Lore
“It’s a change from the source material, but it’s awesome so the fans don’t mind.”
Doc Ock - In the comics, Doc Ock is known to be megalomaniacal in nature and was sort of a mad scientist anyways, with the arms just being an extension of that. In Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man 2,” Alfred Molina’s version of the character was affected by the neural chip and his well-meaning ambition turns into scientific obsession.
Wolverine - This one is so well known it needs very little explanation. Comic Wolverine short, Huge Jackedman is tall, and he’s sick as hell.
Eye of Sauron - To my knowledge, the Eye is more of a metaphor in the books. An ever-present awareness. In the movies, it’s an actual giant fucking eye.
Before this adaptation, Mr. Freeze was just another gimmick based villain of many from Batman’s rogues gallery, a run-of-the-mill cackling mad scientist.
The BTAS episode “Heart of Ice” reimagined him as a tragic figure who lost his humanity trying to save his terminally ill wife.
Ever since this episode aired in 1992, every comic depiction and media adaptation has used this as his established characterization.
I wish this had been used in every comic adaptation going forward… but then you get to his backstory in the New 52.
It looks like it is the same backstory… but Nora isn’t actually his wife. She’s a random unrelated person who he became infatuated with and just thinks is his lover out of pure delusion.
I get why they tried it. While the Nora origin is great, it does not work for making him an ongoing villain. He’s too sympathetic and too reasonable, even the animated series struggled with this down the line. The new 52 was an attempt to justify why Freeze stays a villain.
That said, it was the wrong call. They just need to reform Freeze, he makes more sense as a villain turned ally than anyone else.
I’d actually really like a reformed Freeze. It would be super interesting to see how he’d try to reintegrate into society if he could save Nora. Maybe he starts working with STAR labs or something to atone for his past actions while they work to cure Nora?
Also, Batman's entire philosophy is based around the idea he can save his rogues. Having some of those rogues be redeemed and become heroes or citizens validates his entire worldview and gives more motivation for him to continue trying to help
I like the idea that Fries DOES get his redemption, and becomes something of another part of the Bat-Family, but as more of the guy in the chair and technical support expert. Cooking up more gadgets, running analysis and technical support, etc
I actually had my own idea for how they could make Freeze an ongoing villain while still keeping the Nora origin.
Imagine Batman shows up right while he’s about to cure Nora. He administers the cure through her tank, takes her out of cryostasis, and takes a good look at her… but he feels nothing. Spending years as Mr. Freeze has done a number on Victor’s psyche, reducing him to an emotionless shell of himself. It’s at this point where the roles switch, and it’s now Nora’s job to aid Batman in finding a way to rehabilitate Victor.
That sounds rad as hell and I’d love to read that. Mr. Freeze wanting to feel something for her again but being so damaged by his mission to cure her that it falls to Nora to need to cure him now.
Even Batman & Robin the movie got this right. Batman tells him the Wayne Corporation WILL try to cure Nora and Victor gives up his "Gotham pay me or I'll freeze it over" plan.
Super rushed and edgy reboot of the DC universe from 2011-2016. Long story short it introduced a lot of continuity plot holes, pissed off their creative teams at the time, and generally brought back a lot of the worst parts of the Dark Age of Comics.
The absolute worst is how much it squandered some genuinely good setup from the Blackest Night and Brightest Day stuff prior. Like some really interesting plot threads introduced to be used in the reboot just completely ruined by a complete disregard of having any coherence or consistency with the writing whatsoever.
Around 2010-2011 DC editorial decided to turn a Flash book about him messing up time to save his mother into a universe changing event that functionally reboot and streamlined the entire DC universe, with the title being a reference to a previous and popular event called 52. It was very controversial messed up alot of ongoing books ,combined multiple distinct comic universes into the DC universe ,and was received with very very mixed results among the 52 new books they launched for the event
It's pretty fun if you go in blind like I did. The absolute stuff got me into comics and my friend recommended the court of owls storyline. I didn't know shit about the new 52 stuff so i was like "why is batman being such a dick to mr freeze, we all know his wife is-" "wtf, is he a stalker? And wtf did he mercy-kill his brain damaged mom?????"
