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| source// Marvel |
Despite having literally decades worth of material to choose from, it’s rare for comic book movies to adapt a specific storyline from the source material. Perhaps filmmakers just aren’t interested in pulling a Watchmen and recreating a story which has already been told, and now even the movies which share a name with the comics – Captain America: The Winter Soldier for example – are rarely all that faithful.
However, some have tried to adapt at least elements of certain beloved stories, but it’s sadly hard to think of more than a handful of examples where these amazing arcs weren’t completely f**ked up in the process.
Pretty much every major studio is guilty of this (that’s right, not even Marvel Studios are perfect), and these are the eight best examples of the worst things Hollywood has done with the storylines you love. Some have obviously attempted to be a little more faithful than others, but regardless of whether they’ve only borrowed characters or specific plot points, all of these movies have failed to do the stories they’re based on justice.
8. The Coming Of Galactus
I could probably just write, “They made him a f***ing cloud!” here and leave it at that, but let’s take a closer look at how badly Fox messed up one of Stan Lee’s greatest tales. While the right elements were here (the Silver Surfer arriving on Earth to warn the Fantastic Four of the impending arrival of the world eating behemoth for example), the execution by director Tim Story was appalling and it all ended up falling flat as a result.
Rather than having the team defeat Galactus and send him packing, Rise Of The Silver Surfer went for a battle with Doctor Doom, a Super Skrull knock off, and Silver Surfer being the one to take his master down. Well, I say “master”, but this movie completely dropped the ball on Galactus’ relationship with the Silver Surfer when it made him a cloud. Yes, by far the biggest blunder here was making this iconic bad guy… space dust.
7. Demon In A Bottle
Marvel tackling Tony Stark’s alcoholism was always unlikely, but they should have left it completely off the table rather than the watered down version we got in Iron Man 2. The hero getting tipsy and wrecking his house made him look more like a fool than someone struggling with a very real problem, and his drinking quickly vanished when the sequel moved on to the next plot thread in a movie which already had far too many of them.
However, Iron Man 2 took many other elements from Demon in a Bottle and completely messed them up. Perhaps the best example of that is what it did with Justin Hammer. Portrayed as a jokey loser instead of the man who destroyed everything in Tony’s life in the comics, Sam Rockwell was completely wasted, but did do the best with what he had. With no Iron Man 4 in sight, this story being done justice may never happen!
6. Green Lantern: Secret Origin
The influence of Geoff Johns’ comic book work was clear to see in the Green Lantern movie, and it’s just a shame that it, you know, got it all wrong. Other than cutting out parts which were specifically relevant to what was going on in the monthly series at the time, the big screen adaptation followed the basic blueprint of this arc, but ended up leaving literally all of the good stuff out. They had the basic ingredients, and that’s it!
For some reason, the movie added Parallax, turned Hector Hammond into one of the worst villains to ever appear on screen, glossed over all of the great stuff between Hal Jordan and Sinestro (instead opting for that baffling mid-credits scene which saw him try on that yellow fear powered ring), and couldn’t even deliver a decent training montage. With so many mistakes made here, it’s no wonder he’s been shelved until 2020.
5. The Dark Phoenix Saga
When even the writer of the movie in question confesses to completely dropping the ball on a beloved comic book storyline, you KNOW that they made some serious mistakes! While Bryan Singer set the stage for an adaptation of The Dark Phoenix Saga at the end of X2, Brett Ratner and Simon Kinberg came in with The Last Stand and completely butchered that tale, and even elements of Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men run.
Other than Jean Grey coming back from the dead and going nuts, the duo completely failed in bringing any of that story’s fantastical elements to life on the big screen, with the departure of Cyclops early on robbing her transformation of some much needed emotion (attempting to replace Scott with Wolverine definitely didn’t work). To redo this story in the new timeline would feel like a retread, so not even a reboot can save this one!
4. Captain America Lives Again
Captain America: The First Avenger had to cram a lot in, but both it and The Avengers made one very big mistake when it came to bringing Steve Rogers into the present day. By having a couple of random S.H.I.E.L.D. agents discover him in the Arctic, we were robbed of that iconic scene of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes standing around the frozen remains of the hero, a scene which clearly wasn’t feasible thanks to Joss Whedon’s plans.
Of course, The Avengers still turned out pretty damn good without this scene, but Cap’s rushed arrival in the present was underwhelming and a blink and you’ll miss it shot of him lying on a table frozen didn’t really make up for that. His character arc was also sorely missing the fish out of water element which worked so well in The Ultimates, and this is one part of the iconic hero’s origin story which Marvel really failed to do well.
3. Superman: Birthright
Don’t get me wrong, Man Of Steel only very loosely adapted elements of Mark Waid’s Birthright, but it clearly took at least some inspiration from this story (Superman’s first flight in particular was clearly inspired by a similar moment in the comic). However, Zack Snyder’s biggest mistake here was not borrowing more from this modern take on the hero’s origin, especially as Man Of Steel could have done with a little more optimism.
Clark Kent travelling the world before becoming Superman and even Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor in Batman V Superman have quite clearly come from this comic, but the spirit of Superman didn’t end up making it into David Goyer’s screenplay, hence why the hero ended up snapping General Zod’s neck (a decision which Waid and many fans have since been very vocal about). It ultimately just feels like a real missed opportunity.
2. Wolverine’s “Japan Saga”
While James Mangold’s The Wolverine went a long way in redeeming the character after Origins, this take on Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s classic Japan saga still didn’t quite stick the landing. Considered the tale which defined the hero in the 80s and 90s, certain elements made it to the big screen, but the movie quickly devolved into typical blockbuster fare when the Silver Samurai was transformed into a gigantic robot!
For whatever reason, The Wolverine was only willing to commit to the Japan saga to a certain extent, and that’s evident from the decision to cut the scene where Wolverine finally gets his classic brown and yellow costume (it would have been so easy for him to wear that in order to battle the Silver Samurai, it’s infuriating). For that reason, this still mostly decent movie was robbed of the chance to ever come close to the comic!
1. The Fantastic
After screwing up the Fantastic Four’s origin story back in 2005, Fox rebooted the franchise with director Josh Trank at the helm (that was a mistake) and decided to focus on a younger version of the team in a movie clearly inspired by the retelling of the team’s origin story in the Ultimate Marvel Universe. As it turns out, adapting a fairly average comic isn’t the best idea, but that was still better than what ended up on screen.
One thing it did get right was the relationship between Reed and the arrogant Victor. His decision to meddle with his classmate’s experiment is what gave the team their powers and left him more metal than man, although the movie obviously didn’t even want to fully go down that route, and instead made them drinking buddies. Hell, the movie was so grounded that it never even gave them the pretty cool prototype costumes from this comic.
Which other movies messed up great comic book storylines? Shout out any we missed down in the comments.
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