In the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker’s late parents play a substantial role in his life. Indeed, Peter’s father (played by Campbell Scott in flashbacks) may have even been responsible for the genetic research that led to the creation of the very spider that endowed him with his spidery powers. This is a huge narrative change from the original Spider-Man comic books, which tended to focus on Peter’s relationship with his adoptive parents, Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Some Spider-Man purists have been upset about this tweak in the traditional Spider-Man narrative, preferring a more straightforward and pure version of the story.
And it’s a difficult line to walk. When adapting a comic book into a feature film, how much of the original story do you keep intact, and how much do you update to make it original? Some alterations are ignored or even embraced by fans, because they prefer the novelty applied to their favorite characters; few people complain about the change to the X-Men’s costumes, for instance. Fewer still complain about the chronological updating of certain superhero’s origin stories (Spider-Man was a teenager in both the 1960s and the early 2000s) and no one seems to care about the constant slick-ifying of their costumes; could Peter Parker really build a costume like that in his bedroom? Of course not. But we don’t mind because we like the look.
But whether we mind the alterations or not, we should perhaps openly acknowledge that the movie versions of famous comic book characters – however strong their overall tonal fealty – are frequently and drastically changed from the source. These are movies being made in the present day, so it’s important that they reflect immediate aesthetic fanboy concerns, even if that means tweaking the stories, the characters, the costumes, and the overall thematic thrust of the characters to match a more up-to-date idiom.
Here, then, are the nine biggest alterations when porting over a comic book from the page to the big screen.
Witney Seibold is the head film critic for Nerdist, and a contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can read his weekly article Trolling here on Crave, follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
The 13 Biggest Changes from Comics to the Screen
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Spider-Man’s Web-Shooters
In the original comics – and in the new Spider-Man movie canon – Spider-Man’s web shooters were something Peter Parker invented himself. His webs are actually a liquid that is stored in small containers, and the web shooters are worn around his wrists under his costume. In Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, the webs became a mutant power that allowed him to produce his own biological web material from weird membranes in his wrists. It was an odd change, and many rejected it; how were we ever to get the dramatic moment of Spider-Man running out of webbing mid-battle (as was common in the comics)? And couldn’t someone check the web for DNA?
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Galactus
In the original Fantastic Four comics, the character of Galactus was a planet-eating, gargantuan white guy in a giant funny-looking helmet. He could stomp around through cities like Godzilla, and speak to people directly. In Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Galactus was indeed a planet-devouring monster, but he did not travel around the cosmos in a giant craft, and he was not humanoid. In this version of things, Galactus was essentially a sentient cloud of evil that could drift from planet to planet. Was this a good change? Although Galactus wasn’t all that scary in this version, I like the cloud better than having an actor play a giant alien. That would have been potentially way too goofy.
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Who Killed Batman's Parents?
In the comics, Bruce Wayne's parents were killed by a passing thug, a guy named Joe Chill. It was a random occurrence on the streets of Gotham City that just happened to lead to the creation of a Batman. In Tim Burton's 1989 film version of the Batman story, Bruce's parents were indeed killed by a passing thug, but that thug just happened to grow up to be The Joker. This leads to a nice catharsis for the film, but a fundamental part of Batman's current character is that he never got that catharsis, and is essentially haunted into being a superhero. Which version do you prefer?
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The Spirit Cannot Die
In Will Eisner's beloved old-timey comics, his character The Spirit was, more or less, a regular detective. He was a lot like Batman, in that he fought crime with no superpowers, but additionally had no official costume; The Spirit only ever wore suits and hats, accentuated by a slight face mask. In the movie version of The Spirit, which is wisely hated and derided by just about everyone, The Spirit is now an undying superbeing who can heal quickly and who cannot be killed. This is an interpretation of the character that no one had seen before. From the looks of the film's reputation, no one wanted it either.
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Deadpool
I have heard no complaints more vocal than the ones surrounding the character of Deadpool as he appeared in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Deadpool’s comic book persona is that of a talkative and wise-cracking soldier-for-hire who has to wear a mask to disguise his disfigured face. Deadpool has no superpowers other than an ability to heal extraordinarily quickly. In his film iteration, Deadpool was actually a quick-moving mutant who was transformed into a mute thug, injected with the superpowers of several other superbeings. He can teleport and shoot eye beams and has knives hidden in his forearms. It was perhaps too dramatic a change for most fans, and many rejected this version of Deadpool outright.
