Comic books are an extremely well-loved medium. Each week kids and adults alike journey to their local comic book store to sift through and pull out their favorite comics to buy, sometimes choosing to try out a new one that they've either heard was coming out or whose cover may have just caught their eye. The pursuit of single issue floppies, trade paperback collections, and graphic novels have not slowed down over the years. Rather, their popularity in the last decade or so have grown immensely and part of the reason for that is how easily the visual medium translates into live adaptations.
However, not everything ends up actually being translated from the comic book when it comes to the source material. Sometimes the writers and directors, all the powers-that-be within a production studio, decide to change things up when it comes to the live adaptations. Here are some of the biggest changes made in a comic book movie from the source material.
10 Wanted (2008)
Wanted is a limited comic books series created by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones and published by Top Cow Productions. The original story is set in a world where super villains have won and taken over, making everyone forget that heroes ever existed. From there, the main character, a young man named Wesley is introduced. Wesley is pretty much a loser, everything that can go wrong from a socially acceptable purview has: his girlfriend is cheating on him with his best friend, he's bullied by a local gang, and his job stinks as menial worker in a cubicle. However, all of that changes one day when an assassin named Fox kills everyone in a sandwich shop then reveals to Wesley that he's being recruited to be an assassin himself because his father was a famous assassin.
One of the main differences from the comic book and the movie version is that in the comic the world is run by super villains not assassins. It is Wesley's father who is a super villain assassin and Wesley as his son has inherited his super ability to kill. The divergence of how the world is set up from the comics is directly linked to the movie's premise that these super assassins have the ability to shoot curving bullets, a story convention that is completely absent from the comic book source material.
9 Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Civil War was a comic book event written by Mark Millar and drawn by Steve McNiven for Marvel Comics, and for the most part the story in the comics is similar to that of the movie, two warring sides of superheroes, one on the side with Captain America and the other on Tony Stark's, fight over a new government regulation regarding them. However, the first disconnect comes about because several of the major characters present in the comic book event do not participate and are nowhere onscreen for the movie due to rights and licensing at the time. Additionally, the story uses the death of Black Panther's father as a way to introduce Black Panther into the MCU while also making the Winter Soldier the murderer of Tony Stark's father. Neither of these two things happened during the Civil War comic book event.
8 Men in Black (1997)
Men in Black is a comic book series created by Lowell Cunningham with art drawn by Sandy Carruthers and was originally published by Aircel Comics, who later was bought by Malibu Comics, who also was bought out, but this time by Marvel Comics. There were only six issues published of the series, but when it became a movie, the success of the film garnered several sequels and more spinoffs and one-shot comics. However, the later comics after the movie followed the changes that were made from the original comic to the live-action film adaptation. In the source material, Men in Black did not just investigate aliens and all things extraterrestrial, but also the paranormal. The movie decided to focus on one, aliens, instead of the supernatural. Subsequently, by the movie choosing not to use the supernatural, one of the plot points of the comic was left out: A character named Agent Ecks goes rogue because he finds out that the organization is purposely keeping the supernatural hidden from the world for their own gain, to reshape the world the way that want.
7 Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)
Originally the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels were a series that focused on a young slacker, bass-playing musician who falls hard for a delivery girl named Ramona Flowers. However, in order for him to date her in peace, Scott Pilgrim has to battle and defeat Ramona's seven exes. Scott Pilgrim was created by writer and artist Bryan Lee O'Malley, and needless to say the graphic novel series is viewed as classic literature when it comes to the comic book and graphic novel medium.
But its live-action adaptation, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, change a few things up. One of the most notable changes comes about because at the time that the movie was made, the graphic novel source material had not concluded. Therefore, a streamlining of the battle between Scott Pilgrim and the exes had to take place, packing in several volumes of source material into two hours. Additionally, the main character, Scott Pilgrim, portrayed by Michael Cera in the film, chose to make Scott more awkward, while in the graphic novel series, he was less awkward and more of a slacker.
