Superhero comics are an iconic product of
American popular culture. Since the 1980s characters such as Spider-Man have
become increasingly global, which raises questions about the way other cultures
have appropriated the characters and made them their own. This article
investigates the strategies of
adaptation of Marvel’s superhero comic books into the Finnish media culture in
the 1980s and 1990s. The article proposes that the concept of adaptation offers
an understanding of transnational comics publishing that is new to the study of
comics translations. Three strategies of adaptation were found: selection,
cutting and pasting and domestication of the translation.