>>2006509
>unnatural obsession
Where do you think we are? We're only here because we have unnatural obsessions with various video games. This is just one of many other unnatural obsessions I have. And those are the ones that lead to the best conversations. It's like when /v/ discusses porn and suddenly everyone becomes extremely literate and articulate.
>>2006576
That happened for the original Batman back in 1979, in Adventure Comics #462. The current Batman is technically the second one. The one who died in 1979 is the one who starred in the earliest comics up until the mid-'50s, and the current one is the one who has starred in all the comics since then, who has a very similar history to the original one, but with some differences. This was done to account for how Batman could have been on both the Justice Society and the Justice League even though they're in different universes. There must be different Batmans, and the series must have changed which one it was focusing on at some point before the first time he teamed up with Superman (there's a story about this in the '50s), because he was already said to have teamed up with Superman in the Justice Society in the '40s (even though they only say it happened, but never actually do a story with them together). So for all intents and purposes, pretty much all the old comics are canon to this day, so the main Batman's universe is called Earth-One, but if you want to be technical, the original Batman from the original comics is a different guy from Earth-Two, and his life is a bit different, like he was on the Justice Society instead of the Justice League. And once they decided this, they figured they could set the point when the stories started being about Earth-One at a point that would make their lives more different. So there are periods in old comics when Catwoman and Two-Face were reformed, for example, but later they relapsed. Well the relapse was an Earth-One story only, so Earth-Two Batman is friends with Harvey Dent and married Selena Kyle.
By the time they decided to say Earth-Two Batman was a separate character, it was like 20 years after the last story that was officially about him, and they were after showing the Earth-Two characters aging in real time during the period when there were no stories about them, so it was now the '70s and Bruce Wayne was older, and his life went in a different direction than the other one. He got married to Catwoman and they had a daughter, Helena Wayne. He retired from being Batman and become police commissioner. Robin grew up but never changed his name to Nightwing or Batman, he was just grown up Robin. Catwoman got blackmailed into one last heist and got killed. Helena, motivated by the death, became Robin's sidekick, Huntress. Then Bruce got roped into one last case and killed, and a few years later both Robin and Huntress died fighting the Anti-Monitor. There are later characters called Huntress, from other universes (and a later character called Helena Wayne), but they're different characters. Also I think this version of Batman did appear as a ghost once or twice, but I don't think that means his story didn't end in 1979.
So my point is you could read all the adventures of the original Batman. Those would be all his appearances up to May, 1952, which is the first appearance of Earth-One Batman, in Superman #76. So the issues you'd want are Detective Comics #27-183, Batman #1-70, and World's Finest #1-58. Oh and World's Fair Comics #1-2, which was essentially World's Finest but only published once a year at the World's Fair. Also he gets mentioned in Justice Society stories as an honorary member, but I don't think he actually appears. The Batman you're following then doesn't appear again for like 20 years, but eventually shows up again as an old man in 1970, and he dies in 1979. All the post '50s appearances are not starring in long running series, they're particular spotlight stories about him in anthology series, or times he appears in Justice Society stories. Also there are stories from the '70s and (first half of the) '80s set in the past when he was still young. If you want you can ignore them all, especially the ones published after his death. But post-1986 nobody remembers him so there are no more stories about him, not even set in the past, except for two where he appeared as a ghost. But you can read them all if you want. His story is over, and even if his ghost ever reappears, I don't think that's enough to say his story isn't over. I don't think it ruins everything.
>The original Batman was going on crime fighting adventures before WW2 started, even by comic book time he should be approaching senior citizenship.
The original Batman was old by the '70s and died in 1979. As for the main Batman, yeah, comic book time is a factor, but also the World War II stories don't apply to him, specifically so that they can not have his early adventures set in any particular time period. In 1986, with Man of Steel, they established that it had been 10 years in-universe since Superman's (the first superhero's) first appearance. Batman (the second superhero) appeared very shortly after. I think I could accept that the first 50 years of stories took place in 10 years, and Superman and Batman were both in their early '30s.
