The rise of a dark hero in comic book adaptations
In 1939 Bob Kane created Batman - a revenge-driven vigilante who dressed as bat to strike fear into the hearts of the criminals he hunted down. Four years later Batman hit cinema screens in the form of a serial starring Lewis Wilson as the Dark Knight. A few years ago it would have been hard to believe that bringing a comic-book superhero to the screen could ever have been that simple. The moment the first comic geek went online the Internet was flooded with rumours about who would be playing the next Batman and which comic was next due for the Hollywood treatment. However, in the years that followed Tim Burton’s groundbreaking 1989 adaptation, it seemed more and more unlikely that any other comic-book hero would have a life beyond the page. Now, with Hollywood producers clearing out every dark corner of development hell in search of the next Spider-man treatment, it seems as though every costumed hero will get a chance to take their masked crusades to the masses.
Heroes on the Horizon
This year there are more comic book adaptations headed for our screens than ever before. Once again we are to spend the summer recalling Cliff Robertson’s advice to Spider-man: “With great power comes great responsibility”, and being reassured that good really does triumph over evil. On the surface this rather shallow premise appears to be the basis of most superhero comics – an effect of the Comics Code of 1954 which forced Batman and others out of the shadows and into the brightly coloured world of black-and-white morality – but there is a darker side which several of this year’s films look set to explore. Three films in particular seem intent on dragging the superhero back into the darkness - The Punisher, Hellboy, and Constantine.
The Punisher is bleak tale of revenge about a man forced to take the law into his own hands after the murder of his family; Hellboy is the story of a demon summoned from Hell to destroy the world, but ultimately fighting to defend it; and Constantine follows a chain-smoking demon-slayer closer to the evil he fights than the people he defends. Although hardly appearing to be heroes at all these characters are part of a continuing tradition in comic-book adaptations and are closer to the classic superhero story than they seem.
Back to the Shadows
In the early 1980s comics were going through a number of changes as writers such as Alan Moore, Grant Morrison and Frank Miller turned the superhero genre on its pointy-eared head. In particular, Miller’s re-interpretation of Batman in The Dark Knight Returns presented a frighteningly real story of an almost psychotic avenger fighting against the society that created him. As Miller said of his work, “Heroes have to work in the society around them, and Batman works best in a society that’s gone to hell”. Dark Knight was a direct influence on Tim Burton’s Batman - the film that would in some way influence every superhero adaptation to follow. Burton intentionally took the character back to his roots: “Batman began as a dark detective before he was later given all kinds of gadgetry to fight crime. He finally ended up as a camp figure who took off on adventures that never occurred at night”. Aside from the general look of the film there are two elements that have been repeated over and over again.
The first is the introduction of the hero. Batman (Michael Keaton) emerges from the shadows to stalk two unsuspecting thieves across the rooftops of Gotham and though he does not kill them, frightens them to insanity. Despite its faithfulness to Bob Kane’s original concept, on film this scene plays much more like the introduction of a horror film monster than that of a hero. This darkness is carried through to the central issue of the film – Batman’s relationship with the Joker (Jack Nicholson). The relationship is best summed up in one of the final scenes when the Joker says to Batman: “You made me”. Batman replies: “You made me first”. With this the film suggests that the two characters would not exist independently of each other. This is the central theme of all superhero narratives. However, it did not sustain itself through the three sequels that followed as the stories began to centre more on the villains than the hero (as in the case of the first film, the villains were given top-billing over the actor playing Batman). When Burton was replaced by Joel Schumacher for Batman Forever and Batman And Robin the franchise returned to the camp comedy of the sixties TV series as the out-dated Comics Code was seemingly applied to film.
The theme of good on the edge of evil was taken to its darkest extreme in Alex Proyas’ 1994 comic-book adaptation The Crow (a franchise as undead as its hero with a fourth film due later this year). In this film the hero, Eric Draven (Brandon Lee), is given an introduction even closer to that of a horror film monster than Batman, as he claws his way out of a grave in a thunderstorm. The story even plays out like a slasher film with Draven brutally hacking, slashing and shooting his way through a series of victims. Here there is no doubt that in order to fight his enemies, the hero must become ten times more brutal than they ever were.
This tradition also forms the centre of more recent comic book adaptations. In Blade Wesley Snipes plays a half-vampire and is introduced in a scene in which he violently massacres dozens of vampires in a nightclub. In Daredevil Ben Affleck portrays another character who appears to be more of a monster than the criminals he preys on causing a man to be crushed by a train in an early scene. Even in lighter films such as Spider-manthe hero’s closeness to the villain is what defines his identity. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is given a choice by the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) – to become either his greatest ally or greatest foe – and the villain tortures Parker and his family until he makes his decision. When Parker is finally driven to decide he kills the Green Goblin (revealed to be the father of his best friend) and for the first time identifies with his tormentor.
