It began with the spark of a candle in 1941 related to the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons. Wait, a comic book genre?! No one was certain what to think about pages coming to life. The comic book genre has been under siege during "Awards Season" since 1978 when Christopher Reeve made the world believe a man could fly.
Recently, a different Bat signal had been emblazoned across Hollywood's sky, and it is solid gold. Can we stop hating on this genre now?
It probably won't happen as long as people like Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Roland Emmerich, and David Cronenberg are helming Hollywood. They're so influential and vociferous against the comic book genre that it tends to make the award bureaus reconsider a person acting in spandex really isn't "acting." As if cosplay doesn't involve imagination.
And so, hate continues against any visual entertainment from comic books and graphic novels. In 1941, the comic book genre was considered a fad. In 1978, it was a joke. In 1989, when Tim Burton's Batman won the Oscar--a first for any comic book movie--for Best Art Direction, it was an uncertainty. Not for nothing, but Batman Returns tried a repeat, but that Coppola guy had Bram Stoker's Dracula slay the competition.
The aforementioned Burton duo got a golden sniff for art direction, visual effects, and makeup earning one. After that, books in spreadsheet print adaptations inspired Dick Tracy, The Mask, Men in Black, Ghost World, and Road to Perdition helped the comic book genre gain momentum. (Yes, that Tom Hanks film was a DC Comics graphic novel.)
The year of 2005 saw Christopher Nolan earn a single nomination for Batman Begins for Best Cinematography. It lost to the epic Memoirs of a Geisha, but Wally Pfister's work demanded recognition. Another legitimate CBM Superman Returns earned an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects a few years earlier.
It took Spidey Senses to get Hollywood's respect
In 2002, when Sam Raimi brought us Spider-Man, it started that minor momentum. The Comic Book Genre was here to stay. Everyone in Tinseltown knew it. All the nerds worldwide knew it, too. Our frenzy meant money, but those curmudgeons would flip over the CLOSED sign at the SAGs, Golden Globes, and Oscars. And for a while, publishing houses had to trick the award mongers to get some recognition.
- Dick Tracy earned Oscars for Best Art Direction, Best Makeup, and Best Original Song by Madonna, "Sooner or Later (I'll Always Get My Man)." Thanks to Al Pacino's stellar work as
Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice, this 1990 campy film was the first of the comic book genre to win respect "above the line." Pacino lost Best Supporting Actor to Joe Pesci for Goodfellas, and who can argue with that?!
- The Mask gave a "Tier 2" label some love for the first time as the Dark Horse Comics' adaptation earned a nomination for Best Visual Effects in 1994. But Forrest Gump jogged away with that one.
- Men in Black was the first Oscar for Marvel Comics, by way of "Big Red" buying Malibu Comics in 1994. Barry Sonnenfeld directed the adaptation three years later and won the gold for Best Makeup (Rick Baker).
- This was the first movie of the comic book genre to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. "What was Ghost World, Alex?" If you had that on your Bingo card, you're a bigger nerd than me. That was originally written and later adapted by Daniel Clowes for Hudson Books in 1998.
- As much as the comic book genre can claim Road to Perdition, it really doesn't count toward CBM progress. Sam Mendes directed it. Thomas Newman scored it. Tom Hanks starred in it. And no one, at any press junket, mentioned Paradox Press or DC Comics. Conrad Hall won the Oscar for Best Cinematography, and the film was nominated for five more bald statues, including Best Supporting Actor (Paul Newman).
By 2002, the spandex-laden comic book genre had continued, with Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe cackling across NYC. Christopher Nolan began one of the best CBM trilogies in history in 2005, but 2008's The Dark Knight changed the game for publishing houses, movie studios, and all those cantankerous septuagenarians in Hollywood.
How Heath Ledger reversed the joke for the comic book genre
When The Dark Knight hit theaters, everyone knew it was unlike anything else before. Not in that "wow-these-superheroes-hit-different" uniqueness. More like "damn-that-is-a-Hollywood-acting-blockbuster!" Christian Bale was good. Morgan Freeman was good. Michael Caine was good. That's substantial star-power, but Heath Ledger forced the old codger of the Hollywood Hills to look past his poorly applied makeup.
