Not everything should be "comic accurate"

I don’t know why whenever I watch a movie or a TV show based on a comic‑book character, people always ask: “How accurate is it to the comics?” Like… does it really matter? I get that you read the comics, but it doesn’t always have to be comic‑accurate. The average moviegoer doesn’t care — they just want to watch a movie and enjoy their time with friends and family.

And you can never have a 1:1 replica of a comic in a movie format. Things have to change so the story can fit the film. A comic can last however many issues, but most comic‑book movies have an average runtime of about 2 hours and 15 minutes, which isn’t enough to include every plotline. So they have to cut things down.

Also, just because something is in the comics doesn’t mean it’s good. How would you feel if they adapted the Sins Past storyline from the Spider‑Man comics, or the Ric Grayson era of Nightwing, just because “it’s in the comics”? Exactly.

And if everything had to be 100% comic‑accurate, you’d be forbidding filmmakers from taking their own liberties with the source material and adding their own personal touches. For example, Sam Raimi’s Spider‑Man, MCU Spider‑Man, and Marc Webb’s Spider‑Man are all different versions. None of them are 100% comic‑accurate, but that’s what makes them amazing — they each feel like their own interpretation. Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire aren’t giving the same performance; each one is giving his own take on the character. Otherwise, we’d be watching three different actors play the exact same version, and that would be boring.

In some cases, the changes are actually for the better. Gwen Stacy in the TASM movies acts nothing like 616 Gwen Stacy — and if she did, everyone would hate her by now. The original Gwen Stacy from the 70s was killed off partly because she was bland and boring, unlike Emma Stone’s performance in the 2012 and 2014 films.

Other times, changes are made to fit the time period or because we’ve already seen certain characters in previous adaptations. I see a lot of people online criticizing the MCU Spider‑Man movies for not adapting Spider‑Man’s main supporting cast (Harry, Gwen, Mary Jane). But all of those characters were already done in earlier versions. So instead, the MCU told new stories with new characters. Adapting the same characters again would be tiring — Harry becomes the Green Goblin, Gwen dies, Mary Jane is the endgame… we all know the pattern. So instead of repeating the same story just because it’s “comic‑accurate,” it’s better to let other characters shine.

And if you want them to be 100% faithful to the comics… which comics?

The 616 universe?

Ultimate from the 2000s?

Modern Ultimate?

There are so many different versions, written by different writers, in different universes. And every writer has to do something new with the character to make their version unique so the character will be a bit different each time.