Continuing with the comics theme started last week, this week looks at Marvel’s Spider-Man. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the arachnid-themed superhero first appeared in Amazing Fantasy 15 in 1962. Peter Parker, a high school science geek, received his arachnid abilities after being bitten by a radioactive spider while at a science exhibit. The first thing to go through the teenage Peter’s mind when he realized he had these powers was . . . to make money from them. He lived with his elderly Aunt May and Uncle Ben, who were having difficulties making ends meet. Peter’s idea was to become a TV star, complete with costume. However, when given a chance to stop a thief, he ignored it. Later, the same thief robbed and killed Uncle Ben. As Spider-Man, Peter tracked down the thief and stopped him. “With great power comes great responsibility.”

The Spider-Man line of books is probably Marvel’s top selling comics. Long before The Punisher or Wolverine appeared, Spider-Man was the go-to character to draw in new readers to a book, appearing in The Avengers and Fantastic Four as needed. Since his creation, Spidey has appeared in eight separate cartoons, one live-action TV series, a tokusatsu show in Japan, a daily newspaper comic, four live-action feature films, and a Broadway musical. Oddly, despite the popularity of the character, it took until 2002 to get a major motion picture released featuring the web-slinger.

Maybe not so oddly. The CBS series The Amazing Spider-Man from 1978 performed well in ratings but was costly to film due to the stunts required. In the comics and cartoons, Spider-Man swung between the tall skyscrapers in Midtown Manhattan. Recreating that safely required a lot of work, especially when CGI wasn’t even a consideration yet. However, technology pressed on, and many dangerous effects could be done far safer with the magic of computers.* By 2002, though, CGI had gone long past the experimental stage and into regular use.

Sam Raimi was approached by Sony to direct the Spider-Man film adaptation. Raimi himself had been a fan of the comic as he grew up, and worked to keep the feel of the movie to the original. Several changes were made, though. Instead of being bitten by a radioactive spider, the attacking arachnid was now genetically modified, reflecting the fears of the day. Instead of Gwen Stacy, Mary-Jane Watson was the love interest, though Mary-Jane would be far better known by the younger followers of the comics. The Green Goblin had a change in his costume origin, though the appearance harked back to his comic book likeness.

Despite Raimi not having used CGI in the past, he learned quickly, and had the web-slinging scenes turn into a ballet, complete with a shout-out to the 1960s era Spider-Man cartoon at the end. The mix of live action and CGI succeeded in bringing to life the wise-cracking hero’s unusual means of travel through New York.

The movie’s plot covered two elements. The first was an updating of Spider-Man’s origin, as mentioned above. The second involved the Green Goblin and an adaptation of “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” (Amazing Spider-Man 121). Both elements allowed Raimi to introduce some of Spidey’s supporting cast, including J. Jonah Jameson and his staff at the Daily Bugle. And, just as mentioned in last week’s Iron Man review, the villain didn’t steal the movie. Spider-Man, as a character, was interesting enough to carry the movie, despite Willem Dafoe’s portrayal of Norman Osborn.

The movie was a hit. It made over US$100 million in its opening weekend. But, as mentioned before, financial success is not an indication of a adaptational success. What is an indication is respect towards the original, helped greatly by Sam Raimi being a fan. The changes made reflected the times the movie was made in. In the 1960s, radiation was the boogieman feared by the general populace. Two superpowers sat in a war of escalation that would culminate in the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, 1962, two months after Amazing Fantasy 15 was released. The line, “With great power comes great responsibility,” may not have been a lesson for just Peter. However, 2002, forty years later, the biggest threat to mankind wasn’t nuclear Armageddon, but genetic tinkering of food crops.** Radiation was understood, genetic modification was a wild card to the general public. The change in the origin was meant to resonate with the audience, allowing them to get the same feeling as readers of the first Spider-Man story did.

Overall, Spider-Man was a successful adaptation. The changes reflected modern realities and the need of an audience to have not followed a comic for forty years to understand everything happening in a movie.

Next week, a guest spot by Serdar Yegulalp.

* Watch as ones flip into zeroes before your very eyes!
** The Al-Qaeda attack on the World Trade Centre occurred after filming completed.

Marvel Comics has always had a wide range of superheroes. From the patriotic Captain America to the anti-hero Hulk to the Spectacular and Amazing Spider-Man to the outcast X-Men, each hero was more than just the costume, just the hero fighting crime. Iron Man, first appearing in Tales of Suspense in 1963, is no different in that respect. Unlike the heroes mentioned, though, Tony Stark has no innate super powers*. His origin story, first seen in the above mentioned comic, showed how the Iron Man suit developed.** Over time, Tony takes charge of his company, develops more Iron Man suit variants, becomes a playboy, and develops alcoholism. Many of Iron Man’s foes reflect his origins, either being technical (such as AIM and Hydra), Communist (Titanium Man, the Unicorn), or corporate (Iron Monger, Roxxon Oil, Justin Hammer).

