Texas Tech University

Marvel Comics into Film: Essays on Adaptations Since the 1940s

By: Nicole Lundberg 

Marvel Comics into Film: Essays on Adaptations Since the 1940s
Edited by Robert Peaslee, the chair of the Department of Journalism & Electronic Media, Robert Weiner, a popular culture and humanities librarian, and Matthew McEniry, an assistant metadata librarian.

Since 2013, moviegoers have been able to watch at least two new Marvel movies every year. Recently, three Texas Tech faculty members explored the history of film adaptations of Marvel comics from the 1940s to the present in the book “Marvel Comics into Film: Essays on Adaptations since the 1940s.”

Robert Peaslee, the chair of the Department of Journalism & Electronic Media, edited the book with Robert Weiner, a popular culture and humanities librarian, and Matthew McEniry, an assistant metadata librarian.

The book, which was published by McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers in the spring of 2016, explores the evolution of Marvel characters, stories, and film adaptations between 1940 and the early 2000s. Ultimately, this study will help readers understand how Marvel characters reflect society.

“We hope readers will come away with a greater understanding of how sequential art characters are translated to film throughout history and come away with just how important these characters are to the collective consciousness of our global society,” Weiner said.

Many of the chapters focus on lesser-known characters and the adaptation of Marvel's properties into feature films.

“If you've always wanted to know more about the Japanese and Toei influence on Marvel, the rock-and-roll adventure in ‘Transformers: the Movie' (1988), critical and post feminism commentary of the superheroine Elektra, Captain America's journey to the silver screen, or why ‘Howard the Duck' (1986) was a really bad movie, then this book has something in it that will be sure to grab your attention,” McEniry said.