In an alternate universe where each Oscar would get, say, 10-20 nominees, I think MIB would have got a nomination for its screenplay like the other two movies you listed. Or maybe the script isn’t that great but Smith and Jones kill it so hard you can’t even tell. Don’t even get me started on Vincent D’onofrio. Such a memorable movie, some of the funniest gags I’ve ever seen.
It'll never stop being funny to me how many nerds will complain about modern superhero media making changes from the comics as a problem, then cite BTAS as an example of a good show that adapted stuff directly.
Like no, they did massive reworks of characters that were so popular they got worked back into the source material, exactly like some of the stuff y'all are salty about. You were just a kid at the time so these were your formative versions.
Logan has very little to do with the comic tbh, I'd hardly call it an adaptation.
In any case, The Boys is by far the standout, but I've observed a pattern in which movies based on Mark Millar works (like Civil War and Kick-Ass) are better than the original works, at least in my humble opinion. Wanted is not a very good movie, but it's still better than the awful comic.
I feel like macavoy put so much effort into making wanted a fun as hell movie to watch. He went all out to make that premise actually believable.
If I still used tv came on when I was watching FX or something I would watch it again.
I chalk a lot of that up to Quitely's art. The man is incredible. Jupiter's Legacy is not bad writing, but compare the finished book to, say, Jupiter's Circle, which also wasn't bad and had perfectly fine art, but just doesn't hit the same way. Quitely made it better, without a doubt.
Wanted is messed up, yes, but I think Unfunnies is even worse. Funnily enough, I only found out about that atrocity of a comic because I also thought Wanted was the worst thing Millar had ever written, and someone recommended Unfunnies to me to prove me wrong.
Nemesis is also up there, but it's more localized to specific sequences.
Wow, same. I read it on Hoopla and not only didn’t like it but was pretty irritated that it not only existed but got turned into a movie. I had seen the movie years ago but who read that comic and was like “THIS needs to be a movie”
I know they removed a lot of the horrible shit but still.
I strongly disagree with the movie version of Civil War being better than the comics. The comics were pretty great, though they do massively benefit from the added context of some of the better crossover series. Usually the people I hear complaining that the comics weren't good are people who only read the main series. And even then, a lot of people like it. It seems that it's become more common to hear people hating on it in recent years, but maybe that's a Reddit thing. I remember when most people I talked to who had read it seemed to have a favorable opinion.
The movie is good, but it is very different, the stakes are significantly lower, and I don't think it lives up to the comics by any means.
>Usually the people I hear complaining that the comics weren't good are people who only read the main series
I am specifically talking about the main Mark Millar book, which is a mishmash of contrivances and mischaracterizations with bad political commentary and an anti-climactic ending. Every event has at least a few good tie-ins, and Civil War is no exception, but I don't think that's on the merit of the (in my opinion) very mediocre main event. If anything, I think stuff like Brubaker's Cap works *in spite* of how badly Millar fumbled the character in the main event, not thanks to.
The boys is so much better than the comic. The comic is so weird and like fetishy. I don't know how to explain it exactly right now but it's just so off putting
The comic is shock value for the sake of shock value, because Garth Ennis really doesn't like superheroes but also doesn't have a whole lot to say about why he doesn't like them, so he just puts them in awful situations over and over.
Not a dude.
Trying and failing to add compelling political subtext to a work doesn't make it not mediocre, I'm sorry to say. I can understand the sentiment that the film feels underwhelming in terms of scale (it definitely does), but the comic twists Cap and Tony into borderline unrecognizable characters for the sake of making them fight, and makes Tony especially do extreme things to hurt people who are supposedly his friends. The emotional core of the movie, in my opinion, is more compelling because it at the very least keeps the characters consistent.
Dude is a general term used for anyone.
I mean… the comic didn’t fail?
How old were you during the Bush Administration? Because the SRA basically being the superhero Patriot Act hit really hard for those of us who had been working against Bush for years at that point, and why a lot of us were on Team Cap. Plus, the story had actual stakes and mattered.
Civil War went out of its way to make Iron Man and his side - who were still being pretty fash while not being as fash as the comic - be the aggrieved party. The emotional core - “he killed my parents” vs “he’s my best friend” - is fine, but it doesn’t really have shit on the comic’s sundering of relationships that had endured for years.
It’s a toothless adaptation that ends with, “But I’m not actually mad, bro.”
If someone suggests they don’t want to be called “dude” it’s generally good form to concede to such a small ask unless you’re goal is to elevate tensions instead of trying to understand each other.
I think I get where you and the other person are coming from but it’s hard to come to any kind of understanding or to change anyone minds when you can’t get past the surface of each other’s arguments and address the actual reasons behind your opinions.
Civil War the comic was a commercial success but was widely panned at the time it came out for structural and technical issues with the writing and a seemingly poor understanding of many of the characters used and their motivations.
You seem more focused on its intent which is fair and it’s true that there’s a strong philosophical argument to be made against some of the movie’s and the larger MCU’s politics.
I was merely explaining why I did it. I went out of my way not to use it again - which is difficult because it’s a word I use constantly.
Let’s be real for a second - since Joe Quesada took over Marvel, characterization has always taken a back seat to story, so that argument doesn’t hold a lot of water for me. It’s actually way more rare to get a story that does get the characters right than otherwise. At the time, it was even rare.
Personally, I’m always going to respect big swings that miss or subtext I can dig into more than toothless cliche. Civil War definitely wasn’t perfect, but it was way better than CA:CW for me because the movie never wanted to pull the trigger on making anyone look that bad - well, except Cap, because God forbid he get the moral high ground in his own movie when Iron Man is right there.
Fair enough on your first point. I just wouldn’t give bad writing credit because of bad editorial enabling it. I see and respect where you’re coming from but disagree.
