What is Sacred for Comic Book Adaptations?

With the marked increase in movies and TV shows that are based off of comic books there is the equal increase of the outcry around how the comics are adapted for the screen. At the same time I feel like you will hear one person yelling about how an adaptation handled a certain character and then only a short while later someone will point out how this one comic run fits perfectly with this adaptation of the character. It’s just that there’s decades worth of comics to draw from.

Not the image I first saw like this on Facebook… the one I liked had different TV and movie jokers over time, and the comics that they looked like.

A prime example being the new Joker as portrayed by Jared Leto. When images were initially shown of the new Joker people got up in arms saying it was not really the Joker, but then others started showing that actually there are comics that fit with this new look for the Joker. Then the question is raised about what from comic books are sacred when considering an adaptation if there can be so many differences between the comics?

Now I have only been reading comics in the last few years really, but even so it is easy to find places where there are inconsistencies between stories. Now in comics this can be explained either through the use of alternate universes or from just continual reboots of the stories themselves. So what are the things that usually don’t change?

Advertisement

Arrow is Hamlet

Hear me out!

I’m not a huge DC fan, Marvel is much more my style. I’d never much wanted to check out Arrow, but when I saw it was on Netflix I figured it would be worth a shot. When I first started watching it, I thought it was basically Batman if his parents, or at least half of them, were alive. Further in (I’m about halfway through season 2) I realized it’s not Batman 2.0, it’s actually Hamlet. From what I can tell, that comes from the show’s deviations from the comic book plot, such as leaving his parents alive into his young adulthood, but I do feel it’s been done to great effect to draw in more viewers.

Image via

Power Dynamics in Jessica Jones

Okay, so lots of people have talked about how amazing Jessica Jones is, and I don’t want to rehash too much of what’s been said. Like about how the Bechdel test was flipped on its head, or how this is what a female driven show looks like, or how it is an amazingly realistic portrayal of abuse survival, and how its hero doesn’t act like a perfect survivor or hero, and how awesome that realism is.

I don’t want to sound like a broken record of how absolutely amazing this show was in regards to female characters and their portrayal. I’d like to talk instead about how Power Dynamics are handled, because they are one of the leading forces of the show (and not just because Kilgrave has the power of Mind Control).

Spoilers abound

Image found on http://www.screenrant.com

Oliver Queen, Arrow – A Character Study

While Oliver Queen is a character who has been around a while in the comics, along with Green Arrow (pretty obviously based on Robin Hood…), we only know him from Arrow. As such, I wanted to explore some of the things we noticed in rewatching the show recently. For more on the character in general, there’s always the recent Death Battle:

There are a few attributes that really define him, two of which are pretty obvious – but the third only really showed up through binge rewatching. So join me as we explore the character Oliver Queen, from Arrow!

Character Study: Scott Lang (Ant-Man)

Real Name: Scott Lang

Powers: Thanks to Pym Particles, Scott (Ant-Man) can shrink to the size of an ant. He can also communicate telepathically with insects. When he shrinks, he retains his human strength.

Abilities: Scott has expertise in electronics.

Background

Scott Lang is the current Ant-Man, though he achieved the title by unorthodox means. He stole the Ant-Man suit from Dr. Henry (Hank) Pym, in order to save his daughter’s life. Not the first time Scott stole in order to support his family. He turned to crime when he was no longer able to support his wife and daughter, and became a skilled thief as a way to make ends meet. Of course this path didn’t end well, and Scott spent a time in prison.

After his release, he worked in the design department at Stark International; trying to turn over a new leaf. When he discovered his daughter had a fatal heart condition, he decided to call on the help of Dr. Erica Sondheim. It turned out she had been kidnapped by Darren Cross of Cross Technological Enterprises, who had a heart condition of his own. Scott stole Hank’s suit to rescue Dr. Sondheim and save his little girl. The mission was a success, and Hank allowed him to keep the suit – as long as he continued to use it for good.