Prince of Cats

Prince of Cats by Ron Wimberly is a graphic novel "reboot" of the classic tale Romeo and Juliet. It is a modern twist of the classic tale set in Brooklyn in the year 1983, and the story is told with Tybalt Capulet, who was the main antagonist of the original Romeo and Juliet, being the center of the story. The different setting and culture does change the delivery of the story, but the moral of the story would remain the same. In the Prince of Cats, the main aspect that truly differentiates itself from Romeo and Juliet was the change of perspective. Because it is still the same story, the events that unfold that are related to Romeo and Juliet are still the same. However, since it introduced the story through a new lens, it became an entirely new experience for the reader. Its like if Star Wars happened on Earth in 2005. It would still be about a rebellion against a corrupt government, with "knights" and some kind of replacement for the Sith. People would still be experiencing the same story, just with different variables. But if you were to change the perspective of the story from Luke Skywalker to a stormtrooper or Lord Sidious, the story becomes a new one. The events that unfold may be the same, but the motivations and lessons learned would be different. And that is why Prince of Cats was so successful at rebooting the story of Romeo and Juliet. It wasn't just another story about how Romeo and Juliet overcame the obstacles standing in the way of their love, but a story revolving around Tybalt and the events that unfolded more around him.
Besides the point of creating an entirely new interpretation of the established story, some aspects that culture and setting successfully influenced in Prince of Cats was in the visuals. Due to the fact that Prince of Cats relied heavily on its images in addition to dialogue to tell its story, the visuals played a major role. When you change the setting to a modern urban one with characters of a different ethnicity from the original story wielding samurai swords, you basically have entirely different story. But with the similar dialogue from Romeo and Juliet, it still would've been hard to grasp the concept of the new setting especially if you were accustomed to the original story. With the illustrations aiding the storytelling process, it helped secure the concept of characters of African American descent running around the streets of Brooklyn with swords without the constant reemergence of the image that Shakespeare had envisioned for his tale that we are all so used to.