I understand. I get it. Hollywood simply does not respect the comic book or graphic novel as a serious medium. Forget that “Watchmen” was easily one of the greatest pieces of literature produced in the past 25 years. Completely disregard the fact tomes such as “God Loves, Man Kills”, “Arkham Asylum” and “The Sandman” inspired a throng of widely respected writers the world over today.

Feel free to completely ignore all of the brilliance written in the pages of obscure past titles such as “Cerebus”, “American Flagg!”, “Grimjack”, “Grendel”, “Mage” and the list goes on. If you were to ask some of the most respected writers, authors and journalists in the country you’d be surprised how many of them had their minds opened to the wide possibilities of language by these books.

Unfortunately, all of the depth, engrossing dialogue, captivating language and character development captured in these pages are forfeit. Why? Because they have illustrations on each page and the dialogue was inked into word bubbles. Forget that the concepts, characters and back stories for each of these titles were so thought provoking, original or brilliant that they inspired the young people that read them to aim for high standards in their own writing (myself included).

That being the case, when Hollywood studios adapt these comic books or graphic novels why do they do them such a disservice? When asked to adapt classic works by beloved authors they usually take care to preserve the same elements that drew the readers of said novel in and allowed them to suspend belief or become emotionally invested in the characters or the plot.

In some cases writers go through painstaking measures to make sure they don’t butcher said property and stay true to the original vision of the source material they’re adapting. When that happens, we end up with Oscar nominated fare like “The Dark Knight”, a faithful adaptation to the spirit and tone of the “Batman” comic book and graphic novels. Casual film fans thought “The Dark Knight” was far too serious and had too many complexities to be based on a comic book, however.

In the case of Mark Millar’s “Kick-Ass”, it was far more screen adaptable than his previous property “Wanted” was. They tried to keep the overall tone and essential spirit alive but they failed miserably in my opinion. The original “Wanted” series was creative, inventive, subversive, incredibly offensive, graphic and violent with a great deal of social commentary. The film version was watered down into a faux edgy popcorn movie. Booo!

In the case of ‘Kick-Ass”, it was pretty much already made with the future silver screen adaptation in mind. This is evident by the fact that it was already optioned, purchased, greenlit before the first issue was even published and was filmed before the eight issue run of “Kick-Ass” was even finished. Studios didn’t want to touch it at first so it was made independently. Once it was first screened @ Sundance however, it got a deal immediately.

The subsequent changes made from the source material simply made ‘Kick-Ass” work better as a film. When you read the comic book you already knew certain things would be changed for the film. The filmmakers worked in conjunction with Mark Millar so there was some common ground and acceptable compromise between his original vision and the final production that was shown in theaters worldwide.

In the case of the DC/Vertigo book “The Losers” the film was a disgrace to the series. All of Andy Diggle’s amazing work was summarily shit on by this bland, cookie cutter, soulless film “adaptation”. The main characters were nothing more than hollow versions of the ones Diggle wrote. These fully formed characters and the complex plots, subplots and themes contained in the pages were wiped away clean and a mindless, depoliticized action film was made in it’s stead. How disappointing.

The filmmakers made some serious errors in judgment by leaving out key plot points, watering down certain characters (Aisha, Roque & Cougar) while completely omitting others (Sanderson & Stegler), playing up the comedic aspects (Pooch & Jensen) and taking the focus away from the story and it’s highly subversive or more controversial aspects. Given the current world climate, completely depoliticizing one of the books that critiqued the Bush administration was stupid.

By removing those aspects from the story they might as well have made an original film from scratch. Nothing that attracted people to the title in the first place are even intact. If you’re a discriminating film fan that saw “The Losers” in theaters thinking the story was flimsy and not very memorable do me a favor. Read the entire 32 issue run of the Vertigo series. Afterwards, you’ll share the same level of anger and disgust I currently harbor for it’s film adaptation.

Sure, the “Iron Man” sequel was bigger and badder than it’s predecessor but it wasn’t actually better. As is the case with blockbusters, it was specifically created to generate money and put asses in the seats. The positive aspect is that “Iron Man 2” didn’t  disappoint or completely piss off the film’s base or core audience in the process.

Sure, you probably preferred the original Marvel canon Blacklash/Whiplash backstory and origin to the one in the film but it wasn’t a dealbreaker in any way, shape or form to Iron Man fans. Even though the film threatened to get a little campy in places it still did the job (unlike Marvel’s horrendous “X-Men”, “Daredevil”, “Fantastic Four” & “The Punisher” adaptations).

On June 18th, the new “Jonah Hex” film premieres. Being that I’ve never read “Jonah Hex” if they completely butcher it I won’t be aware. I’ll have to trust a DC head on that one. M. Night Shymalan’s adaptation of the popular Cartoon Network animated series “Avatar: The Last Airbender” is another story altogether as I’ve seen the entire saga. Hopefully it doesn’t suck. It hits theaters on July 2nd.

Lastly, I have no doubt in my mind that the screen adaptation of “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” will stay true to the original spirit and overall feel of the original source material. The writer and director of the film have worked in tandem with Bryan Lee O’Malley to ensure that not only will die hard Scott Pilgrim fans enjoy the film but so will those that never even entered a comic book store and picked up an issue before. In a perfect world that’s all you can ask for.

One.