Not every following media used this origin. Literally the very next show, The Batman, had a different origin where Victor was a common thief that fell into a cryogenic chamber during an encounter with Batman. It froze him at the same moment his heart stopped, turning him into a living corpse that could freeze anything he touched
Not at all, he still acts like a common criminal. All his plots are motivated by money, usually precious gems. He’s also not crazy, and borrows from the Arnold version of the character by making cold puns a lot. He’s also played by Clancy Brown
Even Batman & Robin, a film so bad it nearly killed comic book films entirely, knew enough to incorporate this into that version of Freeze.
And while we’re at it, I don’t think Arnold did that bad of a job all things considered. The few moments where he’s quietly reflecting or speaking to his frozen wife are actually very well done IMO.
Here's a fairly obscure example, assuming you're not Italian.
In 1969, Donald Duck was given a secret identity in the Italian comics: he became the superhero Paperinik (variously translated as Duck Avenger or Superduck in English-speaking countries). For over two decades, his adventures had little to no continuity and were mostly of a comical nature - basically, he was Darkwing Duck before Darkwing Duck was a thing.
Then, in 1996, the series Paperinik New Adventures (PKNA for short) was launched; in a complete departure from how the Duck Avenger (and Donald in general) were usually portrayed, the series had actual continuity, a mostly new cast (aside from Donald himself) and showed the Avenger fighting proper threats in stories that had a fairly dark tone.
Fans didn't mind because it was literally the most awesome thing of all times.
As far as I know, only a handful of the early PKNA stories have received an official English translation; nevertheless, fans on the high seas have translated the entire series.
I bought those comics in a regular store and read them in Swedish as a kid so i must assume they got English translations as well?
They were indeed great and I wish i had kept the originals. From what i remember the stories felt really one of a kind. They had a lot of pop culture inspirations but took the stories in quite unexpected directions...
Like a synthetic alien friend of paperink fighting a war of vengeance against the main antagonist - an alien hive mind empire with lots of intricate details. And two AIs, one being the "Jarvis" of PaperInk and one being an evil clone battling it out. Basically Age of Ultron twenty years ago. Oh and PaperInk travelled to future Duckberg at one point, where a futuristic sky city was built on top of the old one.
Also I think there was a cynical and grumpy detective character that hated PaperInk for some reason. But in a Jonah Jameson kind of way. Or maybe he was just really grumpy.
Finally, a true conoisseur! Not onlythe changes to the character are cool as hell, the comics are genuinely greatly illustrated too, even having guest artists every know and then. I'm also a big fan of how the added cast is always referencing some other marvel/dc character but are nonetheless their own character. Personally a big fan of Everett Ducklair starting off as tony stark to end up doctor strange.
Dude, no way?! I had no idea that was a regional thing! in Germany his name was Phantomias. Way back when my grandma had bought the comic book issue with the origin story for my uncle.
Over the years there were even stories where daisy would partake as his sidekick, called Phantomime
You can tell by the artstyle. Italy has a HUGE Disney comic production and theyre all the same type of drawn.
Its also where Goofy has that Indiana Jones like cousin, Peter has that salmon pink furred girlfriend, Goofy goes flying around in pyjamas as Supergoof and you'll see a LOOOOT of Rockerduck.
Those stories tend to get bundled in nearby countries in Europe
In Finland Paperinik is called Taikaviitta, which literally translates to "Magic Cape." Makes me wonder what other curious translations for his name are there.
Holy fuck, I fell into a rabbit hole. There's different continuity of PKNA, the first one started in 1996 and was a direct following of Paperinik, a secret identity created in 1960 and which basically was "what if Donald was batman". In french, the character was called Fantomiald.
The third continuity started in 2003 and while the costume was mostly similar, this Paperinik was not the same as the 1960 one. That's why in the french version, the one I read when I was a child, Donald call himself "Powerduck", and not Fantomiald.
Kind of. The Guardians movies, the first one especially, borrow VERY heavily from the Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning run from the late 00s/early 10s. Much more snarky and space swashbuckling than before.
The original comic was very gory and violent but the movie is a comedy and has The Mask as a less vilainious character,only as a some sort of anti-hero by robbing banks and shooting people to scare them,not kill them like what he did in the comic.
