It's hard to remember a time when comic book movies were few and far between. Adaptations of comics have been common since the days of film serials, but their pop-cultural dominance is a new phenomenon. Batman Forever was the highest-grossing film of 1995, but its closest comic book competitor is Judge Dredd at #50. Down at #172, fans will find the unfairly forgotten cult classic Tank Girl.
Today, most comic book movies are owned by one of two major studios. Marvel and DC own most of the market, even more so than they do in their original medium. The rare outsider offerings tend to follow the example of the biggest successes. Everyone cares more about mimicking the Marvel Cinematic Universe than making good movies. It's enough to make fans nostalgic for an earlier era.
What is Tank Girl about?
The year is 2033. A cataclysmic comet strike has left Earth in a decade-long drought. The limited remaining water is owned entirely by W&P, a corrupt corporation that will use deadly force to keep its monopoly. Rebecca "Tank Girl" Buck lives on a commune in the Australian outback, surviving off of one of the last free wells in the world. W&P troops storm the community, kill Tank Girl's boyfriend, and take her and her young friend Sam hostage. While in chains, Tank Girl meets Jet Girl, a talented mechanic. When a small army of human-kangaroo hybrids called Rippers assaults W&P, Tank and Jet see their opportunity for revenge. Tank Girl is unleashed upon the world. Her anarchic Bugs Bunny energy becomes the mightiest weapon on the ruined Earth. It's a brutal battle between punk rock freedom and corporate-controlled monopoly. The film might not have pulled in the audience it was looking for, but it does serve as an interesting metaphor for its place in the market.
What is Tank Girl based on?
Tank Girl began its publishing run in 1988. It was one of the most prominent strips in the British magazine Deadline. The comic was written by Alan Martin and illustrated by Jamie Hewlett. The duo met at The West Sussex College of Art and Design in the mid-80s. They formed a band called The University Smalls. After the release of the 1984 Supergirl movie, they added the suffix -girl to every song title they came up with. Martin and Hewlett were huge comic book fans, and a random drawing of a punk girl in front of a tank inevitably became Tank Girl.
Martin and Hewlett couldn't have picked a better time to devise a counterculture hero. Thatcher's administration had just made it illegal to "promote homosexuality," and ladies were becoming more notable in the punk scene. Tank Girl swiftly became one of the icons of the counterculture comic scenes until the strips were purchased and reprinted by Dark Horse in 1991. A new series of graphic novel-length stories premiered under Vertigo in 1995. After a 12-year hiatus, during which Hewlett formed the band Gorillaz with Damon Albarn, IDW and Titan Comics brought Tank Girl back for a few one-shots and limited series.
As an adaptation, Tank Girl makes a common mistake in comic book movies. It fails to capture the spirit of the original work. The original comic strips were anarchic, stream-of-consciousness half-stories that played out more like Bugs Bunny cartoons than any sort of ongoing narrative. The movie felt the need to give Tank Girl a morally righteous motivation and a straightforward plotline. It's not able to be as rebellious as its source material. Though it's far from perfect, it does capture some of the unique energy of the comic. There's stuff in Tank Girl that comic book fans won't find elsewhere.
Why does Tank Girl deserve more attention?"
Critics of the time were not kind to Tank Girl. More modern audiences have developed a different take on the material. Some have even gone so far as to suggest that the film's protofeminist elements scared off the mostly male executives and film critics of the time. Its cast and crew will be the first to argue that it's not a perfect film, but Tank Girl offers something very few other comic book movies can. It's loud and bold. It strikes the audience with its weird elements and refuses to elaborate. Certain elements, like costuming, set design, and the performance of lead actor Lori Petti are almost universally regarded as high points. Even as the studio tried to suffocate Tank Girl, it's regarded as one of the weirdest examples of its genre, and that's an accomplishment in its own right.
In a world dominated by superhero movies that have gradually become too homogenous for even devoted fans, look back fondly at Tank Girl. The film still holds influence today. Margot Robbie's production company reportedly proposed a remake a few years back, just before she starred in Birds of Prey, a film unashamedly borrowing notes from the 1995 flop. Tank Girl deserves to be known as more than a failed experiment. It's far from polished, but the sheer rebellious energy makes it impossible to look away from.