It doesn't have to go this far...
As I kinda feared, Watchmen opened well, but the box office dropped suddenly.
Is this the death knell of comic book movies?
Hardly.
You cannot compare Watchmen to say Batman or Iron Man or Spiderman.
I don't think you will see product tie-ins like with the "colorful" superheroes.
Can you imagine a Rorschach Happy Meal?
Or a Comedian dress up set?
Nope, kids aren't supposed to emulate the Watchmen.
It's an adult story.
But Batman, The Hulk, Wolverine, now there are your commercial tie ins.
I think the movie industry had better think twice before "darkening" the more popular heroes.
The Dark Knight was just about as far as Hollywood needs to go and stay profitable.
Actually I keep wondering if we may be looking at a backlash soon.
I watch "Batman: The Brave and The Bold" and I love it.
It's not the dark brooding Batman. It's the 50s and 60s detective with gadgets.
But he's still bad.
They show a lighter Batman, but I don't get it confused with the Dark Knight.
BTW, I absolutely loved Batman: The Animated Series and I think both cartoons work, just on different levels.
Maybe we are making our heroes too dark.
Some of course, it suits.
But a darker, edgier Fantastic Four?
Heck, lets just get Frank Miller to do the Power Puff Girls.
Lets make it all so dark and bloody and gory that you really can't tell the heroes from the bad guys without a scorecard.
We need the dark avengers like Bats and the Punisher.
But we also need the "boy scouts".
I know I seem to keep harping on this, but I feel pretty strongly about it.
Maybe I'm schizophrenic since I liked Watchmen and The Rocketeer.
I like Batman AND Superman.
But there has to be a middle ground.
And no it's not Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin.
