Adaptations & CapMo "merchandize"

Adaptations

Okay, so I want to talk a little about movie adaptations, those based on comic books of course. This could very well end up getting pretty long, but bear with me, worth the time I think. It’s more or less common knowledge that whenever a book, a play, comic or pretty much anything being adapted, is turned into a movie, changes are bound to occur. And to be fair, in some cases it’s definitely for the better. Hugh Jackman might have been hard to take seriously if wearing Wolverine’s original yellow/blue costume in any of the X movies. That’s one example of how changes can be for the better, mostly because there simply are some things that work in print, but not in a movie. Unfortunately, examples of changes for the better are few and changes for worse are PLENTY. I’ll start with the Marvel character Nick Fury, director of the peacekeeping organization S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate). He has appeared so far in 5 of Marvel’s films and has a larger role in the upcoming the Avengers. In the original Marvel universe, Nick Fury looks like the picture on the left, but in these films, he’s portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson. Now, just to make it clear, it is NOT a matter of race or anything like that. The color of a person’s skin really couldn’t matter less to me, this is about staying true to the source material. Though it has been argued that since films and written fiction are two completely different Medias, they should be treated as such and one shouldn’t be concerned with sticking to the original material.  Personally, I beg to differ. As a fan and reader of the originals, I prefer films based on comics (or books/videogames etc.) to be as true to them as possible. Because to me, it’s about something I’ve loved since I was a kid, “coming to life” on the big screen. Mr. Jackson does portray a great Nick Fury and in the case of this character, Marvel simply decided to base him on the Ultimate universe (alternate reality in the Marvel multiverse) version. Compared to the, to say the least, embarrassing attempt David Hasselhoff made in 1998 to play Fury, Samuel Jackson is definitely preferable. 


Even before the movie premiered, some, evidently, small minded people took offense to the fact that the Nordic god Heimdal was played by African-American actor Idris Elba. I remember thinking “who the “¤% are you guys to define how a Nordic god looks?” I mean, I’m the guy living here where the Nordic myths originated and I, among others I’ve discussed this with, don’t have a problem with it. Why would you? I don’t know why they decided to do it like that, but it doesn’t bother me, who cares right? Elba did a nice job; Thor was a good movie, and in case it was lost on you, Tom Hiddleston was frickin awesome as Loki, end of discussion!!! 

Sadly though, one can’t help but consider if there’s a less positive reason for changes such as Heimdals skin color. It’s normal that movies which are meant to hit as wide a target group as possible are politically correct to avoid alienating anyone. In order to achieve this, the concept of “token African-American guy” is regrettably common within any genre. Again, I don’t mind how Heimdal was portrayed at all, I just think it would be a better thing to adapt a character such as Black Panther or Luke Cage and give them their own movie… Denzel Washington might be a little too old by now to play T’challa/Black Panther, but damn, that would be AMAZING :D. And I’m happy to say, that both Black Panther and Luke Cage are being talked about, hopefully it’s only a matter of time. 

In short, don’t change the original material unless you have a really good reason to do so… And honestly, I think the concept of a “token African-American guy” does more damage than good since it, the way I see it, only upholds racism and reminds everyone of times when things were even worse, thusly slowing any sort of improvement.

CapMoComics "Merchandize" 

Recently, my close and best friend returned from vacation with her boyfriend, also a good friend of mine.  On one of the Canary Islands, she’d found a place that engraved lighters and had the one made shown on the picture… Pure AWESOMENESS :D, spotting part of the name of the blog and Captain America’s shield. It’s pretty funny having this sort of “merchandize” of something you’ve made yourself, lots of thanks to my sis for that J

While writing this and thinking of movie adaptations, I remembered the fact that Tintin came out a couple of months ago. A change that was made was that Tintin’s good friend Captain Haddock isn’t smoking in the film. This made me think of a lot of stuff both concerning the comic book world, the real world and how things like smoking are often changed to please the majority. It spurred a lot of stuff so a new posting will soon be here on the topic. And to be clear, I’m not going to advocate that anybody should smoke, it’s really more about personal freedom and the ability to make decisions as an individual instead of someone else deciding what’s best for you. Big words, I know, I’m going to do my best to justify them.

Mo