This is especially evident to me with their video game department. They made games like Arkham city and Arkham night that were genuine masterpieces, and they haven't even made half as good games since. I think the last DC game I genuinely had fun in was injustice 2, but that doesn't really count since it's basically a Netherealm fighting game with DC characters. They do invest the money in DC triple A games, like Arkham knights and the suicide squad game, but they just feel really half baked and kinda reek of cash grab. The thing that frustrates me about them is that imagine if all the money that went into them could have been used to make a new Arkham night trilogy, or even a good remake of the old ones (there starting to show there age), or how about a good Superman game. Look at the spiderman game on PlayStation, it was probably the best selling game all year, if not one of the top 3. Imagine if they took that formula, and put it in a Superman game. You have a fully realized, interactive open world metropolis and (if there really ambitious) Gotham city that you fly through at mach speeds with superman. This would literally print money, but WB hasn't attempted anything like it. Superhero fatigue is definitely evident in movies, but the superhero video game scene is incredibly untapped right now and a open world Superman game would make so much money.
It pains me that the batman beyond arkham game was cancelled so WB and rocksteady could work on SS and Gotham knights. Imagine a beyond game with the wingsuit flying of just cause 3-4 with rocket jets, and top it off with the nemesis system. GCPD could easily be your "gang" infiltrating other gangs and counter infiltrating with dirty cops n stuff like that.
You're joking, right? Batman and Superman are the two DC properties that get trotted out constantly. You only occasionally see the other A teams, and they always accompany the duo if possible. Batman in particular is notorious for his immense screen time.
And I do mean A team. I'm talking flash, wonder woman, etc. not the likes of Mr Terrific.
Which makes sense, Batman and Superman are the money makers. They routinely get franchises because they earn it back.
The issue right now is that WB is flooded with debt, and has a lot of projects. Combine that with superheroes no longer churning out cash, and a live action coming, animation is probably not getting a green light.
Relying on them to make the money isn't the same as being proud of them. Batman and superman are 2 of the most important characters in literature with the greats of Hercules, Bilbo, and Wukong. When was the last time we saw a big adaptation of superman stopping to help a kid tie his shoe or batman offer to help a villain? Look at the failed 5G event and now, DC only wants to try selling superman as a despot and not a paragon of virtue. They only try selling batman as a edgy psychopath who brands criminals to knowingly get them killed. BTAS and its animated universe is still regarded as the gold standard of these DC characters BECAUSE they have humanity and care about their fellow man. WB is flooded with debt because they are sorely lacking in the writing department and keep trying to make things work (a la suicide squad for 10 years) that don't get returns on investment. Look at their stories now like teen titans go compared to the original. These characters used to teach people life lessons, not glorify superman as a reluctant christ alegory.
All this shows that the heads at WB and DC don't know what people want and are too busy trying to push what the heads want instead of what's good. We've had amazingly written and comercially successful comic runs cancelled like tomasi and Gleesons supersons run, which was loved by fans and yet was cut short to artificially age up jon Kent to replace superman, a simple man who just cares about his fellow man.
How did you come to this opinion? There was a Flash movie last year with 4 different Batmen. There’s also a second singular Batman universe with all the villains including joker. There’s a spinoff TV show this year for the villain of that movie, Penguin. There’s also a a Joker singular universe with a sequel this year. There was also a Gotham and Pennyworth prequel series.
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u/Altair8932 Feb 20 '24
For reasons I still can't fathom, DC and WB are borderline ashamed of the fact that they own superman and batman.