As a child, comics played a major role in my life. They captivated, entertained, and opened my mind to new ideas and possibilities. Good guys taught me important universal morals and bad guys expanded my vocabulary with their long winded recitations of their evil plans. I had always looked forward to the day when I could see all my favorites on the big screen…but something happened on the way to Hollywood.
Movie writers and executives seem to think that the common movie goer is a stuttering simpleton.
There seems to be a notion, I have observed, that the movie makers do not believe the audience is capable of understanding the stories of the heroes as they were originally written. As such, they have been altering the origins, powers, races, and even names of well established characters. They may believe these alterations make the movie more accessible or understandable, or maybe just more current; but I believe they are harming works of art. It’s like someone doing some art “repair” on the Mona Lisa, and giving her a bigger rack because, you know, that sells. Let’s look at some examples. In the 90’s Spider-man movie, they decided the audience wouldn’t find a teenager, who could construct his own web shooters and artificial web compound, believable. Keep in mind: we are already going out on a limb and buying that a genetically enhanced (formerly radioactive) spider gives him spider powers; but wait, he can’t be smart too! Blasphemy! Now, let’s jump over to X-men. In that series, Jean Grey is a telepathic/telekinetic mutant (although extremely underpowered). When she “dies” in the second film, we see a glowing outline of the phoenix appear. In the comics, the phoenix force is a cosmic entity that chose Jean Grey as its host because she was special, and proceeded to be overwhelmed by her human emotions and go on a killing spree. But in the film adaptation, this dark super powered side of her is just the natural extent of her previous powers, kept in check by Professor Xavier’s mental blocks? Boring! Let’s be cosmic! It’s cool! And now on to the big block buster, and my most hated alteration yet: the desecration of the Scarlet Witches origin and powers in Avengers: Age of Ultron. I will tell you now the comic’s original plot for her, and you let me know if this too hard to understand, m’kay? Wanda Maximoff, and her brother Pietro, are twin siblings who happen to be the children of Magneto. He was a mutant, so it’s common for their progeny to also be mutant, hence the powers. They did not know their father until adulthood. They were raised by gypsies and adopted that culture. They both were criminals for a very short time before joining the Avengers. You keeping up? Pietro’s power was super speed and accelerated metabolism (big whoop), while Wanda’s powers were actually very unique. She could use her powers to subtly warp reality, by causing probability changes in a localized area. She could, for instance, increase the odds that an enemy’s gun would jam by 1,000%, effectively making it happen. She did this on an almost subconscious level, just directing her power towards enemies in battle, and usually getting a beneficial effect. She could focus specifically on a particular outcome if needed, and get exactly what she wanted (very useful in Vegas, I would imagine). Her power seemed mystical at first so they called her a witch (and she actually did take up the mystic arts later on to expand her talents). Are you lost, yet? This is a VERY interesting power! Lots of possibilities and places to go with it! What did the movies do? Gave her telekinesis and an ability to give people bad daydreams. What?! Not even close to the original! Would the original story of her have been so hard to swallow that they had to move that far into left field? Like all of these decisions, I don’t think this was necessary, or at all the best choice.
Now, in truth, as a big fat comic nerd myself, I could go on with many other movies. I have heard the phrase “artistic license” thrown around way too much. Have some respect for the creators! The greats! You guys in Hollywood are just the latests. Comic readers are smart people (we don’t get confused by the books we read), and we are not special. I believe any person can grasp these concepts as well as us. Leave the stories as true to form as possible. Your audience will get it, and your movie will be better for it, and you will maintain respect and artistic integrity. Keep it original. We like it, we want it, and it will work out fine.
Photography of artwork by Rob Liefeld from various publications.
This insightful assessment was brought to us by The Brain.