He was spellbinding on the screen as the Clown Prince of Crime. And all nominees for Best Supporting Actor in 2009 had to bow down. Josh Brolin in Milk, Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt, Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road, and Robert Downey, Jr. in Tropic Thunder couldn't deny Ledger's posthumous award. (Note the trend: Four of five there have all put on the spandex, and Hoffman was in The Hunger Games, so there's that.)
Seriously, it was remarkable television when it happened. Watch and learn, or even experience it once again. (And Cuba at RDJ was pretty great.)
Christopher Nolan's awe-striking sequel would truck away with another Oscar for Best Sound and seven other nominations in cinematography, editing, art direction, makeup, sound mixing, and visual effects. If that wasn't enough of a declaration that the comic book genre had arrived, Ledger was also honored with the SAG, Golden Globe and BAFTA award for this penultimate of Nolan's Batman films.
No more arguing. Just because someone is in a comic book-adapted film doesn't immediately make their acting schlocky, campy, or even remedial. Yet, the remaining comic book genre films of 2008, including Iron Man and Hellboy II, were overlooked. In fact, the entire Iron Man trilogy got nothing above the line and was only considered for three straight VFX Oscars. Meh.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier? That shield was a doorstop. The Avengers? All that power surmised bupkis. Hell, Doctor Strange's psychedelia lost a VFX award to the live-action Jungle Book. Think about that! Two of the best CBMs in history, Logan and Avengers: Infinity War went scoreless, although Logan did earn the first-ever Adapted Screenplay nomination in 2017, so that's not nothing.
From 2008 to 2018, the comic book genre encountered another reclamation era. Those 10 years included some fantastic films, including those mentioned previously. But no one could deny Black Panther. Finally, a CBM was given a Best Picture nod. It also got six other nominations and won three of them. None for acting, but that one was certainly "above the line." Also in 2018, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film, but that's a "cartoon," so it was fitting, right, Oscar?
Then came another clown
Although it is a cerebral impossibility, forget the haphazardous sequel. Blot it out of your mind, like Todd Phillips seemed to have done halfway through taping. There is no denying the force of Joaquin Phoenix's acting prowess in Joker. It was an origin film no nerd expected and a comic book movie no critic expected.
Count them: 11 nominations, including some of the most respected categories, such as Best Director, Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Cinematography. Then, it happened.
Nothing short of marvelous. (Must. not. think. of. stupid. sequel.)
Oh, there have been some horrendous additions to the comic book genre since that day: Oscar, Globes, and SAGs. Even nerds abstained from Bloodshot, Wonder Woman 1984, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and Madame Web. Then again, doesn't that skidmark stain every genre, does it? (Capone, Doolittle, The Painted Bird, Les Miserables, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, we're looking at you.)
There were other award nominations for Marvel projects, now on the small screen, with WandaVision earning 23 Emmy nominations, including in the big categories. Though it didn't win in those, it did pick up three, while also scoring nominations at the Golden Globes. And speaking of the Globes, WandaVision spinoff Agatha All Along also earned a nomination for at this year's event for star Kathryn Hahn's performance. At this very same event, Colin Farrell won for his performance in DC's The Penguin.
And while we'll never forget the fact that Angela Bassett didn't win for her well-deserved Best Supporting Actress nomination in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in 2022, we accept Colin Farrell as your make-good. However, we don't have to do that, because you know he earned for acting in The Penguin. While Farrell won't win an Oscar for that series (because TV), he was nominated for a SAG and will most likely strike gold at the 2025 Primetime Emmys, too.
Sure, DC fans can rejoice -- three major awards, two comic villains, one comic publisher. That's it! Marvel will get theirs, and when they do, DC acolytes will applaud because it benefits the entire comic book genre and shuts down the hate. Like any hate, it's pointless, has no validity, and serves zero purpose.
In the words of Oz Cobb himself, "They're gonna tell stories about us one day, kid!" Thanks to Colin Farrell, Joaquin Phoenix, and the late Heath Ledger, yes, they absolutely will. So, read the press Oscar, Globes, and SAGs. This discussion about acting power in a comic film is over.
At least, it definitely should be.