5 DC Comics That Need HBO Sequel Shows Like Watchmen

Watchmen is one of the most highly regarded stories in DC’s vast library, and even after the successful film adaptation by Zack Snyder, there was still some hesitation when it was revealed the story would be adapted into a live-action series. When the series finally arrived though, it was met with critical acclaim and proved you could successfully adapt a complex story while also bringing something new to the table. That’s why we are breaking down the 5 DC comics that need an HBO sequel, and we are starting with one of DC’s most unique detectives.

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5. The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage

The team of Jeff Lemire, Denys Cowan, Bill Sienkiewicz, Christopher Sotomoayor, and Willie Schubert crafted one of the most complex and compelling Question stories ever with The Question: The Many Deaths of Vic Sage, and not only is The Question a perfect character for the HBO treatment, but this story could be either continued or reworked in several ways to carry over into a live-action sequel.

As the name implies, the series explores the history of The Question and reveals that Vic Sage has died and experienced rebirth over and over again, and once he taps into that knowledge, his world turns upside down in the most wonderfully mysterious and chaotic way. Not only that, but there is an exploration of heavy societal themes throughout the series, and all of those elements would carry over perfectly to an in-depth exploration over the course of 6 to 8 episodes.

4. JLA: Act of God

In 2001, an Elseworlds story took a stab at a world-level event that placed DC’s heroes into very different circumstances, and that series was titled JLA: Act of God. After an event that is referred to as the black light, every superpowered person instantly loses their powers, and this causes a host of ripple effects across the DC Universe.

Some heroes find it incredibly difficult to move on from their times as superpowered heroes, including Superman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash, while other heroes who don’t have powers are now the most powerful heroes around. There are also others who look at this reversal as a positive, and yet others are conflicted about what this means and why it happened. All of those themes and ideas are compelling, and while some of the aspects of the original series don’t quite work or seem incredibly abrupt, an HBO sequel could take this premise and run with it while also adjusting and fixing what didn’t work the first time around.

3. Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity

The Joker and Harley relationship has been explored quite a bit over the years, but the team of Kami Garcia, Mico Suayan, and Mike Mayhew found a fresh angle with Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity. The series exists in an alternate world where Harley Quinn helps the GCPD as a forensic psychiatrist and profiler, but while she helps them with their continuing lot of cases, she’s never let go of a case that remains unsolved, and that case is linked to a serial killer known as The Joker.

Once a series of murders start up again 5 years later, her pursuit of answers leads her to the man she’s been hunting for years, but this isn’t exactly the Joker you think it is. The differences in the dynamic and the shift in Harley as a character would be a brilliant fit for an HBO-style series, and even for longtime fans of these characters, there is still something fresh to explore.

2. Catwoman: Lonely City

DC’s Black Label line is brilliantly suited for an HBO adaptation, and a series that is also perfectly set up for a sequel is Cliff Chiang’s Catwoman: Lonely City. Catwoman: Lonely City follows a Selina Kyle who is coming back to the city after serving 10 years in prison, but while the city may indeed be different, Selina still has one last score to make before she’s ready to retire from her thieving ways.

Cliff Chiang delivered one of the great modern Catwoman stories with Lonely City, exploring what it’s like for someone to return to a home they barely recognize as well as the internal conflicts between who you were, who you are now, and who you hope to be. The series also ends in a way that lends itself perfectly to a sequel series, though an adaptation on HBO could certainly bring scenes and moments from Lonely City to life as well to fill out the story. If I were pitching a dream HBO project, one would certainly be Catwoman: Lonely City.

1. Batman: Last Knight on Earth

The time has come for the number one dream DC Comics sequel for HBO, and if I had to pick just one to adapt, it would be Batman: Last Knight on Earth. Before Scott Snyder’s epic run on Absolute Batman, he was telling a wonderfully wild story with the Dark Knight in Last Knight on Earth, which follows Bruce Wayne 20 years in the future. While we’ve seen future stories with DC heroes before, we’ve never seen one quite like this, as Bruce steps out of an insane asylum to realize the world has been destroyed, and the only people he has to talk to is a Joker head in a jar.

That’s just the beginning of a rollercoaster story that plays with themes of history, sanity, and adventure, and it’s all wrapped in a story with an epic scope that still feels quintessentially Batman in nature. Plus, it ends in a way that could easily be picked up on in a sequel, which presents a new hook that is completely compelling in its own right, as Batman, Wonder Woman, and Joker in a mech all try to raise a baby Superman. It’s absolutely wild, but that’s part of why an HBO series would be a brilliant fit, and hopefully one day it actually happens.

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