Are DC & Marvel Losing Sight of Their Market?

As a superhero nerd, I’ve read comics and watched related cartoons since I was fairly young. I recall even in early grade school being excited to drench my eyes in Saturday morning favorites such as Spider-man and his Amazing Friends and Super Friends. I also gobbled up whatever live-action shows could manage to get airtime such as The Flash and The New Adventures of Lois and Clark as well as the various Incredible Hulk TV movies that were produced. But for a lot time the quantity and quality were limited and lacking. So when in the past decade this genre made the leap from niche market to mass market, I felt like I was a kid again and they just opened a candy store next door to my house.

Since the first Sam Raimi Spider-man movie, I have been a regular cinema seat-filler for such flicks. And as soon as my kids were old enough to start sharing in these experiences, they were right there with me. But even with the mainstreaming of superhero movies and the greater breadth and access to related cartoons (not to mention much better written cartoons at that), I still find that there may be some things missing from the formula. And I think one of those things is audience continuity.

Let me explain. While there are now a steady stream of live-action blockbuster movies featuring these comic book characters with scripts that are steadily getting better writers and casts full of talented and noteworthy actors, and while there are a handful of decent cartoons on the air that are as enjoyable for parents as they are for kids, there is a gap that is not being well-bridged.

My son for instance, is six and even before having any significant exposure to comic book superheroes and their ilk he drew an affinity toward Batman – mostly due to exposure from the like of the LEGO Batman games. But from the age of 2 when he first expressed his love for Batman to now, that was his only exposure. There was some limited exposure via Young Justice on the DC Nation, and now there is the Beware the Batman cartoon, but while I love the Christopher Nolan treatments of Batman on the big screen (at least the first two films) I wouldn’t even think for a second of showing them to my children. My wife barely made it through Dark Knight unshaken. I’ve gradually exposed both of my kids to the various Marvel movies from Iron Man forward, but not without having to occasionally skip scenes or deal with questions or bedtime issues.

My daughter, being nine, has graduated to the point of interest in reading comics. But as such, there are limited titles available for her to read – not so much due to reading level (she is a pretty advanced reader) but due to appropriate content. Most of the issues she owns so far are Tiny Titans and not much else. And given that a lot of the higher-end comic titles tend to tread into questionable costume territory, I’m kind of glad that quenches her thirst so far. She also greatly enjoys both the cartoons and the movies, but when I got X-men First Class recently as a gift, I thought long and hard about whether I should let her watch it only to nix the idea until she is older. And I’ve found myself having the same hesitation about the various PG-13 cartoon movies from both Marvel & DC that seem to trickle out and show up in my recommended titles in Netflix.

What I’m getting at is this: while there is increasingly a decent degree of content on TV for young fans and most of the big screen releases are somewhat family-friendly, there is a content gap that could help bridge young consumers into teen and adult consumers. While Marvel has been doing a decent job keeping sight of the youth audience with their films as well as making their cartoons entertaining and appropriate for all ages, DC as well as the other studios producing Marvel properties seem to more often be targeting the adult and young adult audiences only. In both short and long-form video as well as print, there are lacking titles and options to help carry younger audiences through to become the target demographic the studios/publishers are currently catering to.

As an enthusiastic parent, I will continue to make efforts to pepper exposure upon my kids as seems fitting. And I’d like to think that my efforts so far have likely made them lifelong fans. But here is an observation in closing – I recall watching those hokey cartoons of the early 80s and talking about them with my classmates who all watched them as well. But over the years, the circle of people who held to the genre shrunk. I had a much smaller set of friends who watched Tim Burton’s Batman and an even smaller circle who read comics in high school or college. I am lucky that I have found a common connection to people based on the current renaissance, but few of them are parents. So if this medium is to be mainstream eternal flame rather than a flash in the pan, the players involved need to think more about retention and realize that their potential audience isn’t me or even my kids – it is everyone. And I believe it can be within their reach if properly tapped.