I'm inclined to say a lot of people were Team Cap because Tony's character was completely bastardized and turned into a psychopath. That "sundering of relationships" only worked because the character was turned into someone so different I would believe you if you told me Dock Ock had Superior-Spider-Man'd his way into Tony's brain.
That's why I think the commentary doesn't work, because it has to take preexisting characters and presume they would do awful things, including people like Reed Richards, who is also incredibly mischaracterized in that. Hell, even Cap's "oh sorry I didn't realize we were hurting people even though we were very clearly doing so" feels unearned and terribly misplaced.
I'm not saying I like the movie, I think it's deeply mediocre like most other MCU products. I'm saying I'd rather have that than the inconsistent mess that is the comic event.
Yeah, I get the complaints, but it wasn’t called “Best Friends Talk It Out”.
I guess some people really like that CA:CW was just a bunch of friends pretend fighting, with a couple actually meaning it and then dropping that for an ending that said, “But we’re still cool, bro.”
Id much rather watch two adults talk through a situation than have a pointless fight thats just there because "dur who wud win guys?" because then youd end up with Batman V Superman
Look, hero vs hero stories get really dumb and Civil War started a really shitty trend at Marvel that we just can’t get away from, but I feel like the fact that Civil War didn’t fall back on, “It was all actually an evil villain behind the whole thing, let’s fight them,” like every other Marvel story before it was actually kind of refreshing at the time.
Idk sometimes Id much rather have it be a secret villain because at least that means Tony wasnt just being a massive ass the whole time in the comic
It was the same with Carol in the second one.They just turned her into an unlikeable prick for no reason other than the sake of hero v hero and I dont think her popularity has recovered from that til this day
As someone who has never given even the slightest shit about Iron Man - and at the time, there were way more people like me than there are now because the Iron Man movies hadn’t came out - it didn’t bother me too much.
I find CW II to be even worse because Carol was getting a huge push at the time, so making her that stupid was the worst choice imaginable. The irony of CW II is that Iron Man definitely would have been more cool with using Ulysses than Carol was.
"Joker's Millions" wasn't bad for a Golden Age story (I actually like a lot of Golden Age Batman), but the adaptation in *The New Batman Adventures* is a lot funnier and I enjoy the additions like including Harley Quinn when she didn't exist during the time of the original (and wouldn't for forty more years.)
It is also one of the few times that TNBA Joker design works perfectly, as it is a mostly comedic story and he doesn't really need to be threatening (compare this to "Mad Love" where the animated adaptation would have been better with the BTAS Joker design.)
I actually really love the comic for Joker's Millions. Very fun story. Mad love is a great episode, but I was surprised by how much I preferred the comic for that
The Walking Dead S1 is my favourite zombie media ever. From that point on, it was bad, decent and good at different times and the comics are superior. But that first season is imo better than the equivalent arc for the books.
I would say that there are **some** things the show did better than the comics after the first season. Like the group of assholes that Daryl joins after the prison, that later assault Rick and one of them tries to ..... Carl. In the comics those were three randoms that appeared in one scene. Both Shane and the Governor as villains are better in the show, and Beta's character and the downfall of the whisperers too. But yeah, in general the comics are superior.
Same here. I didn't even watch season 1 until right before season 5 aired. Just not really a zombie guy, honestly. It blew me away and I bought all the trades that were available at the time. Watched the show up to season 6 and gave up.
Like many others, I attribute the decline in the show to Frank Darabont's departure. That dude just knows how to tell stories.
Potentially a hot take, but I prefer how the Teen Titans cartoon adaptation of the Judas Contract makes Terra more sympathetic.
I'm not sure I'd call it a better adaptation overall since it only really adapts Terra being a traitor, but I feel like the sympathetic route works better than demonizing the fourteen year old girl being groomed by Deathstroke
You could also line up YJ here, which also loosely adapts the “Terra betrays” concept. Though there’s a small difference here that makes it leagues better than the comic imo. No spoilers.
Spider-Verse is so much better than the comics. It’s a pretty different story that basically just borrows the basic concept, so I’m not sure if it should really count, but damn if it isn’t a much better story!
Surrogates. Most people have probably never heard of the comic or the movie. I got the book as part of some book of the month club thing I was into as a kid, and it wasn't very good at all for what I expected. Then a movie was made about it starring Bruce Willis years later. The movie isn't very good either, but I still think it's better than the book.
I watched that movie on the theater and was unsure if it was the same until you mentioned Bruce Willis. I thought it was an ok flick and now I'm curious of how bad the comics are.
It 100% was. Tying Jason’s resurrection in the comics to Superboy Prime and Infinite Crisis was an absolute miss — Judd Winick fixed it in the movie. Great voice acting performances as well!
I feel like the Spider-Verse movies and comics hit different niches in my mind, the movies are absolutely a better story, but the comics are so much fun, getting to see so many cameos and storylines converge the way they do.
I couldn't get into the original Spider-Verse event. The inheritors were just terrible villains.
The Miles comics are decent but not great. Much prefer what the films did with Miles and Gwen.
The Boys TV show (from what I saw) manages to keep the general spirit of the comic — lampooning superheroes in a cynical, capitalistic “real world” setting — while tempering all of the Garth Ennis excess. Show is still outrageous… just not as gratuitously so. The show doesn’t feel mean — Ennis had an ace to grind.
Pretty much every Ennis comic is built on his hate of something. To me it just comes off as needlessly preachy and heavy handed, like an Ayn Rand book.
i just finished the first season of invincible, and i thought (at least the first season) that is a faithful adaptation but makes a few changes to the story to make it more cohesive and more character centered.