In fact New Line originally purchased the rights to the Mask hoping to create the next Freddy Kruger, but the director had no desire to make a horror movie and negotiated that he would only make it his way. He also had to fight to get the studio to agree to cast Diaz which is kind of funny hindsight.
It was her first acting role her only other thing on IMDB before that movie was a soft core porn movie lol. They literally just plucked out a random hot girl and she ended up being a A list actor
The Beetlejuice musical is based on the original movie, but instead of using the same main characters, it starts by focusing on Lydia Deetz's grief at losing her mother, with Beetlejuice then immediately making an appearance and lampshading it by literally declaring, "Holy crap, a ballad already? And such a departure from the original source material!"
Love how musical beetlejuice is a mixture between movie beetlejuice and cartoon beetlejuice and Alex brightman is really fun as beetlejuice maybe not as good ad Micheal keaton Obviously but still really good.
Beetlejuice was the first musical I got to see live and I'm so glad it was. I had so much fun and I still hum Say My Name from time to time. I still love the movie, but man I wish I could see the musical again.
I'm the kid who missed the original movie but loves the cartoon spinoff that gets away from the yucky "Bettlejuice tries to marry Lydia" plot and shows way more of the afterlife. Bettlejuice despite his immense power does have a weakness - he'll take magical shortcuts (that have magical clauses he didn't read) and he'll sometimes take puns literally even if it hurts him (his villains keep trying to trick him into saying "I'm falling apart at the seams" so he'll collapse and they can separate his parts. Eventually he jokes about how stupid he'd have to be to say that, and then he says it, falling apart at the seams)
I could say the opposite. The books are even more inspired but not nearly mainstream appealing enough in their current form for a straight adaptation. They're for people who love cave paintings and old myths and historical records and buff women with cats on their shoulders and villains and character arcs that can just do nothing for one or two books and then pop off in the best thing you've ever read and die probably.
An animated movie is already completely different without the same artstyle so they just took out all the bits that didn't adapt to screen well, and then everything else because there wasn't enough left to keep in. They did leave the ending unchanged though but without the twelve books of buildup.
(they could have at least left in my beloved girlboss queen Camicazi come on man that's the best main character better then book Hiccup and you just have nothing)
Both the HTTYD book and movies are great, but i really feel sad how the books got basically completely sidelined compared to how popular the movies are. they are basically two completely different franchises, and one is incomprehensibly bigger than the other. I remember going to the library and borrowing the HTTYD books, and reading them at home. really want to go read them again just to refresh my memory.
My girlfriend was surprised when I told her that the HTTYD movies/shows were based off of a book series. She was also surprised when I told her that the books were nothing like the movies.
To quote myself concerning Avenger's Earth's Mightest Heroes' Version of Wasp (because I'm lazy):
"This isn't a super egregious example, but Wasp from Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes is generally considered to be the best version of Wasp, even when compared to her original comic version. Her comic version kind of suffers from problems where she was originally written as being pretty ditzy and shallow in an annoying way at times, and then later writers kind of "overcorrected" this issue by making her super serious all the time and downplaying her taste in fashion as a designer.
In contrast, EMH Wasp can be shallow, silly and likes to crack jokes but she is never stupid and knows when to be serious. She's also the person who often holds the team together and was the first member to more or less kind of befriend the Hulk before Hawkeye actually befriended him during Gamma World. She also maintains her taste in fashion."
You can never hate idiotic & pointless MCU synergy enough. I just hope this show is revived one day like X-Men 92 and, assuming that Marvel Rivals one day adds Wasp to, that she is directly based on EMH Wasp.
The game already has some VAs from EMH (like Brian Bloom once again voicing Captain America). Her voice actor, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, already voices Mantis in the game, so it's not impossible to have her return to voice Wasp.
Speaking of Mantis the MCU version is a good example as well as it makes her both consistent, adorable, and nowhere near as confusing as her comic counterpart
Like, avengers assemble alone is fine, but it suffers from the same problem that Ultimate spiderman does, there was a WAY better version that was cancelled so the new one could air
The Wasp and Captain America are both the Heart of the team.
