5. Road To Perdition
You'll be hard pressed to find a comic adaptation with a more accomplished cast than this. Starring Tom Hanks, Paul Newman (in his last onscreen role), Daniel Craig and a chilling Jude Law, Road To Perdition made a huge impact on release in 2002, with huge praise for the atmosphere and visual direction of Sam Mendes and many critics stating it was one of the best gangster films in recent times. The film performed well at the box office, and stood on its own two feet with no real mention of the source material being made in any of the marketing and an emphasis being put on the stars to draw the audience in as opposed to a meagre fanbase of the comic. The comic of Road To Perdition was released under the short lived Paradox Press imprint of DC in 1998, by author Max Allan Collins and illustrator Richard Piers Rayner, and was well received in the market. It was kind of ahead of its time, as crime comics weren't as big as they are now (thanks in part to writers like Ed Brubaker and Brian Azzarello) and the cult following and small imprint it was released on wasn't enough to push the comic into the stratosphere - as such it has somewhat been forgotten about which is a shame as it is a solid and grim read. Well worth checking out, even if like me you didn't enjoy the film all that much.