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Marvel Comics into Film

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Sample file into Film Essays on Adaptations Since the 1940s

Edited by Matthew J. McEniry, Robert Moses Peaslee and Robert G. Weiner

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McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina Sample file

ISBN (print) 423-+-231/-/.+/-3 ISBN (ebook) 423-,-/211--/,,--

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© 2016 Matthew J. McEniry, Robert Moses Peasleee and Robert G. Weiner. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com Acknowledgments

The editors would like to thank Alicia Goodman and Naomi Joelle Glover, and Der- rick Holland for their help with this project. Matthew J. McEniry: Thank you to my co- editors, Robert Moses Peaslee and Robert G. Weiner, for allowing me to contribute in the journey of this volume. Thanks to my colleagues Ryan Litsey, Ryan Cassidy, and Le Yang for academically challenging me every day. Much love to my parents, Allen and Deborah McEniry, sister, Cortney McEniry, and grandparents, George and Naomi White. Thanks to my two great friends of twenty years, Matthew Gille and David Killian; you guys are the best, and I thank you for all the encour- agement. A special thanks to the community of AJB; you all are awesome. Finally, thanks to my close gaming cadre of Spectear, Tesserae, Shadowed, and Boozy. What leisure I did have during this project you all certainly made special. Robert Moses Peaslee: I would like to thank my co- editors, Matthew J. McEniry and Robert G. Weiner, for their tireless efforts in bringing this volume to fruition. Thanks also to my colleagues in the College of Media & Communication at Texas Tech University, who provide unyielding support, friendship, and mentorship at every turn. To my stu- dents, who inspire me every day to continue thinking and writing about things that “don’t matter,” I offer a hearty word of appreciation. Loving thanks finally to Kate, Coen, Hazel and Nora: my collective North Star,Sample the first and lastfile chapter of everything. Robert G. Weiner: Love to Tom A. Gonzales, Joe L. Ferrer, John Oyerbides, Sara Dulin, my lovely mother, Marilyn Weiner, and Larry and Vicki. Special thoughts to my late father, Dr. Len Weiner. Thanks to Felicity Smoak, Harrison Wells, Chuck Chandler, Phil Grayfield, Ryan Litsey, R. Cassidy, my colleagues in the Research, Instruction, and Outreach Department, Laura Heinz (for always having an open ear), Sheila Hoover, the Dean of Libraries, Dr. Bella Gerlich (you rock!), the Document Delivery Department at Texas Tech, Dr. Mark Charney, Dr. Erin Collopy, my library colleagues for their support and understanding, and Dr. Aliza (for your energy, suggestions, and support). Special thanks to all my critters especially my buddy Murphey, my pal Miss Tess, and my girl Rocket. Dedicated to the memory of Little Spike. Thanks to Matthew J. McEniry for your friendship and for keeping me in line all the time. Thanks to Robert Moses Peaslee; it is always a pleasure to work with you. Your insights are always appreciated. Special dedication to the architects of the original , Martin Good- man, Carl Burgos, Bill Everett, Alex Schomburg, Allen Bellmen (a true gentleman if there

v vi Acknowledgments ever was one), and all of the artists and writers who created and worked on all the amazing characters at Timely. Special dedication to , Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Wally Wood, John Buscema, Roy Thomas, Larry Leiber, Don Heck, Jim Steranko, and everyone else at the original Marvel Bullpen who created the fantastic universe we all know today. Thanks to Avi Arad and for bringing to life those wonderful characters on film. Special thanks also to Miss Hanna Sawka, Mr. Brett Brock, Mr. Morgan Hyman, Dr. Gary Elbow, Mr. Spike Spiegal, Jack Russell, Frank Castle, Mr. Mason West, Dr. Paul Rein- sch, Dr. Brad Duran, Dr. Darren Hudson Hick, Dr. Wyatt Phillips, Mrs. Shelley Barba, Professor Ghislaine Fremaux, Miss Stephani Shagula, Jamie Maberry (love you Dr. J.), the folks at the Southwst Popular Culture Association (Lynnea, Tammy, Kelli, Anna) and the Associate Deans of the TTU Libraries (Bob, Jennifer, Earnstein, Sheila—thank you for your support). Thanks to all my Honors students, past and present, who teach me every day the importance of education and how to think about popular culture topics in new and unique ways. You are the leaders of the future: Go forth and make the world a better place!