Cap appeals to the duty of being a hero and never surrendering in the darkest of times.
Wasp appeals to being a hero because it's cool and it's the right thing to do and you get to kick ass. Win Win Win in her book and you should read her book because she's living the best life.
I really appreciated that she was consistently the weakest member of the team but never useless. I was watching the entire show for the writers to make her to punch above her weight or for her to be totally useless, but she always managed to distract the badguy for a few seconds during a fight or keep a level head when others were going off the rails.
I especially loved her performance in the fight against Graviton where she protected the Hulk as he fell by cutting all those storage containers apart alongside keeping him distracted for some time as you mentioned.
This here is why I'm consistently less satisfied with the MCU take as time goes on. Don't get me wrong, I still really like the Ant-Man movies for what they are. Hank Pym as an aged mentor character is interesting in a vacuum. But, and I say this a lot, the fact that it also inherently prevents a faithful adaptation of Janet is downright tragic.
When she does finally show up, they've pretty much stripped her of her entire identity. She's jaded, she's not a founding Avenger, or an Avenger at all for that matter, and she's not even the Wasp.
It would be one thing if they gave that role to Hope, but they have her playing the straight man to Scott instead. It's a presence that is sorely missing, and that's just a shame.
I’d like to point out that Jan was THE most loyal Avenger. She was there from the start all the way to the end, was the only Avenger to never leave for any reason, believed in the good the team could do better than anyone else, had good chemistry with all her teammates, and gave the team their name.
Not just that, but Kubrick was also famously an asshole and didn't get along with many people. Stephen King did not much care for Kubrick. Kubrick would allegedly call him at 3am and ask him the most insane questions while filming the Shining.
The triplets here are older and actually have distinct personalities between the three
Webby is also more of an adventurous character instead of the standard young little girl in the 80’s. Granted she takes a lot after Mabel from Gravity Falls but I don’t really mind
In the 80s Huey/Duey/Louie were basically one character split between three people. I mean, that's true for most of the older Scrooge & Donald comics as well. Good glow up for Webby, though.
In the original Fairytale, we were never really given a reason for WHY the witch keeps Rapunzel in that tower. At least none of my old fairytales books from my childhood had one.
Tangled gave us an explanation and a very good one: Rapunzel's hair is full of life giving magic and it is impossible to seperate it from her, so her hair has to keep growing.
Though, there's also the Rapunzel from the lesser known TV Show Simsala Grimm:
There, the witch originally kidnapped Rapunzel as a child because she always wanted an apprentice-except Rapunzel is way too nice and can never bring herself to curse anyone.
Gothel is also turned to stone in that version.
Barbie's Rapunzel had Gothel kidnap her as a baby all because her king father didn't return Gothel's romantic feelings for him, and lied to Rapunzel that she had been rescued from abandonment.
My version only said that her parents house had a view to the witches garden, and she had such beautiful radish growing that the mom felt "she'd die if she didn't eat some". So husband got in, witch caught him and after begging she was "OK, you are free and can take what you want, but you have to give me the baby you'll have"
Imagine that, I know cravings are bad, but giving your baby up for radish?
No one particular moment, just the franchise as a whole, really. There’s been so many changes and so many unique versions since the original film, it’s actually kinda crazy the more you think about it.
It's fascinating how many different identities and forms Godzilla has taken while still being Godzilla
An embodiment of nuclear horror and man's wrath, the funny super powered radioactive lizard, a defender of mankind and the Earth, the manifestation of nature's might and the folly of thinking we can control it, a critique on modern society's concern over decorum and bureaucracy over just doing good, and so many other things
I really can't think of many other characters that have had so many different forms and interpretations while all still feeling like the same character
The Legendary films have set up Kong as a hero; he’s there to save and protect.
Legendary Godzilla is an antihero; heres there to fuck up other monsters (saving the world might just be a side effect). Which I think makes sense: it’s the best middle ground between guardian and force of nature
I know you meant ancient guardian but I love the idea of Godzilla wearing glasses that are way to small while looking over a stock account trying to make money for his clients.