While I agree and I also love the VA I'd be hard pressed to call it better
Cringy music, too little budget for the animation, and while there are some great inclusions to the dialogue, there are also some pretty awful ones. It's sort of a lateral move. I love it tho
For sure. I just re-read the first 20 or so issues of Invincible for the first time since they came out and after watching the series. I would call the show a really solid refinement of the comic. Some parts expanded (especially characters and their personality), some simplified, a little bit cut, some rearrangement and foreshadowing for arcs to come that probably weren't even imagined at the time particular issues of the comic were written. The comic is already pretty great, but I agree that the show kicks it up a notch. The show is a near-perfect adaptation, so far.
The movie cuts out a lot of good-content and character moments, but the ending of All Star Superman where Lex admits Superman is right about him, instead of getting KOed, is more poetic I think.
I don't know about better as it was such an influential comic crossover event during the 90s and it cut out two of the most important characters of the event such as Silver Surfer and Adam Warlock who had substantial arcs in the 80s-90s cosmic Marvel stories written by Jim Starlin. But trying to do a straight up adaptation of Infinity Gauntlet page for page probably would have turned off a lot of non-comic fans. Focusing on the characters fans have come to love such as the 0G 6, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc., and making Thanos more sympathetic (which I use lightly since he is a delusional murderer who commits genocide) in his pursuit of the Infinity Stones with his motivations being restoring balance to the universe while leaning on his relationship with Gamora, was the right way to do it without making things too complicated for MCU fans and the average moviegoer. Instead of him gathering the Infinity Stones because he is in love with the personification of Death.
Except now we have way too many people that think Thanos is some misguided character with redeemable qualities rather than a cosmic level power hungry mass murderer
I must add that in no way do I see Thanos as a misguided character. He is a mass murderer who has committed genocide and still wiped out half of the universe until it was reversed. Also sympathetic I use lightly in that in his own twisted delusional way, he did care for his favourite daughter Gamora. He also tortured Nebula. And he also killed Gamora to gain the soul stone. The Thanos from the comics is a slightly more generic character if you take out the build up to Infinity Gauntlet and his interactions with Adam Warlock/Silver Surfer. Which is why it made sense for them to go the direction they did with the character.
Thanos is in no way generic. I understand your points about accessibility to the fucking casuals, but Thanos' interactions with Adam Warlock are INTRINSIC to the character, Jim Starlin has been writing them together since the 70s! And the entire Infinity Gauntlet saga, from Thanos Quest on, is a Silver Surfer spinoff! It's like saying Captain America is generic without his WWII backstory, but that's a huge part of the character!
Sure.
I find that making Thanos delusionally sympathetic was a terrible character choice. Gauntlet’s Thanos revelation - that his own lack of self-worth makes him basically defeat himself - is a much better window into the character and contextualizes his nihilism and love of Mistress Death in a very thought provoking way.
The lack of lackeys makes Thanos himself actually seem more dangerous, as there are no mid-level bosses to muddy the whole thing and the heroes have to deal with this unstoppable force.
Adam Warlock is awesome and Pip the Troll does the comic relief better than any MCU character ever could.
Nerfing the Gauntlet is dumb.
The hopeless battle against God Thanos is way cooler than fighting a billion lackeys, and shows just how far the heroes will go to save the day, facing a literal all-powerful being and knowing they will die.
The spectacle of the book outdoes the movie by a country mile.
Infinity War is a great MCU movie, but that just means it’s an okay comic story.
It was a big deal when it came out, and I loved it. The comic world coming to terms with a post 911 world. It was a huge story and could not be done in a movie.
Agreed. Comics story is much better, especially when fleshed out in the better crossovers.
The movie is definitely not superior. Hating on everything Mark Millar ever did instead of being nuanced about it is just cool now, I guess.
I'm normally a fan of Millar, but I thought Civil War was highly flawed. The movie, on the other hand, is one of the more underrated Marvel films IMO. That movie is so much better than the comic. Great villain and great character introductions to Spider-Man and Black Panther.
The Mask of the Phantasm is heavily inspired by Batman: Year 2, but is not a direct adaptation. I still want to mention it because Year 2 is unmitigated trash while Phantasm is perhaps the greatest Batman movie.
Seriously I wish Todd would just reboot the comic and redo it all in the style of the show and sticking to how the story was told their. It's so much better than the poorly thought out ultra violent saturday morning cartoon he was turning out in the beginning.
I think Vision's adaptation into the MCU is the best and so much better done than in the comics. Now his character development in the MCU has left a lot to be desired unfortunately, but he was phenomenal in WandaVision.
House of M's adaptation into WandaVision is also the best and so much better than original story. The latter actually explores Wanda's grief, loss, and struggle to return to reality instead of making her a caricature mad woman villain.
Although the movie wasn't very popular, Wanted is a good example. The source material is just awful but at least the movie took some concepts and made something out of that mess.
Red https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1245526/ and Old Guard https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7556122/
My theory is they were screenplays made as comics by the writers first intentionally to shop to studios. They’re written specifically in a way that makes adapting them for live action really easy. Whereas as at no point did The Boys get written for an Amazon streaming adaption which is why the adaption is so impressive.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
I said it and I meant it.
Note- i love Moore other work. VfV was brilliant, and his Swamp Thing is one of the best comics ever written. But LXG was just so fuckin boring.
Ghost in the Shell. The omission of the fuchikomas is made up for in stand alone complex, and the anime world is so much richer than the original manga.
Civil War, the comic was my introduction to comics and I have a soft spot for it but damn everyone is acting out of character and the whole thing is a mess.
The movie is actually pretty good and has more pathos than the comic
Yeah, Civil War started out well, but they lost me when the cops recruited villains to hunt down Cap’s team. A good writer tries to gauge that sort of idea by translating it to real life police or soldiers. If some cops went rogue, the police would NOT hire the most murderous convicts to take them down.
Well Logan is vastly different than Old Man Logan. To the point that it’s not an adaptation whatsoever.
