[Criticism Corner] Comic Book Video Games... Are Just Comics (Patreon)

I've been really loving the new Spider-Man game for PS4 and it inspired me to write a video about how it uses pretty much the same style of storytelling as comics.  What do you guys think?

Hello and welcome to Comic Drake, where I talk about comic books and my name is Drake!  If you don’t read mainstream superhero comic books then here’s something that might surprise you.  If you can follow the plots of games like these then congratulations, you can follow the plot of most American comic books!  “But Drake, video games and comics are two different mediums!  You can’t compare those!”  I mean you actually can.  It’s less of apples and oranges and more like oranges and tangerines.  Let me explain.

So both Spider-Man for PS4 and the Batman Arkham series throw you right into the middle of the careers of both heroes, obviously excluding Arkham Origins since it’s well… an origin.  It’s probably worth noting here that both Batman and Spider-Man are the most beloved characters from Marvel and DC respectively.  Yes, generally when you think of the word superhero, Superman instantly comes to mind and Iron Man is the biggest character in cinema right now, acting as the glue for the entire Marvel Cinematic universe.  However, just look at how many more Batman and Spider-Man TV shows, movies, video games, etc. that these two characters get in comparison to the rest of their company’s other properties.  It’s a lot.

I don’t want to discount the fact that Batman and Spider-Man transcend the comic book medium and most people have at least a passing knowledge of their histories and associated elements, but I like to think that the point of this video stands regardless.

A main complaint that non-comic readers tend to throw at the superhero genre is that the stories are hard to follow if they don’t know all the details of the characters and their past.  If this is true then how are players able to easily follow the plots of games like Spider-Man and the Arkham series?  Is it because they know enough to get by because of all the outside mediums?  Is it because players don’t care about the story and instead just want to punch the bad guys?  These could very well be the case, but I think it has more to do with how these games follow the golden rule of comics.

The rule is very simple.  If you need to know an older plot point, the writer will let you know.  If you don't need to know something, don't worry about it.  It's not relevant.

Usually in these games, Batman and Spider-Man are talking over coms to other characters.  This gives a great opportunity for both characters to explain the situation to each other, generally dumping exposition in the process.  So whenever there’s a villain fight, you know basic things like “Poison Ivy.  Crazy plant lady” and “Rhino.  Dumb strong boy”.  In comics, these same types of conversations are extremely, but there’s also something unique to the medium, editor’s notes.

These boxes are the most common way to get information across.  Sometimes, they’re funny, sometimes they give issue numbers, but they always quickly convey what readers need to know.  After all, even if you’ve been a loyal comic fan for decades, you’re going to naturally forget stuff over time and might need a refresher.  No matter what, if you need to know something in order to enjoy the story, a good writer will always let you know.

Even then, characters end up becoming a pile of traits and key moments anyway.  One of the main criticisms I have with superhero comics is that almost any radical changes or serious character development gets undone so the characters can go back to a status quo.  Yet this is essential for maintaining popularity of comics.  I mean, imagine being a big fan of Spider-Man movies, get inspired to pick up the comics, and then you find out that Peter Parker is dead and instead, Doctor Octopus is inhabiting his body…  Look, it might be one of my favorite Spidey books, but that can be pretty jarring for new readers.

The point is that people are expecting iconography whenever they’re engaging in an established thing that they already know at least a little something about.  I feel like this was said best by Patrick (H) Willems on the subject of the 2010 Robin Hood movie.

“Robin Hood is not called Robin Hood, he’s also not actually Robin of Locksley, there is no Sheriff of Nottingham, Robin is not an outlaw, he actually fights alongside Prince John who is not a villain, Robin doesn’t live in Sherwood Forest, and instead of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, he fights with the English army against French invaders.  Basically, other than being about a guy named Robin who uses a bow and arrow, it bares no resemblance to any previous version of Robin Hood.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdR_GU3Hi9U)

If you look at Spider-Man for PS4 and most soft relaunches of the character, you get all the Spidey classics that you’d expect.  All the usual cast acting pretty much how you’d think, there’s a relatively standard looking super suit, and Peter is juggling all the responsibilities of his dual life as best as he can.  Both are easily accessible to new readers even though minor pieces of dialogue imply that a LOT has happened before this story.

Superhero video games also tend to include a dedicated section of character bios in case you’d like more information.  They’re not essential for the game, but exist if you want them.  It’s not really much different then going to a wiki and reading a character synopsis.

I feel like the biggest luxury for these games throwing you in the middle of a story though is that it’s still very clear where to start.  It’s a new universe so it’s pretty obvious that you just need to pick up the game and play. it  With comics, you admittedly need to do a little bit of your own research to find which #1 is a good jumping on point.

Even then, I want to make this very clear.  While knowing facts about characters can make a story easy to follow, a lot of first time readers might miss deeper details.  A big example of this would be Jane Foster’s time as Thor and how she gets a lot of flack by people who didn’t read writer Jason Aaron’s Thor books that preceded it.  Jane FosThor builds upon the themes, story, and metanarrative of Aaron’s previous book, Thor: God of Thunder.  It’s understandable that to an outsider looking in, it’s just a female knock-off of Thor that can’t hold a candle to the original.  To me though, a bit of time with a different character that still followed the overall theme and meta-arc was a nice change of pace.

This is why I fell in love with comic books.  I feel like it’s the only medium where the more you engage with it, the better it becomes.  I started off not knowing all these little bits and details, but now that I have a fuckton of knowledge of the Marvel and DC universes, I enjoy seeing how history has molded these characters and connecting the dots between different thing.  I love re-reading books with this newfound knowledge.  It’s like rewatching a movie with a major plot twist and noticing all these subtle details hinting at it that you didn’t notice the first time around.

To make a long story short, I really do think that if you can follow the stories in these video games, you can very much handle comics so long as you find a good place to hop on which for pretty much all characters is something that’s pretty easy to find.  I actually have videos on my personal recommendations for starting points of both Batman and Spider-Man so if you’re interested, I highly suggest giving those a watch.