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Kablam! 17 Movies and Shows Based on Comic Books
From speech bubbles to surround sound, these streams will really “draw” you in.
By Ananda Dillon
April 29, 2026
Kablam! 17 Movies and Shows Based on Comic Books - Netflix Tudum
From inked panels to glowing pixels, comic books have officially leaped off the page and into our binge queues. Whether it’s capes fluttering in slow motion or morally conflicted antiheroes delivering dramatic monologues in the rain, these stories prove that what happens in the panels definitely doesn’t stay in the panels.
Shows and movies based on comic books bring readers’ imaginations to life. Get ready for some colorful, chaotic, and occasionally campy renditions of beloved drawn heroes, villains, and fantastical characters. And show some love and support for the comic book community by hitting up your local stores for Free Comic Book Day, a day of celebration on the first Saturday of May each year. You might just pick up a book that’ll someday come to life on your screen — and it’s always nice to be able to say you read the book first.
Popular Now
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Don’t expect this Sabrina the Teenage Witch to reflect the Archie comics or the beloved ’90s sitcom we know her from. This series features a dark reimagining of Sabrina Spellman based on the 2014 comics by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (who also developed and executive produced the show). Set in the fictional town of Greendale (somewhere near Archie’s Riverdale), Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) is turning 16 and has a huge decision to make as a half-mortal, half-witch: Will she take the path of Light or the path of Night? Her aunts, Hilda (Lucy Davis) and Zelda (Miranda Otto), want her to become a full-fledged witch and declare fealty to the Dark Lord, but Sabrina is hesitant to give up life as a high schooler with her boyfriend, Harvey (Ross Lynch), and their friends.
Daybreak
The apocalypse was the best thing to happen to Josh Wheeler (Colin Ford), which is exactly what he tells the audience at the start of this teen zombie comedy series. Told in the same first-person, fourth-wall-breaking voice that Brian Ralph uses in his comic books on which the show is based, Josh explains how biological warfare has left his home of Glendale, California, in ruins. He has free rein to skateboard, collect weapons, and move into any building he likes. Picking up a few misfit friends, Wheeler is on a quest to locate his missing girlfriend, Sam (Sophie Simnett), while avoiding the zombie-like “ghoulies” and the depraved jocks and bullies who have it out for him.
DC's Legends of Tomorrow
Part of the Arrowverse, which includes the shows Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Black Lightning, and Batwoman, this series features a cast of characters from DC Comics. Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill), a time traveler, must assemble a team of heroes and villains to help him confront a tyrant who will conquer the world and murder his wife and child if he can’t stop it from happening in the past. Together, Rip and his crew strive to protect the timeline from anything that threatens to mess with history.
Dead Boy Detectives
This series holds the distinction of being based on a comic series that is itself a spin-off of another comic that was also turned into a series featured on this list. A spin-off of The Sandman (based on the comic book series by Neil Gaiman), the two dead boy detectives referenced in the title are Charles (Jayden Revri) and Edwin (George Rexstrew), who take advantage of a distracted Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) and return to the land of the living as ghosts. Knowing Death will one day find them and return them to the afterlife, the duo opens a supernatural detective agency, befriending and recruiting a medium, Crystal Palace (Kassius Nelson), to aid them in their often bizarre and hilarious cases.
Heartstopper
With a story that captured readers’ hearts long before it moved viewers, this teen rom-com series was created and written by the artist behind the original webtoon, Alice Oseman. With its coming-of-age depiction of young love and a sensitive approach to its many LGBTQ+ characters and storylines, the series quickly gained a following. Charlie (Joe Locke), a recently outed 10th-year student, struggles with bullies and self-worth. He makes friends with Nick (Kit Connor), an athletic and charismatic 11th-year student who is beginning to question his sexual identity. Together, they navigate school and sexuality as their friendship grows increasingly romantic.
Jupiter's Legacy
What happens when superheroes age and their offspring struggle to live up to their parents’ legacies and expectations? That question is at the heart of this show and its comic book inspiration, written by Mark Millar and drawn by Frank Quitely. Josh Duhamel is Sheldon Sampson, aka the Utopian, who gained superpowers in the late 1920s along with his brother and four others. Together, they formed the Union of Justice, a league of superheroes tasked with helping those in peril, but with the strict tenet of never killing anyone or interfering in politics. Almost a century later, Sheldon and his wife, Grace (Leslie Bibb), aka Lady Liberty, struggle to connect with their children, who find it hard to live up to their father’s ideals.
The King's Affection
Based on a Korean manhwa (the term for an animated book series) by Lee So-young, this romantic drama is a tale of mistaken identity set in the Joseon period. At a time when twins were considered a bad omen, the crown princess must send one of her twin children away from the palace to avoid execution. Years later, this daughter, Dam-yi, returns to work in the palace and is recognized by her identical brother, the crown prince Lee Hwi (both siblings played by Choi Myung-bin). The two start swapping places from time to time, but when tragedy strikes, Dam-yi is forced to assume her brother’s identity permanently. This gets trickier as she gets older (now played by Park Eun-bin) and starts to fall for her royal tutor.
Major Grom: Plague Doctor
When is a vigilante a hero and when are they a threat to society? In this Russian action film, based on the comic book series by Artyom Gabrelyanov, Major Igor Grom (Tikhon Zhiznevsky), a Russian detective in Saint Petersburg, is on the hunt for the Plague Doctor, a masked crusader killing the city’s corrupt elite. The detective and his new trainee, Dima Dubin (Aleksandr Seteykin), have their work cut out for them. They must find a killer who is increasingly gaining the public’s affection for taking down those who seemingly deserve it.
