The Comics - Done Justice?

[Stu]

Hey,

Often a controvesial subject, considering how varied the term "done justice" is, I ask you, Mighty Marvel Messageboarders,

Have the cartoons done justice to the comic books? Which have? Which haven't? Does it really matter?

[Ssrn53]

It's impossible to do the comics justice with all the censorship being applied to these cartoons. Even the DCU shows that have less censoring still lag behind the comics in that area (the exception being the comics based on the DCU TV shows).

The Mainframe Spidey is the series I've seen come closest to capturing the grit of the comics. All the other Spidey series were weak. Same for X-men :TAS.

Some may say that the writing is most important and the censorship isn't. I say to them that the writing also suffers.

No the comics aren't being done justice. Cartoons are for the most part treated as kid's stuff in the USA. I think that's the problem.

Does it really matter? My problem is with the censorship more than departing from the comic book continuity. I'm fine with the creating of original stories.

[Storm]

No. None of the Marvel cartoons I've seen have brought the comics to life and they never will. Cartoons are a different medium. They will never touch the classics and never will have the nerve to get gritty like most of today's comics. Marvel's cartoons are something for the Marvel animated fans not for the hardcore comic fans. The DCUA's Batman and Superman are the only two animated based projects that have done justice to any comic book.


- Storm

[Donald Duck 12]

It depends. When you compare them to Lee and Kirby material they don't come close, but other writers have weakend the charechtors. Cartoons like Spidey and X-Men TAS' they follow the comics great. Cartoons like Amazing Friends and XME become their own. Which is okay. On X2's Secret History of the X-Men bonus feature Chris Claremont said something like, "If the movie audiance can't get who these charechtors are and what the story is about in the two hours, then the whole movie will be a waste." That is what's important. If a movie, cartoon, TV series, or even comic book can't stay true to the charechtors, it's a complete waste. The Hulk and Garfield were excellent examples, the movies got some praise but it wasn't them. Which is what makes many things flop. The continuity of the stars.

[Spider-Man]

I don't think the comics can ever be properly done justice. The cartoons and movies may inspire us to read the comics and the characters might resemble what we see on the page, but they will never be as accurate. That is not completely a bad thing, though. The last thing I want is the cartoon to repeat Spider-Man's ill-fated grim and gritty stage where he constantly referred to himself as "The Spider." I want the cartoons to stay true to what makes the characters great.

[EJill34]

I don't think that the comics have ever been done justice by the Marvel cartoons. Like stated above, only B:TAS and S:TAS have done the comics justice and those are DC shows. Marvel shows were always so cheap and horribly written (aside from the occasional MTV Spider-Man, Fox Spider-Man and X-Men: Evolution episode) that they were almost insulting to the comics. I know a lot of people here like the Fox Spidey and X-Men shows, but I always thought that they were just terrible. The same musical score in every episode, tons of reused animation, bad dialogue, horrible CGI and character designs which didn't animate well. The plots they lifted from the comics were often changed so much that there was no point in adapting them. I don't think I'll ever get over the fact that they included The Punisher, Morbius and Blade (among others) even though they knew that they couldn't do anything remotely close to what they did in the comics.

I'm still holding out hope that we'll get a consistently good Marvel toon, but I don't think it will be anytime soon.

[All-Star 1.5]

I think that the Silver Surfer cartoon was pretty good and if I am not mistaken followed the comic pretty closely. And it's animation,character designs,story-telling, and dialouge beats out most shows today.

[Stu]

Some have done a better job than others. Some shows, such as X-Men: Evolution and Spider-Man: Unlimited have shown no desire to try and capture the spirit of the comic, yet others, such as X-Men and the 67 Spider-Man have done thier best to portray the comic as best they can.

I'd say X-Men did the best job, with the 90's Spider-Man not so far behind. He was definatly reminisant of how Peter acted in the 80's, and the villians were off the good ol' Lee/Ditko/Romita Sr days.


