Why are Marvel Comics following so close the Cinematic Universe?

[guskougakis]

Being following Marvel Comics for a long time now and i have noticed that every time a movie is coming up, new series emerge with heroes and maybe storylines similar to the upcoming movie (for example Black Panther some months ago, or Ant Man and Wasp this week). Also the infinity gems were changed to infinity stones like the ones in the Cinematic Universe. The thing that pissed me off and made me post this thread was when i saw the upcoming Doctor Strange issue which futures Strange gaining control of which other....the TIME STONE!!! Is it only me that gets bothered from all this?? Why has everything to change according to the Cinematic Universe?

[Mike_Murdock]

Comics have been changing to match movies or TV shows at least since the 40s. I think the logic is that movies have a wider audience than the comics and they're hoping to attract some of that new audience by making things accessible.

The changes of Black Panther are cosmetic at most (I've only noticed the arm cross thing). Others, like Ant-Man and the Wasp are at most inspired by the movies, but the character of the Wasp isn't at all the movie version. The biggest change is probably with Guardians of the Galaxy, which is where you would find personalities changing to match the movies. But they were fairly obscure characters prior to the movie with pretty much one run with any critical acclaim going back to the beginning. I'd also point out that some of the characters are deviating shockingly far from the movie version by the time that series concluded.

[Factor]

I can understand the logic of wanting to attract the movie audience, but after so many failed attempts, it should have become obvious these changes don't actually do that. Yet they keep insisting.

[Killerbee911]

They have a billion reasons pun intended to try to match the movies. Now someone is going to say that it doesn't work trying to get the movie audience but it is worth trying over and over because maybe at some point it does work and they can tap that audience. So here is the real question every time they try to mirror the movie you have ask if it is a good change or bad change maybe trying to mirror movie Dr Strange is bad but for something like Black Panther trying to mirror movie Shuri or Killmonger would be smart.Who cares where the story ideas are coming from as long as they are good.

[dreyga2000]

Sometimes the movie versions are so popular it actually influences/inspires the writers. For example the way Guardians of the Galaxy and Iron-Man were written were changed because of much the movie alter writer's perceptions of the characters. A writer is more likely to come up with pitches for characters like the Ant-Man, Rocket Raccoon, or Loki after watching a fun movie about them. I strongly suspect Carol Danvers will under go a compete overall in writing and direction after her movie drops.

[responsarbre]

I probably can't name how many kinds of changes they've made either to follow the movies or because of MCU-related considerations, and they personally annoy me a lot. A lot of people say that there's only a couple of things that really changed because of the movies, but I think that, wherever they can get away with it, the movies/shows have made their mark. Sometimes it's really small things that only hypersensitive people notice (changing the standard transliteration from Romanov(a) back to Romanoff), sometimes it's its bigger things (completely reworking Daisy Johnson's character and origin, the drastic changes to the Guardians) and most often it's cosmetic stuff (Bucky looking awful in every one of his appearances since 2014). For any characters that are less well-known than Captain America and Spider-Man, there's always a chance that their MCU characterization will completely override their comic characterization in a given appearance, since a writer including a character in a guest spot isn't always likely to have read obscure back-issues but has definitely watched the latest Marvel Studios movie. The reason why I think it's especially noticeable and grating is because of how far-reaching the MCU is. Every major franchise at Marvel has been affected by stuff to do with the MCU.

I think the most noticeable and ridiculous effect the MCU has had on the comics is the dreaded CompleX stuff. In retrospect, it's actually pretty obvious that Marvel's main intention was to make the Inhumans into an MCU-viable IP farm. The resultant effect on the X-Men and Fantastic Four was dumb and pointless, and it's all turned especially hilarious in retrospect now that the Inhumans stuff in the MCU is dead for all intents and purposes. Even worse were the changes to Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, two characters who were already infamous for having needlessly complex backstories that somehow got ten times more complicated and contrived.

So yeah, it's hard to compare to the influence of the MCU to the influence of past comics adaptation because of how wide-reaching its effects are. A large percentage of published characters are affected, and the direction of the publishing line as a whole was affected. It's easier to ignore depending on what you're reading, but in some cases it's so blatant that you want to step back and ask yourself if you might as well pop in a movie/TV show instead of read a low-grade imitation.

