Being pushed doesn't make a character popular.

[Vakanai]

Harley and Birds of Prey is doing gangbusters on the streaming markets and charts for those citing BOP box office as an indication of Harley not being bankable.

Oh thank goodness. Me and my mom both loved the movie in theaters, and I was looking forward to the planned Gotham City Sirens and BOP vs GCS sequels, but with the way it bombed in theaters I had given up hope of those happening. But if it is doing so well on streaming then maybe there's still hope after all.

[Midnight_v]

Harley and Birds of Prey is doing gangbusters on the streaming markets and charts for those citing BOP box office as an indication of Harley not being bankable.

I don't get why some begrudge Harley her success or try to claim she isn't as popular to warrant the resources DC invests in her.

Comic sales are nothing and while I don't know how much merch Harley moves. I do know that the merch market is significantly larger than comics and Harley is a huge merch seller.

All due respect... the covid-19 situation means MOST things are doing gangbusters on streaming. I don't even make the argument about "IF" she's popular but streaming is eyeroll territory these last few months as its quarantine the likes
of which we've never seen this millennia

[dietrich]

All due respect... the covid-19 situation means MOST things are doing gangbusters on streaming. I don't even make the argument about "IF" she's popular but streaming is eyeroll territory these last few months as its quarantine the likes
of which we've never seen this millennia

I see your point and while you are not wrong on the covid situations impact on streaming not everything is topping or making it onto the itunes top 10 or DGe US top 20 charts.

Not everything is holding their position in the top 10 of these charts

[Masterff]

Using wrestling terms for comics is dumb
Wrestling is a carny good ole boy network that makes business decisions based what a crazy ceo or creative director wants. They don't make sound business decisions in wrestling based on what makes them the most money

Most of you are prisoners of the moment and don't even remember anything before 2011
Hell Harley Quinn went through the same redeption arc post crisis but I guess since she was in comic book limbo most of the time back then all of you could ignore it. Now that's she's everywhere alot of you have problems with the "redemtion arc" all of sudden.

DC only became high on Harley Quinn after the arkham games came out and they began to see an uptick in her merchandise numbers as well variants featuring Harley selling more than others that didn't feature her.
That's how DC the business works they only use a character when they see a demand
If there's a lot of demand then there's more content of said character. If you don't like it you can ignore it

DC has never done this
Marvel will do this no doubt but DC does not force an unpopular character down people's throats ad naseum

I DIDNT talk about this..

What I was talking about is this:

Superman for example has many appearances, good storylines, great feats and because of THIS he has become popular.

So this means:

Good feats, good storylines, many appearance makes a character popular, so the push comes BEFORE becoming popular.

[Midnight_v]

Good feats, good storylines, many appearance makes a character popular, so the push comes BEFORE becoming popular.

Hmm... no... that's not really a push. One good author can do that on his own if unimpeded. I think this is people doing this ABOVE the level of one author.

It was never designed that wolverine be as popular as he became. It was really one issue, followed by larry hama's book that started that whole thing if we're honest. If you look back you'll find he
was pretty disliked to start until a fringe small group started to like him.

In fact the wolverine is a better case study on this topic than Harley Quinn.

[Masterff]

Hmm... no... that's not a push. One good author can do that on his own if unimpeded. I think this is people doing this ABOVE the level of one author.

It was never designed that wolverine be as popular as he became. It was really one issue, followed by larry hama's book that started that whole thing if we're honest. If you look back you'll find he
was pretty disliked to start until a fringe small group started to like him.

Yes, actually its a push...

The problem is that you DONT SEPERATE it!!!!!!!

There are actually 2 groups:

1 is the group of Heroes like Flash,Superman,Batman,Wonder Woman etc. who are popular because they are the ones who have the biggest feats, biggest storylines etc.
2 there are the Underdogs who get popular and then get pushed...

So Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Batman get popular because they were pushed

Others like Wolverine, Harley etc. are Underdogs and got popular and get pushed because of this..

[Midnight_v]

Yes, actually its a push...

The problem is that you DONT SEPERATE it!!!!!!!

There are actually 2 groups:

1 is the group of Heroes like Flash,Superman,Batman,Wonder Woman etc. who are popular because they are the ones who have the biggest feats, biggest storylines etc.
2 there are the Underdogs who get popular and then get pushed...

So Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Batman get popular because they were pushed

Others like Wolverine, Harley etc. are Underdogs and got popular and get pushed because of this..

The problem is you're idea of a push isn't well defined.
You said: Good feats, good storylines, many appearance makes a character popular, so the push comes BEFORE becoming popular.

So that's what I was going off of.

I'm saying wolverine was initially disliked here's the deal:

We did characters in The [Incredible] Hulk all the time that were in [particular] issues and that was the end of them."[9]

A revival of X-Men followed, beginning with X-Men #94 (August 1975), drawn by Cockrum and written by Chris Claremont. In X-Men and Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine is initially overshadowed by the other characters, although he does create tension in the team as he is attracted to Cyclops' girlfriend, Jean Grey. As the series progressed, Claremont and Cockrum (who preferred Nightcrawler[14]) considered dropping Wolverine from the series;[14] Cockrum's successor, artist John Byrne, championed the character, later explaining, as a Canadian himself, he did not want to see a Canadian character dropped.

Not getting dropped isn't a push... not by my definition. but okay. Sure.

Wolverine became popular becaue of Uncanny X-men issue 208

Wolverine had been in the X-Men for about 30 issues at this point. It hadn’t been a terribly successful run for him, to the point that his destiny lied nearly in cut-from-the-team obscurity. Until this issue. He propelled to stardom because of this issue. The Hellfire Club, a shadowy group with the worst facial hair in comics, just took down the whole X-Men with gloating ease. Well, one man survived. One man’s willing to take on the entire bad guy team by himself.

So why I say okay is this...

It wasn't a editorially mandated push. It wasn't even INTENDED to make him the most popular character ever, it was to the writers just a cool moment for the guy, but they had NO IDEA it would get him the FAN response and editorial push that it gained him.

But if someone where to say that this idea of a "Push" where a writer says "Ah c'mon lets keep him we'll use him for whatever but its cool to have a guy from Tanzania for example on the team" is the same thing as let say Carol Danvers in which TPTB decide we need a new character fill x role for the company. Then I'm going to think that person is lying.

[Aahz]

Harley and Birds of Prey is doing gangbusters on the streaming markets and charts for those citing BOP box office as an indication of Harley not being bankable.

I think the low box office had less to do with Harley popularity and more with the movie and it's marketing.