Are Batfans the Most Greedy Fanbase of all time?

[The Darknight Detective]

The cruelest thing they did was make a bunch of great stories and great characters.

The CRUELEST thing?

I really hope you just misphrased what you meant because there's absolutely no way even you believe that. I'm sure you can name a dozen crueler things DC has done besides...making Nightwing and the New Teen Titans and a bunch of other new characters.

Well, maybe not the cruelest I'll allow, but still cruel.

[Dred]

Well, maybe not the cruelest I'll allow, but still cruel.

There's no like intentional cruelty here. The goal and idea is for characters in a shared universe to grow and evolve. For character development to be real instead of fleeting. When the intention is to make good stories based on the characters...and these characters become more and more defined by their history and the stories that already exist, aging them is something that can't be avoided. If your only goal is to infinitely sell JUST Batman comics then you basically have to tell your writers not to make good stories or good ideas that used the shared, continuous universe. That's actually legitimately cruel, outright squashing good writing for the benefit of regurgitated Batman.

Can't wait for the sliding timescale to bring us to Zoomer Batman. I'd love to see how realistic Bruce needs to be in a world that hates how evil all billionaires are.

[Restingvoice]

Why is this thread still alive when the discussion isn't even about the DCBU (DC Batman Universe) anymore? Can't we move to the Batman thread if we're gonna talk about the realism and character development of Batman instead?

[Alpha]

It isn't a matter of being able to do it or not (of course they can), but DC won't. Does anybody think I'm wrong, about this, BTW?

Who the hell knows. In 2011 I didn't think we would get a mini series about a Superman with grey temples running with the elite, while his 18 years old son took over as Superman (not that I'm happy about this particular rushed and bastardized development). Nobody can predict what will happen in the next 10 years, not even the people working at DC.

The Dark Knight Returns is one of the most famous stories and we already had a Batman clearly in his 40s working with the Justice League in Live Action, and being totally in his prime physically (emotionally is another matter all together that goes beyond age). In Flashpoint we are gonna get another iteration of an older Batman or maybe even 2 if Batfleck comes back.

The Arkham games seemed to also present a Batman reaching his 40s, even if he wasn't there already (and you know that those games influenced the current generation a lot). Now we're gonna get a game where he is apparently dead and the new generation takes over. I think the idea of an older Batman keeps getting more and more support as time goes on. It all started with Frank Miller and Batman Beyond, and now it keeps progressing in so many other directions.

To be clear though, I don't think Batman will actually have grey hair and retire permmanently, I just think he will be acknowledge as being 40 in the next 15 years, and that it will be the next status quo for the future generation.

[The Darknight Detective]

To be clear though, I don't think Batman will actually have grey hair and retire permmanently, I just think he will be acknowledge as being 40 in the next 15 years, and that it will be the next status quo for the future generation.

Okay, but if you had to bet money...

[Alpha]

I'm from Europe. Are we betting dollars or are we betting euros?

[The Darknight Detective]

I'm from Europe. Are we betting dollars or are we betting euros?

Heh. Good one, Alpha.

[MajorHoy]

I'm from Europe. Are we betting dollars or are we betting euros?

Then there's always cryptocurrency as another option.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

I think this is why i read less DC. Other fanbases don't matter to them. They only promote Bat stuff and everyone else gets crumbs. And then fans try to use the lazy argument "he sells" That's easy for you to say when your fave has a billion books on the shelves. DC should just sell their other characters since their content is nothing but Batman and his universe. There's literally no shame in that. These characters will never have a fighting chance.

Lol. Thank you for at least trying to bring the discussion back to the intended topic.

As for the actual content of your post, yeah...I can't help but agree. I was actually talking with a friend of mine the other day about a different, but somewhat related topic, and he said "see, this is why Marvel is better than DC. Because they don't have to rehash the same characters over and over again." Of course, we weren't talking about the comics, but I couldn't help but think that that could be applied to the comics as well. My response to his point, though, was that DC doesn't HAVE to rehash the same characters over and over again, even if they choose to.