In 2011, after Flashpoint changed history, they said it had only been six years since Superman's first appearance. They tried to say that you just had to figure all the main stories just happened really closely together now. But that was bullshit, because that meant Batman was going through like one Robin a year. Eventually they said Doctor Manhattan stole time from history or some bullshit, and that's why it literally didn't make any sense, and then they got the time back, and now it was like 16 years since Superman's first appearance. This does imply that everything from 1986-2016 happened in just five years, but since the style of comic book storytelling got much slower, meaning instead of one (or more) story a month, you got one story every six months, and often it led directly into the next story, I can accept that less time passed. Except there is canonically one year when Batman (and Robin and Superman and Wonder Woman) took a break, after Infinite Crisis, so every Batman story is only in 15 years. But okay. That's sort of doable. It does mean the DC Universe is a horrible hellscape where the universe itself gets threatened (which usually means Earth getting conquered by evil gods or aliens) about once a year in the last five years, but okay.
Also Batman has bathed in Lazarus Pits which keep him biologically younger than he is. And he's rich and friends with aliens and wizards and gods, and can afford all the best medical treatment in the universe. So chronologically he's like 40, and in-universe has been doing this for almost 20 years, but he's the fittest 40 year old ever.
>let new things fill the void they leave behind
I see that as a market issue. The market wants more Batman. If they didn't he'd fade out and new stuff would take his place. It happened to many other characters, but not the most popular one. If you want superheroes who die and stay dead, read the more obscure ones. If you're less popular than Hawkman, you're allowed to die and stay dead. And Hawkman's a special case since coming back to life is his superpower.
The related issue is that the creators aren't good at making new characters anymore, and haven't been for a long time. Who is the last American superhero character people actually like? Maybe Jon Kent? He's from like 10 years ago, and they ruined him very quickly. And before him, maybe Damian Wayne, who I guess is still around and liked, but he's from 20 years ago. And these aren't even main characters, they're sidekicks, new versions of old sidekicks. Old comic creators are too autistic and just like playing with the old characters, and the new ones they make usually aren't that great. The '90s had Deadpool and Harley Quinn, but Deadpool is a parody of Deathstroke and Harley is just girl Joker. I think the last really original character people actually like is Spawn, and he's from the early '90s. And despite people liking that character and him being very iconic, they've failed to produce anything good with him, including comics, since Soul Calibur II.
>People like us are the exception, for every nerd who can "get" the full history, there's at least forty going "I don't really care about the full 80 year lore, I just wanted to see two buff dudes punch each other with a compelling narrative for two hours"
Yes, but some of those stories of two buff dudes punching each other are more effective and successful than others. Some bomb. So yes, you need a good concept, but I do think the story and characters matter. I do think the most successful adaptations are usually the ones that get the characters right and focus on them with more depth than others. The MCU was partially successful because people liked seeing the characters play off each other in ways that couldn't be done without the shared universe. You already knew Captain America and Iron Man, now you got to see them interact, and their characters, and their relationship, builds over sequels, both solo and team. Even the solo movies that are the most classic and successful are the ones that get the characters right. Raimi's Spider-Man successfully condenses about ten years of comics into two hours, then focuses on the core relationships, so people like how the main characters in that movie play off each other, and it is pretty much the relationships from the comics adapted accurately (except they change Gwen's name and hair color, but whatever). Obviously these are action stories, but story and character obviously matters to their success.
>didn't Damian only got created within the past ten or fifteen years or something?
He's pretty much from 2005. Technically the story where he is conceived (Son of the Demon) is from 1987, so later in Kingdom Come, set in a possible future (later canonically made an alternate timeline), he appears as an adult. But he didn't show up in main continuity and become Robin until like 2005. And yeah, he was well liked enough to make it into Injustice and other adaptations. And yes, I agree that Injustice fucking sucks. I'd overlook the stupid story if it played well, but it has the stiffest controls outside of turn based games.
>pic
That pic still assumes you know an awful lot, you have to accept that Batman just keeps getting new kids and calling them Robin, which is fucked up when you're just told it with no context. And even then, that amount of info given on that page isn't enough to make you give a fuck about the characters. Yeah, you can accept the plot, but you won't care.
Technically Earth 2 isn't Earth-Two Version 2, but it is sort of Earth-2 Version 2, and Earth-2 was Earth-Two version 2. But yes, it's stupid. Earth 2 sucked and got destroyed. Good. I assume there's a new Earth 2 now, or it came back somehow. But it's not as important as Earth-Two. That's the good one.