundational (in a couple ways) “series within a series” sees Batman facing a Riddler consumed and changed by a new purpose that Batman can’t exactly figure out. This story is a great showcase for why the Riddler is such a good Batman villain, and it showcases Batman’s investigative prowess, something that many people wish they saw more of on the big screen. This story also includes supernatural elements and a meditation on the history and soul of Gotham City, which I think would resonate with modern audiences. While I believe this story is one that the current film team could do well, I’d really like someone with horror and/or supernatural thriller chops to take this one on. I think that would make sure that all the best elements from the comics really translated to the screen. (Harry Kassen)

Batman: Ego
Writer/Illustrator: Darwyn Cooke
Letterer: Jonathan Babcock
After watching one of the Joker’s low-level conspirators kill himself, Bruce Wayne begins to question his role as Gotham’s caped crusader. Having lost hope, and a lot of blood, Wayne succumbs to a hallucination that his fear has materialized as a monster outside his body. The monster tries to persuade the man to set aside his principles and take The Joker’s life once and for all.
Why it should be a movie: Ego captures Bruce Wayne in a twisted and surreal dark night of the soul. The comic opens in midias res; the Batman is in pursuit of a loose end. The Joker has committed yet another atrocity - 27 charity ball attendees dead, $400,000 in the wind - and the get-away man, Buster Snibbs, is careening towards a bridge in a cherry red sports car. The World’s Greatest Detective presumes that he’s trying to get out of town, and in a way he’s not wrong.
The events of that evening send Bruce Wayne in a delusional spiral. That man is wound so tight, it’s no wonder that when you pull the right string, he spins like a top. When we are feeling generous, there are hooks in the Batman lore on which we are happy to suspend our disbelief. First, dressing up like a bat to fight crime is a little eccentric, but otherwise Bruce Wayne is fairly level headed; second, the Batman is content to focus most of his career capturing and recapturing the same half-dozen villains; and third, he will never give up on Gotham, ever. When we are tired, however, beaten down by Batman film after Batman film, sometimes we, too, have a crisis of faith. Batman just doesn’t make sense.
Matt Reeves has name checked Ego as one of the influences on The Batman, but this story deserves its own stage. Allow the cracked villains, career crimelords, and corrupt civil servants a night off. Let’s see Batman reckon with himself. In Ego, Bruce is racked with grief and guilt, and the sorrow rends him. His ego manifests itself as an enormous, dark monster and the man faces it down. Written and illustrated by Darwyn Cooke, Ego is earnest, melodramatic, and stylish as hell. No shade to Matt Reeves, but I would love to see Guillermo Del Toro faithfully adapt Ego as is. (Lisa Gullickson)
Read It Here: Batman - Ego Deluxe Edition

Batman: Court of Owls
Writer: Scott Snyder
Penciller: Greg Capullo
Inker: Jonathan Glapion
Colorist: FCO Plascensia
Letterers: Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt
After a series of brutal murders rocks Gotham City, Batman begins to realize that perhaps these crimes go far deeper than appearances suggest. As the Caped Crusader begins to unravel this deadly mystery, he discovers a conspiracy going back to his youth and beyond to the origins of the city he's sworn to protect.
Batman has heard tales of Gotham City’s Court of Owls: that the members of this powerful cabal are the true rulers of Gotham. The Dark Knight dismissed the stories as rumors and old wives’ tales. Gotham was his city. Until now.
Why it should be a movie: One of my favorite things about Batman comics is how they treat Gotham as its own character. In Court of Owls, everything Bruce knows about the city is questioned. And, with the number of Batman movies we’ve had, the audience would also be thrown for a loop. For so long, we have seen Gotham like we see any other iconic city: this is how it is and how it’s always been. The Court is a newer batch of villains, but they tie-in to age-old characters like Dick Grayson. The mystery of what’s really going on in Gotham makes for a good detective story. I think any Batman story can be done well in film, especially when the writers trust the audience. Stories like the Court of Owls who have a lot of familiar Gothamites should be told, because it’s those characters that make the city, and Batman, who they are. (Deidre Freitas)
Buy It Here: Batman - Court of Owls, Essential Edition

Robin: Year One
Writer: Chuck Dixon, Scott Beatty
Penciller: Javier Pulido, Marcos Martin
Inker: Robbery Campanella
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Sean Konot
Taking place after the events of BATMAN: DARK VICTORY, this epic tale recounts the beginning of Dick Grayson’s career as Robin, the Boy Wonder. The devious Two-Face is very interested in recent reports that Batman now has a teenage sidekick. Indeed, Bruce Wayne has taken young Dick Grayson under his tutelage as Robin the Boy Wonder! Alfred Pennyworth is unsure if the inclusion of Dick Grayson into Batman’s nightly adventures might not end up in a disaster, but the butler cannot deny the positive influence the lighthearted boy has on his master Bruce Wayne. Collects ROBIN: YEAR ONE #1-4.
Why It Should be a Movie: Robin, and specifically Dick Grayson, has been around longer than the DC universe as such. Batman’s partner appeared on the scene in 1940 and remained along his side for decades to come. However, for any number of reasons, we’ve seen very little of the classic Batman & Robin partnership on film. Sure, Batman Forever tried its hand at a Dick Grayson origin, but rather than delivering on the fun absurdity of a boy in a bright red costume, fathered by a man who wants to give direction and purpose to grief, it opted for an almost buddy cop take on the dynamic. If there is one major thing live action Batman is missing, it is without a doubt the paternal element found in the Bat Family. In order to correct that, adapting a story told from Dick Grayson’s perspective helps to illuminate how grief and adventure look different in the eyes of a boy raised by the Batman.
This particular 4-issue mini has a very loose narrative, weaving in a couple of different villain plots in the form of Mad Hatter and Two-Face, and even teases connections to the League of Assassins. It can easily form the baseline for a story about Dick’s growing angst, but also give an air of joy to our overly dark, grim, gritty and militarized Batman on film. The beauty of this story is how much weight is put on Bruce becoming a happier person because of Dick, and that’s something the general movie going audience, and even animated audience, has never seen.
Alfred ends the story by giving, I think, the definitive statement on what the bat family is: “I am in the service of lost boys struggling to be good men.” And that spirit of family, maturity, and pure fun is something I have always wanted to see on film. As Matt Reeves has shown us with The Batman, Bruce Wayne maintains this lost-boy-into-good-man persona, and while a weighty detective thriller is an easy way to adapt Batman, allowing that overly edgy, sad, weirdo Bruce Wayne to be given a hint of joy in the form of a son, someone to understand his pain, creates a powerful contrast to everything we’ve seen thus far. To me, Robin is the most important part of the Batman Mythology, and it's criminal that in the last several decades, we have yet to do him justice on film. (Steve Baxi)
Buy It Here: Robin - Year One, Deluxe Edition

