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[rosalinecapulet]

Marketability aside, I think one reason we keep getting such a disproportionate amount of Batman media is because in general, and especially compared to Superman/Wonder Woman/Aquaman/etc, Batman’s mythos is very low-concept. Sure, occasionally you have some good old fashioned comic book nonsense like Poison Ivy or Ra’s al Ghul. But the most prominent villains-people like Joker, Riddler, Two-Face, Scarecrow, and Penguin-are basically just regular criminals with flashy outfits and elaborate ways of doing their crimes.

This is not to say that Batman is better than the other heroes, just a lot easier to adapt (especially for the Christopher Nolans of the world who want to do ~realistic~ comic book adaptations)

Comments

[abirdie]

No worries! I hope you feel better soon.

Sorry, I hope you didn't take that first part as me snarkily correcting you, that was more some thinking out loud about the whole "realistic" thing. Because really--who decided that "realistic" paired well with "superheroes"?

I totally forgot about Daredevil, oh my god. Daredevil and Green Lantern are the Superhero Films That Must Not Be Named from everything I've heard about them.

Did dudebros in your class seriously say that Batman does things without sidekicks?? Um. Honestly, I find Batman as a standalone hero completely boring. I would only be mildly interested in Batman if not for all the Robins and Batgirls. And they add so much richness to his story and are really the only way he can move on and move forward. Also, Superman...doesn't have sidekicks? He has buddies and there's a Superfam, but he's not their mentor or partner like Batman and Robin are. Dudebros say the damndest things, huh.

And speaking of dudebros, there was this group of guys in the theater today that laughed at literally anything in Aquaman? But like. In a mean way. Whatever, your spite watch is all green dollar bills to the people who made the movie.

[rosalinecapulet]

Thanks <3

No worries, I just wanted to make it clear that I wasn't a pretentious Nolan fan getting up on their high horse and saying we have him to thank for superhero movies. Which is especially funny given that most post-TDK superhero movies seem to be in agreement that the best way is to be as far from realistic as possible (the only real exception of note is Man of Steel, but even that doesn't really count because it's also partly a Nolan film).

Honestly I think Daredevil is an important movie to have around because it reminds us of what happens when you try too hard. And imo it's still not nearly as cursed as Catwoman.

Yeah, it was clearly a guy who had only seen the Nolan films, and he also seemed to preemptively turn his nose up at Superman for the usual "he's overpowered and everything is too easy for him" nonsense. Meanwhile, I'm nominally a Batman fan but I can easily get tired of Bruce and I'm glad the Batfam are there to dilute some of the angst (and also to give us my favorite mode of Bruce characterization, Batdad). And I'm also here because there are so many Batrogues I love (though aside from Joker, Harley, Ivy, and Selina, all the ones I love seem to be increasingly phased out of the newer comics) but that's a whole other tangent.

I wish I could say I'm surprised, but I knew it would happen given Aquaman's reputation. Ah well, the numbers speak for themselves on who wins this battle.