Why do most Superhero movies not follow the original comic stories?

Question

Watch the original Batman movie. At the end of that film, the Joker dies from a fall. But in the comics, the Joker stays alive after being in instances where he should die. In Batman: Forever it was revealed that Batgirl (can't remember the character's name) was Alfred's niece. But in the comics, Batgirl is Commissioner Gordon's daughter. In the last X-Men movie, Professor Xavier, Cyclops and Jean Grey (Phoenix) all die. But in the comics, they all stay alive. What gives? I know the directors can make whatever movie they want, but changing the original story around makes no sense. Can anyone help me with this? Thanx.

Answer 1

First off, the cinema is a different medium, with its own syle of storytelling. This explains why they sometimes have to change or adapt ideas to fit into film.

Secondly, your examples all have examples in the very comics that show these to "follow the original comic stories". In the Joker's first appearance in Batman#1, he also fell to his death, and has appeared to die, only to return, many times in the almost 70 years of Batman's history.
While Batgirl has never been shown as being Alfred's daughter, there have been at least 2 other "Batgirl's" in Batman comics, the first was the sidekick of Batwoman and was not Barbra Gordon. This establishes that there are and could be many different Batgirl's.
And in the X-men comics, all three characters you mentioned have died, sometimes multiple times. This is totally in line with the general soap opera feel of the X-Men storylines.
There is no "true" version of any of these characters anyways. There are and have been multiple versions of the X-men (Ultimate, Astonishing, New ,Uncanny, etc) , Batman (Beyond, Year One, Dark Knight Returns, Silver or Golden Age, etc) Superman (Superboy, Earth One, Earth Two, Kingdom Come, Post Crisis etc) and Spiderman (Ultimate, 2099, Mangaverse, 616, etc) to name a few. None of these characters have quite the same origins or back stories
In short, the filmakers are trying to take the inspiration of comics, read by thousands, and make it appeal to millions. sometimes it works like Spiderman, which changed many minor details but still remained true to the character. Sometimes it flops like Hulk, where they tried to put the character in a middle ground between the show and comics, but finally just managed to alienate fans of both.

Answer 2

The reason that movies generally don't follow comics and books to a "T" is because not everyone reads them. In order to reach a wider audience directors have to cut some stuff and add some stuff in order for people new to the genre can come in and understand what is going on. Some of the content in comic books are too unbelievable to some. Take Spider-man 3, the black suit that Spider-man obtains actually came from outer space and Spidey obtained this during the Secret Wars by accident. The idea that there is a higher being, not God, is watching over the earth and called upon all of Earth's greatest heroes to defend their planet is just plain stupid to some people. In general the public will except the idea that an alian life form was brought back from outer space over the latter. Not all comic book movies veer off track that much though. Sin City is almost page by page to the graphic novels. I think that Rodriguez got it right by trying to make a movie into a comic book as it should be. It stayed true to the comics and it was a great film too. Hollywood has gone to the geeks the last few years and things will get better or they will produce crappy movies and they will slowly inch out of the comic book genre. Personally I have enjoyed most of the comic films of recent, Batman has been dragged through the mud a few times, but all in all X-men, Spider-man, Sin City, V, Fantastic 4, Batman, Superman, and any others of late have been pretty decent. Well X3 was kinda stinko but what can ya do!? It all comes down to the all mighty dollar and what the movie companies and directors think will fill seats.

Answer 3

Because a movie has to appeal to a broader audience than just hard-core comic fans. If it doesn't appeal to average non-comic readers, it won't make enough money to justify the production costs. So things get changed to make it easier to follow.

Also, movies have to condense what is often several months of storyline into a 2-hour block. It's not easy unless you change some things, sometimes eliminating characters. You don't have the luxury of spending lots of time to be slowly introducing characters and just hinting at what will happen 4 issues later.

