Overexpose: Why The Batman Franchise Works

A lot of people say Batman is overused or why doesn't DC use it's other main stay characters? I thought I could shed a little light on the subject. Now this isn't an attack on any characters, it's just why Batman works as a franchise.

Batman has been around since 1939 and been in a variety of mediums over the decades. Despite his long years in the media, the general audience doesn't seem like they're getting tired of the many rehashes of this character's stories. Surely there are characters much better and more powerful, but why is it that this one man a non power super hero stays in the light while others struggle to get off the ground?

Well it's simple really, as a writer you have to sell the story to the masses and with a guy like Batman, half the work is already done. What I mean by that is you never find yourself saying that shouldn't work on Batman. You are more likely to say he shouldn't have/how did he survive. Characters like the Flash or Superman their power sets make it harder (not impossible) for the writer to write how or why this character got knocked out,hit,or captured. People love a vulnerable hero.I am fully aware of the crazy prep time thing Bats is known for but to the general audience it's not shown as much or used as often.

Another aspect of the Batman franchise is Batman is a character of many faces. He is a ninja, race car driver, pilot, spy, detective, mix martial artist, rich guy, pretty much things that people love. I mean if you love cars, race car driving, or planes, he has batmobiles and batwings/jets. His alter ego is a rich man something almost everyone want to be. I know to some this makes him unrelatable, but in the end Bats was never really meant to be relatable he was meant to be Bob Kane's dream life sans dead parents.

Batman's supporting cast and villains are top notch. Every good hero has an excellent rogue gallery. As the old saying goes, a hero is judged by his villains. Batman has one of the greatest rouges gallery in comic books few other heroes have an interesting rogue gallery as Bats. Joker has some of the most memorable stories like Killing Joke and Death in the Family. Robins may come and go but the stable rock in his supporting cast are Jim Gordon and Alfred Pennyworth. People love it when he's talking to Jim and he turns his back still talking to Batman and when he finally turns around Batman is nowhere to be found. When Alfred makes witty retorts towards Batman about his life or the father son relationship those to have people tend to love that kind of stuff.

What all this ultimately means is that Batman is a commodity that the general audience crave for and to a business it simply comes down to supply and demanded.We like to think that these companies loves us the fans when in truth they already know they have our money.No matter what project these companies put out we're ready to buy it.In closing what I am getting at is so long as the masses love Batman and keep buying his products he's here to stay. Whether we like it or not he's here to stay. Supply and demanded got to love it.