Cody is endeavoring to read his way through Marvel's entire publishing history. Let's see if he can do it!
This week, the comic book adaptation of Jaws 2.
In 1977, Marvel Comics launched Marvel Super Special, a full-color magazine series that was “devoted to concepts thought to be deserving of special treatment.” The early issues featured stories about Conan the Barbarian, Star-Lord, and Weirdworld, as well as bands like The Beatles and Kiss, with some movie adaptations mixed in. As of issue #14, and continuing through its final issue (#41), the Marvel Super Special series became focused entirely on movie adaptations. I’ve covered one of those adaptations before: the James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only, which was also released as two separate issues, in addition to the Marvel Super Special issue that was dedicated to it.
Another James Bond movie, Octopussy, also received the Marvel Super Special adaptation treatment – but of all the other Marvel Super Special movie adaptations, the one I was most eager to dive into was the one that brought the story of the shark thriller sequel Jaws 2 to the page.
Jaws 2 was a bit of a troubled production. Filming began in June of 1977 with theatre and film director John D. Hancock at the helm, working from a screenplay by Howard Sackler and Dorothy Tristan (who also happened to be Hancock’s wife). Hancock and Tristan had been involved in the development of the sequel for eighteen months… but by the end of June ‘77, Universal Pictures decided to fire Hancock. Not only was he overwhelmed by the size of the production, as he had previously only directed small-scale dramas, but the studio wasn’t happy with the footage he was turning in. Apparently, Hancock’s vision was dark and subtle. The studio wanted a lighthearted adventure movie.
So, Hancock was removed from the project and replaced by veteran television director Jeannot Szwarc. On the first movie, writer Carl Gottlieb had been brought in to do a last minute, one-week dialogue polish on the script – and ended up becoming the primary screenwriter, rewriting almost the entire script during the nine-week period of principal photography.
Released as Marvel Comics Super Special Issue #6, the Jaws 2 adaptation was based on the script that was in place before Szwarc and Gottlieb got involved, so it’s basically our only way to get an idea of what the John D. Hancock version of the movie would have been like.
While Jaws had the benefit of being based on a novel by Peter Benchley, the story for the sequel had to be built from the ground up. A few different ideas were floated around. It could have been a prequel based on the monologue delivered by the character Quint in the first film, the story of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the shark attacks that followed. I once read that Benchley suggested the sequel should go bigger in a major way, replacing the dead 25 foot Great White with a megalodon, a prehistoric shark that could have reached lengths up to 82 feet. Another idea had Amity Island suffering economically following the events of the previous film, community leaders scrambling to repay Mafia characters they were in debt to.
There’s no Mafia reference in the comic book adaptation, but Amity Island is clearly shown to be suffering. Properties have been abandoned, residents have left, and the place is described as being a ghost town by this point. Mayor Larry Vaughn is attempting to revitalize the economy with the building of a new hotel on the island – and butting heads with the island's Police Chief Martin Brody, who lives in fear of another shark returning to the area. He doesn’t hide his concerns, either, which puts a major damper on tourism and investor enthusiasm.
Of course, Brody is right to be concerned. Another voracious Great White shark appears in the waters around Amity Island and starts picking off everyone that crosses its path, from divers to water skiers. The comic book adaptation of the earlier script gives more information on the divers the shark kills in the opening sequence and expands the water skier attack scene, doubling the amount of characters that are involved.
As in the movie, Brody's teenage son Mike and his friends head out on the ocean in their sailboats for the climactic sequence, with Mike's younger brother Sean tagging along. The character group is presented in a slightly different way than in the film, and the comic shows us that the Brody sons are the targets of bullying from the teen son of Mayor Vaughn, who shares his dad’s belief that Chief Brody is nuts.
The shark starts picking off the boating teens like an aquatic slasher, and a major atmospheric change in this section of the story is the fact that, as envisioned by Hancock, the troubled sailboats were supposed to be engulfed in a thick fog during the attack sequence. That would have been cool to see on the screen.
Jaws 2 is a run-of-the-mill sequel, making all of the decisions you would expect it to, like showing the shark early and often. It increases the body count, adds in some bigger moments of destruction (a sailboat explosion, a scene where the shark pulls an amphibious helicopter down into the water, etc.), and retreads moments from the first movie. The shark is all over the pages of the comic book, and often launches itself out of the water to snag its victims.
Increasing the number of sharks would have also been a typical sequel decision. That didn’t happen in the finished film, but the Hancock version would have included – and the comic book does – the revelation that the man-eating shark was female and had given birth to multiple (at least six) baby sharks, which Chief Brody encounters in one scene.
I'm a bit ambivalent about the movie Jaws 2. I really think Jaws should have remained a standalone film, yet this sequel does have some admirable qualities and a degree of watchability. It's no Jaws, but it's better than most other shark movies. I don't watch Jaws 2 often anymore, but when I do it's not a bad experience. The comic book adaptation of the earlier script is a very interesting glimpse of “what almost was,” if Hancock hadn’t been fired. Judging by the comic book, I think Hancock’s Jaws 2 had a chance to be a decent movie, along the lines of Szwarc’s version, just done a bit differently.
Rick Marschall wrote the adaptation, with Gene Colan and Tom Palmer handling the artwork. Although I skipped to issue 6 of the Marvel Super Special series to get to Jaws 2, it seems I made a good choice, as Marvel was quite proud of this particular issue.
As noted in the back of the 56-page magazine, this was their first magazine “reproduced in exclusive Marvel-Color, marking a new phase in comics publishing. Working off the great visual shots and outdoor scenes of the Universal movie, artists Gene Colan and Tom Palmer actually painted their original drawings, achieving the lush effects of water shades, gentle shadows and harsh explosions. Various media were used, including Dr. Martin's watercolor dyes and color airbrush. The entire project encompassed the following process: The writer adapted a version of the shooting script provided by Universal Studios, Gene Colan laid out the visuals in pencils, the writer again took the project and added dialog and captions, and Tom Palmer rendered the finished art in inks and colors. Now in most comics, the drawings are fully inked and then colors are added, almost like in a coloring book. In this magazine, Palmer half-inked his work and then let color do the rest: shadows, horizon lines, waves and other subtleties are deliciously indicated in a rainbow's worth of tones unavailable to previous comic books.”
The Jaws 2 adaptation was a momentous occasion!
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