[Jekyll]

I can understand the logic of wanting to attract the movie audience, but after so many failed attempts, it should have become obvious these changes don't actually do that. Yet they keep insisting.

Exactly! It’s a failed logic. It was worth a shot but the movies are not bringing in new readers.

[Prof. Warren]

The idea that the comics are bending over backwards to emulate the movie universe is a ridiculous over exaggeration.

Does Marvel like to make sure there's something on the shelf when a movie comes out? Of course, why wouldn't they?

Of course it makes sense to have an Ant-Man & Wasp mini out around the time of the movie's release.

But have the actual content of the books been shaped to reflect the movie universe? Hardly. Look at recent runs of Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, etc. - do they look like the movies or vice versa? No, not at all.

Have there been some instances of forced synergy? Sure. But more in the past than now. Probably the worst example is when Marvel gave Spidey organic webbing for a time in order to line up with the Raimi Spider-Man films. Pretty dumb.

But as far as the MCU, Marvel Studios era goes, those kinds of things rarely happen.

[SpiderClops]

The idea that the comics are bending over backwards to emulate the movie universe is a ridiculous over exaggeration.

Does Marvel like to make sure there's something on the shelf when a movie comes out? Of course, why wouldn't they?

Of course it makes sense to have an Ant-Man & Wasp mini out around the time of the movie's release.

But have the actual content of the books been shaped to reflect the movie universe? Hardly. Look at recent runs of Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, etc. - do they look like the movies or vice versa? No, not at all.

Have there been some instances of forced synergy? Sure. But more in the past than now. Probably the worst example is when Marvel gave Spidey organic webbing for a time in order to line up with the Raimi Spider-Man films. Pretty dumb.

But as far as the MCU, Marvel Studios era goes, those kinds of things rarely happen.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

[Jokerz79]

They've always done it a few of Superman mythos came from the radio show and Alfred was completely altered because of the actor in the serials.

Honestly many of us were first exposed to comic characters through films, TV shows, or cartoons/animated series and of course comic companies will want the books to slightly resemble them.

[Magneto]

Money

10char

[ed2962]

At this point they know that the movie audience isn't going to flock to the comics shops, but they do hope that a movie/tv project may raise a character's profile among regular comics fans.

Having said that, where's my Cloak and Dagger comic announcement?

[Witchfan]

I like the movie universe more than the comics that have been published this century, so I would like the comics to be more like the movies.

[gurkle]

They don't consistently follow the movies, but here and there they have spurts of changing characters so they will be more like what movie viewers are used to. The most famous, and stupid, example was creating Nick Fury Jr. so the comics' Nick Fury would look more like the movie version.

In general the peak of movie synergy seemed to be right after the first Avengers movie, which caused them to change a bunch of things to bring it more in line with the movie, like making Hulk an Avenger.

More recently, the MCU has had less of a settled status quo, and the comics have been cut off from any participation in the direction of the MCU movies, so the comics have not followed them as closely. But they still throw in some movie-related stuff. One of the strange things about the comics in the last few years is that it's combined stuff that is very different from what movie viewers are used to (all the legacy characters and low points for the established heroes) with plot points or characterizations inspired by the movies.

My guess is, and this is just a guess, that editors know MCU references don't actually bring in new readers but have to do them sometimes in case the higher-ups ask them why they're not doing more movie references. (Bob Harras got fired as editor-in-chief in 2000 because the X-Men comics, apart from being terrible, were almost incomprehensible to anyone who had picked up a comic after the X-Men movie. Since then, most comics usually have a few things that are at least superficially similar to the movies.) Plus I think writers and editors just like some of what they see in the movies and want to incorporate it. Most writers can't help but write Tony Stark as if he's the Downey version; it won't bring in extra readers, but you can't un-hear Downey's voice now.

[MaximoffTrash]

I like the movie universe more than the comics that have been published this century, so I would like the comics to be more like the movies.

Well, as long as they don't try to over-simplify things and dump lore into garbage yard.