Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Amalgam characters in Comic Book Movies

I used to complain when a Comic Book movie would have some character who really combines the roles of two or three or more characters from the Comics long history.  Feeling like it's just lost opportunities.

Thing is, I've been putting more and more thought into how Comic Cook characters to begin with are an amalgamations of older character archetypes.  The Batman was basically a combining of The Shadow and Zorro, with a little bit of Sherlock Holmes and Dick Tracey.  And the visual motif coming from an old Silent Film, The Bat.

In that context, I realize it's another natural part of how mythology develops, and how stories are retold.

People complain about how different Bane is in The Dark Knight Rises.  Thing is that character is also an Amalgam.  He is partly Bane with direct references to Knightfall,  I've also observed aspects of Deathstroke in him.  But in the way TDKR draws on DKR he is very much the Mutant Leader, with Alfred giving a similar speech to Bruce about how he's in his prime and Bruce isn't.  And then Bruce loses but later beats him in the rematch by using his head more.  And it works for the story that TDKR tells.  And also to go outside the Batman universe he's an admitted Vader Clone.

I may edit this post in the future discussing more examples.

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