We talk a lot about how faithfully a comic series/character has been adapted and changed into the film we see on screen. However, rarely is mention given to the reverse being done. Of course there are obvious parallels which can be made about the state of Marvel comics today compared to the film - Coulson, black Fury, costume redesigns, etc. - but I'm talking about the comic tie-ins to the films.

A lot of the time I don't see the point in a comic adaptation of the film. Of course it's an additional source of profit - but generally, it turns out a clunky, overly condensed piece that has nothing to add and just retells a story we have already seen through the visual medium. Marvel's recent film-to-comic adaptations have been absolutely atrocious, with mediocre art and at 40 pages, not even altering the way the story is told to fit another medium. This is the case with all the Marvel Studios adaptations and The Amazing Spider-Man adaptation, where the only people I can envision reading it are kids or completionists. And even then.

The biggest flaw I find is with what I call 'panel enjambment', in which, as if straight out of a 60s comic, there is no logical division between panels on a page so you end up with 4 panels of one scene and 2 panels of "The next day" squeezed onto the same page, which completely detracts from the reading experience. Even though it was written by Peter David, the Iron Man adaptation completely lost me.

I was reading one adaptation today that I was pleasantly surprised with - the Spider-Man film adaptation. The opening pages introduce us nicely to the character of Spider-Man, and if there's ever a plus it's Stan Lee. He doesn't work writing serious stuff anymore, but when it's evoking the 60s and based off a pre-existing script it works really well. There are cases of 'panel enjambment' but the abridgement doesn't seem too bad in this case at all. The art is by Alan Davis, and it looks gorgeous. You can tell they are the actors the film is meant to represent, but he doesn't concern himself with replicating the likenesses exactly, and neither does he become overly obsessed with recreating the film shot-for-shot. There are some great panel layouts (including a double page spread of the Brooklyn Bridge), and the death of the Green Goblin is drawn perfectly.

So with the right creative team, a comic adaptation can work. There are two other examples I can think of also - the Iron Man: Public Identity 4-issue series which bridged the gap between the first and second films, with flashbacks to Tony's childhood; and the Captain America: First Vengeance 4-issue series, which is more a prelude/'deleted scenes' series which shows what happened before and during the events of the film. The art is absolutely wonderful and we get to see some 1930s Johann/Zola too, along with a greater look at Steve and Bucky's friendship.

Length is so important too, as Marvel's recent two-issue Prelude series have failed to impress, except maybe The Amazing Spider-Man ones. Guardians of the Galaxy tried something different two with each issue focusing on a different focal characters, and it was interesting delving into Nebula's backstory but the second story wasn't so great.

So - any other of Marvel's film to comic adaptations you can recommend?