RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books What do you think of TV show that differ from the comics

One notable example is X-men: Evolution where some senior X-Men like Scott & Jean are still students, and Storm is one of the instructors.

I actually haven't watched X-Men: Evolution more than a few times, but, in general, I don't mind this sort of thing so much.

Most of the comic book characters I'm familiar with have gone through multiple incarnations just in the comics -- it's sort of given that characters will change through time to reflect current tastes.

I'm usually happy as long as the characters that I like are still compelling and interesting in their new incarnation (whether it be TV, movie, etc.), even if they're substantially different. What really gets me is when a multi-faceted character gets reinvented as someone who's completely boring and/or cliched (though unlikable I can stomach, so long as there's something else of the personality there to keep me coming back)...

I have no problem with TV shows changing continuity from the comics to tell their stories... but I see no reason why comics have to become like the TV shows and alter their continuity to be more like them.

Depends. If Smallville alters things but is true to the core character then I can accept and enjoy it. If Birds of Prey alters the characters so they're not even the same characters anymore than I hope it gets cancelled.

I think quite often it's a good idea otherwise the TV show is held back by the comic in a way. Although I do object to comics being altered to look more like their TV shows.

It depends on how well it works. If it's done creatively and is able to give us a good story, I have no problem with changing continuity or whatnot. If it's done haphazrdly, or just because "it would be cool this way," it doesn't work.

Depends on the level of differentiation. If it's done for its own sake and disrespects the source material, then it's bad.

If it's done in a way that enhances the material and pays honor to it while presenting it in a fresh light, then it's fine by me.

I LOVED LOis And Clark : The New Adventures of Superman.

Smallville is pretty darn good!

I used to feel TV shows/Cartoons should NOT dare stray from the comics they are based on, but now I'm glad they DO.

To Elaborate a BIT more on my Previous post here:

It is NOT fun to simply have TV shows and adhere 100% to the comics they are based on.

X Men Evolution is NOT like the Comics, I agree..
and I am glad of it. The show is done quite well!

When I was a kid in 1966, and the very first Fantastic Four cartoon was on Saturday mornings, I was turned off becuase it wasn't JUST like the comic book. When they were on Boomerang up till recently, I'd watch them. I got to like a Lot.

The New Adventures of Batman & Superman...and The Justice League cartoons are not much like the stories from the comics they are based on, and they are done VERY well!! Plenty of action, plot and characterization. Fresh, new, and fun.

all for now.

It's true... Batman stories were just like the old sixties Batman show.

In one issue back then, Batman & Robin were trapped..rolled up in a couple of huge carpets.

Batman escaped the " Carpet of Doom " bit by breaking one of his finger nails and using it to cut his way out of the carpet and then freeing Robin.

I'm not kidding. I don't remember the issue number, but they really did things like that in Batman comics back then.

BATMAN comics had long used gimmicky ideas and outrageous situations. What the comics didn't tend to be was deliberately funny, which the show definitely was. My understanding is that Hugh Hefner was running the 1943 BATMAN serial at the Playboy Mansion, and it inspired such laughs that William Dozier thought it would be good to do something like that, and REALLY push the humor level.

Some time back I read an article about the SAM SPADE radio show, which starred Howard Duff, and was EXTREMELY popular in the 40's & 50's. It seems the longer the show was on the air, the scripts kept getting wilder, more outrageous, more hilarious. It was described as having an apparent influence on the later ROCKY & BULLWINKLE in its approach to humor-- you had a "serious" story for those who wanted it, but the dialogue had multiple meanings and was funny as hell. It could be enjoyed by several completely different audiences as a result-- which is how the '66 BATMAN show was when it started. (Of course, after the 1st year, it degenerated into a sitcom and any pretense of drama, suspense, mood, character, just fell by the wayside.)

Meanwhile... the '67 FANTASTIC FOUR cartoons were (along with the '67 SPIDER-MAN cartoons) my introduction to Marvel Comics. Despite the F.F. not having the budget it deserved, it still had a unique look and better writing than on any other Saturday morning cartoon show. Later I discovered this was because most (sadly, not all) of the stories were adaptations of actual Lee-Kirby comic-book stories, even using ACTUAL dialogue & designs here and there. I'm SURE it could have been even better-- but as it was, it was the best "advertisement" the books could ever have had.

My dream project, of course, would be to see an F.F. cartoon series where all of the Lee-Kirby comics would be adapted, one issue per episode, in sequence, with as much of the original dialogue intact as possible. If they can do it with Shakespeare and Arthur Conan Doyle, WHY NOT Lee & Kirby?

profhOO1 : Hmmmmm...ALL the old Lee - Kirby FF episodes made faithfully into cartoons..That could work!