The Old Guard
Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernández created the comic books that inspired not one but two hit action films chronicling a group of immortal mercenaries. Andromache of Scythia (Charlize Theron) — or Andy, as her friends call her — is thousands of years old, taking on dangerous for-hire missions with her fellow immortals. When their secret is found out, they have to avoid those interested in studying their regenerative abilities, while also searching for a new immortal who has appeared in the world. They soon learn that there are far worse things that could happen to them than to simply die.
ONE PIECE
Debuting in 1997, Eiichiro Oda’s bestselling manga series ONE PIECE has gone on to win over readers — and eventually anime-lovers — everywhere. This live-action series is about young adventurer Monkey D. Luffy (Iñaki Godoy), who seeks the fabled treasure — called the ONE PIECE — in order to be named King of the Pirates. He assembles a ragtag crew of talented misfits, the Straw Hats, to set sail with him, taking on dangerous rivals and harrowing beasts along the way.
Raising Dion
Being a single mom in today’s world is hard enough, but it gets even more complicated with a child who displays signs of having superhero abilities. Based on the comic book by Dennis Liu, this series follows Nicole Warren (Alisha Wainwright), recently widowed, laid off, and struggling to care for her son, Dion (Ja’Siah Young). She’s even more stressed when Dion starts showing her how he can lift objects into the air, pull fish out of a lake, and move trees with his mind. As Dion remains unable to control his powers all that well, Nicole has to try to train her son in using abilities she doesn’t understand, all while keeping it a secret — and trying to solve the mystery of how her deceased husband is connected to what’s happening.
The Sandman
Originally a character from Germanic and Scandinavian folklore, the titular bearer of dreams is depicted as a terrifying yet compelling god-like entity in this adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s 1989–1996 comic book from Vertigo, an imprint of DC Comics. As one of seven siblings known as the Endless (Dream, Despair, Desire, Death, Destruction, Destiny, and Delirium), the Sandman (Tom Sturridge), aka Dream or Morpheus, rules over the Dreaming, the realm where he creates people’s dreams and nightmares. Dream has been held captive for 100 years by a man who steals his magical totems to use for his own gain. When he finally escapes, Dream has to repair the damage to his realm, retrieve his lost totems, and pull the world out of a “sleeping sickness” that has made people dreamless.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off
If you’ve seen the 2010 live-action film, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, or read the anime by Bryan Lee O'Malley, then you know the story of Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), who falls in love with Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), setting in motion a game-like battle between Scott and Ramona’s evil ex-lovers. In this animated series — voiced by the original movie cast — things go a little differently when Scott is seemingly killed when taking on Ramona’s first evil ex, Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha), seriously altering the story fans know from the film. However, Ramona dreams that Scott may be alive and dives into an investigation as Scott’s friends mourn his loss.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
There are plenty of versions of Spider-Man (Spider-Men?) to watch onscreen as the adventures of the friendly neighborhood hero have been adapted many times, but this might be the definitive introduction to Miles Morales, the first Black version of the superhero. Miles first appeared in 2011 in the comic Ultimate Fallout #4, written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Sara Pichelli. In this animated film — the first of three — we meet Afro Latino Miles (Shameik Moore), a student trying to live up to his police officer father’s standards. His father has a distaste for Spider-Man (who already exists in this universe), so when Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider, he knows he can’t tell his dad. Miles comes upon Spider-Man, aka Peter Parker, whose spidey senses detect Miles’ transformation, and offers to show him the ropes. But tragedy strikes before he can make good on that offer, and Miles will need to travel to another universe to find another Peter Parker to guide him.
Sweet Tooth
Among the more heartwarming comic-inspired shows on this list, Sweet Tooth takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where a virus has wiped out much of humanity — it also led to the mysterious emergence of human-animal hybrid children. Hunted by adults who fear they may have caused the virus, these children have to live in secret. Which is why Gus (Christian Convery), a part-deer hybrid, has been living in the woods with his father. When the virus takes his dad, leaving him alone, Gus decides to search for his mother in Colorado and asks a lone traveler, Tommy Jepperd (Nonso Anozie), to accompany him. Along the way, they meet all sorts of characters, good and evil. Award-winning cartoonist Jeff Lemire penned the original comic.
The Umbrella Academy
Take superheroes but give them complicated family dynamics and years of baggage and you’ll have this moody time-traveling series based on Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s inventive comic book. The show focuses on the Hargreeves, a family of adopted siblings born with superpowers, who have been estranged for years but are brought back together by their father’s death. They begin to look into the mysterious circumstances around his death and how it may tie back to their own uncommon origins.
Warrior Nun
Ava Silva (Alba Baptista) wakes up in a Spanish morgue to find that not only is she not dead, she’s also miraculously been healed of her quadriplegia. At 19, she’s spent most of her life in a Catholic orphanage, stuck in a wheelchair and under the care of an unkind nun, causing her to resent religion. Which makes it somewhat ironic when she learns that a holy relic has been embedded in her back, keeping her alive and giving her powers, as well as marking her part of the ancient Order of the Cruciform Sword — religious warriors tasked with fighting demons on Earth. The series is based on the comic book character from Warrior Nun Areala by Ben Dunn.
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