Best Live Action Versions Of Comic Characters

Highlights

• Movie adaptations sometimes need to make changes to comic book characters to fit into live-action films successfully.
• Characters like Vulture, Star-Lord, and Harley Quinn were transformed for the big screen with positive results and relatable stories.
• Heath Ledger’s Joker performance in The Dark Knight was a defining portrayal that incorporated contemporary fears into the character.

Translating something from the printed page into live action is always a challenge. Comic book characters normally exist in a heightened reality, one where the laws of physics are different from the real world, and bringing them into live action requires filmmakers to adapt these characters in a particular way. Some of these transitions from page to screen are seamless, such as Iron Man, Batman, Captain America, and Loki. However, some comic book heroes require a few tweaks.

The fact that the characters that fans see on the screen are so different from those from the comic books doesn’t always mean that the original character was bad. All it means is that the director and writers have had to alter the characters to help them transition into live action. Most of the time, it works out surprisingly well.

7 Vulture

An Aging Villain With A Real World Goal

• Portrayed by Michael Keaton
• First Appearance: Spider-Man: Homecoming

It seems likely that there are very few people in the real world who can identify with the Spider-Man villain, The Vulture, as he appears in the comics. This version of Adrian Toomes is an elderly man who chooses to use his newfound superpowers to commit crime but is stopped by the teenage Peter Parker. His character rarely goes further than acting as a small-time crook who can fly, which is why the MCU decided to update his character in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

In this movie, Michael Keaton plays a version of Toomes, a working-class man who has his business shut down by Tony Stark. In response to this, he decides to use the technology he has found to start stealing in order to provide for his family. This change not only helps Vulture fit into this version of the Marvel universe, but it also makes him a relatable character to the audience. The translation into a man just trying to support his family is one that resonates with many people.

6 Peter Quill / Star-Lord

Marvel’s Cosmic Goofball

• Portrayed by Chris Pratt
• First Appearance: Guardians of the Galaxy

One of the biggest advantages afforded to Marvel when adapting the Guardians of the Galaxy into live-action, of course, was the fact that very few people knew who the Guardians were before the movie came out in 2014. Such a movie cost the studio brand recognition when promoting the movie, but it also allowed James Gunn and his creative team to translate the team from the comics in ways that they thought were best.

As everyone now knows, this risk paid off, and Marvel now has access to a team of lovable space goofs in their universe. However, the team is far more serious in the comics. Many of the characters in this movie were tweaked slightly to transition into live-action, but Peter Quill was changed completely. The face of the movie was transformed from a blank slate of a hero into a highly relatable human with many flaws.

5 Malcolm Merlyn

A Dark Archer With A Personal Connection To Oliver Queen

• Portrayed by John Barrowman
• First Appearance: Arrow (Season 1, Episode 4: “An Innocent Man”)

CW’s Arrow started out by giving DC’s Green Arrow a much more grounded TV show. This made sense given how Oliver Queen is a vigilante with no superpowers, but the show would become more fantastical as it introduced spin-offs, including The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. However, the villain the writers used for the first season had to be someone who could be grounded in reality.

The choice the showrunners made was to include Malcolm Merlyn as an evil business leader and the father of Oliver Queen’s best friend. However, Merlyn would don his dark archer costume in secret to battle the Green Arrow before revealing his evil plan. Anyone who goes on to read the comics after watching the show may be in for a surprise, as Merlyn the Dark Archer on the page is nothing more than a crazed member of The League of Assassins with no personal connection to the titular hero. As a result, the change the showrunners went with makes Merlyn a much more realistic and interesting character.

4 Harley Quinn

The Joker’s Cartoon Girlfriend

• Portrayed by Margot Robbie
• First Appearance: Suicide Squad

One of the most difficult things about bringing Harley Quinn into live action is the fact that the character originally debuted as a cartoon character in Batman: The Animated Series. This means that the acrobatic jester girlfriend of The Joker was already existing in a heightened reality. Regardless, Harley Quinn still made her way into the live-action Suicide Squad movie in 2016, and she has been played by Margot Robbie ever since.

The Harley Quinn that appears in the DC Universe is still very much like the one from the comics and animated shows. Everything from her look, voice, and origins are perfectly recaptured, but this new version is depicted as far more tragic. Her toxic relationship with the Joker is highlighted in a very negative way, and she is able to move on and stand as a vigilante in her own right as a result.

3 The Joker

Heath Ledger Provides A Definitive Performance

• Portrayed by Heath Ledger
• First Appearance: The Dark Knight

The Joker is Batman’s main nemesis, a character who has taken on many forms in various media since the 1940s. Sometimes, this villain will appear as a comical clown, and other times, he will be presented as a violent psychopath. However, the version that most people are familiar with is the one played by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight.

This version of Joker still keeps his psychopathic and violent tendencies; he is obsessed with breaking Batman by making him kill. However, the creatives behind this movie decided to incorporate these traits with people’s fears at the time. The result was a version of The Joker who was a mysterious terrorist with no true plan or origin. The writing and Ledger’s performance as this character have helped this version transcend everything that came before.

2 Peacemaker

A Character No One Knew

• Portrayed by John Cena
• First Appearance: The Suicide Squad

It is hard for anyone in the modern age to avoid Peacemaker. This highly patriotic DC character first appeared in live-action in The Suicide Squad and also received a spin-off solo TV series. As a result, audiences are now familiar with the gun-toting and brutish version of this anti-hero who only wants to do good. Both James Gunn’s vision for this character and John Cena’s performance have created something unique in the modern superhero landscape, but Peacemaker wasn’t always this likable.

Peacemaker was originally a comic book character that was created by Charlton Comics before the company was bought out by DC. Many of the characters from this publisher eventually faded away, Peacemaker included, and the man with the silver helmet rarely had anything of note to do in his comic appearances. Therefore, Warner Bros. was free to create a completely new version of Peacemaker in live-action when the time came.

1 Wolverine

Hugh Jackman Is Synonymous With The Short Canadian

• Portrayed by Hugh Jackman
• First Appearance: X-Men

Wolverine has been a long-standing icon in both movies and comic books. The mutant with the claws and healing capabilities originally debuted in the comics as a Hulk villain but was eventually folded into the X-Men in the 70s when that series was rebooted. On the page, Logan is short, aggressive, and hairy, with little time for the more heroic members of the mutant team. This portrayal was even brought over into X-Men: The Animated Series in 1992. That is why many fans raised their eyebrows when Hugh Jackman was cast in the role for the movie.

Hugh Jackman originally had a musical background, and he is also over six feet tall. Such a look clashed with the source material, yet his performance made fans new and old love his take on the character. Jackman’s Wolverine is still a gruff mutant, but he is closer in tone to a more traditional action hero. All of this makes him perfect in the role, and one of the best reworkings of a character from page to screen.