There are possible reasons for this dark streak in the multi-coloured superhero persona. The first is that it has always been present in the comics themselves. Not only in the hero/villain relationships, but the very act of bringing a comic book character to life inevitably pushes it into a darker world. For example the character of Wolverine in X-Men fights with long, metal claws that protrude from his knuckles. In the fantasy world of the comics the claws were often presented as a non-lethal weapon. However, the Wolverine of the X-Menfilms (Hugh Jackman) uses his claws to kill on several occasions making his character much more of an animal than his comic counterpart ever was. Another possibility is that there is something about our society that forces these dark heroes into existence. In relation to this possibility, it will be interesting to see how the new batch of comic-book adaptations will reflect the fears facing our society today.
Evil vs. Evil
In The Punisher, Frank Castle (Thomas Jane) takes the law into his own hands after criminals massacre his entire family. The revenge-driven action film is a classic Hollywood formula and is also a familiar basis for comic adaptations – such as The Crow, Spawn and an earlier version of The Punisher with Dolph Lundgren in the title role. Where Castle differs from most superheroes is that he has no special powers, only guns, and that in order to fight the men who killed his family he must sink to their level. Even Thomas Jane recognises the potential for evil in the character he portrays – “This is not a heroic person, he may have done these heroic things to avenge his family but he walks that line between good and bad and what’s right and wrong and he crosses it sometimes”. The storyline seems to suggest a deliberate departure from the fantasy elements of most superhero films and a return to the black-and-white morality of the action films of the eighties and nineties (Rambo, Commando, Die Hard, etc). What seems to have changed is the extent of the tragedy Castle is taking revenge for as the massacre occurs at a family reunion. The appeal of the film to a society still in the shadow of two crumbling towers seems obvious as it provides a rather simple solution – one man can pick up a gun and take out all the bad guys. Perhaps the film itself will present a different view but the tagline – “If you want peace, prepare for war” – suggests otherwise.
More abstract fears are the subject of Hellboy - a superhero film that shares much with the horror genre in its subject matter. Many of the fears preying on contemporary society are unknown threats beyond our control. This has always been familiar territory for the horror film, but by combining it with the superhero genre Hellboy gives the unknown evil an enemy. As director Guillermo Del Toro says: “It’s a little bit like an X-File being investigated by an X-File itself”. The comic centred around two very relevant issues that appear to have been included in the film. Firstly, Hellboy’s enemies often come from the past – some revenge-seeking spirits based on obscure folk legends, others more human monsters such as the Nazis and Rasputin (whose deadly alliance forms the primary evil force in the film). Perhaps more important are the issues surrounding Hellboy himself – a demon summoned from Hell to destroy the world but choosing to fight for it instead. This apocalyptic power makes Hellboy a useful tool for the government he works for and is an object of desire for the enemies he faces – a demonic equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction. Once again we are back to Spider-man’s power-and-responsibility mantra and we have another hero forever on the verge of joining the forces he battles.
In terms of heroes on the edge, John Constantine has always seemed the closest. In the comic series Hellblazer Constantine is haunted by his first attempt at an exorcism which resulted in the death of a young girl. Despite his constant attempts at making up for the tragedy many of his exploits end with one or more friends dead or damned while Constantine walks away unharmed and often better-off than before.
Another notable feature of the comic is the contemporary issues at the core of every story, with social and politic evils manifesting themselves in the form of destructive demons. Although it seems unlikely that the film will follow the same path (the London setting has been relocated to California and the blond-haired Englishman is to be played by Keanu Reeves) the film appears to be faithful to the character. In many ways moving the story to California makes sense as Hellblazer derived much from the Raymond Chandler detective novels. It is the comic’s treatment of this character that has always set it apart from the rest in its genre as Constantine is perhaps the most human of comic heroes. Keanu Reeves describes the character as, “a man who’s trying to reconcile himself, find his way in the world”.
Ultimately it is this constant conflict between the heroic and the demonic that make comic-book superheroes so interesting. It is a theme that will always be relevant, and ironically super-powered fantasy characters like Hellboy, Spider-man and Batman are perhaps more honest in their representation of human frailty than most reality-based action heroes. Although past comic book adaptations have often diluted the more subversive issues of the source material (the two adaptations of Alan Moore’s work, From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, being good examples) the dilemma of the dark hero will always remain. Maybe this year we will see the consequences of great power combined with even greater irresponsibility.
Chris Regan