The last thing I want is the cartoon to repeat Spider-Man's ill-fated grim and gritty stage where he constantly referred to himself as "The Spider." I want the cartoons to stay true to what makes the characters great.

I remember the days, the dreaded 90's. Whats great about the cartoons is they can pick what aspects of the character they like. For example, MTV Spider-Man is always spitting out humourous one liners, much as Stan Lee did back in the day. The movie chose to ignore that, and focus more on the tragic side of the character.

Both did a good job, IMO.

[Spider-Man]

I hope no one minds me bumping this back up. I just got thinking about the upcoming Spider-Man: The Venom Saga release and just how different it handled the Venom character.

We were asked if the cartoons did the comics justice and here it obviously didn't but that isn't a bad thing. I actually liked how the cartoon handled Venom here than in the comics. They're able to make the alien suit realistic moreso than the comics could. And given the mess the symbiote has become in the comics the simplified cartoon version is almost a blessing.

Did the cartoon do the comic justice? No, it exceeded that. There's so many different areas in comics that cartoons can do justice to which makes this question so difficult. What would be considered doing proper justice?

[Stu]

I think there was a few occasions where the cartoons exceeded the comics. I much prefer the X-Men show to the comics as it's far easier to follow and understand without having to have read decades worth of comics, and it's ability to keep useless mutants to a minimum or simply ignore them. I find it to be my favourite version of The X-Men so far.

Spider-Man didn't do as good a job (there was some downright odd stuff which I often wondered how it got approved, considering how strong a lot of the other episodes were!) but I think it did a much better job with Mysterio, Shocker and Venom to name a few. I think Venom would've been a much better character had they done a follow up before bringing Carnage in. The Island fight in the comics would've been a great way to keep Venom at bay until he was needed for Carnage.

Others, there's no contest that the cartoons did a better job than the comics. MTV's Kraven and Spider-Carnage are the prime examples.

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,


I think there was a few occasions where the cartoons exceeded the comics. I much prefer the X-Men show to the comics as it's far easier to follow and understand without having to have read decades worth of comics, and it's ability to keep useless mutants to a minimum or simply ignore them. I find it to be my favourite version of The X-Men so far.
It's kind of funny, because I stopped watching the X-Men cartoon mostly because I felt that it was just making all the same mistakes I thought the comics were making. Initially, I felt it was cleaning house and getting back to basics, removing all the alternate future clone crap that was polluting the comics at the time. Then they just dove in head-first into all the alternate future clone crap, which was right around when I gave up on the show.

If the truth must be told, I think the only Marvel superhero animated projects that really did justice to the comics were those "pan-imation" things from the 60's that just moved a camera over the original Jack Kirby artwork :). I also thought X-Men Evolution really "got" the X-Men more than the other animated projects.

-- Ed/Ace

[RAINMAN]

I like mervel show but I would say xmen spiderman of the 90`s were the ones that did it justice. Not that the other were bad not the other were totally bad. They did have their moments like 90`s iornman,FF and both hulk shows. On the other hand the avangers and mainfame spiderman was just awful. Around the 6th ep`s I just could stand mainframe`s version. Spiderman/Peter were nothing like the guy from the comic or the movie for that matther? And where was aunt may?

[Joker1238]

I think its a bit of a YES and No.

The censeners did cut out the most evil plots by a villian, I would have loved to see the "Killing Joke" animation panel from panel word from word. But even thought BTAS got a way with a lot(The Joker's laughing gas. Good thing Joker can kill people with that) They can NEVER truly make a killing Joke as the network would be all over it and cutting scenes out.

But some times it ok, as the death of Dick's grandson family, it had a bigger effect with the cut rope. But like I said it can go both ways. OVer BTAS is pretty true to the comic, But it cant RELLY be true to the comic.

Spiderman I dont think is relly true to the comics, Hobby coming first, MJ being lost forever and coming back as a clone, turning into water. Things like that.