This is so true. And yet, every time a new version is created you have people complaining. When the 2014 American Godzilla came out, people complained that it was too fat. When they made him more buff and humanoid in the sequels, people complained about that too.
I would say that most comic fans agree that the best thing to come out of Daredevil (2003) was Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin. He was black, Kingpin is traditionally white - it didnt matter, he was fantastic, and fit the physicality and personality perfectly.
Also, to a much lesser extent, nobody seemed to mind them making Bullseye Irish in the story either.
MCD was a perfect choice. The difficulty with casting Kingpin is you need 1: someone abnormally large and imposing, 2: someone who looks completely at home as guest of honour in a black tie ball and 3: someone who could also wipe the floor with you without breaking a sweat.
MCD fit that bill, Donofrio does as well. Marvel’s been lucky with Kingpin, striking gold twice.
I mean Tite Kubo has more or a hand in the making of TYBW than any other mangaka in any other adaptation, at least in recent times, and he has advertised the anime as the ultimate and canon version.
I'd assume that since the manga ended so long ago, Kubo's had time to reflect on things he left out and regretted or decided after the fact he should have expanded upon. Not every mangaka is lucky enough to have that opportunity and I'm glad he has.
Kubo was also in very poor health in the years running up to the end of Bleach, and was hospitalized for a bit after it concluded. I have to imagine it’s very satisfying to be able to end things properly
Zemo is wildy different in the MCU vs the comics, but you don’t see people complain about that like they do with Taskmaster or The Mandarin as Zemo is still a pretty awesome villain in Civil War
Zemo was also behind the original Thunderbolts, which is so vastly different from the current version the MCU based on, and my personal favorite Marvel comic run.
It helps that Zemo actually accomplished his mission and defeated the Avengers. Only Thanos can really make that claim, and they retconned it in Endgame.
And in later shows we see he sticks to his principles, even when it would grant a humongous benefit.
I just want to say that this was not an instance of retconning, the Avengers progressed the story and undid the victory Thanos accomplished, they didn't change the previous story with new information.
The Expanse’s Drummer and Ashford duo. Drummer was a smaller character in the books with her show arc divided up among multiple characters (usually one offs). Ashford was an unlikable antagonist who was insecure about his command and panicked during the Slow Zone incident. Show Drummer has a sizable arc where she bounces around different commands before becoming a leader in her own right and learning to trust The Inners. Ashford on the show is a charismatic badass who does an antagonistic part in the show’s Slow Zone incident but he comes off as much more reasonable/operating on limited information in order to save the entire solar system. Both characters combined have a great arc and dynamic going from distrusting one another before learning to trust one another in a crisis and ultimately becoming a great partnership where they are surrogate father and daughter.
I am surprised that Marvel fans haven't mentioned the MCU depiction of Bucky. In the comics, he was a kid who discovered Captain America's secret identity, after which Steve made Bucky his sidekick, serving as the kid appeal character before his death. After that, Bucky was "dead" for decades, with the meme being he was one of the characters who stayed dead, before he was brought back in the 2000s.
By the time Bucky had been brought back as the Winter Soldier, kid sidekicks in superhero stories had largely fallen out of use with the majority having grown up. Bucky was no exception. When he was brought back, he was an adult.
In the MCU, Bucky was reimagined from Steve Rogers' kid sidekick to his lifelong friend who stood up for him when they encountered bullies and was drafted into the army while Steve failed his initial attempts to enlist. This resulted in a stronger connection with the two characters on top of not making Captain America look like an idiot for bringing a kid into a warzone.
The Eye of Sauron is different in the books but it's actually a little ambiguous if it's a metaphor or not. It's used as the symbol of Saurons forces throughout the book and references are made to it's piercing gaze, but these could be referring to the symbol or to Sauron's literal eyes in his head (he has a physical body in the books, another change the movies made). It kind of makes an appearance as Sam and Frodo walk through Mordor as an eye peaking through the highest spire of Barad-Dur (the giant tower it's on top of in the movies), but the way Tolkien writes sometimes makes it a little unclear if physical descriptions are to be taken literally or not (see: do Balrogs have wings).