6 Logan (2017)
Logan as a film is loosely derived from the Old Man Logan comic book series done by the creative team of Mark Millar and Steven McNiven again. In the original source material, Old Man Logan takes place in an alternate future of the Marvel Universe where the super villains overthrew the heroes. The plot of the comic book story resembles what is seen in the Logan in that it's a journey and/or destination story, but while the movie chose to use Professor X and incorporate the character of Laura Kinney as the "new Wolverine," the comic book source material had a blind Clint Barton aka Hawkeye. The pair travel to find Clint's estranged daughter and readers are given a discourse on what happened to this world through flashbacks and run-ins with current foes and mentioning of what took place and the aftermath that was left. Very much like Captain America: Civil War, rights and licensing restricted a more direct adaptation.
5 Ghost World (2001)
MGM
Ghost World is a graphic novel that was also serialized and created by Daniel Clowes and published by Fantagraphics Books. It was a huge hit and very beloved. The story follows teenagers Enid Coleslaw and Rebecca Doppelmeyer as they aimlessly walk through and course through life post-high school, wondering what their life will be in the future. In the midst of their journey to nowhere they critique pop culture and others they happen to encounter. The film, Ghost World, which was also written by Daniel Clowes along with Terry Zwigoff, performed poorly at the box office but was heralded critically, even gaining an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The biggest change from the source material in Ghost World is the addition of a new character named Seymour. Clowes' adding Seymore was an amalgamation of other characters that appeared in the graphic novel/comic book series. In the movie, he plays a big part in Enid's story and gives the movie a focus that isn't present in the book.
4 Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Sony
Bringing Spider-Man into the MCU was a harder than it should have been, but that's what happens with the jockeying for rights and licenses. However, once the deal was finally done with Sony, who at the time had both, Spidey's arrival saw the character not quite the same as in the comics. The MCU's Spider-Man differs from the comic book version in that Peter Parker is a teenager in high school while his comic book contemporaries are adults and saving the world without him. This changes some of Spidey's core elements and ultimately puts his character in a mentor/mentee relationship with Iron Man. The effect of Spider-Man's relationship with Iron Man aka Tony Stark in the MCU changes who Spider-Man is and his motivations as a superhero and are clearly scene in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
3 Kick-Ass (2010)
Kick-Ass is a creator-owned comic book series done by, once again, Mark Millar. But this time his collaborator is John Romita, Jr. Originally, it was published under Marvel's imprint, Icon, but later it was re-published through Image Comics. The story follows a teenager who sets out to become a real life superhero, but when his attempts hits the internet he gets the attention of a crime family and brutal battle takes place between the wanna-be hero (and others that join forces with him) and the mob.
While there are many similarities between the two, the comics and the film, the main difference lies in the atmosphere and mood. The original source material is definitively darker while Kick-Ass as a movie has dark elements, but overall renders a resolution that is feel-good for the protagonists. That definitely wasn't the case for the comic books.
2 Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Disney
Age of Ultron was a comic book crossover event published by Marvel Comics and saw Hank Pym creates Ultron, a robot who becomes sentient and goes on a quest to conquer the world, ultimately defeating the Avengers and other heroes. However, the premise for the Avengers: Age of Ultron movie saw a major change to the source material. In the movie, it is Tony Stark and Bruce Banner who create Ultron using the mind stone, one of the Infinity Stones, to do so. Ultron's purpose in the film was to police the world, alleviating the need for the Avengers or other heroes. However, Ultron's directives change and the sentient robot gives himself the mission of eradicating all of humanity to better the world.
1 Iron Man 3 (2013)
While man of the MCU movies do not follow one book or story arc in particular, but a combination of different ones, Iron Man 3 saw a huge change as one of Iron Man's main villains was seemingly depicted inaccurately. Played by actor Ben Kingsley as a middle-eastern-like terrorist leader who was really just a front for the real Mandarin. This never takes place in the comics and the storyline used in the movie became a problem for many fans. In the comic books, the Mandarin is a martial artist and possessor of the 10 Rings. As a rival and foil to Tony Stark, he is also a brilliant scientist.