When Should You Change a Comic Character to Match a Movie/TV Version of the Character?

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Cronin Theory of Comics is a collection of various “rules” and theories that I’ve noticed over the years that I think are worth sharing. It’s basically the same thing as Comic Book Dictionary, where I occasionally define terms having to do with comic books. Today, we look at The

I have a long-running feature called Follow the Path, where I spotlight changes made to comic book characters that are based on outside media, as well as characters who entirely came from outside media. This, of course, happens CONSTANTLY in comics. Some of them are good ideas, and some of them are bad ideas, but they tend to happen constantly whether the changes are good or not.

Generally speaking, though, it is clear that there is a test that you could apply that will determine whether adapting a character from their standard comic book depiction to their depiction in another media, and I like to call it the Agatha Harkness Ratio. Basically, if your prominence as a character in a popular piece of outside media is a much higher percentage than your prominence in the original media, then adapting the outside media depiction just plain ol’ makes sense, and you won’t get too much blowback for your changes.

How would Agatha Harkness fit into the Agatha Harkness Ratio?

Let’s take the character I named the rule after, Agatha Harkness. How prominent of a character do you think she has been in the Marvel Universe? She’s had less than a hundred appearances PERIOD in her comic book history, but it is fair to note that for a while there in the late 1960s/early 1970s, she was fairly prominent as Franklin Richards’ governess. And again, in the 1980s, as Scarlet Witch’s magical mentor, she had a decent amount of prominence. But then she was either dead or just out of commission for most of the 1990s and 2000s. She had some notable cameos in some prominent projects in the 2010s, from Tom King’s Vision to James Robinson’s Scarlet Witch, but let’s face it, she was never a MAJOR character. So, on a scale of one to a hundred, let’s say she was, being VERY CONSERVATIVE, let’s say she was a 20 out of 100 (I think she was lower than 20, but let’s just say 20 for the sake of argument).

Okay, so how prominent is Agatha Harkness in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? She was a key character in the TV series, WandaVision, and then she received her own TV series, Agatha All Along. Obviously, she’s not starring in movies, or even tying into the major movies, so she’s obviously not THAT big of a character, but simply having her own TV series makes her fairly notable. Let’s, again, go conservative the OTHER way, and say she’s about a 50 on a 1-100 prominence scale in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

So that’s a 50 to 20 ratio, and sure enough, Agatha being adapted into more of her MCU appearance has been a bit of a no-brainer, and I don’t think anyone really cares. We all get it.

A similar example would be John Stewart. He was barely being used in the comic books in the late 1990s, being just a supporting character in Kyle Rayner’s Green Lantern comic book series. So let’s say, I dunno, a 30% (seems high, but again, I’m trying to be conservative about things).

Now, at the same time, he was part of the Justice League cartoon (and its Justice League Unlimited followup), and John was a MAJOR character in that series. He was THE Green Lantnern on the team. He was probably a 70% prominence character in the “Timm-verse,” as it were.

And sure enough, John being adapted in the comics into his cartoon backstory has also been an obvious call, and one that fans have mostly adopted as if it was just a clear-cut decision.

Okay, so what would be an example the OTHER way?

When has the Agatha Harkness Ratio NOT made sense in the comics?

A simple example would be Spider-Man. Obviously, in his film universe, he is a massively prominent character, I guess 100 on a scale of 1-100. In the Marvel Universe, Spider-Man is probably just as prominent. Even if you want to say he’s, like, a 95 out of 100, the scale is still very, very close.

So when the film series decided to make Spider-Man’s webbing organic, rather than as part of a mechanical webshooter that Peter designed and built (Sam Raimi feeling that that would make Peter seem too unusually smart)…

and then the comic books decided to do the same in time for the SECOND Sam Raimi Spider-Man film…

Well, let’s say that the decision to make that change was received with a GOOD deal more resistance than anything involving Agatha Harkness or John Stewart. And sure enough, Marvel quietly got rid of it before the films even went back to the mechanical webshooters.

You’ll note similar Agatha Harkness Ratio examples with stuff like Wolverine, where he’s a major character in both the film universe and the Marvel universe, and as a result, he really hasn’t changed much in the comics due to the movie influence, and if they DID, I am sure it would not be received well.

And important distinction must be noted that it is specifically prominence in POPULAR films and TV shows that are play here. Prominent changes in not-so-popular films obviously carry very little impact on the comics. No one was rushing to change the Huntress based on the Birds of Prey TV show, ya know?

Cronin Theory of Comics/Comic Book Dictionary is a bit less of a reader-feedback feature, but hey, if you want to send in some terms that you’ve coined, maybe I’ll like them enough to feature them! I have done it in the past, so drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!

“}]] When it comes to adapting a TV or movie version of a character into comics, there’s a few major things to consider before doing so  Read More