(no subject)

[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

[woodland_goddess]

Actually, that makes so much sense....

[abirdie]

I think the trend of realistic and grounded (gritty?) superhero movies actually started with the X-Men film in 2000--after some previous, campy, mockable efforts, the folks at Fox were determined to make something that hewed closer to reality despite the crazy weather powers, shapeshifting, etc. The Dark Knight was in that vein and dark, too. MCU doing things like animating a talking raccoon gave DC the nudge to go full comic-book-tilt, I think.

Having come fresh off of Aquaman, I agree with you that the other DC franchises are much tougher to adapt! Honestly, I'm amazed that they managed to pull off the kinds of stuff they did in live action. It's just hard to make things like underwater fights /not/ look cheesy when you move away from drawings.

With that said--me being biased as a big Bat(fam) fan here--there is a kind of universality to Batman as one of the nonpowered heroes, someone who wasn't born special (besides the $$$) and fitting into a quintessentially American mythos of the self-made hero. And dudebros will forever find him worryingly relatable.