"I suppose my basic feelings about the comic industry as it stands are that I just hope its final death rattle isn't too humiliating or too desperate, because it's deserved. If the industry is incapable of coming up with new ideas and a future that it can evolve into, then it really doesn't deserve to survive."

6. Adding Batman To A Universe Full Of Demi-Gods Proved To Be A Bad Idea

In any era you would be hard pressed to find more than a few people that don't have a dogmatic affinity for one Caped Crusader. Technically I am one of the masses, a geek/nerd who loves Batman, but in recent years I've grown to be dissatisfied with contemporary comics and the Big 2's treatment of their fans. As a long time comic book reader and fan, I take issue with the way in which typical comic book fans regard that which they claim to love. The influence of the fans on the events and overall landscape of comics is more akin to an eternally dissatisfied backseat driver that refuses to simply relax and enjoy the trip. It would be easy simply place all the blame on either the creators or the fans, but that would deny the symbiotic relationship that exists between the two. No, like a parent that refused to discipline their child that grew up to be an asshat, both sides share in the blame. So, how did it come to this? How did the comic book industry come to suffer mightily under the weight of arguably its greatest character? Well-Alan MooreIts important to remember that the practice of producing character centric comic books wasnt solidified until the early 1960s. For the twenty plus years prior, most comic books were magazines that featured several short stories, not unlike an anthology. This is important because it makes a clear distinction between a publishing company and the comic book company that would follow. DC as it would eventually be known, based entirely on the success of its flagship magazine Detective Comics (get it?) started out as publisher that specialized in selling comics, there was no emphasis on any particular genre, as long as it was still images and word bubbles. What stories made it into publication was dependant on the whim of the writers. There were several characters during this time that came and went, never to be heard from again. In order to make it into Detective Comics, the story had to fit into a crime and punishment motif, enter Batman the worlds greatest detective, a dramatic take on both Sherlock Holmes and Zorro with a bit of a nod to the Phantom. Batman was a huge success, and as such received special attention from the editorial staff that decided first and foremost that if they were going to continue to capitalize on the character then he would have to lose the gun and stop killing people (yeah, Batman had no issue with guns whatsoever, remember that the next time you complain about writers not being true to the character, that crap went out the window immediately). The counterpart of DCs early success was of course Superman, who like Batman existed in a fictional city and fought crime. There was also Aquaman, Hourman, Wonder Woman, The Green Lantern, Flash and others. The rise of these characters instituted the demand by the fans that would prove to be arguably comics eventual undoing. DC decided to increase sales by having a small group of their characters know each other and feature a story where the characters would meet up and tell each other about their adventures. The Justice Society of America featured a small roster of DCs superheroes, but oddly enough didnt feature either Superman or Batman; the later was considered an honorary member and rarely appeared in the stories. The early issues of JSA followed the same anthology format, except each story was set up by the characters all gathered around to tell their story. There were no teamups yet, just singular stories narrated by the heroes themselves not unlike reading Plato. After a time the heroes actually fought crime as a unit. Yet, Batman and Superman were absent from these adventures still. When DC finally addressed this issue, they sowed the seeds for mistakes to come. You see, adding a mortal crime fighter into a world that is full of godlike super-humans had to be handled with care, and the lack of care in including such a character into this world showed a tremendous lack of foresight. Simply because it would require future writers to continually justify the fact that Batman belongs as a man amongst gods. Which would have been fine, if you recognized Bruce Waynes mortality while respecting Batman as a symbol larger than any one man, we now know that this didnt happen.