8 Movies That Deserve New Comic Book Spin-Offs

1. The Matrix

When The Matrix first hit cinemas in 1999, it was accompanied by a small run of comic spin-offs produced by industry-veterans (including Neil Gaiman). These gave a wider view of the grungy world established in the movie, exploring the real and digital settings from the perspective of new characters.

With so many fans of the original movie left bitterly disappointed by The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, the concept has been left unexplored since (outside of the The Matrix Online MMO), which is a shame. Some viewers felt the sequels failed to give us the kind of stories we imagined possible after the first movie, and there's still plenty of potential to tell incredible, deep, philosophically-rich tales within The Matrix's world.

A comic-book spin-off could go anywhere and do anything. To start with, writers could retcon the series and present an alternative continuation of Neo's story, avoiding the complex meandering of the sequels. This would be unlikely to happen, but that does nothing to limit the possibilities.

With millions of people still plugged into the matrix by Revolutions' close, there is no end of stories to be told as others discover the truth of the world around them. Other stories could take place in other times, building on the material used in the Animatrix series of shorts, such as the rise of the machines. Tales could even go into the far future, to explore a world in which machines no longer need humanity's organic-energy and hunt the last survivors down.

As amazing as the first Matrix movie remains, the entire idea itself was left tainted by the let-down of its sequels, so a solid comic book put together by today's leading names would give the franchise the redemption it needs in the eyes of some fans. Perhaps the Wachowskis could even be persuaded to pen some back-up tales, helping to raise the spin-off's profile at release.