What Nimona the movie loses by nerfing the comic’s best relationship

polygon.com:

For a longtime fan of ND Stevenson’s webcomic turned graphic novel, Nimona — someone who followed the original comic’s release week to week from 2012 to 2014, and became part of the growing fan base hanging onto each new cliffhanger and reveal — the release of Netflix’s animated adaptation is a bittersweet moment. It’s exciting that the film was actually completed and that it made it to the public, after Disney acquired the project and scuttled it, reportedly (and very believably, given Disney history) out of distaste for the story’s central gay couple. And it’s exciting to see that story, and Stevenson’s comics work, finding a larger audience.

But there’s still that lingering feeling that fans of a book almost always get when they see it adapted for TV or film. Whether the screen version is well made or not, regardless of whether it stands on its own and finds its own audience, there’s often still that forlorn little inner voice whispering, But you aren’t actually telling the story that drew people to this title in the first place.

Stevenson says the movie version preserves the most important thing about his comic — the personality, powers, and meaning behind his fiery shape-shifter protagonist Nimona. And he says the movie reflects backstory that he always wanted to put in the comic and couldn’t find a place for, and that the changes were necessary. He isn’t being cheated out of something with this highly altered version of this story. But still, as a fan, there’s one thing I miss from the book more than anything else that was dropped for the movie.

Netflix’s version, directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane (Spies in Disguise), and scripted by Robert L. Baird, Lloyd Taylor, and Pamela Ribon, keeps a lot of the book’s