10 Reasons B-List Comics Make Better Adaptations Than The A-List

"Jesus, Joey."

Based on a 1997 graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke, A History of Violence follows a meek and unassuming family man/small business owner, Tom Stall.

Killing two Robbers and murderers when they attempt to hold up his Diner, Stall struggles to maintain a grip on the life he has built when questions are asked about his aptitude for killing. Things change forever when a stranger with a mauled face claims to have history with him.

David Cronenberg reworked this bloody graphic novel quite a bit, making it sequential where the original was told largely in flashback. The best change from the source material is the reaction of Stall's family to these strange events, and the truth that is uncovered. Cronenberg manages to portray a strained relationship where trust has been broken and reparation may not be an option.

The film has some of the graphic novel's mayhem, but the most powerful scene in the film is the end where Stall comes home and sits at the dinner table, unknowing if he will be included in the meal, and thus accepted by his family. These themes would never make it into an A-list comic, let alone a blockbuster, but this entertains both viscerally and intellectually.