If the OP is true that I hope they consider the GN Doctor Strange/Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment the storyboard for Doctor Strange's next movie
If the OP is true that I hope they consider the GN Doctor Strange/Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment the storyboard for Doctor Strange's next movie
I honestly do think the MCU will do Triumph and Torment in some form.
But in any case...to get back to the OP. There are two things that need to be addressed.
-- Are comics in the current era serving as IP Farms? YES
-- Are comics used as storyboards, or even created as storyboards? NO
These two things are separate and are being conflated, when it's separate. Storyboards for instance are highly specific things in movie-production, and few directors would use comic panels as storyboards when most of the time they just create their own specific to their requirements. Outside of the shout-out to a famous comics scene here and there, most time directors don't try to do panel-by-panel from the comics. In fact the director who really tries and does that...is Zack Snyder.
In the case of comics being used as IP Farms, this is something that is governed at the publishing/editorial/corporate level more than the creative level, and those two things have an amorphous link between each other.
Did Jonathan Hickman create the Black Order or stage the attack on Wakanda in his Avengers crossover INFINITY with a view that it would be adapted into the MCU someday? No, absolutely not. However did Marvel commission or encourage that run, and the use of Thanos as a tie-in and build-up after the success of the Avengers 2012 and its post-credits scene (where a lot of Thanos stories were written)? Yeah. Was Hickman's HOX/POX/DOX made possible by the Fox buyout? Yeah. Does that mean Hickman's run is mainly a staging ground for the X-Men MCU reboot? No. I mean I guess people at Marvel might see it that way, but for Hickman this is about doing a defining run on all three of Marvel's big teams and a chance to do his favorite Marvel comic of all time. This is about something bigger than the movies. It's about doing something pantheon-level in Marvel history. Like when Hickman did his run on Fantastic Four and Avengers, he made Secret Wars 2015 center on characters like Reed and Doom who were verboten from the MCU.
It's possible to see comics as both IP farms and creative endeavors. Both can be true. And just because comics borrow some ideas from movies, or deliberately include ideas for the sake of a future movie tie-in, that doesn't mean it's bad in and of itself. For instance, such elements that are now mainstays of Batman and Superman -- the power of flight, Kryptonite, Jimmy Olsen, the Batcave, Barbara Gordon, Batman's grappling hook -- all came from adaptations.
Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men for instance was heavily inspired by the first X-Men movie, and he encouraged Frank Quitely to draw them all in leather jackets in the approach of the movie. He also borrowed ideas from the X-Men Evolution cartoon.
Oh, now this is just a beautiful scene.
A story that does horribly in the comics is probably not going to be made into a movie.
Besides, by testing ground, I meant more something like the Black Order or Miles Morales, ideas that didn't necessarily come from corporate overlords but were then used in the wider company because they proved successful in the comics.
Like some have said, it's not an either/or situation. Comics can be seen as an IP farm (mostly to the eyes of the higher-ups who oversee technical stuff and not really the creative part), BUT that doesn't mean comics ONLY exist for that reason. Like, a while back Marvel published a Slapstick solo book. SLAPSTICK! Does anyone think there's a Slapstick movie, TV show or video game happening anytime soon? 'Cause I don't, and yet, the book was right there. How do you explain that if comics were solely motivated to exist as a vessel for future adaptions in other media?
That's not really how an IP works... Universal has the distribution (not production) rights to the Hulk IP, period. The minute Amadeus became Hulk, he became a part of that IP. Much like Sony owns Miles Morales' Spider-Man or Spider-Gwen, even though they are also different characters from Peter Parker, but still related to the Spider-Man IP. So while Marvel would be able to produce a Hulk movie featuring Amadeus Cho (and this is something they can do with Bruce Banner too), since they have the PRODUCTION rights to the Hulk franchise, they wouldn't be able to distribute it without Universal, and that's the whole issue... because Disney apparently doesn't like their current deal with Universal for whatever reason (I'm assuming money), so a solo Hulk movie with anyone hasn't and won't happen until that gets sorted out. She-Hulk seems to be an exception because it's TV, so the distribution rights there could be different.
Now, if Marvel wanted to make an Amadeus Cho movie and call it Brawn, I think MAYBE they would've been able to get away with it. Same for a Hulkling movie. But I don't think neither of those movies are happening anytime soon, so...
Last edited by Drops Of Venus; 02-25-2020 at 12:26 AM.