Ever since ‘Superman’ jumped to radio, Comic Books and the heroes within them have slowly but surely leaked over into every form of media.

With the massive success of superhero films like Spiderman and Ironman, this trend has skyrocketed to becoming one of the biggest money making endeavors the movie industry has at its disposal. Super heroes are big money, but lately comic books have been bringing much more complex ideas to the multi-media table.

Personally, I do not see Comic Book films leaving anytime soon, especially with the fantastic cast that has been brought together for Guardians of the Galaxy, but lately the trend seems to be branching out and becoming more human. ‘The Walking Dead’ is a great example of this being done well. The medium of television gives audiences and program creators more time to develop and experience complex ideas often lost in blockbusters like ‘The Avengers’.

 

Superheroes still have their place in the land of TV, especially with the recent success of ABC’s ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’, but even then the show has, so far, primarily focused on people rather than conventional Heroes.

This trend can even be seen in videogames. The ‘Batman’ games of the last few years have been huge hits, but companies like Telltale games have been expanding the concept of comics in the realm of gaming. Recently, they released ‘The Wolf Among Us’ based on the excellent ‘Fables’ comic series by Bill Willingham. Even in the abstract world of fairytale creatures living in New York, most of the issues brought up in the game are more complex than the basic idea of good versus evil often presented in blockbuster superhero films.

In a less direct way, even animation is being changed and shifted by these changing trends. The best examples of this has been ‘The Venture Bros’ on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. Heavily inspired by the world of comic books, ‘The Venture Bros.’ presents a world of heroes and villains in which fighting is nothing more than a job. It’s hilarious, and possibly my favorite television show currently on the air, but more importantly it shows these powerful beings as people. They go to work, they complain about their jobs, and they burn their mouth on hot lasagna just like anybody else.

Comic Books are evolving just like any media in the modern age, but for years they have been willing to cross lines that other media hasn’t. Like the long dead HBO adaptation of ‘Preacher’, sometimes comics may be better left on the page than on the screen.