X-men is a popular comic book concept of a team comprised of superheroes, and was invented by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, but is owned by marvel. The thing about comic book characters owned by comic book companies is that they are bound to be altered. These alterations can be very minor to major. If a comic book company gains ownership to a character or comic concept, the company can now assign any creator that they deem fit to work on the concept. The creator selected can either stick with the original concept, expand on it or can choose to go another direction. With the X-men concept we have many different creators who have worked on it over the course of its existence. There is Stan Lee and Jack Kirby who were the original creators of the work. Others involved in the writing over the years include: Roy Thomas, Chris Claremont, Scott Lobdell, Steven T. Seagle, Alan Davis, Joe Casey, Chuck Austen and Ed Brubaker (2006 writer). Those involved in the X-men art after Jack Kirby include: Werner Roth, Neal Adams, Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, Dave Cockrum, Paul smith, John Romita, Marc Sivestri, Jim Lee, Joe Madureira, Alan Davis and Chris Bachalo (2005-2006 artist). Even with these writers and artists there are more writers and artists who were involved with the X-men, in terms of plots and featured characters. Fans of this comic book are familiar with the original X-men, Uncanny X-men, Ultimate X-men and the current Astonishing X-men. The Xmen title has even been adapted into animated series in the early to late 90s and another animated variation called X-men Evolution in 2000. Not only has it been animated but it has also been a comic book movie, with its current release called X-men: The Last Stand. Now, with an accomplished work like the X-men, one has to be careful in making sure they keep the personalities, meaning, and individual storyline of the primary characters intact. This is very crucial because this can determine the likeability of the whole comic not just the character. Even with a comic book like X-men with different variations and alternate worlds, the most popular concept is the team in the natural marvel world. Many people have developed a love for the comic book and the characters in the X-men team. The true X-men fans who liked these characters do not only like their abilities but like the plots and themes developed for each character on the team. In other words, it is the personality of the characters not just the powers that allowed us to determine who we most like and who we least like. The storyline developed for each character then gives us an opportunity to look into these characters, and learn why these characters are the way they are. A good storyline explains their lives and events that transpired with the characters, which gives us a little insight as to why the character say what they say, do what they do and even why they possess the abilities they manifest? This is vital due to the fact that not all the characters were born to obtain the powers they currently hold. This is no different for the movie. Comic book fans want to see in the theaters the comic book they grew to love, not something different. The X1 and X2 movies were directed by the same director, while X3: the last stand was directed by a different director. Comic book fans immediately saw the difference in the three X-men movies. Many were highly disappointed and many were satisfied Reading many reviews and talking to those who liked and disliked the movie one can decipher those who may like the movie and those who may hate the movie. The conclusion comes down to peoples perception of the X-men concept, or the meaning they take from the X-men story. I am very aware that there would always be unhappy people when it comes to comic book movies but the best solution may be to stick with the comic book storyline as much as possible. Let me use the character Beast for example. In X3, Beast seems to be coming up as one of the movies favorite characters. One major reason for this is because he is one of the more accurately portrayed comic book characters in the movie. We all know that making comic book movies can be difficult. That is why we have to stick with what works or worked. Visual effects work, and the original comic book story worked, unless it wont have had as many fans as it did and wouldnt be considered to be translated into film. |
