The influence of outer space on comics and movies

Outer space has inspired the great creators of graphic and cinematographic art: the first characters in comics, their adaptation to the big screen and, today, the space-themed slots like Starburts that are present on the Internet. The influence of spatial elements and contextualized stories between ships, stars and parallel universes has been present during the last century and its result has been that of a great response from the public, counted in billions of consumers during all this time.

‘Superman’ is the great comic book classic that lasts to this day and that started the relationship between science fiction of illustrators and companies in this industry with space. The first issue dates back to 1938, when its creator Jerry Siegel presents a person with the ability to fly and superhuman strength. The history of this popular character was shaped over the years, as new copies of this work of the magazine ‘Action Comics’ were published. That force could not come from a terrestrial citizen and the creators decided, already in its first edition, that ‘Superman’ was born on the planet Krypton, but its destruction leads our character to travel to Earth.

Another of the first jobs that fantasized about Space was The Fantastic Four, a Marvel classic in which four people with extraordinary powers had the objective of completing missions in a continuous passage between Earth and other imaginary planets. It is 1961, the time before the arrival of man on the Moon, so the relationship of society, in this case the United States, with the outside world was still very distant. This work is a clear case of success, since the adventures of Señor Fantástico, la Mujer Invisible, Torch and The Thing have lasted until today, adapting to different formats, such as cinema and television during the 20th century and the entry of the current, such as the online product that now leads the audiences.

the saga of ‘Star Wars’initiated by its creator George Lucas at the end of the seventies, represents another of the great projects of cinema contextualized in a multitude of planets and imaginary beings that are located in an unknown space in reality.

Most recent works

The relationship with space has been greatly exploited by Hollywood and its ability to create fantastic stories and adapt them to all audience profiles. The movie ‘Men in Black’ is one of the most successful creations at the box office and narrates how a young Will Smith is recruited by the MiB, a secret organization that fights for the stability of planet Earth in the face of the continuous extraterrestrial threat from other planets. Its first version was produced in 1997 and, since then, three other films have been developed, although the last one does not have the cast of the previous ones.

Among the film projects that have a link with other planets and forms of life different from those known, it also stands out apollo 13as one of the pioneers in this type of work and which also tells a true story: a failed lunar mission in 1970. ‘Interstellar’, more recent, is another blockbuster.