Comic books are visual recreation of a story that is being told to you. The images at each page are crucial to accurate display of the written narrative and even the dialogues have to be written in a visually impactful way. When it comes to transforming a comic book into a film, more often than not, the film directors deviate from recreating the comic visuals in their entirety and often the screenplay looks different from the printed comic. At times, this happens because the basic sketch or the layout of a character undergoes a change during the transformation from a comic book to a movie. At other times it can be simply attributed to the fact that the Directors don’t feel interested in doing that.
However, there are occasional exceptions to this practice. As you scroll down, you will see some truly memorable comic book images being recreated in the film to the best possible resemblance. Have fun!
1. SPIDER-MAN GIVES UP HIS COSTUME!
A major problem in recreating Superhero comic scenes into motion picture is the fact that often technology is not as advanced as the comic designer’s creativity. The long delay in screen adaptation of Spiderman comics due to legal hassles benefited from the time lapse which enabled the Directors to replicate the phenomenon. A scene from 2004 release Spider-Man 2 was an absolute reproduction of the scene from Amazing Spider-Man#50, where Peter Parker gave up his costume.
2. SUPERMAN IN ACTION!
2006 film ‘Superman Returns’ had an iconic scene where Superman lifted a car over his head. This scene was an exact reproduction of Superman’s introduction in Action Comics #1 created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel.
3. GWEN STACY DIES
In the 2014 film Amazing Spider-Man 2 directed by Mark Webb, Gwen Stacy’s tragic death scene was re-created down to the minute details, carefully reproducing the same scene from the comic book ‘Amazing Spider-Man#121’. As a tribute to the comic, the film shows Stacy’s death taking place at exactly 1.21 AM.
4. THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS!
As we discussed earlier, Zack Snyder is a big fan of Frank Miller and his films have often depicted iconic comic scenes from Miller’s comics. Continuing the trend with the 2016 film, ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’, Snyder recreated a special fight scene between the two superheroes which showed the Batman framed in the sky by a bolt of lightning. This scene was directly based upon the iconic Batman
5. “I BELIEVE YOU”
In another scene from “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”, Batman breaks into a den where Lex Luthor’s men had held hostage Martha Kent, Superman’s mother. One of the criminals threatens Batman that he will kill Martha and Batman responds by saying, “I believe you” and then proceeds to kill the thug. This scene was also based on “Dark Knight Returns”.
6. CAPTAIN AMERICA VS. IRON MAN.
In the 2016 film, “Captain America: Civil War,” Iron Man and Captain America fought with each other over the issue of “Bucky” who was Captain’s best friend, but, was brainwashed by Hydra into killing Tony Stark’s parents. Their fight scene was brilliantly reproduced on screen exactly as per the Steve McNiven and Dexter Vines’ cover of “Civil War” final issue.
7. SOMEBODY’S GONNA GET IT!
Another iconic scene of the, “Captain America: Civil War” film showed Hawkeye shooting Ant-Man on the head of an arrow to send him after their foes.This scene was a reproduction of a classic “Avengers” cover by Ed Hannigan that showed the two characters doing the same thing.
