5. Watchmen
The Book: No doubt likely to be a controversial choice for literary types but if youre going to include a graphic novel on a list like this, it might as well be the best there is. Watchmen was a standalone run that told the story of an alternate 1985 on the brink of nuclear annihilation. Dealing with many typical tropes of the superhero genre, it opened up a mature world for comics to work with and is the only graphic novel to appear on Times 100 Greatest Novels Of All Time. Not bad, huh? Recently, an extra run dealing with the characters before the events has been released. Sadly, Before Watchmen just didn't match the brilliance of the original book and got mixed reviews from critics.
Why It Shouldn't Have Been Adapted: Unlike other comic books, where its easy to just take the essence of a character and place them in a new scenario, Watchmen is so ingrained with the Cold War the only way it can work is in directly adapting the source. To do that, however, requires more than the standard film run time; Zack Snyders 2009 attempt cut out vast swathes of the book (and not to mention changed the ending), making it feel like a poor, if pretty, imitation. To do Watchmen correct, something that affords more time, like TV, is required.