“Which do you like better? DC or Marvel?”
This was a seemingly innocent question from my 8 year old daughter.
“I grew up with DC, and Batman is my favorite super hero. I like much of that universe for many personal reasons and just couldn’t get into most of Marvel growing up despite liking a lot of those heroes. I think, however, Marvel is doing a much better job of getting their heroes in front of people these days and are doing better things.”
Her reply floored me.
“I think I like Marvel better because they have more female heroes. I can name, like, at least 3 of them.”
And this is why DC is losing.
Continually rebooting Batman and Superman only gets a company so far. That Green Lantern film? It went nowhere, and for good reason. The television screen is treating a couple of DC’s heroes better, but those simply aren’t accessible to an 8 year old. And even then, they are very male-centric. DC just has a lot of male characters on the front line and my daughter has noticed.
Sure, you could point out 10 female DC heroes off the top of your head. How many of them are of the caliber of Batman, Superman or Wonder Woman?