I’ve seen every major Hollywood Superhero interpretation to date and while some of them are senseless, boring flops, there are others who rise to the occasion and even actually end up influencing their source material. For example, as a kid I didn’t think twice about The Mighty Thor wearing canary yellow knee boots however, the thought of Chris Hemsworth traipsing across the big screen wearing the same type of footwear is at the very least laughable. Granted, they changed the look in the comics before the film version was released, but what if they hadn’t? Just the thought of it makes me laugh inside as I’m writing this article. Even for the most ardent fanboys, we must come to realize that certain things (while a big part of history for the characters as they were depicted in the comics) don’t necessarily translate well to live action films.
Another example is Spidey’s organic web-shooters in the Sam Raimi films. Many fanboys—including myself—scoffed at the idea. Yet, as I thought more about it I realized that Spider-Man was screwed royally in that he could do everything else a spider could do, except spin a web (without the help of mechanical web-shooters).. Although the fact that the web glands just happen to develop in his wrists is a tad convenient—but hey, it’s a comic book movie!
Many iconic characters that have made big screen debuts have had their costumes and some aspects of their origins altered. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing in some cases. One costuming design which has always made me cringe was the dreaded, “Man Panties!” I mean seriously, Adam West, Burt Ward and George Reeves looked really funky in those outside under wear designs.
I think that the alterations to the superhero costume made in Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) did comic book movies a favor (at least some of them) in ignoring “Man Panties” altogether and putting the Dark Knight in a one piece, black Kevlar bodysuit. I mean, don’t Captain America, Thor, Batman, the X-Men and even the new Superman (Henry Cavill) look a lot cooler sans outside underwear?
After fighting it out with a group of gangbangers, one might expect a crimefighter to be a bit sore and have at least some scrapes and bruises. That’s why I think that one of the things that Hollywood got right with the Daredevil movie was in how they depicted him pulling out a loose tooth in the shower, sleeping in a sound deprivation tank and chewing vicodin tablets like tic-tacs. This was one idea that added to the depth of the character and his struggles with his life as a crimefighter however, putting him in a biker jacket and casting Ben Affleck as DD…not so good.
Okay, let’s talk about the X-Men films. I personally, was a fan of Hollywood’s idea to put the modern day interpretation of the X-Men in black leather as opposed to blue and yellow spandex. If they had put our favorite mutants in the same outfits (and colors) they wore in the comics, I’m sure that I, along with quite a few other people, (especially non-fanboys) would’ve found it hard to take the film seriously. I think it speaks volumes when both Stan Lee and Chris Claremont supported the decision and when producer/co-writer Tom DeSanto came onboard once he saw the tests for the blue and yellow costumes. Film director Bryan Singer even went so far as to include a line from Cyclops, "What would you prefer, yellow spandex?" when Wolverine voiced his complaints about the uniforms. They even changed the costumes in the comics to black leather (for a brief time) shortly afterwards.
I think that the only reason that Marvel was able to get away with blue and yellow costumes in X-Men: First Class was because the film was set in the 60’s, a lot of fanboys from that era were probably strung out on acid and bright psychedelic colors were the in thing at that time.
Some things I will admit shouldn’t be changed in the comics to fit the movie interpretation. Look at Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Jackman stands 6’3 while the character of Wolverine stands 5’3 yet, upon having seen him portray the character on screen I am now able to push the thoughts of that inconsistency to the back of my mind. Although, that doesn’t mean you should have Logan miraculously grow a foot in comics continuity to even things out. Though, there is something to be said that despite the obvious physical differences between the character as portrayed in the source material and the actor playing the role that Jackman has personified the role and made it somewhat his own.
I think as fans of the genre, we must allow for certain things to be altered for cinematic vision and making the films look more plausible (or at least as plausible as any comic book movie could) on screen. As long as the essence of the characters (we hold near and dear to our hearts), isn’t compromised so much as to allow for the end result to be a pale, lifeless and unrecognizable version of them, and the characterization is enhanced in at least some way, then I’m willing to give in to a certain extent, aren’t you?
Copyright 2012