Turning a comic book into a movie has many challenges, and one of the biggest ones is coming up with the “look” of the characters. Many comic fans want the screen version of the heroes to be EXACTLY the same as they are in the comics. From a purist point of view I can understand the desire to see the characters as they imagine them… but in reality MANY great comic characters would just look silly on the big screen as they are portrayed in ink. Can you imagine Wolverine in X-Men wearing the tight yellow spandex?!?! Looks great in the comic book… but it would have just been laughable in the film. So it’s important for a film maker to come up with a good look for the characters while staying true to the essence of who they are.
I was a bit surprised by some peoples reactions to the look of The Thing in the new Fantastic four movie. Some people commented they didn’t like it, the eyebrows aren’t right, he should be smoking a cigar… ect. ect. ect. I think too many people want him to look EXACTLY like he does in the comic… and that just doesn’t always work. In the case of The Thing it’s also not very practical. With that in mind, I thought the look for The Thing was fantastic and I can’t wait to see him in action.
Look at Batman for a minute too. To be honest, the Adam West costume of the 60’s TV show is a lot closer to the comic than Burton’s 1989 movie version… but the movie version just worked a lot better for the movie.
Some characters do lend themselves to ink and screen. Spider-Man for instance. The Hulk. Hellboy. But others need to be adapted to work properly. What do you think?
