Look, I'll be frank in saying Batman is my most favorite DC hero but even I hate how he is a stand alone fortune for DC and franchise wise the Top Tier Defacto Cash Cow instead of the so called DC Universe. Over even Superman and Wonder Woman, he is always gonna be pivitol more than they are, even in crossovers. It just bugs me how much of the stuff Batman sells to make DC money means his universe is quessential all star premire and everyone else is guest stars or side characters from there own universes. Superman is like a CO Star when he should be the main star of dc universe promotions, not bats. Batman also gets the most character development and fixes the most of the emotional problems in the various crossovers he is in. Movies, Games, Animated Series etc. Some of Batmans influence rubs off on characters to even when he is not present, I notice a lot of Batman style violence and edginess in Superman, Aquaman and even light hearted people like the teen titans. So yeah.

Batman has become the standard which DC is defined as, he literally turned everything into a exaggerated interation of Gotham and everyone into his own robin per say while he is the commander of the dc heroes.

Because he is the character people like the most. What other character has had two movies in a row that made a billion dollars each? Or the best superhero show ever (batman the animated series)? Or the best superhero game ever that is critically acclaimed and has a new game coming out this year (arkham series)? Some of that was opinion but they are very popular opinions that most people agree with.

Batman is at the top and makes the most money because he is the most relateable hero, a badass, and cool as hell and people like him the most which is just a testament to how great batman is. And like you said he has even influenced other characters. "The dark knight returns" introduced dark and grittier comics to people and that them has spread.

Also there are a bunch of threads just like this

This thread is full of ---- The absolute tone of it is annoying.

You have a legit complaint OP but I've heard people complain about this so much I feel numb to it. But it's all about money of course Batman is going to get the best treatment he's the most popular DC character. You said Superman "should" be the main star and I disagree. No one should just be the main star imo whoever is the most popular should be the main star. Although Superman being the first ever superhero and most iconic you can make a case for him but still. Hell if Aquaman one day became their biggest seller than I think they should make him the main star.

@jayc1324: you stated multiple opinions as facts.

Batman is a franchise. possibly the biggest franchise of US. He has had 6 hit live action movies(even Batman and Robin was profitable and sold a lot of Merch) with BvS coming in 2016 which surely will make a billion at least. He was one of the main characters of The Lego Movie so he starred in 7 successful movies so far. He also starred in 6 successful games( 3 Arkham, 2 Lego, 1 Injustice) with another one on the way. He has had multiple animated series and multiple animated movies. He's TV series is a Classic and still making money despite being 50 years old. He's comics are the highest selling books. In WB's eyes Batman is a bigger franchise than DC itself so far, its a standalone franchise like Star Wars, HP, LotR franchises. Surely they'll start using more DC characters because of Marvel's success but Batman and Superman will always be more valuable to them and they'll mostly see these two as separate franchise from DC.

He's actually 75 years old. And I agree with everything else.

@lyrafay: Not him, the show.

Whine thread after whine thread. Kids these days.

@rustyroy: Oops you're right. My brain didn't compute that!!

@redleader1: And I acknowledged that in my post. These opinions are very popular and most agree with them, including critics.

@jayc1324: yet they are still opinions just because people say batman TAS is the best show does not make it the best and the arkham series does not have much competition also who are you to say which game in the franchise is best just because critics (mostly non comic fans looking for stuff in the games that they like from outside if comic material) say its best does not make it best. Just because its popular does not make it better. Also he was right that they do make other characters feel unimportant in the mind of most people. They are not doing a good job at letting other characters be given the right marketing and treatment in events so then no new readers come in. It's a bad strategy.

@redleader1: If critics and video game fans and comic fans say its the best then it most likely is. Its a popular opinion. Youre right popular doesn't make it better. But those are popular as well as good and most people agree.

And how is promoting batman a bad strategy? DC is a business which means their decisions are based off of what makes the most money. If Batman makes the most money then how is promoting him a bad strategy. Answer-its not.

@jayc1324: I did not say to stop promoting batman I said to let other characters shine not every new reader will read batman and if you only market one character then other books lose readers and get cancels therefore they lose readers and money. Not everyone is a batman fan and in events people will stop reading if they continue make batman forced in to being vital or at least important. You need to have other books doing well and stop making long time readers of said other books sick to death of crossovers and dc. It's not a batman only company.

I don't know what people are talking about, Batman hasn't been pivotal since the New 52 has started. Batman has done nothing competently in the Justice League and don't even get me started in Forever Evil. Sure he is involved in major events, but never in any way that significantly matters, or heightens his character. In the entirety of Forever Evil his most impressive feat was punching Bizarro in the face once with a K-ring.

He's the flagship character because me makes the most money.

@redleader1: One thing I do agree with is that dc needs to stop canceling their books. Marvel is ALWAYS giving their characters new series (magneto wolverine spiderman she hulk deadpool hawkeye are just a few) and all you see dc doing is canceling theirs.

Because he is cool.

@jayc1324: exactly it's not a problem with batman but that they spend not enough time on other characters that need that time and marketing to actually sell. One day there will be like one gl book and 3 batman books and that's it if they keep this up. And they wonder why their losing fans.

@jayc1324: DC cancels books that don't sell. Marvel merely reboots their books ever 20 issues or so and calls them new. How can you make such a false comparison with any integrity whatsoever?

