#made for either of them actually. for both visual design and what other characterization spiraled out of it

[musicat9]

thinking about my octopath ocs and. man. how did amarynn end up going from the extremely loose base concept of 'a thief character who doesn't have as terrible of experiences with the fellow thieves from their past as either of the canon thieves' to this. liar girl who is defined by her bonds with others. who trusts almost no one but would literally die for those she does trust. girl who exists to protect. would do anything to save those she cares about (and/or desperately denies caring about) because she cannot stand to imagine what existing without them would be like. not just a knife in the dark but a shield in broad daylight. a knife in the dark so she still has people to shield in broad daylight. to the point where half her chapters revolve around protecting/saving people and the main plot mcguffin in her story is literally a shield. which she steals from a friend but still goes back to protect that same friend herself anyway. she may have lied her way into it but she's still the one with the tournament arc, signed on as a support fighter to aid and protect her chosen companion. loyal con artist indeed

[taffystake]

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse  -  Adapting the Spider-People

Figured I would try and write something different today. After spending the last few days doing research into each of the Spider-People we were presented in Into The Spider-Verse and also making sure to rewatch the movie, I feel like I can confidently outline what exactly was taken from the comics for each character and how this helped to make each Spider-Person their own unique entity.

With this, it’s easiest to start with the three who are the  farthest from their comic counterparts. These would be Spider-Man Noir, Sp//dr, and Spider-Ham. And it makes sense, since these three are the least characterized by the movie due to how short of a time they’re in the film relative to our other three Spider-People. All three of these Spider-People take the name of a comic character and use it as a representation of a specific medium or genre. 

Anyway, let’s start with the one character who is a representative of her medium in both her comics and the movie, Sp//dr. In the movie, Peni Parker is a short schoolgirl with a high degree of technical aptitude and who pilots a very cute, spherical-style mecha and whose motions and design are all taken from lighter anime like Sailor Moon. Meanwhile, Peni Parker from the comics is a moody, sullen teenager with a lone wolf streak, no tech skills to speak of, and who pilots a mecha whose design and method of control requiring specific genes both are direct references to Neon Genesis Evangelion’s titular Evangelion mechs.

Next, lets talk about somehow whose comic run and time in the movie couldn’t be more opposed, Spider-Man Noir. The only thing that the two mediums share are the Noir aesthetic for storytelling and visual, and the general time within which the character exists. Let’s explain. Spider-Man Noir, as the movie presents him, is a hard-boiled noir detective with a very Humphrey Bogart style to him whose powers were obtained from a radioactive spider. His costume is very much a typical detective’s coat and fedora, and his entire world and himself are in black and white. Meanwhile, Spider-Man Noir of the comics is a very self-righteous socialist activist who becomes a vigilante after his reporter mentor’s death who obtained his powers via a mystical idol. His costume is designed off of a World War 1 Flight Suit that his uncle Ben owned before he died and while the world is rendered with heavy shadows to match the theme of a Noir fiction, it is not rendered in black and white.

Finally, there’s Spider-Ham. And he shares nothing beyond a name and a proclivity for animal puns with his comic. Movie Spider-Ham is basically a Looney Tunes cartoon, from the wacky movements and high energy he brings to the use of his mallet and other Looney Tunes staples as weapons. Meanwhile, Spider-Ham in the comics is a parody of Spider-Man, used to poke fun at notable Spidey storylines or to make little jabs at character names using animal puns but the character’s personality is still very close to Peter Parker.

Now then, let’s move onto the main characters of the film: Peter, Gwen, and Miles. And here, these characters definitely use more of their characterization from the comics for this movie. So lets look at how things line up for these characters.

Lets start things off with the first dead and the first displaced Spider-Person: Peter Parker. Now, with the original Peter Parker that exists in Miles’ universe, we see a character who very much matches up to the character you expect from the comics: very quippy, typically light hearted, and always willing to help out. I mean, he took time out of a fight to say he would train Miles once everything was over. Then, with Peter B, we get a view of a Spider-Man who actually has to deal with what has happened to him in the comics while also having time catch up to him, resulting in a Peter Parker with a dead aunt, a divorce from his wife, and whose life is generally an unending downward spiral of death and misery. But he is still the same Peter underneath all of that, and while he hasn’t grown up much emotionally from his high school days, we get to see that develop as he deals with the events of the movies.

