Origins vs Established

[WarMachine68]

What do you enjoy more in movies: superhero origin stories, or superhero stories where they are already established.

I know someone who didn't like Spiderman 1, because it annoyed them that they 'spent so much time on his origins', they wanted him to already be spiderman at the start of the movie.

Meanwhile, for me the origin stuff was by far the best part!

 

[MadVillainy]

if it's a heroes first time on the screen ever or first time in a while. Do the origin. Especially for lesser known heroes

 

[Mike Murdock]

I think it depends on the character and the particular origin story. That being said, I've always said that origin stories often feel like a crutch. We end up with a pretty solid story about a guy with a few minutes of action tacked on at the end of a superhero. The problem is when it comes to a sequel and they've never had any experience writing a story with this particular superhero.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Depends on the character. For some characters, the origin is such a crucial part of who a character is and is rather complicated (ex. Superman, Spider-Man), so for those I think we need to see it. Unless it has already been done recently, of course. No need to redo Spider-Man for Tom Holland when it has already been done twice in 15 years.

Other characters have simple origins that aren't really necessary to see and can't carry a feature film anyways.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Double Post

 

[Random490]

Depends on the character. For some characters, the origin is such a crucial part of who a character is and is rather complicated (ex. Superman, Spider-Man), so for those I think we need to see it. Unless it has already been done recently, of course. No need to redo Spider-Man for Tom Holland when it has already been done twice in 15 years.

Other characters have simple origins that aren't really necessary to see and can't carry a feature film anyways.

Pretty much agree. It's good to have an uncompressed look at the character, how they came to be and their motivations. I love Batman Begins because of this, it was a real examination of Bruce Wayne's character and gives us a look into his journey that we've never seen before. On the other side, The Amazing Spider-man presented a different take on Spider-man's origin but it was still the same story. It didn't give us anything new like Batman Begins did. And while they still needed to explain the mechanical webs they could have easily done it by having Gwen ask about it. Just like Tony in Civil War. Writing a story can be difficult, specially when you need to make sure the audience understands what's going on. Origin story allows explanation to be added as a big part of the narrative. Whether to do an origin or not depends on what story do you think has more value. Is understanding the journey the character took to be a hero and interesting story with value. Or is it best to just jump right in?

And if there's already been a widely scene origin story, it would just be redundant to tell it again unless you're adding something very new and interesting.

 

[Loki882]

It depends on the character. If their origins aren't inherently all that interesting (like say the Fantastic Four or Hulk) or essentially to who they are, then I say skip it. And if it's an origin that we've seen time after time after time again (like Spider-Man, or Batman, or Superman, etc for example), then we don't need to see that again either.

But if there's an cool story built into their origins (like with Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Captain America, etc) or it's important to who they are as characters (like Black Panther, Strange, Captain Marvel, etc), or it's something that has been done onscreen before (or at least not much), then I have no problem with them doing an origin story.

So can we maybe add a "depends on the character" option to the poll please?

 

[psylockolussus]

Depends on the quality of the movie. But for the first movie of a superhero... I always prefer it to be an origin story. I wish we got/getting an MCU origin film for Hulk and Spider-Man.

 

[Loki882]

I don't. We've seen Spider-Man origins TWICE onscreen in only a decade, not to mention cartoons and other media. And Hulk's origins, just aren't all that interesting to me.

 

[psylockolussus]

Personally, like when I marathon the MCU, I always notice that Captain America, Ant-Man, Guardians, Thor and Iron Man all got origin stories and I got to see how they got their powers or how they got this superhero/hero identity... except for Hulk and Spider-Man, who already got their power. Yeah I know its probably because of the past movies, but I personally I don't mind, as long as its good.

 

[BarryAllen]

Depends on the character.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I don't. We've seen Spider-Man origins TWICE onscreen in only a decade, not to mention cartoons and other media. And Hulk's origins, just aren't all that interesting to me.

Hulk would be a good example of a character who doesn't really need his origin told or at least spread out. It is something that can be handled in the first five minutes of a film. He's hit by gamma rays, then BOOM, he turns into a giant green rage monster. There is no real story there.

But I would like to see the origins of characters like Captain Marvel or the Runaways. Heck, the Runaways origin in the comics ran for essentially the entirety of Volume 1.

 

[Dasher10]

Depends on the character. I feel like we already got the origins of Winter Soldier, Black Panther, War Machine and Falcon on the big screen. Black Widow should get her past shown in flashbacks if Marvel ever do a spin-off for her. Captain Marvel definitely needs the origin story to show that she wasn't the first Captain Marvel and named herself after Captain Mar-Vell of the Kree resistance.

We also need to see Moon Knight, Wonder Man, Black Knight and Ghost Rider's origins whenever they get introduced but I feel like Blade doesn't need an origin story and neither do the Eternals.

 

[Golgo-13]

Yeah, it depends on the character. If it's a team of characters, i prefer some backstory before they get their powers, so we can see how they worked (or not worked) before and how having these abilities changed them and their interaction with their team members. If it's a solo character, again it depends on how well we all know them. If it's someone lesser known like IM was, or Dr.Strange, then we need a backstory origins. Someone like Hulk or Spidey that we've seen before and most know, we don't. That being said, i hope we get a quick flash back of Holland's Parker being bit, and hope it's a radioactive spider vs a genetically enhanced one.

If the MCU decides to develope the F4, i hope it's an origin story. By the team being based in NY, the only way to explain why they didn't help during the Chitauri invasion is if they were either in space, or they hadn't got their powers yet, so in order to add them into the current MCU timeline we would need to see them get their powers.

 

[Drizzle]

There are a few heroes where we could potentially never see their origin story on film again and it would be fine because everyone (general public and not just comic fans) knows how they became who they are. These are limited to Batman, Spider-Man, Superman and maybe Hulk.

That being said, I wouldn't mind seeing brief flashbacks of Uncle Ben's death in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

 

[Copper Crow]

Honestly, I prefer the origin story. I get some origin stories have been done to death, but the simple fact is- the origin of a superhero is one of the most important aspects of the Superhero. It's a part of why they are who they are and why they do what they do. A simple verbal narrative just isn't enough sometimes to help portray the depth behind them being a Superhero. I get Spider-Man's origin story has been done a lot and they're not going to do another origin film for that character, but I can guarantee they rehash it again sometime eventually in his films. It's one of the most important origin stories of any Superhero.