Tell that to Alan Moore when he turned characters from classic works of literature into sexual and social deviants and had the audacity to try and pretend it was art.
You might have a case if Moore was adapting "Alice in Wonderland", "Peter Pan", or "Wizard of Oz". He wasn't. He came out with an entirely new story with an entirely different title that featured the characters.
Countless authors have done this. I mean, does every crazy book that features the character of Dracula somehow detract from the original Bram Stoker novel?