Yeah, one could argue that Marvel might not make much profit from publishing titles focusing on characters like Shang-Chi or Reptil or Beta Ray Bill or Black Knight, BUT what they do get from it is the cultivation of the perception that they have a broad array of characters and that they don't rely on just a select few. DC also has the breadth of characters to do this. They literally have thousands of characters in their catalogue. They just have chosen rely almost solely on the Batman franchise, for better or worse.

[Aahz]

And then fans try to use the lazy argument "he sells" That's easy for you to say when your fave has a billion books on the shelves.

But the (sad) truth is that all these books sell indiviually better than the books of the other characters.

If you look at comichron "Detective Comics" (the Batmans secondary book) is currently outselling "Justice League", and even "Batman Black and White" is still out selling "Superman".

[Jabare]

well, Batman is the hero or true protagonist of DC comics a.k.a Detective Comics.

The other characters either fall into the "true" companion, companion, sidekick, villain, authority figure, or rival categories. Sometimes even moving between the groups. Then of course there are the supporting/side characters

[skyvolt2000]

But the (sad) truth is that all these books sell indiviually better than the books of the other characters.

If you look at comichron "Detective Comics" (the Batmans secondary book) is currently outselling "Justice League", and even "Batman Black and White" is still out selling "Superman".

Well that still falls under having a ton of books on the shelves that leads to many of them in bins, grab bags and so on.

So someone who didn't care for Batman but got a hold of those bins and grab bags gets interested in Batman because he got a bunch of those books cheap.

He goes to the comic book store and had a buffet of Batman books. Something he would NOT have if those grab bags had say Ms Marvel or Squirrel Girl.

He would have to settle for trades with those two and not monthly stories with Batman.

Same with X-Men, Peter Parker (soon Miles), Superman and Deadpool.

Batman 423 was my first Batman book. Guess where I got it from? 3 comic pack for $1.99. Tim Drake dressed as Robin for the first time was the first Batman book I paid cover price for.

[Robanker]

My Bruce and Clark are forever 38. Juuust old enough to have brat preteen sons and still be doing what they do in their prime and not greying much. Kind of that sweet spot. Maybe I'll change my mind as I approach 38.

This is not true at all
Batman is a regular human and any time he shows less than top tier physical anything in a comic people make the joke that he is past his prime and getting old.
Bruce is a human being at the end of the day doing a profession that is drastically more taxing than any sport or career every single night.
He should be young simply because DC needs to be invested in him doing what he does forever with no complications
They should not be invested in trying to fit in 15 people in the batman family by expanding his age past the point of believability

I mean clearly Bruce aging is an issue for some writers, Snyder had his clone story, and post crisis Bruce fell into lazurus pits more than once

Maybe DC would avoid all of this by just hard setting his age between 25-35
beginning of career to prime forever

Yeah man, everyone gets up after having their back snapped in half. Happened to me three months ago and I'm already back to Olympian condition, juggling trust funds and evading being a father to my kid.

Bruce has always been just a hair under superhuman. The whole "just a man" thing stops holding water after a few years worth of stories under your belt. He's been stabbed, shot, broken and bruised so often but his body always heals correctly and his face is perfect. Your body doesn't heal exactly to factory default settings, but Bruce's does. He's not "just a man" under any stretch. Just about the only time he isn't strong enough to break metal doors off their hinges with no real difficulty is when a writer wants to show off a more toyetic Batman so he uses a gadget. It's been a long time since he met an immovable object and had to just go around it.

Do better.

[Jabare]

DC will never do it but I wouldn't mind reading a story about how Batman is secretly juicing and that explains how a man in his 40s is still going so strong.

[The Darknight Detective]

DC will never do it but I wouldn't mind reading a story about how Batman is secretly juicing and that explains how a man in his 40s is still going so strong.

Yeah, the odds of actually moving Bruce into his forties for the very first time are far greater than that actually happening (and the odds of the former happening are not that great to begin with).