@iaconpoint: Well for one, not all of the books dc has canceled weren't selling well. That's just false. Dc cancels six or seven books at a time, and fails to replace them for an extremely long amount of time if they even replace them at all. Its supposed to be the new 52. I'm not sure but I don't think there are fifty two titles out there. Whereas as a lot more marvel characters have their own books. Rebooted or not, the character still has a book.

I thought the OP was going to make a better point.

If the OP said how Batman is the main highlight of DC, yet all he does is skulk around Gotham City while Superman is a global savior, that would've been a good point.

Superman should be the number 1 DC character. We should all be pining for his comics and we should know about his rogues gallery more than Batmans. Yet, they made Superman invincible save for Kryptonite. It really limits what you can do to fight Superman.

Really, when I think about it, Batman should really be in the middle when it comes to importance. Superman and Wonderman should be the most relevant. Green Lantern should be the next since the Lantern corps protect the universe. Then Aquaman since the earth is covered by 75% water. Batman in comparison is just looking after Gotham City. It's just a fluke that he is the most popular since he had some of the best writers working on him (Chuck Dixon, Jeph Loeb, Alan Grant e.t.c).

Well thats not true. In Forever Evil he's constantly put in his place by the other villains and Luther gets to one up on him in intellect. For too long Bat writers have been abusing the Batgod trope to write him well now thanks to John he can finally tell off the bat writers and the bat fans to shove. Batman is not the be all end all. *&^% fact.

It's Luthor not Luther...

So Batman being "put in his place" and made to look dumb is good but BatGod is bad? Yeah you're definitely a butthurt Batman hater.

Why is Batman in all encompassing character:

• He's a chameleon, he can be changed by whatever creative team to fit that time period/decade etc (Nolan using Batman to echo the Bush administration policies, Frank Miller using Batman to comment on the 80s and Regan etc...)
• The best writers/artists in the comic book industry generally find their way to Batman (Adams/O'Neil, Jim Lee, Jeph Loeb etc.)
• He can be adapted easily into varying different forms of media (Movies, TV, Video Games, Animation.)
• His villains are just as recognisable as him (Which for a comic book character is a good thing.)
• He's relevant now as he was 75 years ago.
• Everybody knows his origins
• He's BATMAN and is a pop culture icon that people dress up, mock and admire.
• He always brings in money to DC/WB even when he doesn't have a movie out.

Thanks for the spell check.

Well everyone in DC and Marvel needs to be humiliated or made moronic to prop up another character. Everyone in the past League stories have been smacked or made moronic to make Batman look good or vice versa. Its only fair. Plus I like Batman just not the Batgod writers and fans love overusing. My favorites for example The Thing and Thor have had their humiliations seems only fair Batman and other fans favorite heroes get the old stupidity ray and stupidity in events.

Please name those JL stories,I doubt you could, even Tower of Babel doesn't fit that description Frank Miller does but no one takes his work seriously apart from TDKR. Most likely these stories are a figment of your imagination.No Batman writer ever humiliated a JL character as consistently as Johns humiliates Batman,he's doing it for almost 3 years now.Johns doesn't even come across as a professional these days,he's a guy writing his own fan fics,case in point Forever Evil.

No one cares about Johns apart from us comic fans,and even then a good deal of us know about his Bat bias.

I am a huge Batman fan too, but it does kinda bug me how much DC promotes him above others. Seeing so much Batman gets kinda boring. Actually made me get more into Nightwing and The Flash. However Batman is the most popular superhero out there so I don't see why they shouldn't make him their star. Anyway it seems like recently they are trying to boost Superman's popularity with a live action movie, animated movie, making him the star of Injustice, giving him comics written by star writers like Scott Snyder, Geoff Johns, and Greg Pak. The Green Lantern series has also grown a lot along with Aquaman recently. I do think DC should focus on Wonder Woman a bit more. WW is not one of my favorites, but if DC is wanting to continue promoting Wonder Woman as one of their main three heroes Wonder Woman should be promoted more.

@crazyscarecrow:

Agreed. She needs to fill another niche in the DC world. Superman does all the generic grand scale superheroey-ness. Batman does more detectivey noir-style superheroy-ness. Flash is a bit more zaney and comical (which I would imagine is similar to perhaps Spidermans comics). Green Lantern gets involved with galactic fights.

Aquaman and Wonderwoman both need something that's a contrast to the above four mentioned. I suppose Martian Manhunter too. I've never been compelled to look at aquaman comics because I can only ever imagine it being like The Little Mermaid except from the viewpoint of king trident.

The reason Batman is the most popular is because his stories are intelligent and his rogues gallery is fantastic. I can barely think of any Superman villains other than Lex Luthor, Bizzaro and a couple of others I only recognise by sight.

Dont get me wrong,but Marvel cancel more titles..if you noticed. Soon much of theses titles will be cancelled as Avengers A.I,Morbius: Living Vampire,Gambit...need to keep mentioning? They're canceleld since the beginning of Marvel Now

Giving new series doesn't mean people will read (Look to Stormwatch,I Vampire...),DC give a plenty of new series and people don't buy it or rarely buy it....make new series by just making is useless.

@matchesmalone21: I see what you mean. But it seems like more of marvels characters have their own series, even the ones that aren't as popular. Even doop (if you knknowiw who that is) is getting a new series. Also I think it was silly of DC to try and limit themselves to just 52 series, especially sincesince I don't even think there are 52 anymore and half of them are related to batman or superman. I'm fine with those two dominating DC comics but other heroes need books too