Why Are We So More Lenient Towards Changes in Super Hero Adaptations Than Other Medias
Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2024 4:16 am
Now that Spider-Man 2 FINALLY has a New Game + I'm going to be focusing on it for a little while. But in doing so I was reminded of something back when I was a teenager. It was soon after me and my family had watched X-Men 2 and we were thinking of the whole Dark Phoenix Saga the end of the film had promised and how exited we were to see it when it would come out.
But the question was raised how would they adapt it as it involved aliens, galactic empires and a final battle on the Moon. They would need to change a LOT in the story in order to make this work as a standalone film.
Now replaying Spider-Man 2 which adapts the Venom Symbiote Arc which is the, what, 10th time this story has been adapted, and like pretty much every other adaptation of this story MASSIVE changes were made. Arguably this is the most altered version of the original from how Peter gets the Symbiote, to who is Venom's second host, to including Miles into the story when he was obviously not involved in the original to begin with, to Venom creating Scream who uses MJ as a host to tying the origin of Venom to Norman Osborn.
And yet, there isn't a whole lot of outcry from fans in regards to these changes. The only one of note is the fact that Eddie Brock isn't a host for the Venom Symbiote but even then most fans are willing to except the change given the story Insomniac created. Oh sure fans aren't happy but most are just willing to shrug and move on.
You don't see this a whole lot in other adaptations. Just take Avatar and both of it's adaptions which also made massive changes to the original story. Or the recent Dune films, which also changed huge parts of the story. Putting the quality of the work aside fans of these stories are VERY vocal about their dislike to any and all changes despite both Avatar Adaptions and the Dune films being fairly loyal adaptations.
Most understand the need to change things that just wouldn't work in the new media and sometimes a adaptations that make so many changes that they barely resemble the original are sometimes praised as better then the original stories (most notably She-Ra).
But Superhero stories are rather unique in this area, they're often given massive changes yet retain enough of the original so you can still tell it's the same story. And for the most part fans of those stories are happy with the version their given. If anything the adaptations that are the most loyal tend to be the least well recieved like the animated film adaptations of The Dark Knight Returns.
There are of course exceptions just ask any fans of Alan Moore's works what they think of adaptations of his work and prepare to lose your head but for the most part comic fans are okay with changes to the source material. So why is that?
I think it comes down to two things.
One: The comics themselves are often retold and retooled several times in What If stories and different continuities and that has been a thing since almost day one to the point that DC created the first ever event comic to try and streamline their comics into a single continuity.
Two: Superhero stories have been around for a WHILE! We are fastly approaching 100 years of Superheroes in our lives and with many of these stories have been the same characters we met back when they were first introduced and they have had MANY adventures over the decades.
As a result of both these factors I think fans of the genre are just kinda use to having stories changed. Again DC created a major story that forever altered the direction of the series that saw the original Superman leave the series and have the second version of the character take over as the Mainline Superman.
Thoughts?
But the question was raised how would they adapt it as it involved aliens, galactic empires and a final battle on the Moon. They would need to change a LOT in the story in order to make this work as a standalone film.
Now replaying Spider-Man 2 which adapts the Venom Symbiote Arc which is the, what, 10th time this story has been adapted, and like pretty much every other adaptation of this story MASSIVE changes were made. Arguably this is the most altered version of the original from how Peter gets the Symbiote, to who is Venom's second host, to including Miles into the story when he was obviously not involved in the original to begin with, to Venom creating Scream who uses MJ as a host to tying the origin of Venom to Norman Osborn.
And yet, there isn't a whole lot of outcry from fans in regards to these changes. The only one of note is the fact that Eddie Brock isn't a host for the Venom Symbiote but even then most fans are willing to except the change given the story Insomniac created. Oh sure fans aren't happy but most are just willing to shrug and move on.
You don't see this a whole lot in other adaptations. Just take Avatar and both of it's adaptions which also made massive changes to the original story. Or the recent Dune films, which also changed huge parts of the story. Putting the quality of the work aside fans of these stories are VERY vocal about their dislike to any and all changes despite both Avatar Adaptions and the Dune films being fairly loyal adaptations.
Most understand the need to change things that just wouldn't work in the new media and sometimes a adaptations that make so many changes that they barely resemble the original are sometimes praised as better then the original stories (most notably She-Ra).
But Superhero stories are rather unique in this area, they're often given massive changes yet retain enough of the original so you can still tell it's the same story. And for the most part fans of those stories are happy with the version their given. If anything the adaptations that are the most loyal tend to be the least well recieved like the animated film adaptations of The Dark Knight Returns.
There are of course exceptions just ask any fans of Alan Moore's works what they think of adaptations of his work and prepare to lose your head but for the most part comic fans are okay with changes to the source material. So why is that?
I think it comes down to two things.
One: The comics themselves are often retold and retooled several times in What If stories and different continuities and that has been a thing since almost day one to the point that DC created the first ever event comic to try and streamline their comics into a single continuity.
Two: Superhero stories have been around for a WHILE! We are fastly approaching 100 years of Superheroes in our lives and with many of these stories have been the same characters we met back when they were first introduced and they have had MANY adventures over the decades.
As a result of both these factors I think fans of the genre are just kinda use to having stories changed. Again DC created a major story that forever altered the direction of the series that saw the original Superman leave the series and have the second version of the character take over as the Mainline Superman.
Thoughts?