Author: Mark Hughes
April 23, 2009
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In the aftermath of this backlash, we can see other people now feeling more at ease expressing hostility toward the treatment of comic book films as a serious and respectable genre. On the April 10, 2009 episode of “Bill Maher's Real Time,” Maher interviewed Ron Howard. Their final exchange involved Ron Howard stating that he was once offered the chance to direct a Batman film, but turned it down. Maher's response was typical of the bias against the genre:
Maher: "Good for you. Those are comic book movies. And they're all alike... no... yeah, but they're all alike. I hate it when someone says CATWOMAN was a piece of shit, and SPIDER-MAN is genius. It's the same goddamn story. I'd much rather watch CATWOMAN 'cause I get to look at Hale Berry the whole movie... they're all for children.”
So Maher maligned not just the genre in general, but also the source material and the fans. He refers to fans of these films as "children", implying an immaturity on the part of anyone who feels these films have more artistic merit. Maher is a man who often expresses very thoughtful, well-reasoned, and bold viewpoints when such things are least appreciated. He has made a career of challenging common mainstream misperceptions about issues and about the people associated with those issues (his defense of marijuana users as more than just stereotypical "potheads," for example).
Like the film critics, Maher was demonstrating that otherwise intelligent, open-minded people, usually capable of appreciating artistic merit or other complex but unpopular concepts, can and frequently are still influenced by common mistaken perceptions and biases that continue to exist for no other reason than that they have been around so long. Maher, then, symbolizes the true roadblock to ultimate success in overcoming the stigma and stereotypes that revolve around comic books and their films: the backlash against the genre is effective because it taps into a pre-existing bias and is merely reminding us of it.
The backlash succeeds not only by reminding society of a traditional bias, but also by subtly playing into fear. What the critics have done is to say, "These comic books are made for children! You aren't a child, are you? Is your concept of art the same as a child's preferences?" This is why the backlash has been effective – it passed from the critics to more mainstream media voices, and it plays upon people's self-esteem.
Some commentaries asked whether WATCHMEN had perhaps killed the comic book genre single-handedly. This ridiculous notion obviously ignored the fact that the previous years had seen the genre take over of the box office. That WATCHMEN became the second-highest-grossing film in history and broke the one-billion-dollar threshold globally (not to mention getting eight Academy Award nominations) just a few months ago didn't seem to affect the gloom-and-doom talk regarding WATCHMEN sinking the future of the genre with it's $200 million-plus "genre-killing" run.
Luckily, the film industry isn't buying it. Despite the backlash, studios are moving ahead with long-term planning and serious thought about how best to produce strong, dramatic comic book films. The studios have become the biggest champions of advancing the cause of high-quality, serious genre films. They have embraced the changed perceptions about the source material and how best to adapt it, and are now our biggest allies in the cause of changing perceptions of the genre. This, then, is one of the key elements previously lacking in the attempt to redefine comic book films and public perceptions of comics. A large, powerful industry, able to reach the public with the the strongest possible medium to effect a change in attitudes and drive a popular culture trend.
While we are not yet experiencing a broad change in coverage and perceptions, the situation today is far different from what existed in the aftermath of SUPERMAN in ’78 and BATMAN in ’89 and the change has the potential to expand into something larger. If the film industry continues to reject the backlash and to contribute films that build upon the modern success of the genre, then I think that the backlash will (like most backlashes) be short-lived. In the coming years, the backlash will be overtaken by popular sentiment driven by the simple fact of the legitimate artistic merit of these films. As respect for the film genre is established, respect for the comic book medium will grow, and we will overcome much of the stigma attached to the medium. However, it won't translate into increased sales and readership of print comic books for many years to come.
Comic books are a print medium, and print material is experiencing a severe decline that is irreversible. The cause is the Internet and portable media devices. This is why I believe that comic books will inevitably have to transition to a primarily online medium, with trade paperbacks as the only remaining printed version of comic books. When comic books make the transition, they will face tough obstacles: the overwhelming amount of choices available online; competing for attention against video, audio, and other much more interactive media and downloads; and the likely inevitable need to modify the format of the comic book medium online to incorporate things like "motion comics" and CGI, in order to modernize the comic books to fit into the electronic media age.
My fear is that these factors will combine to either end the sustainability of comic books, or force changes in formatting until they evolve so much that they aren't recognizable as their original medium. How far would comic books have to evolve before they crossed over into a form of animated cartoons, for example? These are serious questions to consider. That the industry cannot survive merely in print form will be impossible to ignore in coming years. The transition into electronic media is inevitable, as is the need to transition toward formats that differ from today's format. And the long-term fate of the comic book medium will inevitably impact the future of comic book films as well.
If the comic book medium fails to translate effectively into electronic media, this means a loss of future material to influence the film genre. If comic books evolve into a new structure dissimilar to the original format, this will alter the makeup of fans (for example, broader internationalization of the fanbase, or a structure more akin to animation perhaps unintentionally creating a movement toward growing a growing youth fanbase harkening back to the earliest days of the medium) and have an effect on how the films are made.
It's somewhat bittersweet that the long-term survival and eventual acceptance of the comic book film genre as a dramatic art form begins at the same time that the long-term future of comic books is in question. While certainly the companies will expand into electronic media and find new ways to deliver the material, the medium will be forced to change and may cease to clearly resemble the medium in its current form. I believe the comic book films will become the dominant representation of the comic book art form in decades to come, and the one most likely to enjoy widespread critical and public acceptance, while the original comic book medium evolves into a brand new medium during its transition into electronic media.
BOF contributor Mark Hughes is a screenwriter living in Maryland.
He is an avid film fan and a longtime collector and reader of comics.
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