So, in case you didn't read Hanzo's link in one of a couple of threads. The head of Image says in some speech or other that people want the real thing, and the comic editions of Transformers, G.I. Joe, Star Wars, etc. are not the real thing.

Well, I call bollocks on that, seeing as we've had about 80 different versions of Batman in the comic and none of them are as real as Adam West.

So the question is, in franchises with multiple versions, which are the most real to you?

Psycho Vs. Bates Motel... while I enjoyed Psycho the one time I watched it, Bates Motel's Norman is far more real to me.
Star Trek Vs. Star Trek... William Shatner is Kirk, Leonard Nimoy is Spock, and Karl Urban is Bones.
Hannibal Vs. Silence... Anthony Hopkins is still Hannibal, but the TV show is far more real than every other Hannibal movie or book.
Harry Potter Vs. Harry Potter... the movies are real; they just forgot to film some bits.
Game of Thrones... the books are real right up until HBO films them
Batman Vs. Batman... Adam West doing the Batusi, but Heath Ledger as the Joker.

STAR TREK
Original, Next Gen, Deep Space Nine and NuTrek are real. Enterprise and Voyager are not.

For me, the source material always counts. There may be exceptions to that rule, but I can't think any.

IAWTP.

I'm not sure if I have a personal rule for this. Usually the first iteration I encounter is what I consider the "true" one. Batman is Adam West. The Who are Townshend, Daltrey, Entwistle and Moon.

But there are times I end up liking a different version more than the first one I experienced. Enterprise is my favourite Star Trek. The Pink Floyd are the group with Syd Barrett (and with a "The").

Whatever WAN likes best is the real deal, and whatever WAN doesn't like doesn't count.

The stuff I like is real,and the stuff I don't like ain't.

Therefore....

The Hulk with three toes (and an underground base with a foot-operated 'ray machine' that turns Banner into the Hulk) is the 'real' one.

Adam West's portrayal of Batman is the 'real' one.

Howard the Duck and Beverly Switzler, as written by Steve Gerber, are the only 'real' versions of those characters.

College student Spider-Man who's studying 'The Erskine Papers', hanging out with Flash Thompson and Gloria Grant, and fighting alongside the original White Tiger, is the 'real' one.

Silver Age Superman is the only 'real' version of Superman - including early 70's Supes who needed to visualize a lynx (the rest are all Elseworlds ones).

Carmine Infantino's Flash is the 'real' one.

Lynda Carter's WW2 era Wonder Woman is the 'real' Wonder Woman.

Those are the only ones that genuinely matter to me. Pretty much everything else I'm not concerned about.

This seems really weird to me, but...

Tom Welling is the real Clark Kent to me... and despite me not watching it more than a few times, the 90s animated Superman is the real Superman.

I think that is actually the premise of Steven's thread. He was curious about individual posters' specific choices.

On the nose.

Although I would like to stress it's not necessarily about what version you enjoy the most. I'm not sure the Adam West Batman is my favorite version or even a version I'd like to see again, but when I see Adam West or hear his voice, I think Batman. Although in some cases, especially with the TV remakes, an iconic actor is no match for getting inside the character's head for several weeks. It's not that I think the kid on Bates Motel is better than Anthony Perkins, but Perkins is a performance rather than a person to me.

Carl Barks' Donald Duck over the animated one voiced by "Ducky" Nash ... even though I loved the animated one and saw it first.

-- Uncle Rog

"That's tricky ... Original Series over Next Generation ... but Picard over Kirk."

That's a really good one.

Carl Barks is definitely the real deal when it comes to the Duckverse.

Real Batman: Adams/O'Neil and TAS, even though I read a fat collection of 50's Batman and saw the Adam West show first.
Two versions of Superman are real to me: Roger Stern's and Mort Weisinger's.
Barks Duck stories, as with Roger, over the animated version.
The real Sex Pistols include Sid Vicious, not Glenn.
Real Blues is only by now deceased guys from Mississippi, Chicago, and Texas.
Mostly though, as with others it's what I saw/read first that is real to me. If they made another 6 Million Dollar Man show, it wouldn't be real because Lee Majors is Steve Austin, no one else.

T'ain't all deceased ...

No, not quite yet, fortunately!

Real Pink Floyd is both Roger Waters and David Gilmore, not the before or after.

Veronica Mars Season 1 & 2 opening theme are the real deal... I don't know what the frak that was in Season 3.

Good Veronica.


Bad Veronica.

There can be only one... and it's Dick York.

Yes.

This could be the wisest and most true thing you've ever written.

As to the topic, Evander Holyfield is the real deal.

The chorus in Run DMC's cover of Walk This Way is the real one. The rest of the Aerosmith original is real though.