Less po-faced, more pow! Why Netflix and Marvel need to lighten up

From Legion and The Tick, to Preacher and Happy! the best small-screen comics are wantonly daft and make some of Marvel’s output seem old-hat

Last year, the Ringer website analysed what made the Marvel/Netflix shows tick in 2017 and assembled a telling list of narrative traits and conventions. Some were good: the propensity for an outstanding opening sequence, for example. But the list of negatives far outweighed the positives: gratuitous violence; a sad and lonely main character; and an apparent need to link anything and everything Marvel together.

From Luke Cage and Iron Fist to The Punisher and Daredevil, there’s a thread of “darkness” that looms large over the Netflix comic canon. It’s not that such an approach to adaptation can’t work – look at The Dark Knight – it’s just when it becomes the only way, things move from dark and brooding to pitch black and boring.

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from The Guardian http://ift.tt/2HOO6nE