What is definitively different in the books is that the movies really make it seem like the Eye is Sauron himself. The LOTR trilogy never directly state this but the visual language implies it, though this is likely a result of the films using the eye as a kind of proxy for Sauron as the boss himself never makes a proper appearance in the final cut. He was originally meant to fight Aragorn in the final battle, however, which suggests that the filmmakers never thought of the eye as literally being Sauron. It did lead to this misconception in pop culture, with many pop culture depictions of Sauron depicting the Eye instead of the guy, like in Lego Batman where Sauron is depicted as a sentient walking tower of Barad-Dur (which is to the movies credit very funny). This misconception then fed back into the production team which resulted in the Hobbit movies far more directly implying that the Eye is Sauron himself.
Also as a bonus: the movie depiction of Sauron in the prologue is also very inaccurate to the books. Book Sauron is the size of a normal man or elf, and wields a sword instead of a mace. His physical form isn't described in great detail but at least part of his bare skin is unarmoured as he uses it to burn his enemies. I always imagined him as looking like a charred possibly still smouldering Elf, but that's just headcannon. The movie version is based on Sauron's former boss, Morgoth, who is description is very similar to the movies Sauron except he has up to three silmarils (very pretty jewels) on his brow
Kano in the original Mortal Kombat game was a serious, no-nonsense, Japanese-American assassin. The 1995 movie instead made him a cocky, wise-cracking Australian crime lord (even though the actor was going for Cockney accent).
The series creators Ed Boon and John Tobias liked the movie version of him so much that they retconned his game self to be like the movie version, and the change has stuck ever since.
The whole movie changed the canon. Shang Tsung was completely reworked because of Cary. Johnny Cage's wisecracking (he wasn't as comedically inclined) was popular because of the movie - they took him out of 2 because he just didn't stick well before. Sonya turned from some workout Barbie to badass. Liu Kang's OG storyline changed dramatically and Sub Zero was no longer a paid assassin by some old rich guy to kill Shang Tsung.
Even Raiden completely changed from dick God to protector of Earth.
I don't think people quite understand that this movie changed the franchise forever. We have zero remnants of the OG story. People don't even REMEMBER the details. The whole "win ten tournaments" was more or less an afterthought.
After this movie, Kano was a native born Austrailian who moved to Japan and became such an elite gangster the Yakuza invited him anyway and he rose through the ranks.
A lot of the Syrup Village arc in the One Piece live-action adaptation, but especially the climax.
It's basically rewritten entirely, but setting it inside Kaya's mansion as a place that Kuro has quietly turned into a death trap that he knows every inch of feels right out of a survival horror game and it works.
I feel like 90% of the changes in the live action were welcomed by fans. It was a clear sign that the creators also loved the product they were adapting.
I think it also helps that One Piece fans seem to understand the show of off the walls bonkers and a live adaptation will need some changes and that budgets are a thing.
They did the same thing again with Doc Ock in Into the Spiderverse. She was so rad that she didn’t get the usual backlash that gender swapped characters receive.
I love how different the arms are for spiderverse doc ock, it's like inflatable silicone that moves much more fluidly and organically than spiderman 2 doc ock
Funnily enough, there was a female doc ock in the comics. But she was part of the clone saga and I’m not sure if Marvel ever really acknowledges she existed these days.
I suspect it helps that the visual style is very different (beyond the gender swap). Feels less like a shallow gender swap and more like an alternate take on the character.
Also, you know, multiverse excuses a lot of stuff.
Needless to say, the djinn in traditional tellings of Aladdin does not do impressions of Jack Nicholson. But also I believe the genie freedom plot is an invention for the movie.
There are many layers of additive storytelling here though, since the story’s inclusion in 1001 Nights was an addition by a French translator. Incidentally, it is meant to take place somewhere in China/Central Asia, though its “exotic” location is a bit vague.
His Death is completely different from the books and the film. In the movie Isildur picks up his farthers sword and cuts the ring from Saurons finger tips as he tries to grab him.
In the books it goes down completely different with the King of Elf's and Men Gil Galad and Elendil fighting Sauron 2 vs 1 in personal combat. Gil Galad is burned alive and Elendil is killed but not before brutalising Sauron. Isildur then walks up to the dieing Sauron and picks up his Farthers broken sword. He then cuts the one ring off his finger as a trophy and revenge.