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Acknowledgments ix Introduction Robert G. Weiner, Robert Moses Peaslee, and Matthew J. McEniry 1 Part ,: Myth “Yeah? Well, MY god has a HAMMER!”: Myth- Taken Identity in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Brian Cogan and Jeff Massey 10 “The terms of the contract have changed”: How Rider Carries on Goethe’s Faustian Tradition Jacob Garner and Thomas Simko 20 Transformers: The Movie: Making Modern Mythology the Marvel Way Jason Bainbridge 27 You Can’t Stop Her: Re- Configured Daniel Binns Sample file 39 Part -: Licensed Properties Dare to Be Stupid: The Fetishization of Heavy Metal and the New in Transformers: The Movie Eric Garneau 52 in G.I. Joe: The Movie: Its Influence, Origin, Introduction and Development Liam T. Webb 60 Conan the Destroyer of a Franchise? Analyzing and Evaluating the Adaptive and Narrative Features of Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer and The Horn of Azoth Rodney Donahue 72 Part .: The Japanese Connection Marvel and Toei Jesus Jimenez- Varea and Miguel Ángel Pérez-Gómez 84

vii viii Table of Contents

Japanese Characters and Culture in Marvel’s American Films Stephen Miller 94 Part /: Setting Up the Marvel Cinematic Universe Sowing the Seeds: How 1990s Marvel Facilitated Today’s Cinematic Universe Liam Burke 106 The Death of the First Marvel Television Universe Arnold T. Blumberg 118 Frozen in Ice: ’s Arduous Journey to the Silver Screen David Ray Carter 129 The Primetime Heroics of Small Screen : Finding Sociopolitical Value in Marvel TV Movies Jef Burnham 138 Part 0: The Attempt of Progressivism in the Marvel Universe Damsels in Transgress: The Empowerment of the Damsel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Joseph Walderzak 150 Elektra: Critical Reception, Postfeminism and the Marvel Superheroine on Screen Miriam Kent 165 Gods and Freaks, Soldiers and Men: Gender, Technologies and Marvel’s The Avengers Sample file Jeremiah Favara 177 An Archetype or a Token? The Challenge of the Black Panther Julian C. Chambliss 189 Part 1: Studies The Daywalker: Reading as Genre Hybridity Naja Later 200 Body vs. Technology: : The Rise of Technovore and Culture Vanessa Gerhards 212 On Your Stupid Earth: The De- Gerberized Duck Rick Hudson 224

Part 2: The Anti- Hero Punishing the : Can Hollywood Ever Capture the Essence of the Character? Cord A. Scott 232 Table of Contents ix

Hulk Smash Binaries D. Stokes Piercy and Ron Von Burg 241 From Anti- Hero to Cinematic : The Transmedia Extension of Joshua Wucher 250

About the Contributors 261 Index 263

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Sample file Introduction Robert G. Weiner, Robert Moses Peaslee and Matthew J. McEniry

Beginning with Iron Man (2008), the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films have established themselves as the template for the contemporary blockbuster movie. Audi- ences now expect and look forward to new MCU movies each year. Fox’s of Fan- tastic Four (2015), however, which bombed during its first weekend ($62,000,000) with a plethora of scathing reviews and the director distancing himself from the project,1 pro- vides a rare opportunity for substantial speculation about the future of the MCU. Could it make audiences reluctant to see future Marvel property films? Will it encourage to reincorporate its First Family by reaching a rights deal with Fox (as Sony has done with regard to Spider- Man), moving it from what we’ll call the “Cinematic Marvel Universe” into the MCU proper? Moving into its so- called “Phase Three,” Marvel Studios hopes it can continue to maintain its successful momentum. In fact, the studio is betting big on this success—with Disney’s backing—having planned releases all the way up to 2028.2 The MCU has made itself a prominent part of the popular culture landscape and there are now college classes being taught featuring the MCU.3 As one commentator pointed out recently, “Today the MarvelSample Cinematic file Universe is the blueprint for every studio hoping to follow their path to the box office.”4 Contributor Liam Burke discusses in The Comic Book Film Adaptation (in his detailed chapter “How to Adapt Comics the Marvel Way”) that many of the successful comic- related films take a page out of Stan Lee and John Buscema’s 1978 How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. The films use the prin- ciples outlined in Lee and Buscema’s text (composition and framing of shots, layout, etc.) and translate them to the screen. Sometimes this is intentional (especially in Marvel- related films), but not always.5 When Marvel decided to form its own film studio in 2005, it was tremendously risky—many went so far as suggest it was ill- advised. For example, the man who brought other Marvel properties to the big screen, Avi Arad, resigned and the risk fell to Kevin Feige, who became president of the studio in 2007. It did seem like a tremendous gamble, since Fox owned the adaptation rights to the X- Men and Sony owned similar rights to Spider- Man, the two major Marvel franchises. Could Feige bring to worldwide box office success characters like Iron Man, Captain America, and others? Those fears were put to rest when Iron Man (2008) was successful at the box office and the films that fol- lowed started gaining momentum. In 2012, Marvel’s The Avengers became the third largest