Fast forward to 2008. Marvel’s luck with movies based on their properties had a rough go with 1986’s Howard the Duck, 1989’s The Punisher, and 1994’s The Fantastic Four***. Things started to turn around with 1998’s Blade, but the character wasn’t one of Marvel’s A-listers. X-Men in 2000 marks the turning point for Marvel’s big names, though, at this point, the company had different lines licensed to a number of studios. The successful Spider-Man movie in 2002 further marked the turnaround of Marvel’s cinematic foibles, though not completely.  Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Ghost Rider, both from 2007, underperformed. However, waiting in the wings, was Iron Man.

There are times when casting directors find just the perfect person for a role. Iron Man‘s trumped all others when Robert Downey Jr. was cast as Tony Stark. Downey had gone through a rough patch between 1996 and 2001, getting arrested for various drug charges. His appearance as Stark capped a career revival. Downey brought forth all of Tony Stark, from his larger than life public persona to the uncertain man wanting to right what he messed up in private. Even when he was in the Iron Man suit, Stark was still himself, still the showboat who was trying to make up for past mistakes.

The movie itself could be divided into two parts. The first part was Iron Man’s origin,** updated for the modern era. Gone was the Viet Nam War and the Communists. This time around, Stark visited the troops in Afghanistan when he ran into the trap. The second part of the film showed Tony improving beyond the original grey suit to the gleaming red and gold and returning to Afghanistan to help free his fellow prisoner. Also linking the two parts of the movie was the villain. With the update to the modern era, elements from the Cold War, including the Vietnam War, were lost; Stark was at most old enough to have seen news reports of the Vietnam War as a young child. That left the main foe to be either technical or corporate. Obadiah Stane fell into both. His machinations behind the scenes while still acting as Stark’s mentor provided a chilling look into executive backstabbing, with the addition of taking Tony’s prototype and updating it for his own ends.

The movie, simply put, was a huge success, allowing Marvel to continue the Avengers Initiative with follow ups Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger, capped with The Avengers. However, financial success isn’t always an indication of a successful adaptation. First, I’ll begin with the changes made. The big one was keeping the story in the now. Most superhero comics are set Today, that is, when the reader reads it.**** However, 2008 was not 1963. The world has changed greatly in those forty-three years. The Vietnam War ended. The Cold War ended. The Soviet Union ended. Iron Man’s origin needed to be updated to reflect the march of history but, at the same time, remain true to the source. Thus, the trap in Viet Nam became a trap in Afghanistan. However, the Stark-Stane rivalry comes straight from the comics, as does SHIELD. The update in the origins doesn’t affect the characters. The other major change is the identity of Iron Man himself. In the comics, Iron Man is Stark’s bodyguard. In the movie, Stark comes out and admits it. However, the movie Tony would have problems allowing someone else, even if that someone is a complete fabrication, to take credit for Stark’s own work. The change made sense in character.

Summary, the movie is a very good adaptation of one of Marvel’s lesser-known A-list heroes. The combination of casting, directing, script, and acting pull together to make Iron Man enjoyable and accessible. As a major plus, Iron Man is one of the few superhero movies where the villain doesn’t upstage the hero. Although it helps that Stark is larger than life, the main reason is that Iron Man is not just the hero, but the protagonist, the character trying to change the status quo.***** Stane is trying to keep things as they are, without Tony making wide-sweeping changes to Stark International.

Next week, still with superheroes.

* His intelligence might qualify, but his background includes being a teen genius, which is possible, but rare.
** Quick version – after getting caught in a trap in Viet Nam and being taken prisoner, Stark and another prisoner build a device to keep shrapnel from reaching Tony’s heart. Tony then works on a prototype suit of powered armour using the power source of the device to break out of the prison.
*** Involving Roger Corman, known for low-budget films.
**** Exceptions being specific days, usually holidays, but even those are implied to be the one most recently past.
***** In the vast majority of superhero movies, the villain is trying to inflict change with the hero trying to prevent it.

Finally, the one I’ve been hinting at for far too long.

With the success of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, Joss Whedon proposed to Fox a space western. Whedon had been inspired by The Killer Angels, a book chronicling the Battle of Gettysburg, and wanted to the series to follow a group of people trying to continue their lives after being on the losing side of a civil war. Firefly featured a Stagecoach-esque ensemble cast of characters. However, problems with the network started early, with Fox wanting a second pilot, citing the original as being too dour and not having enough action. Worse, Fox would air episodes out of order, and Firefly didn’t have the magic reset button installed to make episodes interchangeable. The show, ultimately, was cancelled after one season with several filmed episodes not aired. However, fans picked up on the show’s potential despite the network meddling. When the DVD boxed set was released, several episodes were corrected back to the original concept, with additional parts removed because the show could be watched in a proper order.