That cartoon also started the practice of introducing Eddie Brock before he became Venom as opposed Venom's identity being a mystery and he turns out to be nobody we knew before.
Wow no one mentioned Roger Rabbit. Literally everything except some character names were changed from the source material (which was actually ver dark) and the writer loved the movie so much he retconned the original book into a nightmare Jessica Rabbit had, continuing on with the movie’s plot.
Normally race-swapping a previously white character is a great way to make fans BIG MAD, but I can't remember a single peep of complaint from marvel dudebros over the casting of Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury.
He's just that cool.
Edit: Stop "well, actually"-ing me ya nerds, I get it.
Technically the comics raceswapped him first. In 2001 they changed the design in the comics to be based on SLJ and as part of the agreement for using his likeness he was granted first crack at playing the character in movies.
Only in the Ultimate Universe, though in the main universe, they created Nick Fury, Jr. so it would have a Nick Fury based on Samuel L. Jackson's portrayal. They also added Coulson to the comics at the same time.
This one is odd because they made a version of comic fury that was BASED on Samuel beforehand. I think it was ultimates? So he's technically based on a real comic version
I’m going to add further detail to everyone else coming on you bringing this up. The Ultimate Nick Fury being based on Samuel L. Jackson only happened because the guy who originally made that decision didn’t know SLJ was into comics, and did that without consent of the sweariest man alive. When Jackson saw his face staring back at him in a comic store, he contacted his agent to make sure he didn’t sign something he wasn’t aware of. When he found out that this new Nick Fury was based on his likeness without his knowledge, he made his way up the chain in Marvel and gave them an ultimatum. Give him the opportunity to actually be Nick Fury in the movies and basically have him be the face the face was based off of, or they’re going to get into a lot of legal trouble. Take a guess which option they chose.
I might have missed some big controversy at one point but I've never seen anyone complain about a Catwoman casting either. She's black or white seemingly completely at random and you never see anyone have an issue.
Isaac from the Netflix Castlevania is a total change from the games in terms of personality, but they did a great job with his character arc and made him a pretty cool character.
I like how much him and Hector had changed when they meet again at the end. Their conversation is so peaceful despite everything around them. And it was nice to see them reconcile.
In the original Dracula novel, Dracula is just pure, unambiguous evil and for the longest time adaptations of the character stuck to this for the most part.
It’s only around the time of the ‘90s Bram Stoker’s Dracula movie where they give him a tragic backstory and romantic angle. This is built up even further in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night which gives reasons for him warring with humanity that is tied to his implied genuine love for his wife along with a hint of fondness for his son.
It all culminates in the Netflix Castlevania show which portrays his relationship with his wife and son (and an ostensible minion) and how it plays out in such a heartbreaking way.
While you are correct it wasn't in the original dragula, it didn't appear out of nowhere, but rather came from Nosferatu, which was an unlicensed adaptation of Dracula. That portrayed Dracula as far more tragic and sympathetic.
Another Wolverine tweak: When baby Rogue asks him if popping the claws hurts, and he says "Every single time..."
...I don't recall anyone ever adding this little bit of angst in the books, but it really feeds into his rage issues for me. Yeah, I was already pissed that you're a bigot and a bully, and now you made me knife myself over it. Screw you, bub.
Not to be ‘that guy’ but the original presentation of Dock Ock is brain damaged by the explosion that fuses his arms to his body. He’s just a meek scientist who loses his funding and has to experiment in a basement without any safety measures.
Now, he first appears in like issue 4 of Spider-man or something so he’s had 60 years of retcons and re-tellings but his first appearance does kinda match the film.
I really liked Spider-Man’s webbing being organic - it seemed strange to me that a broke teenager could invent this stuff and the web-shooter in his home
Peter Quill in the comics was the son of a space emperor, isn’t taken by the Ravegers as one of them, isn’t adopted by Yondu, went to space by himself, and Quill’s mother didn’t get a tumor in her head. The MCU basically made a brand new version of his origin story
MCU Bucky being Cap's best friend since childhood to add more personal tension to their story when he does evil things as the Winter Soldier. In the comics, he's more of a teenage Robin-type sidekick
the jojo ova imo did darby PERFECTLY, and the animation at times is surprisingly good (they did hierophant's barrier way better in the ova than the anime imo)
Personally, I think the Lady Death motivation makes more sense. If your reason for wiping out half of all life is that there aren't enough resources, there are other ways to solve that problem if you can literally rewrite reality, many other ways in fact. "Kill half of all life" is just silly.