, - Introduction box office success of all time until 2015, when Jurassic World pushed it into fourth. The studio was also able to adapt z- grade characters like the Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), who had almost no name recognition outside diehard comic fans, and create a successful, smart, and funny movie that through word of mouth was a worldwide sensation. Big Hero 6 (2014) met with similar success and was loosely based on Marvel characters. Fol- lowing all of these moves, Feige has become one of the most influential producers in Hollywood.6 Much like the comic universe that Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, et al., created with the MCU, the studio has developed a that could potentially feature any of the 3,000 characters for which it continues to retain the movie rights.7 MCU films are increasingly cross pollenated with MCU television programs like Agent Carter (2015), Daredevil (2015), Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013), and other future endeavors. In fact, with the reboot of Marvel Universe comic books—marked by the Secret Wars series in 2015— Marvel is trying to make the comics mirror the MCU in order to bring in new readers and make the comics more commercially viable. Those characters that are outside the MCU and are owned by other studios, like the or , have either been given the axe or new origins (e.g., Quicksilver as a “hero,” not a mutant). Since Mar - vel Studios can now utilize Spider-Man, one could speculate that eventually they will reacquire all their characters, from the X- Men and the Fantastic Four to the Sub- Mariner, the , or the Man Thing. Certainly with Disney owning Marvel, they could afford to buy back the rights to such characters. Although technically one could argue it was New Line’s Blade (1998) (see Naja Later’s essay) that started the current wave of feature films featuring Marvel characters, it was really Fox’s X-Men in 2000 that began the film as a industry. Sony’s 2002 Spider-Man was even more successful in terms of box office sales, with both fan and critical acclaim. X-Men and Spider-Man showed that it was possible to bring super- hero characters to the screen and not be “cheesy” (although 1989’s did this, the franchise ended up in a downwardSample spiral until 2006’s file ). There were, how- ever, duds along the way in terms of box office success (or lack thereof), critical evaluation, and fan reception. This volume addresses all aspects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s history from a wide variety of perspectives and ideas. It is as comprehensive as we could make it, cov- ering animated films, Marvel characters in non–U.S. settings, films produced when char- acters were properties controlled by Marvel (such as Conan and Transformers), television films, and even the current MCU. On the Internet Movie Database, an enterprising fan put together a list of Marvel- related films and series before 2000.8 It is fairly complete, including television programs and series featuring the usual suspects like Spider- Man, , Captain America, X- Men, and the Silver Surfer. Some of the oddities listed include Power Pack (1991), (1986), The Electric Company (1971),9 Battle Fever J (1979), Fred and Barney Meet the Thing (1979), (1995) and even the Men in Black mov - ies and series (1997).10 Missing from the list, however, are films and series produced by like Transformers: The Movie (1986), My Little Pony (1986), InHuman - oids: The Movie (1986), Muppet Babies (1984–1991), Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (ani- mated series 1990–1991) and others.11 Though many of the films discussed in this volume are critical and box office failures, or could be considered horrible movies by today’s standards, that does not mean they are not worthy of study. It does not make them any less interesting from a historical, scholarly or analytical perspective. Introduction .

As David Ray Carter discusses, Marvel characters first appeared on the cinema screens as early as 1944 in the 15-part Republic serial Return of Captain America (although Cap barely resembles the character as we know him today). It was not until 1986’s Howard the Duck (Universal/LucasFilm) that another film featuring a Marvel character would have a major release in theaters. Although it was heavily hyped at the time (produced by George Lucas with a budget of $35,000,000), it was a box office disaster only grossing around $16,000,000 (see Rick Hudson’s essay for the reasons behind this, although the film does have its fans). There were other ill- fated attempts to bring Marvel characters to the big screen: 1989’s Punisher (see Cord A. Scott’s essay) or 1990’s Captain America (see Carter) and other films went straight to video or had a limited release in non- U.S markets (a practice that continued even as late as 2005’s Man-Thing from Lions Gate).12 On a budget of around $1,500,000, produced the 1994 Fantastic Four movie. It proved to be such an embarrassment that Avi Arad bought back the rights and reportedly “destroyed every print of the film.”13 Over the years the film has grown in cult status, even generating a feature documentary exploring the story behind the film (Doomed: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four).14 It would take another eleven years for a big screen version of The Fantastic Four (2005) to come to fruition. Lee always believed that Marvel characters could be brought to the big and small screen successfully. He tried for years to get studios and Hollywood executives to buy into the commercial potential of Marvel’s stock of characters. It was a difficult proposition and very little ever came of it, even though there was a rich history with the characters. The success of 1978’s film should have shown Hollywood executives that comic characters could be profitable if done right. In the early 1980s, according to Sean Howe, there was talk of both big- and small- screen Marvel film projects, including the X-Men, , Daredevil, Power Man, and The (and with big- name actors like Carl Weathers and Tom Selleck).15 Part of the problem was not only the technological difficulties in making these characters believable, but as Liam Burke points out, rights issues were difficult: “Attempts wereSample made to adapt Marvelfile Comics characters, but without the shelter of a parent company, the rights became increasingly diluted and complicated.”16 Spider-Man was one of biggest offenders in this category, and although there was a feature film scheduled to be produced in 1986,17 it was not until 2002 that the big screen version of Spider-Man would be realized. Oddly enough, there were television movies that made it to the big screen in non– U. S. markets. Episodes of The Amazing Spider- Man (1978) television series were cobbled together, released as Spider-Man the Dragon’s Challenge (1981), and saw theatrical release in Ireland, , Australia and other international markets. Captain America (1979) saw theatrical release in Columbia in 1981, while Captain America Death II Soon (1979) was released on the big screen in France in 1980 and even had a special film festival screening in in 2014.18 This shows that, in at least some selected markets, there was a desire to see MCU superheroes on the big screen despite the quality of the films. On television there was a more success with The Incredible Hulk (1978–1982) series and various ani- mated programs. Official adaptations of Marvel characters like Spider-Man and the ani- mated Tomb of (1980) were popular in (as Jesus Jimenez- Varea and Miguel Ángel Pérez-Gómez discuss). With reference to Supaidaman (1978), Rayna Denison points out the unique hybridization of the Spider- Man character in the context of tradi- tional Japanese television and film, characterizing Supaidaman as “Japanese reimaginings of the U.S. superhero character for a (special effects) genre diegesis.”19 / Introduction

