Friday, September 17, 2010

How To Modernize an Old Comic Book Without Too Much Work

The original panel, from Amazing Spider-man #270, November 1985:


And now the modernized, completely fresh and up to date, mature...heck, dare I say it, even "Ultimate", replacement:


That antiquated old story has suddenly been brought 25 years into the future and is now a thoroughly modern, adult piece of literature that you can beat people over the head with if they say comics aren't for grownups! It's that easy!

(Edit: Second panel altered by myself for satirical purposes)

6 comments:

LissBirds said...

They changed "bad" to "badass?" Was this just to avoid confusion with Michael Jackson making "bad" mean "cool?" :)

Aaron said...

It was actually me who made the change, it's just my whimsical way of poking fun at the "badassizing" of comics, or the fact that the subject matter hasn't changed an awful lot but because characters use more adult language, it's supposed to be more mature. Or something. Mostly it's just me having some fun with my extremely limited photoshop skills. I'm probably just confusing people! But I always thought that guy's line was hilarious and it stuck out in my head.

LissBirds said...

I suspected it was you, but I wasn't 100% sure so I didn't want to look I had no clue. Actually, those are some pretty convincing Photoshop skills!

I'm so terribly old-fashioned that I never was a fan of superheroes swearing. I wish they'd tone it down a bit, especially with characters like Ice, where it makes no sense. Plus I miss the use of #@#$&! for comic swears. It's something uniquely comic book in origin, yet now is a part of pop culture.

"Badassizing" is one cool word, btw.

Aaron said...

Yeah, I like those symbols for swears as well...there is so much stuff that they put in comics, where they simply had people act absolutely terrible, that was supposed to be "maturity", that really bothers me. Like I'm somehow childish for liking Superman's goodness and decency for instance, and it would be more mature to read comics with antiheroes who are drunk all the time, or whatever. I'm not saying that the "darker" comics are never fun, it's just I never find them more grown-up, they often seem quite adolescent. My taste for that dimishes all the time. So yeah, I was just spoofing the idea that throwing in swears automatically makes it more mature. Also the idea that doing something extremely superficial to update a comic suddenly makes it better.

In conclusion, I will probably never watch the movie "Kickass."

LissBirds said...

I haven't read many Superman comics, but I grew up with the Christopher Reeves movies. I want Superman to save cats out of trees, and tell children to eat their vegetables. The word "badass" should never be used to describe Superman, in my opinion. People pick on him because he's a "Boy Scout," but what is so wrong with being a Boy Scout? Or, at the very least, being a decent human being?

I don't mind anti-heroes, when they are in their own context. (For example, I'm reading Darwyn Cooke's Parker right now, which is okay. Plus I like my share of film noir) But when it comes to superheroes, I expect them to act like, well, heroes.

Darwyn Cooke ranted on Marvel and DC badassizing their heroes at a convention, which of course someone filmed and put on Youtube. I agree with a lot of what he says.

Aaron said...

I know what you mean, I don't mind the antiheroes because it's apt and relevant to address moral ambiguity, and they do work in different contexts. I'm also a fan of noirs, as well as spaghetti westerns. It really comes down to me not needing everything to be the same. I also don't feel it's necessary for characters to become killers just to show they're conflicted and complex. I mean, most people I know are conflicted and complex but they don't kill people.