7 Movies That Stole Their Plot From Comic Books

A good decade before the Spider-Man trilogy was even a twinkle in Sam Raimi’s eye, the Evil Dead director was chomping at the bit to make a superhero movie. He set his sights on The Shadow – a long-running vigilante character debuted in the 1930s who’s appeared in pulp novels, radio dramas, movie serials and comic books – but failed to secure the rights to direct a movie based around him.

Rather than let this put him off Raimi set about creating his very own comic book movie, Darkman. Released in 1990, it starred Liam Neeson as the titular hero – a former scientist turned tortured, facially disfigured vigilante after a run-in with a mobster and a vat of acid.

The similarities between the two characters are certainly clear. Both wear long coats and fedora hats and both cover their faces, although The Shadow goes old-school with a scarf whereas Darkman wears a mask of gauze bandages to disguise his scars. Their origins and adventures may differ but the gist is essentially the same: they’re both masters of disguise fighting the bad guys and grappling with their inner demons.

Hats off to Raimi though because at least he’s fully willing to admit to the influences that helped shape Darkman which, in his own words, was “just an obvious Shadow rip off”. And to be fair, Darkman was a better adaptation of The Shadow than that godawful 1994 film starring Alec Baldwin.