The Arthur Effect

Tom Russell over at Monitor Duty (the comic book and geek culture web site) details what he calls the The Arthur Effect. This is where an intellectual property, such as a fictional character, has its distinctive characteristics smoothed out under the (invisible) pressure to make it more accessible (and marketable).

All the discussion of about Spider-Man and the shift from the Lee-Ditko Spider-Man to the Romita Spider-Man could equally be applied to the Jesus of the gospels, and the progression to a more palatable (and less disturbing) “Buddy Christ”.