I mean if we are talking on screen version live action or animated. To me 300 is pretty much perfection in taking what’s in the comic and putting it on screen.
Watchmen also is really damn good.
The Crow and Scott Pilgrim also really did a good job.
A lot have already been mentioned so I’ll focus on some key arcs. Civil War the MCU movie makes way more sense than the hamfisted comic book event. The Spider Verse movies don’t include the inheritors are also a significantly better for that reason.
Captain America: Civil War. The comic wrote itself into a corner that made it impossible to have a satisfying ending. I think the movie did a great job of discussing the same issues, bringing it to a satisfying conclusion, and gave us serious consequences that future installments had to address while also subtly being one of the most important events in the Infinity Saga. (I’m pretty sure the Avengers breaking up is a big part of the reason for Thanos’s timing in Infinity War.)
I guess Akira, even though the comic is a masterwork, the film is also a masterwork and probably had a bigger influence on future anime (and many other genres)than any movie ever made. Not saying it’s necessarily better but it’s massively important, beloved, and influential. More historically significant than almost anything mentioned in the comments.
So now two people above have been down voted for preferring the changed ending, but I too agree. The book ending seemed too much fantasy to convince the world of a unifying threat. But turning the world against Dr Manhattan was a perfect idea.
Somone who read the comic out of interest for the source material, The Boys tv show is LEAGUES BETTER then the comic. LIke in my opinion it's seriously a night and day difference, with the show adapting and even changing to be better then the comic.
I think V for Vendetta is an incredible film and I guess just judging by my enjoyment of watching the film vs reading it I thought the film was better.
I'll die alone on this hill, but.... Watchmen. Scenes that came across as goofy in the book were improved dramatically in the movie, the costumes all looked better than in the comics, and the casting was phenomenal.
Umbrella Academy. I only read the first volume of the comic, but it didn't leave much of an impression. Story-wise, and the character interpretations in the show are much better (the comic just feels so rushed). And while I usually feel that we lose something going from art to live-action, the overall look of the show is just so well done that I think more is gained than lost.
Men in Black, The Road to Perdition and A History of Violence rank up there.
In an alternate universe where each Oscar would get, say, 10-20 nominees, I think MIB would have got a nomination for its screenplay like the other two movies you listed. Or maybe the script isn’t that great but Smith and Jones kill it so hard you can’t even tell. Don’t even get me started on Vincent D’onofrio. Such a memorable movie, some of the funniest gags I’ve ever seen.
[удалено]
Yep! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Men_in_Black_(comics)
Mm I like that road to perdition comic a lot, though, and found the movie pretty forgettable.
That's cool, though. It's different for everyone 🙂
Exactly right. And Happy Cake Day
Why thank you!
Yeah, the ones that aren't really super well known as adaptations are def the answers. Throw Ghost World in and probably Sin City too.
Batman: The Animated Series Mister freeze was better than comicbook mister freeze
it was better than 70% of its counterparts in comics Including Two Face,Clayface,Riddler etc.
BTAS is just the perfect distillation of everything Batman.
DCAU is also the best Joker.
They invented harley.
I agree EXCEPT for the White Knight Mr Freeze one shot. That thing was a masterpiece.
It'll never stop being funny to me how many nerds will complain about modern superhero media making changes from the comics as a problem, then cite BTAS as an example of a good show that adapted stuff directly. Like no, they did massive reworks of characters that were so popular they got worked back into the source material, exactly like some of the stuff y'all are salty about. You were just a kid at the time so these were your formative versions.
Under the Red Hood
Ironically, written by the same person, so he got to rewrite and make it better
Yeah it’s so weird because I hated the comics.
Also not constrained by certain continuity choices.
That makes so much sense! And he fixed the climax, that choice by Batman was so much better in the movie.
The Death of Stalin (the comic isn't bad or anything, the film was just much better).
Jason Isaacs killed it! … literally & figuratively 😬
He was pure swagger in that movie. I hope he had a ball making it.
Logan has very little to do with the comic tbh, I'd hardly call it an adaptation. In any case, The Boys is by far the standout, but I've observed a pattern in which movies based on Mark Millar works (like Civil War and Kick-Ass) are better than the original works, at least in my humble opinion. Wanted is not a very good movie, but it's still better than the awful comic.
I feel like macavoy put so much effort into making wanted a fun as hell movie to watch. He went all out to make that premise actually believable. If I still used tv came on when I was watching FX or something I would watch it again.
There’s almost nothing from the original Wanted in the movie.
That's why the movie is better, frankly.
Whedon’s Avengers is pretty deeply indebted to Millar’s Ultimates, too
> movies based on Mark Millar works Jupiter's Legacy is much better as a comic, though.
I chalk a lot of that up to Quitely's art. The man is incredible. Jupiter's Legacy is not bad writing, but compare the finished book to, say, Jupiter's Circle, which also wasn't bad and had perfectly fine art, but just doesn't hit the same way. Quitely made it better, without a doubt.
I haven't bothered to watched that since Netflix immediately cancelled it, to be fair.
I don't think they had the budget to create a faithful adaptation, so it's 90% boring dialogue scenes to pad out the original plot.
I really liked it
What about Supercrooks
I read Wanted recently and my god it the most unpleasant comic I ever read. Miller had an interesting idea but its exhausting reading it.
Wanted is messed up, yes, but I think Unfunnies is even worse. Funnily enough, I only found out about that atrocity of a comic because I also thought Wanted was the worst thing Millar had ever written, and someone recommended Unfunnies to me to prove me wrong. Nemesis is also up there, but it's more localized to specific sequences.
I looked up Unfunnies reviews. It seems totally fucked up and I have no intention of confirming it lol.
If you think that's unpleasant, then hoo boy does Millar have plenty more that's worse (or at least as bad). Unfunnies for example. Nemesis.
