Quote Originally Posted by Bored at 3:00AM View Post
I don't think the CW shows are the global juggernaut that the MCU is, but they do reach a sizeable audience around the world. Trust me, prior to Covid-19, I traveled extensively around Asia, Europe and North America. Those CW shows are very popular with the kids, as is Riverdale.
Or maybe you just have a lot of exposure to the niche CW audience?
Quote Originally Posted by Flash Gordon View Post
It has been a good run, it may be time to pack it in.

Personally I'd like to see Superman be returned to kids. Get some cartoons going, maybe a nice big Pixar-y animated flick. I'm not interested in animation, but I've enjoyed the character enough- let the concept grow again.
I don't get this - Superman doesn't need to be returned to kids, he never left them. Why is it always "a character is for us (adults) or kids" with some fans? Superman can and should have stories for kids, for adults, and for both. This just for one or the other idea will make him more obscure. He should have an animated theatrical movie for kids, a live action Marvel styled movie for families, a cartoon series, an adult Black Label title, an R-rated Joker style Lex Luthor movie, and some edgy PG 13 DTV movies. Give us a Superman for every audience. I mean, it's worked for Batman so far.
Quote Originally Posted by Ascended View Post
That's a fair point, but Clark's appeal has never been in being the "not gritty one" and the success of the MCU is only a good thing for all of us. If a film is quality, he doesn't have to worry about the competition any more than Aquaman did.

I suppose it's true that the MCU has pushed fans of the genre out of the "grimdark" stuff, but plenty of things still revolve around that hook. People were talking about Game of Thrones earlier and you don't get much more grimdark and twisted than that. Breaking Bad, Lost....all the shows in recent memory that have dominated the pop culture discussion have been pretty serious and screwed up. The MCU is kind of an outlier in this, and some of their films haven't just been zingers and action set pieces either.

I definitely agree with the idea of giving Superman back to kids. That's who he belongs to, not old bastards like me. Smashes the Klan seems like a good place to start. Done right, that's the kind of movie that would make Into the Spider-Verse seem like a modest success.
1. Superman doesn't really belong to kids - Superman belongs to everybody. He belongs to kids, he belongs to 30-something adults like me, and he belongs to old bastards like you too. That's part of the greatness of Superman. Let's not do him the disservice of thinking he's only for a certain age group of the populace. There should be more Superman kid content, but that's not all there should be.

2. The Marvel being an outlier to the grim dark stuff is wrong. Pretty much every era of pop culture is full of extremes. How many people who loved The Big Bang Theory also enjoyed JOKER? Aquaman and Game of Thrones? The MCU and Breaking Bad? People aren't all about the gritty stuff, nor the lighthearted stuff, neither dominates pop culture. People love both extremes in fiction when done well. The 70s gave us Superman The Movie, Star Wars, and I think The Godfather and Dirty Harry. The 80s had Indiana Jones, the Goonies, Back to the Future, and more horror slasher films than you can shake a machete at. Neither dominates.