I mean, the Jean Grey/Phoenix story in X3 wasn't too bad, but wasn't nearly as good as what was originally written in the comics. They had to simplify it because to cover everything, the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy would have looked like a short film by comparison. Meanwhile, they took a bunch of the "mutant cure" storyline from Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men books, which took place after Jean already died.

Answer 4

Great question. Here's one possibility:

Movies are a medium with limited time. Most movies are less than two hours, tops. Movie writers and directors want to pack as much emotional punch in that time as they can. One of the easier ways to accomplish that is to include the death of a character the viewers have an emotional interest in, even the bad guys. (By the way, if you stayed until after the credits in X3, you saw that Professor X is still alive).

Comics, on the other hand, are ongoing periodicals. The characters are (usually) going to come back month after month after month. When somebody dies, they typically come back. In addition, the number of monthly stories pile up quickly. This causes characters to accumulate a ton of history, much of it confusing (does anybody TRULY understand the DC Universe right now??).

So, when a movie is made based on a comic book, the movie's creative team must distill years of stories into an hour and a half of cohesive entertainment. They have to make sure there is enough Hollywood drama and suspense. And that usually means coming up with original stories and supporting characters while changing comic book continuity.

Answer 5

Because comics are comics and movies are movies. Comics are created in a certain way and they are enjoyed by their readers in a certain way, while movies/anime shows are created in a specific way and are enjoyed by their viewers in a certain way.

I mean, if you want to spend a relaxing evening at home, and you pick up a comic, sit on the couch and let the TV background noise play... It's a totally different atmosphere than the one you are surrounded by when you watch the movie. The comics are supposed to create one type of atmosphere and get you in a certain mood, while the movies create a different type of atmosphere and generate a different mood. Sorry for rambling. But it's true, sometimes comics lack something that a good movie should have. So when you decide to create a comic that follows a movie or create a movie based on a comic, changes are required.

However, it's not the original plot and the scheme of the plot that should be changed, just the way the plot is expressed.

Answer 6

There are lots of reasons they change the story.

Movies are only so long and there has to be a definent beginning, middle, and end to each one. Comics are a lot more spread out in comparison.

Then there's the problem of hiring actors. It's a lot easier to hire an actor to do one movie than expect him or her to do several, so it's easier to kill a villain off than it is to have them stay alive.

Also, there are the writers to consider. Sure, you want the general feel and story to remain intact, but how much fun is it for the storytellers if all they are allowed to do is make minor adjustments? Yeah, you don't want them to have free reigns, but it's better to give them some flexibility to put a bit of themselves into the script.

Personally, I don't mind seeing different takes on the same story. Storytellers have been doing it for years. The Japanese do it all the time. I think it's more interesting than just seeing the same story as the comic, simply translated to screen.

Also, I could be mistaken, but aren't there several versions of the Batman comics?

Answer 7

That's a great question. I think it's because the directors "assume" that changes have to be made to make the movies more appealling to a wider audience. Fans are still complaining about the many changes made to their favorite characters, from Spider-Man to X-Men and everything in between. It is sometimes hard to translate the plots onto the silver screen due to complex stories and details, but still, some changes have not been necessary. I, however, have accepted many of the changes, and don't mind them, despite deing a "fanboy" for many years regarding comics. I am keeping an open mind for the movies, but I hope that for the future films, such as Captain America, Iron Man, Flash, etc., at least a little more effort will be made to stay close to the comics' storylines. It all depends on your willingness to accept the changes, but it boils down to the producers and directors decisions to try and market the films to a larger audience, instead of a niche audience for comic book readers.

Answer 8

I liked some movies based on games such as Resident Evil. The reason being that games are having more complex story lines and are very detailed. If a movie can't capture that on film, the movie is not going to come out well.

Answer 9

Because most directors, like Tim Burton, are more impressed with themselves than the source material the comics provide...and in X-men's case, Cyclops, Prof. X, and Jean all died several times, and presently Jean is still dead.

Answer 10

Because live action super hero movies based off of comic books suck the big one, with only a very few rare exceptions.