Its hard to say much about how close he is to comics Spidey. Mostly because the two Peters show the two most extreme paths that Peter can take. Namely, he can be up front with his family about his secret, manage to create a myriad of unique tech, and be overall positive, or he can be cagey about his Spider life, let his life’s usual trend of misery and bad events get to him, but still be a mostly heroic guy at the end of it. So, you could claim either side as being the ‘more comics-true’ Spider-Man, because both have been represented in Spider-Man stories for decades. 

Next up, we have the most punk rock Spider-Person in film, and a decently punk Spider-Person in comics, Spider-Gwen (Or Spider-Woman. Or Ghost Spider. All depends on what you ask). And with her, we have the closest to their comic counterpart in the movie. While the two Peters show the two sides of Peter Parker as Spider-Man rather than a more balanced Spider-Man as might be seen in the comics, Spider-Gwen is essentially taken straight from her first few stories. She is a very intense lone wolf who feels like she has to do the superhero thing because of her friend’s death in trying and failing to emulate her. Honestly, the only major change is that Gwen declares she stops doing the friend thing in the movie, whereas the comics have her band with her universe’s Mary Jane to serve as her friend group that she has a very tense relationship at times. Which, honestly, is an easy cut, since saying she doesn’t do friends gets to essentially the same feeling. 

It also helps to keep Spider-Gwen a unique character here by dropping some of the later story elements from the Spider-Gwen comic. By taking her character from the point before that comic got focused on its own alternate universe events, the removal of Gwen’s powers, and the introduction of the symbiote, it keeps her character at a point where I consider her the most interesting.

And now, finally, we have Miles Morales. The successor to the Spider Mantle in the Ultimate Universe. And with the movie, they made a very distinct call on Miles’ character that takes him drastically away from the character he was in the comic storyline that Into The Spider-Verse borrows many story elements from. In the comics, Miles is a wallflower from the moment he is introduced. He is a meek 13 year old who gets what seems like his first friend when he gets to Visions Academy. And he honestly shares a lot of personality traits with Peter Parker in these original stories, having a lot of Peter’s lacking social skills from his high school days. The two major divergences are the lack of science skills to develop his own web fluid and his story initially starting from his belief he needed to help Spider-Man and didn’t.

Miles in Enter The Spider-Verse takes the few more distinct elements that helped mildly generate a different style to Miles and pumps them up to eleven while also helping establish a more distinct personality from the Peter Parker mold that his comics counterpart initially kept close to. He is very personable, more jokey in his normal persona, and whose moments of lacking social skill come from his new environment being something that he isn’t as used to rather than that just being his personality. The other major difference that stands out is the increased focus on graffiti and rap culture that Miles shows in the movie. And those interests aren’t just some cliche thing with Miles, they are used to help show his level of artistry and add personality through his enjoyment of a song like ‘Sunflower’. 

Now then, why all these changes if these characters worked in their own comics? Honestly, for the three minor Spider-People, it helps give a distinct and striking image that won’t take a large amount of time to fully establish. Because if Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Ham had kept close to their comic counterparts, half of their screen time would’ve required them doing their best to show their own distinct shade of Peter Parker-ness rather than the striking different color that the two characters have as representatives of their two genres. Finally, while Peni Parker’s character from the comics could have worked if it weren’t for two things: popularity of what she represents and the presence of Spider-Gwen.

From her comic roots, Peni is very clearly meant to evoke Neon Genesis Evangelion through her link to the mech and the mech’s design. And while that anime may be a very notable one for those who have an interest in the medium, its popularity does not typically extend far beyond that. So altering her character to evoke anime that have been brought to the West and have been in the cultural consciousness for a long time like Sailor Moon makes it so that her unique animation and actions stand out more distinctly for general viewers. The other reason is Spider-Gwen, whose character shares a lot of traits with Peni Parker in the comics. And since Spider-Gwen would be a major character, it makes it easier to alter Peni to her current tiny chipper status than it does to spend half a movie trying to keep the two intense teen girls with spider powers distinct in peoples’ minds.

The same extends to why Miles seems so different when compared to his time in the Ultimate comics universe. By giving him this unique personality and interests that stand out for the character, it enables Miles to simply be himself rather than be another character who has to spend a part of his screen time attempting to create a distinct shade of Peter Parker-esque personality. Honestly, with this method, it creates a group of characters who are colorful and unique, while giving our main cast characterizations that could be coined as their ideal comics version. And with how highly rated and popular this movie is, i hope to see these characterizations adapted back to the comics, especially for Miles and Gwen.