Doom and (Bad) Adaptation

Via BoingBoing comes a digitization of an old comic based on Doom.

The comic is one of the most awful I’ve ever read, and it’s testament to the fact that “adaptation” in a multimedia franchise fits a fairly specific tradition, and even innovative works act within that tradition… when the tradition is ignored, it turns out badly. Generally a minimal set of story functions, or narremes, are transfered from medium to medium and then embellished as appropriate for the newer medium. In this case — whether because the writers felt a sense of fidelity to the game play, or felt that Doom didn’t have a story to embellish, or were trying to be funny, or just didn’t care — this is not only a transfer of the game’s narremes but an attempt to transfer its reading (playing) experience or mechanics, and the result is absolutely wretched.