I went to go see this Broadway musical called Wicked (after which I was able to touch a New Kid’s butt), which was pretty good (not great), but had a striking parallel to the things that bring us all here.
You see, Wicked is the story of a young woman who, because of a strange formula imbibed by her parents, is born with bright green skin. Because of her unusual appearance, she is treated badly by everyone around her, and grows up a little resentful and moody. So moody, in fact, that when she loses her temper things occasionally explode or fly in all directions. She is taken under the wing of a teacher who recognizes her innate talents. She eventually befriends some fellow students as she harnesses her power and begins to use it fight for the rights of other outcasts (usually of the talking animal variety). Soon, a despotic government that wants to control her and her power finds her unwilling to be its pawn, and the populace is turned against her. The people grow to fear and hate her, and try to hunt her down. She continues to use her powers to help others who have been similarly mistreated, but all her efforts are seen as nothing but more wickedness. Many adventures later, she is forced to fake her own death and go into hiding with the man she loves, who had been turned into sentient plant matter earlier in the story.
Sound familiar? Like maybe something out of a familiar franchise? Actually it’s a retconned version of a totally different kind of classic. Who knew the wonderful world of Oz was so much like Salem Center?
Did I ever harass you into reading the book? I really love it…both because I think it’s extremely interesting and well done, and because I am a sucker for a good retcon/repurposing. It happens a fair amount in comics these days, but it’s always Warren Ellis (most of the storylines in Planetary, like Island Zero) and Alan Moore (any of the hundreds of background-drawings in Top 10 that come from somewhere else: my favorite is probably a store sign that reads “Green Apple/Green Grocer” drawn in homage to the 70’s GA/GL title I read as a kid) that manage to really nail them. With them, I get the fanboy rush of recognizing the source or in-joke, and the added pleasure of seeing it taken in a new and interesting direction.
Having said all that, I’ve heard that the stage show veers away from the novel enough that I should avoid it so I won’t get all pissy.
Yes, you did have me read the book when it came out, and I loved it. Luckily, I remembered nothing but the premise, so I wasn’t troubled by the inevitable problems with the adaptation. I can only assume the story in the book was a bit more fleshed out. I’m enough of a continuity nerd that I had to force myself not to worry about a few convenient coincidences in the play that were probably handled better in the source. Kinda like how I convinced myself that the movie Spider-Man’s organic webs weren’t an affront to the original comic.
It’s a good thing you got over that–apparently somthing happened during the whole “Avengers:Disassembled” story and now Peter does indeed spin his own webs. Sigh, and sigh again.