What Should the Next Batman Animated Movie Be?

Night of the Monster Men
Writers: James Tynion IV, Tim Seeley, Tom King, Steve Orlando
Artists: Roge Antonia, Riley Rossmo, Andy MacDonald, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn
Colors: FCO Plascencia, Chris Sotomayor, John Rauch
Letters: Marilyn Patrizio, Carlos M Mangual, Deron Bennett
It’s the storm of the century, and it’s headed straight for Gotham City. The guardians of this sprawling urban center—Nightwing, Batwoman and the Batman himself—think they’ve prepared for the worst.
They have no idea.
Thanks to the machinations of the macabre scientist Dr. Hugo Strange, the storm has unleashed a rain of monsters upon the city. Colossal creatures are stomping through the streets, terrorizing the citizens and challenging the skills of even Gotham’s greatest heroes.
Can the Dark Knight and his allies stem the tide of destruction? Or will the Night of the Monster Men mark the fall of the Bat?
Why it should be a movie: Batman...fighting John Carpenter-esque kaiju…to be honest the preview sold me from day one. This story has a lot that Hollywood could truly gobble up. Love, death, struggle, heroics, and sexy supporting characters like Clayface.
On a serious note, Night of the Monster Men is a fantastic short Batman crossover from early in DC’s Rebirth Era. The stakes were high, but not planetary destruction level high. We also see a vulnerable Bruce Wayne here. In a rare occurrence for the character, Bruce has recently accepted that he requires the Batfamily and must begin to treat them with more respect. Letting them in on more of the secrets, sharing his thoughts on their weaknesses, and trusting them with his own. We can truly feel his own fear of loss as he races across all of Gotham trying to save everyone he can.
Personally with any adaptation for DC, I find their best work to be in the animation department and that’s where Night of the Monster Men would probably translate best. In the animation mold this story can truly flourish in its best form.
Again I will leave you with the idea of Batman vs kaijus. How could that not be cool? (Larry Jorash)
Buy It Here: Batman - Night of the Monster Men

What Should the Next Batman Adjacent Movie Be?

Dark Night: A True Batman Story
Writer: Paul Dini
Artist: Eduardo Risso
Letterer: Todd Klein
Publisher: DC Comics - Vertigo
This is a Batman story like no other-the harrowing and eloquent autobiographical tale of writer Paul Dini's courageous struggle to overcome a desperate situation.
The Caped Crusader has been the all-abiding icon of justice and authority for generations. But in this surprising original graphic novel, we see Batman in a new light-as the savior who helps a discouraged man recover from a brutal attack that left him unable to face the world.
In the 1990s, legendary writer Paul Dini had a flourishing career writing the hugely popular BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES and TINY TOON ADVENTURES. Walking home one evening, he was jumped and viciously beaten within an inch of his life. His recovery process was arduous, hampered by the imagined antics of the villains he was writing for television including the Joker, Harley Quinn and the Penguin. But despite how bleak his circumstances were, or perhaps because of it, Dini also always imagined the Batman at his side, chivvying him along during his darkest moments.
A gripping graphic memoir of one writer's traumatic experience and his deep connection with his creative material, DARK NIGHT: A TRUE BATMAN STORY is an original graphic novel that will resonate profoundly with fans. Art by the incredible and talented Eduardo Risso (100 BULLETS, TRANSMETROPOLITAN).
Why It Should Be A Movie: This graphic novel — which flew a bit under the radar when it was first released back in 2016 — tells a true story. In it, Paul Dini — who was one of the central architects of Batman: The Animated Series, arguably the best Batman adaptation of all time — is brutally beaten and robbed. He is, in fact, so severely assaulted that he needs surgery and a lengthy recovery. Through a graphic memoir centered around that incident, Dini explores his relationship with Batman…all at the time he is working th develop one of the most classic interpretations of the character.
To me, this has prestige film written all over it (maybe even Oscar bait, although I’m not willing even a little bit to participate in the superhero movie Oscar conversation). It’s a compelling story of a man overcoming great hardship, one that intersects with the history of a genuine pop culture phenomenon that also appeals to childhood nostalgia, for viewers of a certain age (hi, I am that age). There’s so much to work with here, and if done well, I think this story can be a very pure exploration of why Batman is so enduring as a character. (Zack Quaintance)
Buy It Here: Dark Night - A True Batman Story