Week One - The Creative Process Begins

        Icons, as defined by our first reading in Understanding Comics, are symbols that hold meaning. This concept is very important to our class as we are essentially tasked with transferring the meaning of symbols and images on the page to the film medium. In our group discussion, we talked at length about the different ways in which the idea of an icon can influence the creative process of adapting a graphic novel to film.

        While examining our own project, we first decided to take into consideration the implications of McCloud's description of icons upon the process of adaptation. The characters of Agents of Atlas, after all, do seem to lend themselves very readily to the very topic. Each character in the group seems to represent a from of iconic archetype. This representation is seen most clearly in one of the novels tag-lines: “The spy. The spaceman. The goddess. The robot. The gorilla.” Each character seems to bring to the team a unique quality that is defined entirely by their physical representation on the page. The archetypal quality of these characters is again reflected in the “What If” scenario included in the back of the graphic novel. In a series of panels, each member of the Agents of Atlas is compared to a member of the Avengers. As McCloud suggests, the reader then takes these archetypal icons and sees, within their characteristics, a new form of self. In the case of characters like Gorilla Man or the Avengers' Beast, a reader may see their animalistic side, while in M-11 and Vision a reader may see their calm, logical side. The proper application of these iconic archetypes is essential to our moving forward in adapting Agents of Atlas.

        In moving forward, however, it is perhaps beneficial as well to move back. A second key area of interest when discussing icons in our group was the distinction between the icons of the early origin comics, ranging from 1947 to 1978, and the newer story of Agents of Atlas published between 2006 and 2007. While the origin stories feature very unrealistic graphics (as defined by McCloud's pyramid on page 51 of Understanding Comics), the more contemporary icons seem to have shifted toward the realistic. In considering aspects of our adaptation like the level of realism, particularly as it relates to the characters of Gorilla Man and M-11 (being difficult to outfit without CGI), this shift plays a major role.

         For how the role of realism in comics has altered existing superhero film franchises, we needn't look any farther than the several examples of Superman that were shown in class. Several of the early clips that we saw were not extremely particular about maintaining realism, presumably because the comics of the time were less interested in portraying realism. As an example, the clip in which Superman flies up in to a burning building uses animation in order to show flight. By contrast, the most recent clip from Smallville attempts to show every gritty detail of the meteor shower, even taking a slow-motion moment to focus on a young crying Lana Lang.

        The distinction between icons of the 50's and contemporary icons is one that our group is going to have to consider very deeply, as our story takes place not only in the present but largely in the past. As well, the archetypal nature of our characters will need to be considered in casting and staging them. After all, film and comics are both constructed out of an endless swarm of icons.