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| Source: Marvel/Fox |
It’s hard to recall a time when comic book movies didn’t dominate the cinematic landscape. Outside of the odd success – like Richard Donner’s Superman or Tim Burton’s Batman – they use to be embarrassing failures, like Dolph Lundgren’s Punisher, Spawn or that Fantastic Four film they didn’t even bother releasing.
Times have obviously changed, and it would be considered abnormal not to have a comic book movie on the release schedules. The studio process being what it is often means these comics have their harsher edges trimmed off, including bloody violence or sex, before they ever reach the screen. There’s a reason we’ll never see a boozy version of Tony Stark or The Joker slicing off his own face.
Sometimes the studios make profound changes to the source material that upsets the fanbase, but sometimes – just sometimes – these changes are actually for the better. They can add a deeper meaning to the story, or replace a silly plot element with something better.
Let’s examine a few controversial changes that actually worked out for the best.
10. Making It Kid Friendly - The Mask
The Mask doesn’t seem to get mentioned much anymore, but it was one of Jim Carrey’s breakout roles. The film is essentially a live-action cartoon, where Carrey’s nerd gets turned into a hyperactive superhero by wearing a mysterious mask.
This plot follows the rough structure of the comic, but tones thing way the hell down. When the main character dons the mask in the comic he doesn’t become a loveable goofball, he turns into a power-hungry sadist who kills anybody who crosses him. The comic is gory and disturbing in parts, with Carrey's character eventually being killed so other characters can don the mask.
Naturally, the film discarded the insane level of violence and turned it into a superhero movie that relied heavily on Carrey’s natural charisma.
9. Wolverine Doesn't Wear His Classic Outfit - X-Men
While audiences have gotten used to the X-Men movies chic leather outfits, many were disappointed the iconic costumes from the comic weren’t used. They were especially upset that Wolverine wouldn’t appear in his fetching yellow outfit.
While developing the film the studio quickly realised that faithfully recreating the comic outfits would be a disaster, and it would be hard to take Wolverine seriously as the ultimate badass in skin-tight yellow. Singer obviously predicted fan complaints regarding this change, adding Cyclops' line about “yellow spandex” when Wolvie complains about the leather uniform.
Maybe audiences would be more accepting of it now, but back then Hugh Jackman clad in Wolverine’s iconic look would have been laughed off screen, so it’s hard to fault the decision.
8. Pretty Much Everything - A History Of Violence
The graphic novel A History Of Violence was written by John Wagner, who is a legend thanks to his work on 2000AD. Like the film adaptation, the comic deals with a seemingly normal man who defends himself during a robbery, but is later confronted by mobsters claiming he used to be a famous criminal.
The comic is pulpy and graphic, with scenes of brutal violence. The film is more cerebral and quiet, and deals with the fallout Tom’s past has on his family instead. Basically, the film has little to do with the comic, outside of the setup. In fact, nobody involved with the film seemed to like the comic much, but they found the concept intriguing.
The storyline and characters play out much differently, with the character of Richie changing from Tom’s childhood friend, to his evil brother. Those who read the book were surprised by just how different the film turned out to be, but the changes were ultimately for the best.
7. No Skull Cowboy - The Crow
Brandon Lee’s tragic death while filming The Crow caused a number of changes to the story, as the actor hadn’t finished a number of key sequences. The biggest deletion was that of the Skull Cowboy, a mysterious figure who guides Eric on his path of vengeance and warns him to not to stray from it.
In the original version of the movie Eric's decision to rescue his young friend is the reason he lost his powers, since he’s not allowed to interfere with the living. The Skull Cowboy himself suffered a similar fate, and is damned to wander the earth because of it. While the character is cool in theory, he would have ultimately slowed down the pace, and Eric already had a guide in the form of the crow itself.
Those who loved the book were naturally bummed at his deletion, but it was a smart cut.
6. The Penguin Is An Actual Penguin - Batman Returns
In the comics, The Penguin was always depicted as an urbane, sophisticated crime boss with a love for trick umbrellas. Unlike a lot of Batman’s foes he’s not actually insane, but his intellect makes him just as dangerous.