Unauthorized adaptations of Marvel characters worldwide provide an equally fas- cinating look at non– superheroics on film. It’s no surprise that Spider- Man is one of the most popular to imitate. For example, the Turkish Spider- Man or 3 Dev Adam (Three Angry Men, 1973) is the most notorious of all unauthorized Marvel related films featuring Captain America, the Mexican superhero Santo, and an evil Spider- Man who has a green costume.20 A musical sequence from the film Daria Dil (1988) called Tu Mera Superman (“You are my Superman”) features Superman and Spider- Woman. Spider-Woman’s costume looks very similar to that of a certain wall crawler right down to the colors, and the short sequence has over ten million views on YouTube.21 The Italian Spiderman (2007) was originally released in short mini- episodes on YouTube and has more in common with anti- heroes like The Punisher or ’s anti- hero/thief Diabolik. Italian Spiderman was created as a comedic parody of 1960s Italian adventure mov ies, even though the filmmakers were Australian.22 Although the above have little in common with their official Marvel counterparts, they would not exist if were it not for Marvel’s inspiration. This shows, among other things, how important cultural icons like Captain America, Spider- Man and others can be to the international filmmaking process. Fan films also provide a unique glimpse into how ordinary people interpret these characters beyond the Hollywood system. Fan films have an interesting history and go as far back as 1963, when teenage director Donald Glut was making movies featuring his favorite comic, monster, and pulp characters, including the Marvel characters Captain America, Human Torch, and Spider- Man.23 With the ease of digital film technology and the rise of advanced cosplay techniques, it is increasingly possible for anyone to create their own fan film starring their favorite popular culture character—films, moreover, that have decent production values and look good.24 Fanfilms.net, Vimeo, and YouTube provide an easy way for fans to have their productions seen or noticed. A brief glance at fanfilms.net shows dozens of films for an assortment of Marvel characters, with Spider Man having the most adaptations at 71.25 In fact, fan films like director Dan Poole’s The ’s Last Stand (1992) haveSample become famous file by virtue of their stand- alone qual- ity.26 In this volume, then, we have attempted to account for as much as possible of the diverse and ubiquitous MCU presence within and influence upon popular culture. This is an inherently losing battle, of course, since a truly comprehensive report would take up volumes, if indeed it were possible at all. Our stab at it begins in Part 1, which relates to myth. We start off with Brian Cogan and Jeff Massey’s contextualization of the modern MCU in traditional mythical storytelling through an explanation of how Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in creating the Marvel Universe, created modern folklore. Jacob Garner and Thomas Simko look at the Faustian tradition in the (2007/2011) films while Jason Bainbridge discusses how the seeds of the Transformers (1986) movie were set up in the Marvel Universe proper. Daniel Binns, finally, examines how Elektra (2005) por- trayed the central character with some of the traditional characteristics of heroic women from ancient Greek culture. Part 2 deals with licensed properties, starting with Eric Garneau’s discussion of the various musical styles in Transformers (1986). Liam T. Webb takes us through the history and development of the direct- to-video G.I. Joe (1987), while Rodney Donahue digs into the difficulties the Conan (1982) franchise has encountered in its various adaptations. In particular, Donahue looks at the difficulties Conan scribe Roy Thomas had in bringing his to Conan the Destroyer (1984).