The movies (and the cartoons) present today's best interpretations of these characters, imo, so you're not far off the mark.


I generally agree. The Bruce Timm Batman/Superman/Batman Beyond/JLA cartoons represent, to me, the best possible versions of these DC characters, as well as giving us the nice bonus of new characters such as Harley Quinn and, especially, Terry McGinnis. In fact I think I'd much rather give up all Batman-related comics altogether and just watch the Timm series instead, as they skip over all the really dumb and/or objectionable plot twists we've seen from DC over the past 25 years. And if one must have a live action Batman, the Nolan movies are just fine (and I find I have a weakness for Keaton's second outing, Batman Returns--a great Catwoman, Christopher Walken munching scenery, Siouxsie and the Banshees music, what's not to like?) And I have no interest in anything Superman that isn't either portrayed by Christopher Reeve, or created by Bruce Timm, who nailed the character completely.

On the Marvel side, after the first Iron Man movie I saw no reason to ever read an Iron Man comic again, as the movie was absolutely flawless, right down to making me love a character with the ridiculous name of "Pepper Potts". The Spider-Man movies, or at least the first two with Tobey Maguire, are enough Spider-Man for me as they condense everything wonderful about the character to its purest form, as well as giving us his two best villains portrayed very well by great actors. The two FF movies that have been released would, I think, have played better if the comic had never existed for me to compare them to. I don't love the movie version of Doctor Doom, but that's only because the comic version exists in my memory, bellowing his pompous speeches; in comparison, the movie version is nicely understated and may even work better than a straight adaptation of the comic book Doctor Doom would have. Even Alba is fine as Invisible Woman; she only seems off because I keep mentally comparing her to every Kirby Sue Storm panel I've ever seen. I thought Ioan Grufford (?) was pitch perfect as Reed, just as Chiklis gave us a great Ben; I wished Johnny was younger but again that's the comic fan speaking; in the movies he was fine. Sin City was wonderful and is definitely a fine replacement for the comic, as was 300. I loved the first Punisher and won't bother buying the comics because the character never interested me enough. Still, I'll hold onto that first Punisher movie forever, as it squeezed every drop of interest out of a third-tier character for me. Ditto Ghost Rider; the comics are frankly pretty stupid, and the movies make the best of a bad hand, and give us Nicholas cage to boot. I think the only instances, for me, where the comic is irreplaceable by a movie are Watchmen, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Hellboy. Haven't seen Cap, Thor or Avengers yet but will catch them on blu-ray eventually--I haven't seen a movie in a theater since 2008, as the whole 3-D thing turns me off, as do the price increases generally.

These days I find myself unable as a rule even to enjoy superhero comics on the level of nostalgia anymore; I find I just can't get past the juvenile nature of the entire premise. However, I can still enjoy superhero movies when they're done well, as they tend to downplay the juvenile elements as much as possible, and also because they last two hours and then they’re done. Watching the first two Spider-Man movies, I don't have time to think they're dumb (especially when they're written so intelligently); but trying to read a stack of Spider-Man comics? I just can't get through it anymore. I had planned on scanning a ton of old superhero comics to read on my computer, and in fact I now have a scanner, but the more I read all these superhero comics, the less I enjoy them and the stupider I consider the entire enterprise to be. It's as if a switch was flipped in my brain; I just can't get past how childish superheroes are, how objectively insipid they are as concepts, and the more seriously the stories attempt to take them, the worse the effect. The scanner won't go to waste, as I have plenty of non-superhero stuff to scan (my eyes have been growing progressively weaker and so it's much easier for me to read on my computer screen, as there are magnifying tools at my disposal in the reader software) but still, I've bought a lot of superhero back issues that I loved the last time I read them maybe five or ten years back, but which now I find I derive little to no enjoyment from.

I think very soon the closest thing to a superhero comic in my collection will be something like Watchmen, or Ed Brubaker's Sleeper; the standard Marvel and DC stuff just isn't doing it for me anymore. However, I still love the animated series and the movies, which shows that these concepts can work for me in the right hands, I suppose.

So, short version: yes. I think the movies and the animated series are perfectly valid--even superior--replacements for the comics in most cases.

Last Edited By: Melkorjunior May 11 12 12:56 PM. Edited 1 times.