Before I go on my second rant in two consecutive days now, I want to make one thing clear:
I love Batman.
I've always loved Batman since the day I could walk, and my childhood was mainly spent playing with figures, to wearing my makeshift cowl and watching Adam West fool around with his shark repellent bat spray. But after 16 and a half years of comics, cartoons, and unsurprisingly a lack of girls, one thing is becoming abundantly clear...
Batman is overused these days.
Batman: The Brave and the Bold, The Batman, Batman The Animated Series, the countless amount of animated movies made and in production, not to mention how many live action movies have been produced. You could almost guess that DC don't want to see any other heroes get a shot in the spotlight for a few minutes. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining, it's just there are hundreds of characters that could be used in tv shows, animated movies, but it always appears to be Batman. Why is this? Why can't The Flash have a cartoon to himself? Where's Aquaman's animated movie?
As a lifelong DC fan this saddens me. DC have always been ahead of the pack in terms of animation, with everything they make in this area being nothing short of epic, in my opinion anyway. It's just a pity that the majority of animated work they make is Batman. My guess on the matter is they're afraid. Afraid that if they try to do something different, they'll fail, just like they did with Wonder Woman. But this wouldn't be the case. Imagine a cartoon, not dark, but on the style of The Batman, about Barry Allen, and his adventures in Central City as The Flash. Give it a catchy theme tune and a different take on the villains he fights and you got yourself a winner right there. Imagine a 70 minute long animated movie on Aquaman, and his struggles being the king of Atlantis, a hero that no one takes seriously. Make it dark, like A New Frontier, put it in the same universe as Crisis on Two Earths or another animated film and once again, you've got a movie that could work.
I'm all for Batman, but for crying out loud, there are hundreds of characters with incredible backstory and years of content to work with that are practically crying out for a movie. Captain Marvel was once the most popular hero, but now is sidelined to a point where he no longer even has a comic.
Now, of course you're reading this saying to yourself,
"Has this guy not heard of Teen Titans, Green Lantern or Young Justice?!"
And yes, yes I have heard of those, and they are probably on my top 5 cartoons list (Yes I actually have a list for my favourite cartoons, every normal person should have one) and it actually backs up my point more. These are 2 shows where Batman is not a main character, or a character at all, and yet despite what Warner Bros or DC thinks, it actually manages to succeed without him present!
"Variety is the spice of life" - Some random person said before, so DC, Warner Brothers, and whoever else has a hand in this (I'm looking at you Bruce Timm) please, please, please, branch out from the dark, endless shadows of Gotham City to somewhere else.
And while your at it make a Justice League movie.
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