For a change, on this Labor Day weekend, I wanna talk about comics. Ostensibly the reason most of you follow me. Specifically, I want to talk about how a TV or movie creator’s age influences his interpretation of classic comic book superheroes when adapting them to TV or film.

When Roy Thomas and I started writing films in the late Seventies, our background in comic books was a liability. Sure, it opened a few doors here and there but for the VAST majority of the executives and producers we encountered our history with comics was a net “meh.”

Why was that? Because the producers and executives we met with were all in their forties, and in 1978 (when our film careers started) that meant the comics they were familiar with from childhood were the bland funny books of the mid-1950s...at best.

These were people who were too old to have encountered comics first during the original Silver Age and Marvel Age. They had no cultural reference for comics other than the dull pablum of the 50s. (Maybe a few knew EC Comics, but those were horror fans in general.)

This is why the best superhero film of the 1970s, “Superman: The Movie” opens with a reference to 1930s America, and portrays the Superman of the 1950s— *not* the Superman of the 1970s. Richard Donner, the true auteur of that film, grew up in the 1930s and 1940s.

Donner was referencing the Superman of *his* childhood and young adulthood. (He was 21 when “The Adventures of Superman”, the template for the characterizations in “Superman: The Movie”, arrived on TV.) He was retelling the superhero fantasy of his childhood.

What Donner did in 1978, Tim Burton (born in 1958) did in 1989. Despite discussion that Burton’s “Batman” was influenced by Frank Miller’s Dark Knight, the more obvious influence is the 1960s “Batman” TV series. Burton’s “Batman” and “Batman Returns” are both high camp.

The process continues throughout every new era of superhero films— the interpretation, the way a superhero is presented, is heavily influenced by when the primary creator of the film or TV series was born, and the era of comics in which they first encountered the character.

Sam Ramis, born 1959, interpreted his “Spider-Man” through the eyes of a kid who first encountered Peter Parker in the late 1960s-early ‘70s (when I wrote the book). Bryan Singer, born 1965, encountered the “X-Men” in the late 1970s-early ‘80s, height of the Claremont/Byrne era.

The influence of those eras on the movies those auteurs created is obvious. Neither creator made films about the characters as they were *currently* presented in comics in the early 2000s. Both Ramis and Singer made movies about the superheroes of *their* childhoods.

Similarly, Christopher Nolan, born 1970, made a Batman trilogy in the late 2000s about the Batman of *his* childhood from the early 1980s— Frank Miller’s Dark Knight.

Ditto for Kevin Feige, born 1973, coming of comic book age in the mid-to-late 1980s, interprets Marvel through the eyes of an Infinity Gauntlet era reader. Geoff Johns, also born in 1973, interprets DC through the eyes of a pre-and-post Infinite Crisis nostalgia.

Marc Guggenheim, thematic guide of the Arrowverse, born 1970, is probably influenced by the pre-Crisis DC Universe. Patty Jenkins, born 1971, likely sees Diana Prince through the childhood experience of the clear-eyed nobility of Lynda Carter’s late-70s “Wonder Woman” TV series.

Zach Snyder, born 1966, fits this theory as well: His childhood experience of comics was the cynical turn taken in the late 1970s, early 1980s— the era Bryan Singer also came of comics reading age.

Where Singer seems to have responded to the hopefulness and inclusion of the Claremont/Byrne X-Men era, Snyder seems to have identified more with the disruption and darkness. But in both men, the influence of that late ‘70s take on superheroes is clearly reflected in their films.

So what’s the upshot? IMHO, the representation of superhero mythology in film and TV will always be about twenty-thirty years *behind* what is currently being created in comic books. More than any other story genre, superheroes reflect the *childhood* experience of auteurs.

Right now, we’re seeing superhero movies and TV series reflecting attitudes and approaches that were prevalent in comic book stories told decades ago. It will be decades before we’ll see a movie Batman truly influenced by Tom King or Greg Capullo. (Court of Owls notwithstanding.)

Will current storylines influence current series and movies? Sure. (Like I mentioned, the Court of Owls is an example of a modern storyline adapted to the current era of TV.) But the underlying *interpretation* of the superhero myth will be determined by the age of the auteur.

Anyway, that’s my theory. Make of it what you will.