I am pretty much a purist when it comes to my comic adaptations, unless the change improves the narrative. Marvel’s Luke Cage is a great example of what can happen when deviating from the source material improves the story. Batman and Robin is a prime example of what happens when deviation goes wrong. I’ll admit that it is a fine line. You want to make the fans happy, but you also want to make the story accessible. In either case there will be some critics, but you can’t please everyone, can you? 

One of the earliest examples that I experienced of deviation for the sake of accessibility was the Incredible Hulk TV series. It mixed the comic origin with a taste of The Fugitive. As a child I was somewhat familiar with the Hulk’s origin and it was nothing like the TV series, but I didn’t care because I was getting The Hulk. Now, outside of modernization, Wonder Woman was pretty faithful to the material. Why, I really don’t know. But, it did work, for several seasons.

Now, the Netflix Marvel series stay true to the core of the characters, but anything can happen from there. Luke can begin working with criminals, someone other than Bullseye can kill Elektra, and Iron Fist can become addicted to the power that has been gifted to him. Oddly enough, Jessica Jones and Frank Castle are pretty much who they are and what happens to them from the page to the screen. Maybe the grittiness is enough that little or no change is required to garner fan approval. I will be watching future Marvel projects to see if the narrative is changed, how, for what purpose and whether it works.