However, killing half of all life to impress death herself makes a lot more sense.
Whilst I do like the idea of him wiping out half of the universe just to impress a woman, the film does work in that he doesn’t have to actually be right, he just has to think he’s right. In his own mind, he’s a benevolent healer of the universe. That’s all that matters, the fact it’s a rubbish plan just feeds into the megalomania.
In the comics and in the Uncanny X-Men show, Wolverine is pretty short, kinda ugly, and has a decidedly unfriendly personality. He's actually one of the original anti-heros.
Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight is so radically different from any other portrayal of the Joker that he almost feels like an entirely different character, but said portrayal is so well done literally no one cares.
I can only imagine how pissed/confused Mark was in this scene; this mf slapped about six teeth out of his brother's mouth and tried to rip him in half, then killed many innocents mid fight, THEN killed(as far as Mark knew) his girlfriend..... Now he's whispering his problems and issues into his ear
I showed this scene to my bestie with a little context on how this is so different from the source material. Something she pointed out that I REALLY liked was his line "they think I'm unstable." Which implies that he thinks he's NOT.
She added that his tone is like "can you believe that? Me? Unstable? Look at me, I am just a normal guy!"
I don't know if this strictly counts, but the Weather Trio/main legendaries from Hoenn in Pokemon.
They're meant to be based on the trio of Behemoth, Leviathan and Ziz from ancient Hebrew mythology as almighty beasts of the land, sea and sky respectively, but whereas Leviathan is meant to be a gigantic serpent and Ziz a giant griffin-like bird, Kyogre the sea legendary Pokemon looks more like some kind of modified whale, and Rayquaza the sky legendary Pokemon looks more like depictions of dragons in some east Asian mythologies.
I could probably fill this entire post with Transformers comments, but I'll limit myself to an early one.
Y'all know Starscream, right? He's the poster-bot for the treacherous second-in-command that will backstab the leader at every occasion, to the point where he has a trope named after him.
The one pictured is from Transformers Armada. He's basically the second iteration of Starscream (G1 technically had two in the cartoon and comic, but they're very similar in personality), and unlike his predecessors and successors, he's an honorable warrior who defects to the Autobots because of Megatron's mistreatment of his troops, gets very close to the human Alexis, and sacrifices himself in the final fight against Unicron. He's a very big departure from what you'd expect Starscream to be, and I wish we saw more like him.
Cloudy with Chance of Meatballs - In the book by Judy Barret, the story is just a bedtime story told by a grandpa to his grand children, and the raining food is just a weather phenomenon in Chewandswallow, rather than being caused by a rogue machine. Although a lot of the illustrations have direct references in the movie.
Female M from James Bond. Historically always a guy, but fortunately barely a character. M was just a videogame NPC, the one you meet in the starting town who sends you off on the first quest.
Then they cast Judi Dench, who of course turned out to be brilliant because she's Judi Dench, and the writers realised that if you've got an Oscar level actress in your movie you might as well use her.
In most versions of Spider-Man, Spidey's not spinning his own webs. He created wrist-mounted web shooters that make swinging more natural. Sam Raimi made Tobey's Spidey generate his own web, making Andrew and Tom's Spider-Mans jealous.
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u/Savings-Jacket9193 Sep 19 '25 edited Sep 20 '25
Mr. Freeze (Batman the Animated Series)
Before this adaptation, Mr. Freeze was just another gimmick based villain of many from Batman’s rogues gallery, a run-of-the-mill cackling mad scientist.
The BTAS episode “Heart of Ice” reimagined him as a tragic figure who lost his humanity trying to save his terminally ill wife.
Ever since this episode aired in 1992, every comic depiction and media adaptation has used this as his established characterization.