Back in 2012, little old me had the chance to watch the worldwide premiere of Marvel’s The Avengers, a film featuring an epic ensemble of Earth’s mightiest superheroes. Thinking about it for a bit, I felt I was in a once-in-a-lifetime experience, as if the Muses somehow breathed divinity into the theaters. Since that moment, I’ve never missed a single Marvel movie, almost always waiting in line on the day of its premier with either friends or family.
I’m not the only one who misses out on the socially-arousing spectacle. Millions around the world have undergone this ritual for almost nine years now─perhaps even more─for their chance to be part of this cultural zeitgeist. Soon after, comics started selling like hotcakes, breaking records as the most bought-after books in history!
Okay, that last sentence isn’t true. That’s quite a different story.
One might assume that movies based on superheroes would drive up sales for their original source material (comics) yet that hasn’t been the case. The big comic book powerhouses, Marvel and DC, are scratching their heads: why aren’t customers buying comics? Shouldn’t customers flock to bookstores waiting to get their hands on a fresh copy featuring their favorite character?
Here’s why I think comics aren’t selling: the movies are just plain better. Consumers who watch movies don’t have to wrap their heads around complicated reboots, redcons and reboot-redcons that are the order of the day in comics.
Call me a casual or an over-generalizer, but sales don’t lie. Movies do a better job at streamlining a lot of material from the comics that would otherwise require many issues to sift through. Many people are intimidated by the archaic system that dominates the comic book industry. Why read when the movies follow a straightforward, tried-n-true format?
Barring the external differences between the two mediums, the movies tweak comic book characters as the producers see fit. Take Thanos for instance: in the comics, specifically The Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos uses the power of the infinity stones in an attempt to woo the female embodiment of Death. So, the story kickstarts with Thanos snapping away half the universe’s population. As we all know, that’s not the case in the movies.
But beside tweaking characters, movies also provide a boon to obscure characters.
Take for instance, the Guardians of the Galaxy. Before their theatrical debut in 2014, the Guardians were a mere footnote on the pages of the Marvel-verse; and even when they hit the big screen, the characters we got were completely different from their comic counterparts. Star Lords wasn’t a happy-go-lucky space cowboy; Gamora’s parents weren’t murdered by Thanos; Groot actually talks and is really smart; Drax is a human-turned-resurrected-warrior; Yondu wasn’t a fan of Marry Poppins (very sad, I know).
However, not all changes were good. The comic from which Captain America: Civil War takes its name, Civil War, involves a lot more characters, and the story is grittier and a lot more visceral than what was shown in the movie ( characters die!). The Mandarin (remember that guy?) was supposed to be Iron Man’s greatest nemesis, not a wannabe actor. And Hank Pym is a crucial member of the Avengers who single-handedly created Ultron. There are many more changes, too much to cover, but these three highlight a massive oopsie on the part of the film-makers.
Nevertheless, all has come to pass, and what was given to us was worth it. The movies did a fantastic job at introducing superheroes to an entire generation that will no doubt look back for nostalgia and for inspiration. Let’s hope Marvel’s new phase doesn’t suffer from burnout.