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Catwoman’s Superpowers
Many people loathe Catwoman for many reasons. They cite the dumb story, weird conceits, and total abandonment of all comic book source material as the primary sources of fault; although I think an overall sense of stupidity might be more to blame. The original Catwoman, in any iteration really, was a normal woman in a cat costume who would rob people and cause mayhem. In Catwoman, she was changed into a timid wallflower given mystical cat powers from an ancient cat deity. She becomes more agile and likes to sleep in high places. She becomes part cat. None of the Catwomen before or since had superpowers.
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Everything in Wanted
The comic book version of Wanted was about a regular guy who is enlisted to be a supervillain by a secret society of comic book bad guys who have already conquered the world. In the movie, he's inducted into a seemingly centuries-old, benevolent league of assassins who murder people before they can do terrible things. (How folks like Hitler slipped through their cracks is never explained.) Also, the assassins receive their instructions from a magical loom (!) that somehow informs them whom to kill. Um... 'kay. Not only are these new ideas for the movie, but, man, are they ever weird.
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The Mandarin
I found this change to be rather clever, and I think enough time has passed that we can talk about it. In the comics, The Mandarin is an evil mastermind who wears ten magical/alien rings. He's a proper supervillain with proper powers. In Shane Black's Iron Man Three, The Mandarin was transformed into an Osama bin Laden-like super-terrorist with no superpowers. Which would have been a big enough change in itself, but the film went one step further - SPOILERS - and eventually revealed that the super-terrorist was, additionally, merely an actor hired by the film's real villain. Some dislike this dismantling of the character. I thought it was clever.
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Bucky
In the original Captain America comics, Bucky was a kid. Like about 10 or so. A little kid. Not old enough to fight in a war. He was a proper boy wonder to Captain America’s, um, Batman. He wore a brightly colored outfit like Cap, and even wore a cute li’l superhero mask. Eventually, Bucky would be killed in battle, leaving all kinds of tragic guilt on our hero, aghast that he allowed a kid to die. In the new Captain America movies, Bucky was a peer of Captain America. He was an adult, a soldier. He also died, but since he was also a soldier, his death wasn’t as tragic. And, in true comic book fashion, his death was easily undone by an oblique plot conceit. Remember: no one ever dies in comics. This is proving true in the movies as well.
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The Squid is Gone in Watchmen
SPOILERS IN THIS ONE: In the classic comic version of The Watchmen, the character Ozymandias orchestrated an enormous disaster to prove how needed superheroes were in this universe. The disaster he orchestrated was, oddly, the attack of a giant squid monster who killed hundreds. In the film version, Ozymandias does indeed orchestrate a disaster, but it's less squid-centric. He, instead, frames another character – one of his old teammates – for destroying multiple cities. No only does he kill more people, but the culprit is entirely altered, adding a note of irony to the “world needs heroes” notion.
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Steel
In the comics, Steel was a Superman replacement. He even wore the Superman “S” on his chest (see below). He became a Superman replacement during that notorious time in the early 1990s when Superman was supposedly killed. But don't worry. He came back, complete with 1990s Grunge hair. In the movie version of Steel (which many are embarrassed to admit even exists), the central hero is essentially an entirely new character who has nothing to do with Superman at all. He's just a guy in a suit who fights a street gang.
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Superman’s S
In the early days of Superman, the iconic shield on his chest was a stylized “S” that stood for – what else? – “Superman.” However, when Richard Donner’s Superman was released in 1978, we were introduced to the notion that the “S” was actually something ported over from his home planet, used as the crest of his Kryptonian lineage. In the comics, they eventually adopted this notion, and by Man of Steel it was announced that the “S” was not only a family crest, but a symbol for hope. So in the early version of things, he’s Superman, but in the new version of things he’s actually Hopeman.
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Spider-Man Does Not Eat Fruit Pies
If there's anything I've learned from comics, it's that Spider-Man loves Hostess brand Fruit Pies. He will go to any and all lengths to gather them, salvage them, protect them. He loves those pies almost as much as he loves human life. There have been numerous film versions of Spider-Man to date, and IN NOT ONE OF THEM does he eat a single Hostess Fruit Pie. Someone at Sony needs to get on this immediately.
