The comic book industry is reaping some immediate rewards from the stunning success of the Spider-Man movie. Case in point, this week's edition of Time Magazine features Spidey on the cover and includes an eight-page graphics-heavy look at what made the Spider-Man movie so successful. A second related article, entitled Superhero Nation, provides readers with a 'short history of the comic book,' which ends up in 2002 with the comment: 'the variety of comics has never been greater or more moving.' The article even includes color pictures of popular Spider-Man based toys as well as a profile of Tobey Maguire, who portrays Peter Parker in the film.
Time's rumination on the changing nature of popular American superheroes and the history of comics may spend a little too much time on alternative titles like Jimmy Corrigan and Ghost World, but given the nature of Time's readership comic retailers should be happy that the magazine managed to provide at least a small glimpse at contemporary comics publishing, which has given us what is the most diverse and interesting range of comic book titles ever available in this country. One very perceptive observation in the Time article dealt with the competition between comic books and video games. While video games have managed to exploit the power fantasies of teenage boys and in doing so have led to declining readership of comics, the electronic games don't provide good fodder for moviemakers. 'Video-game characters are, literally, dumb: they have no animating intelligence except what the player provides and so -- as in last year's Tomb Raider -- their superpowers don't help in lifting heavy movie narratives.' Fortunately comic book-based stories, if done well as is the case with Spider-Man, do translate well to the screen and may well help to revive the very medium that gave them birth.
