Expanding Film Universes Into Comics: ‘Interstellar’ and ‘Inception’

Caroline Bialas ’18 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

The newest possible Oscar-bound film from esteemed director Christopher Nolan recently got an expansion of its universe, in the form of a prequel-style comic. Titled Absolute Zero, this short, nine-page online publication is actually not the first of Nolan’s ventures onto the page following a successful film. Back in 2010, two comics (Inception: The Cobol Job and Inception: The Big Under) became available digitally following the big blockbuster success. Covering a few dream explorations leading up to the film’s main plot into Mr. Saito’s dreams, The Cobol Job and The Big Under were unfortunately not exceptionally strong continuations of the existing universe. With rather stiff drawings, a cliché story, and little to no development of the characters, the comics felt like Nolan was simply dipping his toe in the water of the story’s potential in the comic book world.

While many might argue that expanding these non-franchise films through comic books is simply unnecessary and lacking in the needed material to make a bigger interesting story, it is still interesting to consider how the comic book medium can work with other entertainment mediums to create a multi-faceted verse. Though considerably shorter than the 2010 Inception comics, Interstellar’s Absolute Zero seems to do a better job with this film-comic book communication. It shows more the ability of a comic to not only prequel or sequel a story, but to also to show the perspective of another character within a film-verse. Absolute Zero fills in the story of Dr. Mann, perhaps one of Interstellar’s most highly-guarded secrets, as it includes one of the films biggest plot twists and biggest surprise casting. The comic focuses on Dr. Mann and his robot KIPP as he begins to lose hope in his perspective new home for the people of Earth.

While this comic prequel does not necessarily give any new information that could not have already been inferred from the film itself, it does seem to give a voice to Dr. Mann’s decision, and projects upon Interstellar’s themes of human nature as he begins to lose himself in the philosophies of good and evil. Overall, even despite its shorter length, Absolute Zero seems a stronger visual and narrative use of comics to expand upon movie-verses.

It is seen increasingly more often that television shows and video games expand their stories and escapes into the comic book realm (Doctor Who and Tomb Raider to name a few). But when it comes to films, especially stand-alone, non-franchise films, this tends to be less likely. In the case of Nolan’s films however, where the stories tend to be packed with interesting worlds that would thrive being told in the comic book medium, there have been some small-scale transformations from page to screen. While comic book series with long-running stories are typically what grabs more major audience attention, it will be interesting to see if with the aid of digital online platforms and comics like Absolute Zero, The Cobol Job, and The Big Under to pave the way, if shorter-running, universe-expanding film-to-comic transformations become more common.