Why Television is a better medium for Comic Book Adaptations than Cinema

Obviously I am a fan of comic books and many of the movies based on them, otherwise why would I spend a rather large amount of time checking this site for news? But often I am left a little disheartened by the treatment of characters in these movies. I am a Spider-man fan in particular and would highlight characters like Raimi's Venom and Webb's Goblin as examples of characters who are simply not given enough time to develop or become a real threat.

The threat of Venom, as I have always viewed it, stemmed from his knowledge of Spider-man's identity; he can stalk Peter and threatens MJ in a home invasion. This alongside Venom's ability to dodge the Spider-sense meant that Venom could strike anyone at any time. I vividly recall a moment in the 90s cartoon when he turned up during one of Peter and MJ's dates, Peter was unable to warn her without revealing his identity. It was tense. His threat becomes far more real with this element added. In the film though Venom became very one dimensional, he became just another villain to kidnap MJ and hang a big 'I'm Here come hit me!' sign above his head. But how can this be improved and the true menace of Venom be established when Venom and the preceding black suit saga must share two hours of screen time?

Imagine instead Spider-man had been a live action tv show rather than a movie. Imagine that Spider-man Season 2 had built up to teh point where (a more developed) Doc Oc has just drowned to sink his glowy sunny thingy and Peter had just decided that he and MJ should never be together; she should marry John Jameson. Season3: Peter finds and wears the Black suit. Cut off from the woman he loves, estranged from harry this season takes adarker path that sees Pete sleeping with the black cat and ignoring her illegal actions, destroying Eddie Brock and culminates in him nearly killing someone. Pete ditches the suit in the finale. Season 4 sees Peter stalked and tormented by Venom, with the mystery of who he is and what he can do being slowly revealed as he systematically destroys Pete's life.

This approach would have presented a much truer version of the character.

Let us look at the Arrow approach: Rather than rushing Oliver's origin story into 20mins at the start of a movie a la Man of Steel we have watched two simlutaneous transformations of the character, one on the island; one after his return to Starling City. Neither arc is rushed, Ollies has gone from Douche, to Survivor, to Soldier, to Vigilante, to Hood, to Arrow in his climb to becoming the Green Arrow. This is definitely preferable to something like the Green Lantern movie (which i quite enjoyed) where we get Douche to GREATEST GREEN LANTERN EVER!!!!!!!

Deathstroke however provides a better comparison to our Venom example. For a season and a half on the island we see his character develop. We see his and Oliver's characters develop and we gain insight into their relationship. That's grand but even better is the way the television format allows his threat to develop. Slade reappears in Starling City and is able to attack Ollie from the Shadowsthanks to his insight into Ollie's true identity. He is able to walk casually into his home just to show Ollie he has power over him. He is able to invite Thea into his car when he wants to kidnap her just because Oliver cannot tell her why he is a threat. He can take away Queen Consolidated and kill Moira. He can build to his final confrontation.

This is all made possible by the episodic nature of television. It seems obvious that with comics following a similar episodic template that this is the best way to adapt the stories yet it remains the path less travelled. Why do we love shows like Young Justice and Spectacular Spider-man? Because they use the medium to its full potential, developing characters and using plot arcs usually reserved for more mature television. If Marvel and more prominantly DC continue to exercise the medium with great shows like Arrow and the upcoming Flash and Constantine I think we will see more and more exciting takes on the development of beloved characters.

So how could cinema compete? Well lets face financially they don't have to worry about it but I'm shooting for an ideal world where the executives want to do the characters/stories justice. For me the solution is multi-picture deals not only for actors but for writers/ directors giving them the security to plan ahead and extend the stories over a series of films. Imagine right now that Webb is given a three-picture extension on his contract. Imagine teh stories that open up- Venom done right, parts of the clone saga with a gradual return for a not-so-dead osbourne, Kraven's last hunt, the master planner. All these stories that cannot really be done in one film become instantly accessible.

Iron Man could see tony descend into alcoholism, Rhodes take over for a film, and then Tony redeem himself. The X-men could build up to Apocalypse with a Mr Sinister story, a movie attempting to halt his rise and then maybe one based on the Age of Apocalypse.

This is the direction we may well be heading in with so many loose ends left open after the Winter Soldier but I'd like to see things a bit more official.

What do you think, should writers and directors be given guarrantee of long term employment to provide them with a license to dictate the pace and creativity of their films? Sound Off :-)