The Four Color Media Monitor

The UK Metro's "reader feature" presents an item arguing there has to be a DC-based video game universe:

It is now just under five years since the release of Batman: Arkham Knight and in that time Warner Bros. has managed to release just one other DC Comics game: Mortal Kombat clone Injustice 2. Almost every other week we get rumours of a new Batman game, as well as whispers that many were supposed to come out long ago but were cancelled for unknown reasons. Not just Batman games but others based around the DC Comics universe, including Superman and Suicide Squad games.

Why these keep getting cancelled and why Warner is so bad at releasing games I have no idea. But then everyone knows that companies are weirdly bad at making superhero games, even though it seems like it should be the most natural thing in the world. The only decent Marvel game released during the whole time frame of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Spider-Man, which is pretty much a clone of the Batman: Arkham games but with the web-swinging from the older Sam Raimi tie-ins.

Oh, I have an idea, for he/she who's not in the know. It's pretty much the same problem the comics are facing, with disastrous management, right down to the now departed Dan DiDio, whose leadership, if viewed under a magnifying glass, would reveal he did not handle marketing well, one of the reasons why he finally - and deservedly - paid the price for all the reprehensible decisions made during his way overlong career.

DC's had video games released in the past, but if we're talking about failed projects, yes, they have their share of those, including the Justice League Task Force game from 1994, and the never released Green Lantern game that would've starred Kyle Rayner. Yet, it shouldn't have to matter as much as the comics, because all these years, ever since they entered multimedia, the comics have been dwarfed for the sake of these electronic ventures, and Injustice's premise was revolting.

There is Square Enix’s Avengers game, that just got a massive delay, and that seems to be a sort of standard third person action game, a bit like a more linear God Of War. It seems promising but we’ll have to wait and see. Besides, I want to concentrate on DC for this feature, as that was what I grew up with and has always been my favourite. And it seemed with the Rocksteady games that Warner was perfectly placed to make a sort of DC Video Game Universe, but they never did. But I still think they should.

The writer may not know it, but the reason the Avengers video game was delayed is because of all the PC meddling that went on in the making, not the least being the ghastly character design for Black Widow. And those kind of projects also ensured the marginalization of the comics proper. That's why I'm not in favor building up these video game universes based on comics, because I've come to view them as taking far too much attention away from the real four color deal.

Today's computer games based on comics are so built upon political correctness, it makes them so unimpressive.

Labels: Avengers, bad editors, Batman, dc comics, licensed products, marvel comics, msm propaganda, Superman, technology