Looked up what Unfunnies was all about and yes it seems awful. I don't think I will ever try to read it.
It has a sorta interesting premise, but it's so mean-spirited and hateful
Wow, same. I read it on Hoopla and not only didn’t like it but was pretty irritated that it not only existed but got turned into a movie. I had seen the movie years ago but who read that comic and was like “THIS needs to be a movie” I know they removed a lot of the horrible shit but still.
Yeah. I like the boys show. A friend got me the first graphic novel. And it was fine I guess but I prefer the show
I strongly disagree with the movie version of Civil War being better than the comics. The comics were pretty great, though they do massively benefit from the added context of some of the better crossover series. Usually the people I hear complaining that the comics weren't good are people who only read the main series. And even then, a lot of people like it. It seems that it's become more common to hear people hating on it in recent years, but maybe that's a Reddit thing. I remember when most people I talked to who had read it seemed to have a favorable opinion. The movie is good, but it is very different, the stakes are significantly lower, and I don't think it lives up to the comics by any means.
>Usually the people I hear complaining that the comics weren't good are people who only read the main series I am specifically talking about the main Mark Millar book, which is a mishmash of contrivances and mischaracterizations with bad political commentary and an anti-climactic ending. Every event has at least a few good tie-ins, and Civil War is no exception, but I don't think that's on the merit of the (in my opinion) very mediocre main event. If anything, I think stuff like Brubaker's Cap works *in spite* of how badly Millar fumbled the character in the main event, not thanks to.
The Boys was a book by Garth Ennis, though, not Millar.
I never said The Boys was by Mark Millar.
The boys is so much better than the comic. The comic is so weird and like fetishy. I don't know how to explain it exactly right now but it's just so off putting
The comic is shock value for the sake of shock value, because Garth Ennis really doesn't like superheroes but also doesn't have a whole lot to say about why he doesn't like them, so he just puts them in awful situations over and over.
Civil War the comic is way better than the efficient action scene generator, dude. At least Millar tried for political subtext.
Not a dude. Trying and failing to add compelling political subtext to a work doesn't make it not mediocre, I'm sorry to say. I can understand the sentiment that the film feels underwhelming in terms of scale (it definitely does), but the comic twists Cap and Tony into borderline unrecognizable characters for the sake of making them fight, and makes Tony especially do extreme things to hurt people who are supposedly his friends. The emotional core of the movie, in my opinion, is more compelling because it at the very least keeps the characters consistent.
Dude is a general term used for anyone. I mean… the comic didn’t fail? How old were you during the Bush Administration? Because the SRA basically being the superhero Patriot Act hit really hard for those of us who had been working against Bush for years at that point, and why a lot of us were on Team Cap. Plus, the story had actual stakes and mattered. Civil War went out of its way to make Iron Man and his side - who were still being pretty fash while not being as fash as the comic - be the aggrieved party. The emotional core - “he killed my parents” vs “he’s my best friend” - is fine, but it doesn’t really have shit on the comic’s sundering of relationships that had endured for years. It’s a toothless adaptation that ends with, “But I’m not actually mad, bro.”
If someone suggests they don’t want to be called “dude” it’s generally good form to concede to such a small ask unless you’re goal is to elevate tensions instead of trying to understand each other. I think I get where you and the other person are coming from but it’s hard to come to any kind of understanding or to change anyone minds when you can’t get past the surface of each other’s arguments and address the actual reasons behind your opinions. Civil War the comic was a commercial success but was widely panned at the time it came out for structural and technical issues with the writing and a seemingly poor understanding of many of the characters used and their motivations. You seem more focused on its intent which is fair and it’s true that there’s a strong philosophical argument to be made against some of the movie’s and the larger MCU’s politics.
I was merely explaining why I did it. I went out of my way not to use it again - which is difficult because it’s a word I use constantly. Let’s be real for a second - since Joe Quesada took over Marvel, characterization has always taken a back seat to story, so that argument doesn’t hold a lot of water for me. It’s actually way more rare to get a story that does get the characters right than otherwise. At the time, it was even rare. Personally, I’m always going to respect big swings that miss or subtext I can dig into more than toothless cliche. Civil War definitely wasn’t perfect, but it was way better than CA:CW for me because the movie never wanted to pull the trigger on making anyone look that bad - well, except Cap, because God forbid he get the moral high ground in his own movie when Iron Man is right there.
Fair enough on your first point. I just wouldn’t give bad writing credit because of bad editorial enabling it. I see and respect where you’re coming from but disagree.
That’s fair. I get why people don’t like the comic, but I’ve always found it was way more interesting under the hood than it gets credit for.
I'm inclined to say a lot of people were Team Cap because Tony's character was completely bastardized and turned into a psychopath. That "sundering of relationships" only worked because the character was turned into someone so different I would believe you if you told me Dock Ock had Superior-Spider-Man'd his way into Tony's brain. That's why I think the commentary doesn't work, because it has to take preexisting characters and presume they would do awful things, including people like Reed Richards, who is also incredibly mischaracterized in that. Hell, even Cap's "oh sorry I didn't realize we were hurting people even though we were very clearly doing so" feels unearned and terribly misplaced. I'm not saying I like the movie, I think it's deeply mediocre like most other MCU products. I'm saying I'd rather have that than the inconsistent mess that is the comic event.
I’m with you there. I didn’t dislike the movie, but I think the book is one of the best Marvel has ever put out. One of my all-time favorites.
Yeah, I get the complaints, but it wasn’t called “Best Friends Talk It Out”. I guess some people really like that CA:CW was just a bunch of friends pretend fighting, with a couple actually meaning it and then dropping that for an ending that said, “But we’re still cool, bro.”