The cancellation and the lack of interest by other networks in the series led Whedon to try selling Firefly as a movie. Universal Pictures signed on after the President of Production watched the series on DVD. After a few rewrites, the script for what would become Serenity was finished and filming started. The movie, Serenity, would wrap up several dangling plot threads from the series, including the Hands of Blue and what happened to River before Firefly began.

The movie was released in 2005, remaining in theatres for five weeks. During that time, Serenity fell short of recouping its budget. Despite the lack of financial success, critics were positive about the movie. Part of the failure at the box office might be from the idea of /Firefly/ being a “failed” TV series, despite the failure being caused by network interference. The original show also didn’t have a large fanbase, though said fans were enthusiastic about getting people out to the movie. Yet, DVD sales, especially the HD DVD*, were high.

So, successful? Financially, Serenity failed in theatres, but DVD sales will have helped make up the small shortfall between box office and budget. Yet, the movie continued the series and used the big screen to tell the tale. Serenity wasn’t just a double-length episode of Firefly. The film used the larger format and the budget to tell a tale that both fit within the setting but felt more epic. With the original cast and Whedon still there, respect** for the original work was more than present. Universal was willing to support the effort. What might have helped Serenity was having Firefly treated properly by Fox; but, if that happened, there might not have been the need for the movie.

Next week, super adaptation!

* Yes, HD DVD lost in the DVD wars, but the victor wouldn’t be decided for several years. /Serenity/ was one of the first movies released in the format.
** Yep, there’s that word again.

Over a year ago, I started Lost in Translation to examine the pros and cons of remakes and reboots, to see what worked and what didn’t. With Hollywood becoming more reliant on existing works as sources for blockbusters, knowing what makes for a successful adaptation is becoming critical in how well a project fares at the box office. Just having the rights to a title no longer means that a movie will be successful, if it ever did.

What we’ve seen over the past year is that respect for the original work, the original creators, and the original fans goes a long way towards financial success. Even where there are changes, acknowledging the original work and ensures the fans will come out while still attracting people new to the franchise. The re-imagined Battlestar Galactica is a great example. Many changes were made, from characters to tone, but it gained an audience made from fans of the original and complete newcomers.

Helping the new Galactics‘s success was writing quality. The series wasn’t just good science fiction, it was a good drama. Reviews of The Avengers also point to the strong writing of Joss Whedon. So, just having respect isn’t enough. Studios have to act on the respect. Casting, writing, even advertising needs to be there. The lack of advertising was the main reason John Carter was barely seen in theatres. Disney buried the movie, to the point the title didn’t even refer to the original series of books, John Carter of Mars.

However, during the course of writing this column, a thought occurred to me. “Is it possible to have a work that is a poor adaptation but is still a good or even successful movie on its own?” It’s easy to find bad adaptations that are also bad movies. Street Fighter – The Movie was both, not quite a cult classic. The Dungeons & Dragons movie didn’t even come close to being watchable. Finding a movie that was good in its own right but still a poor adaptation took work. Real Steel fit the bill. There was very little in common between the movie and “Steel”, the short story it was based on; but, the movie held together on its own merit. In this case, though, the relative obscurity of the original story helped; there wasn’t an expectation built in.

That’s not to say that respect and support will guarantee a success. A well done, well adapted, well supported movie can still fail. Serenity, the Firefly movie, falls into this category. The fans did their best to get people out, but the film wasn’t as successful as hoped. At the same time, the environment films are released into has changed greatly over the past decade. Movies have to succeed right out of the gate. Gone are the days where a movie would stay in theatres for several months or even a year. Most get six to eight weeks now, less if the opening weekend isn’t as successful as projected.*

What I’ve also learned over the past year is now spilling over into my own works. On top of making sure that the plot stands on its own, that the characters are interesting, and that I have an ending that is exciting and not overblown, I’m making sure that the format I’m using (prose, episodic webcomic, long-form script) fits the story and that the story can be adapted into other formats. It gets interesting when working out character details when the idea of seeing the story on TV or the concept of having an action figure enters my head. Yet, having something that’s easy to adapt will help ensure a proper transition.

Next time, into the black!

*Note that the film doesn’t need to fail outright. A movie could still make up its budget but still be consider underperforming if the actual revenue is less than the projected. Works that need word of mouth no longer stand a chance to be successful.