Tim Burton - being who he is - wasn’t content with a simple redesign for Batman Returns, and decided to turn the character into a penguin-like human instead. He rubbed his trademark angst and gothiness over the character, making him the deformed son of aristocrats who tossed him into the sewers when he was a baby. He was raised by penguins, loves to eat raw fish and has flippers for hands; he's also a pervert and potential child killer.
It’s a seriously dark reinvention, and despite some fans being very unhappy this take went onto to inspire future comic and cartoon appearances of the character.
5. A Happier Ending - Road To Perdition
The Road To Perdition comics feature a gangster going on the run with his son after being betrayed by his boss. He seeks revenge by robbing banks and killing any assassins that come his way, whilst trying to keep his son safe.
The Sam Mendes adaptation featured Tom Hanks in the lead, and toned down the gunfights and violence to focus on a more thoughtful story. A big theme of the movie is that the father doesn’t want his son to follow in his footsteps, and become a killer like him. This is in contrast to the comic, where young Michael kills a few people along the journey, showing the son has inherited the sins of the father.
The movie instead has Michael contemplating killing a couple of times, but ultimately he doesn’t have it in him. This more hopeful ending upset a few purists, but dramatically it was the right way to go.
4. The Mandarin - Iron Man 3
The Mandarin twist in Iron Man 3 will forever be a divisive topic among Marvel fans. Some saw it as a clever subversion of expectations, whilst others thought it was disrespectful to one of Iron Man’s most iconic foes.
Instead of portraying a straight ahead version of the comic character – and get accused of racial stereotyping – Marvel decided to play with it by having two versions for the film. One is a drunken British actor playing the public face of the Ten Rings terrorist group, with the actual MCU Mandarin is Guy Pearce’s Killian.
This decision split a lot of fans down the middle, but it’s hard to see how a straight ahead version of The Mandarin in the comics would fly today. Marvel also gave a peace offering to those upset by making the short All Hail The King, which confirms the real Mandarin is still out there somewhere.
3. Wolverine Goes Back In Time Instead Of Kitty - X-Men: Days Of Future Past
Days Of Future Past is a classic story arc for the X-Men, depicting a grim future where mutants have been hunted to the point of extinction by Sentinels, and Kitty Pryde has to phase back to the past to undo the chaos.
Sadly Kitty – played by Ellen Page – didn’t get much to do in either of her X-Men movies, acting as a potential love interest for Iceman in The Last Stand, and being a gloried time machine in the Days Of Future Past. Instead of going back herself, instead, it’s Wolverine, which is hard to complain about since he's the best character. That said it does leave Kitty somewhat sidelined in a story where she used to be a prime player, which disappointed those who love the character.
The film is arguably one of the best outings of the series, though, and few would argue the switch in lead character hurt it.
2. No Alien Squid - Watchmen
Watchmen was about as faithful an adaptation of the acclaimed graphic novel as you could hope for, which was a good and bad thing. It was visually stunning and recreated famous images from the comic, but it was also curiously hollow and not everything from Watchmen translated well to the big screen.
People who loved the graphic novel were also upset the big Lovecraftian squid thing didn’t turn up in the finale, which was created by Ozymandias to save humanity from nuclear destruction, by uniting them against an alien threat. In the film version, he instead creates some bombs using Dr Manhattan’s signature to frame him for the destruction, uniting the world against him.
It’s a smart twist on the material, and some have argued it works better than the ending from the comic.
1. Organic Web Shooters - Spider-Man
Somewhere there exists a magical alternate universe where fans can pick up a Blu-ray copy of James Cameron’s Spider-Man, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Peter Parker and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Doctor Octopus. Sadly we don’t live in that world since a messy legal battle at the time made sure it fell apart.
One element that Cameron introduced in his version was the idea of Spider-Man developing organic web shooters, instead of building them himself. This was included in Sam Raimi's trilogy and It made sense to include this ability considering he was bitten by a mutant spider; plus it saved time on a subplot where he builds his own.
Some fans hated this notion regardless, so when the series was rebooted for The Amazing Spider-Man Peter is seen building them instead. Others thought the organic idea was a creative addition to the canon.
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