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Leaving Well Enough Alone
By Philip Schweier
July 15, 2009 - 09:27

Recently a friend of mine and I were discussing a travesty that occurred back in the 1980s. Howard Chaykin, fresh off a stunning run on his American Flagg! series, produced a modern take on The Shadow. DC Comics followed it up with an ongoing series from another creative team, featuring tales of the Master of Darkness set in modern times.

This may have led to their misguided decision to give the other super-star of 1930s pulps, Doc Savage, a modern spin. Therein lies the tragedy.

Some heroes, such as Superman, Spider-Man and James Bond, enjoy a continuous production cycle, and as such, they evolve with the times. Perhaps had The Shadow and Doc Savage pulp magazines not been canceled in 1949, they also would have evolved.

But some characters are products of their times. The Lone Ranger can function nowhere but in the Old West, and Sherlock Holmes works best when left in Victorian England.

The Master Detective was perhaps one of the earliest efforts to update a fictional character. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the first Sherlock Holmes story in 1886; the final adventure was published 1917. During that time, Holmes experienced such technological marvels as electric homes, telephones and automobiles, but for the most part, his era remains unchanged, always set in a vague turn-of-the-century setting.

Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes

In 1939, 20th Century Fox produced an adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. Its sequel, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, was also set in Victorian times. However, when the series was moved to Universal, the adventures were updated to a war-time setting, beginning with Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror.

Since then, various fictional heroes have been dragged, sometimes kicking and screaming, into modern-day portrayal, often for no good reason. In 1989, a made-for-TV movie entitled Tarzan in Manhattan brought Edgar Rice Burroughs’ famous ape man swinging into modern times. My belief is that the initial story may have called for Tarzan to journey to New York City, but due to budgetary reasons, the story was set – needlessly – in modern times.

Joe Lara as Tarzan

The simple fact is that certain characters work best as a product of their times. The concept of Tarzan – a white man raised by apes in the African rain forest – works best in an era when the Dark Continent was not as thoroughly explored. Sherlock Holmes detective skills are far more remarkable at a time before mass communication and modern police investigative methods.

Part of the reason is that the stories are being created using modern sensibilities. In the case of movies, as I indicated, it may happen for budgetary reasons. It requires a great deal of money to set a film in a different time period. Costumes, settings, and cast all have to be created, often from scratch, though it is easier in this digital age than, say, 10 years ago.

Buddy Holly

Think of it this way: some musicians are locked in a time period with their music. Buddy Holly of the 1950s is one example. Suppose he didn’t die that fateful February morning in Clear Lake, Iowa, and continued to make music for the next decade or so. Would we really want to see a counter-culture version of Buddy Holly songs? Elvis Presley survived the 1950s, and is unfairly remembered by many as a bloated dinosaur, kitschy and classless.

The Rolling Stones have survived as a group over the decades, adapting as musical taste change, from their original style into disco and new wave and beyond. Others bands and musicians will do the same.

But to drag an iconic performer – Frank Sinatra, Simon & Garfunkel or Yo-yo Ma – from the stage on which they have achieved the highest acclaim and force them to play in a different style simply because their music has fallen out of favor doesn’t make much sense. To me, it makes more sense to “dance with the partner that brought you,” as my Uncle Frank would say. Pithy man.

There’s nothing wrong with evolving with the times, but when something loses momentum, and perhaps stops evolving, it’s safe to say its stuck, and it might be best to honor the spirit in which it grew to its healthiest.

Praise and adulation? Scorn and ridicule? E-mail me at philip@comicbookbin.com

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