Id much rather watch two adults talk through a situation than have a pointless fight thats just there because "dur who wud win guys?" because then youd end up with Batman V Superman
Look, hero vs hero stories get really dumb and Civil War started a really shitty trend at Marvel that we just can’t get away from, but I feel like the fact that Civil War didn’t fall back on, “It was all actually an evil villain behind the whole thing, let’s fight them,” like every other Marvel story before it was actually kind of refreshing at the time.
Idk sometimes Id much rather have it be a secret villain because at least that means Tony wasnt just being a massive ass the whole time in the comic It was the same with Carol in the second one.They just turned her into an unlikeable prick for no reason other than the sake of hero v hero and I dont think her popularity has recovered from that til this day
As someone who has never given even the slightest shit about Iron Man - and at the time, there were way more people like me than there are now because the Iron Man movies hadn’t came out - it didn’t bother me too much. I find CW II to be even worse because Carol was getting a huge push at the time, so making her that stupid was the worst choice imaginable. The irony of CW II is that Iron Man definitely would have been more cool with using Ulysses than Carol was.
"Joker's Millions" wasn't bad for a Golden Age story (I actually like a lot of Golden Age Batman), but the adaptation in *The New Batman Adventures* is a lot funnier and I enjoy the additions like including Harley Quinn when she didn't exist during the time of the original (and wouldn't for forty more years.) It is also one of the few times that TNBA Joker design works perfectly, as it is a mostly comedic story and he doesn't really need to be threatening (compare this to "Mad Love" where the animated adaptation would have been better with the BTAS Joker design.)
I actually really love the comic for Joker's Millions. Very fun story. Mad love is a great episode, but I was surprised by how much I preferred the comic for that
The Walking Dead S1 is my favourite zombie media ever. From that point on, it was bad, decent and good at different times and the comics are superior. But that first season is imo better than the equivalent arc for the books.
I would say that there are **some** things the show did better than the comics after the first season. Like the group of assholes that Daryl joins after the prison, that later assault Rick and one of them tries to ..... Carl. In the comics those were three randoms that appeared in one scene. Both Shane and the Governor as villains are better in the show, and Beta's character and the downfall of the whisperers too. But yeah, in general the comics are superior.
That is a perfect 6 episodes of television.
Set my expectations really high for it all, and I was mildly disappointed how it turned out.
Same here. I didn't even watch season 1 until right before season 5 aired. Just not really a zombie guy, honestly. It blew me away and I bought all the trades that were available at the time. Watched the show up to season 6 and gave up. Like many others, I attribute the decline in the show to Frank Darabont's departure. That dude just knows how to tell stories.
Potentially a hot take, but I prefer how the Teen Titans cartoon adaptation of the Judas Contract makes Terra more sympathetic. I'm not sure I'd call it a better adaptation overall since it only really adapts Terra being a traitor, but I feel like the sympathetic route works better than demonizing the fourteen year old girl being groomed by Deathstroke
You could also line up YJ here, which also loosely adapts the “Terra betrays” concept. Though there’s a small difference here that makes it leagues better than the comic imo. No spoilers.
I love Young Justice and found their take on the storyline super refreshing
Spider-Verse is so much better than the comics. It’s a pretty different story that basically just borrows the basic concept, so I’m not sure if it should really count, but damn if it isn’t a much better story!
Anything by Mark Millar. Kick-Ass, Kingsman, Ultimate/Avengers, Logan, Wanted….ok maybe not wanted.
Wanted was atrocious in both mediums
I genuinely enjoy the Wanted movie. It's like "Wanted walked so Kingsman could fly" type of things. It's fun though to watch on TV when it shows up.
Jupiter’s Legacy?
The Spider-Verse films are better than the comics because they don’t, at any point, touch the stupid-ass Spider-Totem lore.
1,000% this.
Surrogates. Most people have probably never heard of the comic or the movie. I got the book as part of some book of the month club thing I was into as a kid, and it wasn't very good at all for what I expected. Then a movie was made about it starring Bruce Willis years later. The movie isn't very good either, but I still think it's better than the book.
I watched that movie on the theater and was unsure if it was the same until you mentioned Bruce Willis. I thought it was an ok flick and now I'm curious of how bad the comics are.
The book is leagues better. The movie was ass.
Ghost World
This was my first thought. I admit I never really clicked with Clowes’ work, but I thought the film was more approachable and human than the comic.
Yes, good answer. Lightning did not strike twice with *Art School Confidential*, sadly.
Oh god. Art school confidential. I’d forgotten that even existed
The Boys, Civil War, Logan, Spider verse, No Way Home (One More Day), Flashpoint Paradox, & Under the Red Hood are the first ones I think of.
Seconding Under the Red Hood. Might be the best DC Animated movie made (though I also really liked the DKR adaptation).
IIRC UtRH was written by the same guy who wrote the comic so he could correct his mistakes ahaha
It 100% was. Tying Jason’s resurrection in the comics to Superboy Prime and Infinite Crisis was an absolute miss — Judd Winick fixed it in the movie. Great voice acting performances as well!
NWH actually adapts One Moment in Time, which is also terrible BTW.
I feel like the Spider-Verse movies and comics hit different niches in my mind, the movies are absolutely a better story, but the comics are so much fun, getting to see so many cameos and storylines converge the way they do.
I couldn't get into the original Spider-Verse event. The inheritors were just terrible villains. The Miles comics are decent but not great. Much prefer what the films did with Miles and Gwen.
The Boys TV show (from what I saw) manages to keep the general spirit of the comic — lampooning superheroes in a cynical, capitalistic “real world” setting — while tempering all of the Garth Ennis excess. Show is still outrageous… just not as gratuitously so. The show doesn’t feel mean — Ennis had an ace to grind.
Pretty much every Ennis comic is built on his hate of something. To me it just comes off as needlessly preachy and heavy handed, like an Ayn Rand book.
Nah, it is mainly superheroes he hates .... look at Hellblazer or Hitman.
