Comics are really a new medium for me. It's kind of a cross between a movie and a book. In a book, the story is moved forward entirely in the reader's imagination. Obviously, the writer gives the reader signposts to base their imaginings on, but it really is up to you.
With movies, it's the opposite. Movies are purely the triumph of the filmmakers' imagination. We see all sorts of truly impressive things, but we're (for the most part) just taking in the creativity of other people.
Comics are a different format than both books and movies for two reasons. The first reason is that they feature a unique blend of showing you the action and letting you imagine the action.
They have plot exposition, but only enough to show you what's going on. You get the rest by reading the dialogue and--primarily--by looking at the artwork. They have fight scenes, but not enough panels to show you all the action. You get the entire scene in your head, with the artist showing you some of the most impressive frames. You see the fear in criminals minds, the menace of the evil masterminds, but it's up to you to fill in the backlog of escapades that have made each character so legendary.
The other difference is that, in some ways, comic books can be more visually expressive than either other medium. Granted, books truly are limitless. You can have a writer like Terry Pratchett, who has made up the color octarine, or you can have other writers who speak of multidimensional beings, but even these descriptions are limited by our imagination. Sure, we can read about octarine, but it is impossible for us to think of a color that we've never seen before, let alone one that doesn't exist. The other thing with books (and don't get me wrong, books are still my favorite medium, by far) is that the images that books create, while vivid, don't have any way of being viewed other than in our mind's eye. In a comic book, the writer, penciller and inker work together to show what their image was supposed to look like.
With a movie, well, as much as everyone wants to talk about how movies are now, basically, limitless, this is just not true. With live action, no one will be able to fully pull off the manic evil or the rictus grin of the Joker. In animation, well, you'd think it would be better, but sometimes still images still pack a more visceral punch than animation. Observe a two images from the most common animated Joker.
Now, a picture of Jack Nicolson, that other guy from the 60s and Heath Ledger as the Joker:
Here are some comic book versions of him:
I think the comic book Joker comes out on top, and I can't think of how those images could be fully transferred to the screen. I'm not blasting the film or animated versions of Batman (although some of them, like Batman Returns, are pretty darn awful). But the source really is the best here.
Anyway, I really am getting into Batman. He's really cool for one thing, and a lot of his comics offer interesting themes. For example, in one of the classic Batman tales, "The Dark Knight Returns," Bruce Wayne comes out of retirement to be Batman in his later years. This book explores aging and feeling out of place, as well as satirizing political correctness and the endless "rehabilitating" of criminals. Oftentimes, comics will delve into the practicality and common sense of whether Batman's decision not to use lethal force is a good one.
Another reason I like Batman is that most of his villains are pretty iconic, and they aren't dumb or campy. For example, Superman's biggest villains are Lex Luthor (ok, so he's pretty cool), an alien, a "Superman" who does the opposite of him, a man made of Kryptonite and this funny looking interdimensional midget. Spiderman, while having a few cool villains, also has a guy that can turn into sand, a strong guy in a rhino suit, a guy made of water, etc. Also, most of his villains are the result of an industrial accident.
While some of Batman's villains are the result of an accident, most of his good villains aren't endowed with powers from their accidents, just creepy psychosis. For example, the Joker, while getting his creepy look from an industrial accident, is insane. He doesn't have some sort of "chemical power." Black Mask has a horribly scarred face, but he's not supernatural. Granted, Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze both have accident specific abilities, but I will readily admit that Poison Ivy is not a good villain, and Mr. Freeze is a lot more scientific. He can't just shoot ice out of his hands.
I watched "Batman Begins" the other day. It was the first time I had seen it since I started reading the comics. While Begins is a good movie regardless of whether you have read the comics, I liked it even more because it stayed true to the spirit of the books in a way that the other movies don't even come close to. The entire point of Batman is that he strikes fear into the hearts of criminals. The Batman of the 90s movies isn't scary. Maybe a bit in the first movie, but if Michael Keaton prancing around in a Batsuit that can barely move is your hallmark of scariness, you have a problem. The Batman of Begins is a hero you could actually picture villains being scared of.
With comic book movies, you're more concerned that they stick to the spirit of the books. Some events should be kept too, but events are retconned in the comics so much that it's the spirit that's really important. Begins sticks to the spirit. I hope The Dark Knight will as well. Heath looks really, really scary as the Joker, which is good, but he doesn't look happy enough. When the Joker is battling Batman, he's in his element. He's incredibly, insanely happy. That's the unnerving thing about him. I hope they keep that.
Meanwhile, I'll still keep reading the books. I am trying to find some more comics with The Riddler, Two Face and The Penguin in them. It would be nice to find more with Mr. Freeze or Black Mask too. Poison Ivy and Catwoman? Meh.
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