Sometimes we got cool speeches and heroic acts that some heroes do, but when writers write that for us, do they really belive in them? Do they belive in what must be done?
Some people might say yes, but when they write and say such inconsistent things, like should Batman kill the joker? (this has been disscussed to death but is important here) and they make Batman say such dumb stuff meant to be inspiring but ends being nonsense, so, do they believe in that crap? Or when Batman saves the Joker, OH DAMN thats even worse, in Nolan's Trilogy, Batman didn't saved Ras Al Ghul, but let the Joker live (he also kinda killed Harvey Dent), in that universe the Joker has not power over the plot (unlike his comic counterpart) he went to jail and never came back again (and the actor that portay him is dead). Why do they do that?!! I also remember once that Batman saved the Joker from going to hell! Why? Etrigan was about to throw the Joker to HELL, and Batman was all like "I won't stand here and see a man being thrown to the hell", he is not two faces, or a normal thug, is the Joker!!
Usually I tend to write lots of stuff in my threads and blogs, but now that is all, I got nothing else to say.
I mean why? When people talk about Batman, everybody is like "Oh yes, Batman so awesome, so cool", when people talk about the Joker everybody is like "Oh boy he is a great character, so awesome, there is nothing as great as him", but when people talk about Aquaman everybody is like "So, he talk to fish, he is good only to make a ceviche", or the Captain America "Oh he is wering a flag, he is so lame, he did nothing important in the Avengers". I am asking this because all the character I mentioned are fantasy, are fake, so no real, so none of their feats and skills are real, so what makes x-character more respected than the others.
Batman was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger in 1939, and is one of the most recognized and popular comicbook characters around the world.
One think could be how media pictures the character, Batman keeps having more and more movies, also cartoons, people picture him as a greater power, despite the fact that he is a rich boy in a Bat-suit, I mean yeah he has done great feats over time, but aren't those feats fed by the imagination of someone else, that at the same time is fed by something that he heard or liked that someone else did with that character, and they try to make it "better", while other characters get overshadow by the popularity and portrays of the character, then he becomes a legend "when I grow up, I want to be Batman". But hey, isn't Aquaman more powerful than Batman? "But Batman doesn't have superpowers so he is way cooler" well, neither has the Shadow, The Phantom, the Green Hornet, all created before Batman, but what keeps him up? well his portrays, he keeps getting portrays and the other are forgotten.
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The Phantom (created in1936)
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The Shadow (created in 1930)
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The Green Hornet (created in 1936)
So lets go back to Aquaman, when I think about him the first thing that pops into my mind is the comicbook version, and then? well, the Superfriends, and then? that Robot Chicken DC parody, and then? That Big Bang Theory in which they wear costumes and some guy dresses like Aquaman (I don't watch the Big Bang Theory, but someone showed me the clip), and he is annoyed because Aquaman is so uncool. Even when Aquaman already had some badass portrays (like in the Justice League Animated Series, Batman: Brave and Bolt and Young Justice) media keeps reminding to the people that "Aquaman is not cool", so people don't take Aquaman seriously.
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Even when recent animated versions of Aquaman portray the character in a badass way...
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...people stick with this? Maybe because the ones that wached this cartoon are the ones that got enough power to make series to laugh at him.
But Outside that, why peple think that the Cap is uncool? or Superman? why people keep saying they are so lame? maybe because there are not much to look at, outside the Avengers there just one Captain America movie that came recently enough to stcik in people's memory (Well, "Captain America: the Winter Soldier" is coming soon, so that will probably change, but I don't see the future, so lets focus in the present). Or maybe the main reason some characters are not "respected" is because this is our fault as comicbook fans, we don't show to people what is the meaning of that character, what is a good portray that people should know about the character? Maybe its our job to tell the people why we like comicbooks.
One of the things that I have always find annoying in comicbooks is how is this influenced by media instead of being its own thing.
A good example about this phenomenon is Superman, when he was created he had a good powerset, limited, with basic stuff, open to a lot of possibilities, he wasn't invincible, his powers basically consisted in Superstength (More powerfulthan a locomotive), Superspeed (Faster than a speeding bullet), Super Leapt (able to leap tall buildings in a single bound) and a certain level of Invulnerability, so, what happened? Superman became popular enough that the character had his own Radio show, there elements like the Super sight, Super breath among other Superpowers made their own appearence, also the Kryptonite, Perry White and Jimmy Olsen made their first appearence in the radio. Also, some consider "flight" as one of Superman's most known powers (he even says Up, Up and Away), but, Do you know where does he got that power? it was from other media, being more specific, Superman's TV Show, it was too difficult for the animators to make him leap, to they add the flight in Superman's powers.
And that is how Silver Age Superman was created.
However, I don't perceive all these influences as something negative, they try to make this character easy to digest for the people. One of the influences that I have loved the most was in Mr. Freeze character from "Batman: The Animated Series" as kid, I loved the character (I even own a Action figure of the character and even now I still loving his episodes) that was perfect, but in a long time they were unable to use the character in the right way.
And we can make a list with all the recent elements that came from other media to comicbooks...
Do they really needed to make an afroamerican Nick Fury in the Universe 616.
... But regardless of whether that influence is positive or negative the comics would never grow and became recognized by being influenced by the other media.
They would always be on the shadow of the other that made them popular, I hate that, even now that Disney has the rights over Marvel Comics, they don't even try to make these comics popular, surely, they make cartoons, movies and other crap about the characters, but they don't make popular the comicbooks as comicbooks, I am happy with Warner because they surely have done stuff to make their comics popular by being comics.
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