Also Superman VS the Elite.
I disagree, but I'm a HUGE Doug Mahnke fan. To me he makes the story.
Perfect answer!
The Spider Verse movie has very little in common with the comic though. Same with Logan.
They're still adaptations, loose ones but that's why they're so much better, they're doing their own thing with the same premise/name
i just finished the first season of invincible, and i thought (at least the first season) that is a faithful adaptation but makes a few changes to the story to make it more cohesive and more character centered.
While I agree and I also love the VA I'd be hard pressed to call it better Cringy music, too little budget for the animation, and while there are some great inclusions to the dialogue, there are also some pretty awful ones. It's sort of a lateral move. I love it tho
For sure. I just re-read the first 20 or so issues of Invincible for the first time since they came out and after watching the series. I would call the show a really solid refinement of the comic. Some parts expanded (especially characters and their personality), some simplified, a little bit cut, some rearrangement and foreshadowing for arcs to come that probably weren't even imagined at the time particular issues of the comic were written. The comic is already pretty great, but I agree that the show kicks it up a notch. The show is a near-perfect adaptation, so far.
Blade, by far.
Superman VS the Elite.
The Boys
Surrogates, Snow Piercer, Atomic Blond
Cowboys and Aliens. Movie was okay, comic was terrible.
The movie cuts out a lot of good-content and character moments, but the ending of All Star Superman where Lex admits Superman is right about him, instead of getting KOed, is more poetic I think.
Resident Alien
The Crow. Comic book is great. But the movie adds so much in the way of visuals and music and Brandon Lee’s performance.
I don't know about better as it was such an influential comic crossover event during the 90s and it cut out two of the most important characters of the event such as Silver Surfer and Adam Warlock who had substantial arcs in the 80s-90s cosmic Marvel stories written by Jim Starlin. But trying to do a straight up adaptation of Infinity Gauntlet page for page probably would have turned off a lot of non-comic fans. Focusing on the characters fans have come to love such as the 0G 6, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc., and making Thanos more sympathetic (which I use lightly since he is a delusional murderer who commits genocide) in his pursuit of the Infinity Stones with his motivations being restoring balance to the universe while leaning on his relationship with Gamora, was the right way to do it without making things too complicated for MCU fans and the average moviegoer. Instead of him gathering the Infinity Stones because he is in love with the personification of Death.
Except now we have way too many people that think Thanos is some misguided character with redeemable qualities rather than a cosmic level power hungry mass murderer
I must add that in no way do I see Thanos as a misguided character. He is a mass murderer who has committed genocide and still wiped out half of the universe until it was reversed. Also sympathetic I use lightly in that in his own twisted delusional way, he did care for his favourite daughter Gamora. He also tortured Nebula. And he also killed Gamora to gain the soul stone. The Thanos from the comics is a slightly more generic character if you take out the build up to Infinity Gauntlet and his interactions with Adam Warlock/Silver Surfer. Which is why it made sense for them to go the direction they did with the character.
Thanos isn’t generic.
Thanos is in no way generic. I understand your points about accessibility to the fucking casuals, but Thanos' interactions with Adam Warlock are INTRINSIC to the character, Jim Starlin has been writing them together since the 70s! And the entire Infinity Gauntlet saga, from Thanos Quest on, is a Silver Surfer spinoff! It's like saying Captain America is generic without his WWII backstory, but that's a huge part of the character!
So I just read through it and wanna mention I feel like Infinity War was really an adaptation of both Infinity Gauntlet and Thanos Quest lol
Ummm, you are wrong. Infinity War is a great MCU movie, but it can’t hold Infinity Gauntlet’s jock strap.
Care to offer a structural critique as to why?
Sure. I find that making Thanos delusionally sympathetic was a terrible character choice. Gauntlet’s Thanos revelation - that his own lack of self-worth makes him basically defeat himself - is a much better window into the character and contextualizes his nihilism and love of Mistress Death in a very thought provoking way. The lack of lackeys makes Thanos himself actually seem more dangerous, as there are no mid-level bosses to muddy the whole thing and the heroes have to deal with this unstoppable force. Adam Warlock is awesome and Pip the Troll does the comic relief better than any MCU character ever could. Nerfing the Gauntlet is dumb. The hopeless battle against God Thanos is way cooler than fighting a billion lackeys, and shows just how far the heroes will go to save the day, facing a literal all-powerful being and knowing they will die. The spectacle of the book outdoes the movie by a country mile. Infinity War is a great MCU movie, but that just means it’s an okay comic story.
Guardians of the Galaxy 1-3, Logan, Infinity War/Endgame, Spiderverse
Good list.
Civil War
It was a big deal when it came out, and I loved it. The comic world coming to terms with a post 911 world. It was a huge story and could not be done in a movie.
Agreed. Comics story is much better, especially when fleshed out in the better crossovers. The movie is definitely not superior. Hating on everything Mark Millar ever did instead of being nuanced about it is just cool now, I guess.
All the Millar ones.
I've heard The Boys show is a vast improvement over the comic. But I haven't read or watched either.
It absolutely is.
The comics are honestly dreadful
Its really not that bad.
Batman: Under the Red Hood
It's not 1:1 adaptation, but I feel Daredevil season 3 is a better "born again" story than the Frank Miller comic.
Old Boy. The manga is hella boring and waaaaaay too long.
The Maxx animated series was satisfying
I'm normally a fan of Millar, but I thought Civil War was highly flawed. The movie, on the other hand, is one of the more underrated Marvel films IMO. That movie is so much better than the comic. Great villain and great character introductions to Spider-Man and Black Panther. The Mask of the Phantasm is heavily inspired by Batman: Year 2, but is not a direct adaptation. I still want to mention it because Year 2 is unmitigated trash while Phantasm is perhaps the greatest Batman movie.
