Specialised Study

Adam Waddington
(334022)

Creative Media LVL3

Friday, February 15,
2019

**Specialist Study: Superhero TV**
Shows

For my specialised study, I will be looking at
how low budget TV shows portray the fantastical characters from comic books as
they are less stylised than usual. As for locations, they are usually kind of
accurate to the comics counterparts because of multiple reasons including
budget, creative ideas and rights to use those ideas.

(Arkham Asylum – Gotham TV Series) looks very
accurate to the comics because locations are easy to make either on set or by
finding real life locations that match.

**James Gordon** in *Gotham* the TV series, because he is just the police
commissioner in the comics he is basically exactly the same except he is
younger because it’s an origin story. Meaning he has not changed very much from
his original form.

**Bruce Wayne** in the Gotham show is still young because of
origins so he is not **Batman** yet, however he does fight crime in usually
black hoods or a black mask as a reference to his original comic form.

**Edward Nygma** as **The Riddler** is just a normal guy in
a green suit who sends clues related to his crimes so in *Gotham* he
appears as a very close version but in an origins state where he appears before
and at the start of his time as **The Riddler**.

**Selina Kyle** is basically just a younger
version of **Catwoman** in the show because of the whole origin story
mechanic, this is another common thing to do in TV adaptions, making younger
versions of characters.

 For characters like **Solomon Grundy** whose origins are
too far based on the past they may be altered to take place in the present so
instead of being a human from the past who became a zombie in the present he
was a man from the present who turned into a zombie much later, he still had
super strength though because sometimes super powered characters need powers.
In *Arrow* **Solomon Grundy** was just made a mindless super strong
henchman because it fits the character still there meaning the changes to make
him fit the show still work to the origins.

Something important about story
writing is “Finding the right Characters and the concept. It is all about
choosing the right story, with sufficient ambitions or twist” (Thirkell, 2010)
an example is in *Gotham* where they introduce the seemingly random
gangster **Butch Gilzean** who eventually turns out to be the famous
character **Solomon Grundy**.

Some characters are completely altered depending
on creator’s ideas or what they have to work with, an example is that in *Gotham*
**Poison Ivy** had her real name changed and she was young to be an origin
story, but then they wanted to use the older powered and flirty **Ivy** so
they made a story where she is aged up by another villain.

Arrow is about the hero Green Arrow who doesn’t
have many villains so it often borrows villains from other shows such as
Firefly and Dollmaker. Because Arrow came out before Gotham (a show about the
origins of Batman characters) they created new characters to take the mantles
of the main versions instead because some shows don’t like to share the same
characters. As such the Firefly & Dollmaker from Gotham are different
people to the ones that appear in Arrow (who are entirely based on comic
characters)

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**Fish Mooney** is a
character made for the *Gotham* show, this also happens often where a
character is created just for a show as such they may never appear in the
source material. According to Prudom and Friedlander’s article *TV’s Super Battle* **Mooney** is “central
to “*Gotham*” […] a strong female character unique to the series. “I
particularly wanted to create a female villain who didn’t have superpowers —
who is just powerful the same way that **Batman** is strong and **Penguin**
is strong,” Heller says. “Jada brings the level of veracity, strength and
intelligence that the character needs.”” (Prudom, 2014) which means superhero
shows can make new characters that never appeared in the source material.

**Chloe Sullivan** is a character made for *Smallville* who became so
popular that she was added in the comics as a character based on the one from *Smallville*.

*Smallville* is a show about the origins of **Superman**, in this show **Superman**
never wears his iconic suit because people thought it would look weird so
instead he and a lot of other heroes just wore clothes that were the same
colours except not as bright, the iconic symbols usually appeared still though.
The show went on long enough to add an entire superhero team, they weren’t
allowed to use many of the bigger hero names like **Batman** and **Wonder**
Woman **(other than references and hints) but they used other lesser known**
heroes like **The Flash’s** future son, **Green Arrow** and **Hawkman**.

In some cases, a
character can be split into multiple characters, an example of this is that in
the comics **Cat Grant** started out as an excitable bubbly person but when
she grew older she became an office flirt, for *Smallville* they made 2 **Cat**
Grants **using both personality types and came up with a reason for having 2** Cat
Grant’s**.**

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**Eobard Thawne** (**Reverse Flash**/**Professor Zoom**)
in *The Flash* was split slightly when they created his relative **Eddie**
Thawne**, he has a few traits that the original character has but is so**
different that he has become his own separate character.

**Doctor Fate** makes very minor appearances in *Smallville* which shows you can
use main well known characters to fill out the background and still have them
be very accurate to their source material.

**Felix Faust**

Some shows get tie-in comics that
introduce characters that probably wouldn’t work on a live action show like **Ares**
or **Felix Faust**.

In some cases, such as **Renee**
Montoya **in *Gotham*, the character only appears as the civilian**
identity as minor characters that never appear as their hero/villain version
like in the comics.

Sometimes characters are altered in
many ways, 1 example is **Nora Fries** in ***Arrow*** where her
story is completely altered as the creators felt like doing something different
sometimes this can cause backlash but sometimes can be interesting.

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In cases like **Mr. Terrific**
characters are changed to be more diverse because a lot of characters have
existed for so long that some characters may have been stereotypes and most
characters are white and straight (In the case of **Mr. Terrific** he was
already black but was changed to gay, his wife is changed to his husband with a
slight first name change)

**Walter Steele** for example was a minor character in the comics and is a
minor character in the show, since his race isn’t important to his character he
was changed to black which doesn’t ruin anything becaue he was so minor.

Although changing a character for
other media can sometimes upset people, such as *Titans* making **Starfire**
black (although **Starfire** is an alien with yellow skin in the comics so
her race doesn’t actually matter).

*Supergirl* the TV show made **Jimmy Olsen** (a usually ginger
haired guy) black which caused some problems for fans also. Sometimes
characters that never really become a superhero in the comics take up a hero
mantle in live action (on a rare occasion) such as **Jimmy Olsen** becoming **Guardian**
which was a pre-existing hero alias used by others, the show is the first-time **Jimmy**
has been known as **Guardian**.

In *Arrow* the **Hawkgirl**
is a combination of multiple characters (specifically the combo of 2 different **Hawkgirl’s**).

These are all ways that live action
TV adaptions of comic characters can be altered to fit the show in some way,
this information will help me with my music video and final project because I
need to do the same things with my characters.

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Bibliography

Prudom, L. and Friedlander, W.
(2014) ‘Tv’s Super Battle’, Variety, 325(6), p. 32. Available at:
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=v1h&AN=98406142&site=eds-live&authtype=sso&custid=s7989057
(Accessed: 25 March 2019).

Thirkell, R. (2010) CONFLICT - The
Insiders’ Guide to Storytelling in Factual/Reality TV & Film. London:
Methuen Drama (Professional Media Practice). Available at:
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000muk&AN=697286&site=eds-live&authtype=sso&custid=s7989057
(Accessed: 1 April 2019).

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