[ddarko]

Quote:

Originally Posted by elbastardo

The Batman/Superman focus will never work long term because it is detrimental to the over-all product and cannibalizes itself.

The whole company is centered on him, and other characters get used as fodder by him. Warner made one character so important that other characters no longer matter. Why buy product for a character who'll just get humiliated by Batman?

The product becomes less compelling. What character has either not been beaten up by him, over-powered by him, or been used as a one night stand by him?

DC and Warner went too far with it, their product is damaged now. This is the issue of fictional characters having real world impact.

I think you have to understand that Batman is a little more accessible for a non-comic audience than the other characters. Characters like Lantern, Flash and Superman come across as a bit more detached from reality. I can tell you from my own experience that I got into comics through Batman. Batman is essentially like Jason Bourne character, that operates in the shadows with a nice looking Bat costume. So the appeal is high. I know friends who think comics are garbage that still consider the Dark Knight trilogy as their favourite movies, and I think it is for that reason.

That being said, once you enter the DC universe through Batman, you do get introduced to more characters you start to like. The fact that Batman gets involved with all of them helps in that regard. The fact that he dominates them in some manner is also simply his character. He is like the rep for humanity, and seeing him being able to do what he does only make you root for him because he is playing for “our” team. This is why you see him take down high powered villains in JL comics while struggling to take down human enemies in his own comics. The focus is different,

So I think their strategy with Batman makes sense. The issue is that when it comes to merchandise, they tend to not cover other characters with similar levels of exposure. Also, it’s not just Batman. Wonder Woman and Harley is the same. You get tons of WW figures and statues while there are so many in the DC universe without that many to their name.