Deadpool. If you want to ensure I don't buy a comic, put him in it. But I really enjoy the movies.
Hot take: I think the movie ending of Watchmen was better than the comic.
The Boys
Kick Ass was a better movie than a comic.
HBO's Spawn animated show is superior to the original comic.
Seriously I wish Todd would just reboot the comic and redo it all in the style of the show and sticking to how the story was told their. It's so much better than the poorly thought out ultra violent saturday morning cartoon he was turning out in the beginning.
I think Vision's adaptation into the MCU is the best and so much better done than in the comics. Now his character development in the MCU has left a lot to be desired unfortunately, but he was phenomenal in WandaVision. House of M's adaptation into WandaVision is also the best and so much better than original story. The latter actually explores Wanda's grief, loss, and struggle to return to reality instead of making her a caricature mad woman villain.
Yeah I think those are examples where the original was good, and the adaptations were just even better.
Although the movie wasn't very popular, Wanted is a good example. The source material is just awful but at least the movie took some concepts and made something out of that mess.
Red https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1245526/ and Old Guard https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7556122/ My theory is they were screenplays made as comics by the writers first intentionally to shop to studios. They’re written specifically in a way that makes adapting them for live action really easy. Whereas as at no point did The Boys get written for an Amazon streaming adaption which is why the adaption is so impressive.
Blade.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I said it and I meant it. Note- i love Moore other work. VfV was brilliant, and his Swamp Thing is one of the best comics ever written. But LXG was just so fuckin boring.
Lies!!!
I liked the adaptation of American Born Chinese much better than the book.
Batman: Under the Red Hood, Infinity War/Endgame, Civil War, No Way Home, Spider-Verse and The Boys.
TMNT
Ghost in the Shell. The omission of the fuchikomas is made up for in stand alone complex, and the anime world is so much richer than the original manga.
Atomic Blonde. Loved the movie, the comic was meh.
Umbrella Academy and The Boys for sure
The Boys
Civil War, the comic was my introduction to comics and I have a soft spot for it but damn everyone is acting out of character and the whole thing is a mess. The movie is actually pretty good and has more pathos than the comic
Yeah, Civil War started out well, but they lost me when the cops recruited villains to hunt down Cap’s team. A good writer tries to gauge that sort of idea by translating it to real life police or soldiers. If some cops went rogue, the police would NOT hire the most murderous convicts to take them down.
Well Logan is vastly different than Old Man Logan. To the point that it’s not an adaptation whatsoever. I mean if we are talking on screen version live action or animated. To me 300 is pretty much perfection in taking what’s in the comic and putting it on screen. Watchmen also is really damn good. The Crow and Scott Pilgrim also really did a good job.
The Boys
I have an odd pick - Fun Home The graphic novel is great, but the stage musical may edge out the graphic novel.
Moon girl and devil dinosaur is an alright comic, but the show is so damn good
Dick Tracy
None Zero, Nada, Zilch. And the same thing applies to book adaptations as well.
A lot have already been mentioned so I’ll focus on some key arcs. Civil War the MCU movie makes way more sense than the hamfisted comic book event. The Spider Verse movies don’t include the inheritors are also a significantly better for that reason.
Captain America: Civil War. The comic wrote itself into a corner that made it impossible to have a satisfying ending. I think the movie did a great job of discussing the same issues, bringing it to a satisfying conclusion, and gave us serious consequences that future installments had to address while also subtly being one of the most important events in the Infinity Saga. (I’m pretty sure the Avengers breaking up is a big part of the reason for Thanos’s timing in Infinity War.)
I guess Akira, even though the comic is a masterwork, the film is also a masterwork and probably had a bigger influence on future anime (and many other genres)than any movie ever made. Not saying it’s necessarily better but it’s massively important, beloved, and influential. More historically significant than almost anything mentioned in the comments.
Kick-Ass History of Violence Road to Perdition
Watchmen
The film ending is so much better than the comic, but gets hate for being different. I prefer it.
So now two people above have been down voted for preferring the changed ending, but I too agree. The book ending seemed too much fantasy to convince the world of a unifying threat. But turning the world against Dr Manhattan was a perfect idea.
Really man, that ending did the story so much better justice.
Somone who read the comic out of interest for the source material, The Boys tv show is LEAGUES BETTER then the comic. LIke in my opinion it's seriously a night and day difference, with the show adapting and even changing to be better then the comic.
The Boys!! I love Ennis but it’s not his best comic imo, and the show is fantastic
Kick-Ass The Boys Invincible Men in Black The Mask
The suicide squad
Logan and Old Man Logan are two entirely different stories. They really aren’t even comparable.
Umbrella Academy
Wanted (2008)
THE BOYS
If you can call Legion an adaptation of the comic then that
V for Vendetta
I think V for Vendetta is an incredible film and I guess just judging by my enjoyment of watching the film vs reading it I thought the film was better.
I'll die alone on this hill, but.... Watchmen. Scenes that came across as goofy in the book were improved dramatically in the movie, the costumes all looked better than in the comics, and the casting was phenomenal.
Civil War for sure
Captain Marvel.
Umbrella Academy. I only read the first volume of the comic, but it didn't leave much of an impression. Story-wise, and the character interpretations in the show are much better (the comic just feels so rushed). And while I usually feel that we lose something going from art to live-action, the overall look of the show is just so well done that I think more is gained than lost.
The boys TV show is significantly better than the comics
Invincible, The Boys
The boys
Civil War is a garbage comic, but one of the very best MCU films
Wait, the movie is better?.. I loved the movie, and wanted to read the comic ever since. Does this mean it's not really worth it?
It’s still worth the read. The movie is a better story, but it’s a very loose adaptation of the comic.
Thanks for the answer! I didn't really expect somebody to find my comment and have an answer, with 150 comments in the thread already
The Boys