They should only plan to do those up to about issue 100 or so, assuming it lasts that many seasons....The BEST Fantastic Four stories were from the first 100 issues..I think Jack left the FF after that.

When Jack left, he took the magic that was the FF with him.

Several other cartoons I enjoyed from the 60's that were NOT comics published in the US were Astroboy, Prince Planet, Eigth Man, Speed Racer and Marine Boy.

Yep. Jack did 109 issues of the FF (including 6 annuals and one story Stan held back and totally screwed with). The last year of the book were mostly single-issue stories, written entirely by Stan, because Jack got fed up with Stan refusing to let him write things on his own or get credit for all the writing he was doing. Sadly, Jack's last issues on both F.F. and THOR were the beginnings of multi-part stories! No wonder Stan was so shocked when he got the phone call over the weekend that Jack had gone to DC!

I also think a cartoon can and should use the art as the "storyboards". Both the '67 Marvel cartoons (F.F. and SPIDER-MAN) used some actual comic-book designs here and there, but they didn't take it far enough. The original Grantray-Lawrence MARVEL SUPER-HEROES SHOW has been lambasted for using comic-book panels and almost no animation. But imagine if they did what they did WITH full animation added. Jack Kirby could well have been a production designer for sci-fi movies. Why should anyone doing a cartoon based on his work waste time re-designing anything? It's all there already!

There's also the story about when Stan called John Romita in to tell him he was pulling Romita OFF of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN for a while so he could pencil FANTASTIC FOUR. John asked him, incredulously, "You mean, you aren't gonna CANCEL the book??" I love John's work-- but his F.F. was PATHETIC on every single level. Having only recently acquired most of Stan's post-Kirby F.F. run, I also feel that Stan, on his own, had NO IDEA what he was doing on that book. (Nor did Roy Thomas, John Buscema, Gerry Conway... it didn't start to get readable again at all until Rich Buckler came along, and Roy returned-- his 2nd run was a HUGE improvement over his 1st. That's a long time for any book to be that bad-- and it's been EVEN WORSE quite a few times, since! Such a sad state for my #1 favorite superhero series to fall to!)

We have the SUPERMAN radio show to thank for his being able to FLY. We can "thank" the 1948 serial BATMAN AND ROBIN for the existence of Vicki Vale. The phase "Compliments of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man", which never really was used much in the comics, didn't appear until about 6 years AFTER it debuted on the 1967 SPIDER-MAN cartoons. And of course, Krypton being a cold, barren, inhuman place came from the 1978 SUPERMAN movie, 8 years before John Byrne decided to take the concept even further.

profhoo1 : Though the Legion Of Super heroes was the VERY first comic book I recall reading in 1964 ( I was about 6 or 7 yrs old, depending on how long it hd been 1964. ) but the Fantastic Four was the SECOND comic I discovered. I think the first issue was the Hulk vs The FF AND the Avengers,
about issue #25. Man, was I impressed!!!!!!

I stuck with the FF up til about issue 120, after that, without Jack " the King " Kirby, the book seemed to hit the proverbial iceberg... glub, glub...

Thanks to reprints, I was able to read the first 24 issues I'd missed. AWESOME!!!!

I don't understand why Stan Lee wouldn't let Jack Kirby get credit for writing FF stuff.

Ego...Musta been Ego. ( no, NOT the Living Planet, either! )

Now, I have the first Three Essential Fantastic Four volumes. Any word on Number # 4????

The memories they brought back!! The very FIRST Galactus story! The very first encounter with the Inhumans!! Maximus the Mad! Johnny Storm's battle with the Original Human Torch!!!

The Red Ghost and his Super Apes! The Mole man!!
And of course....Doctor Doom!!!

It was so very new, and so very fresh. That era can NEVER happen again, like when the Beatles first came to America in Feb. 1964...and their albums, Hard Day's Night, Beatles 65, Help, Rubber Soul, Revolver....

Maybe that era was special to those of us growing up then because it was just THAT...The Era we grew up in.

Do you remember the short lived Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor cartoons from 1967??

Too bad their was not an Avengers cartoon, though as I recall, they guest starred in the first Captain America Cartoon.

The X men : evolution was a GREAT series!!

All for now.

I generally prefer the show not to have too much of a tie to comics continuity. I'd rather watch X-Men Evolution that read the current comics, because I still like the concept of the X-Men, but I have no connection to the comic versions anymore since I'm about fifteen years behind the times. The show is building it's own continuity, which is okay although it makes it tough when you miss an episode. For that reason, I almost prefer the "Justice League" model, which consists of mostly free standing stories.