They'd be fools not to at least try to make the JL film.
DC has much more mainstream comic book characters.
I know alot of people who don't know Natasha Romanoff.
I don't know anybody who's unfamiliar with Superman.

Read it. Superman is still a bundle of sticks.

I've always liked superman in that he's the reverse of virtually every other comic hero with a secret identity: Clark Kent is the mask. I don't know why, but that idea has always fascinated me.

Yeah. I liked Bill's analogy of Superman.

That's kind of cool. It's also kind of cool that he's super powerful. At the same time, it's what makes him lame. There's no sense of urgency or presence of danger to him, only the civilians he tries to protect.

He's just too powerful. In order to have a villain capable of beating him, they have to create someone even more absurdly powerful, like Doomsday. And that's the issue I have with most of DC. They're all ridiculously overpowered. You've got Supes who's probably at the top and Wonder Woman who can go toe-to-toe with him. The Green Lantern's power is only restricted by his will. A lot of people rag on Aquaman for having useless powers but he's a 100 tonner (that's comic nerd jargon for being able to lift over 100 tons).

Did you guys know the Flash is so fast he can vibrate his molecules through solid matter? So if someone were even able to catch him (he runs faster than the speed of light, so no), he could just vibrate through their hands. The Martian Manhunter is as strong as Superman with even more diverse powers. If written right, he's more powerful than Superman. Not to mention they have the god damned Batman!

So by my count that's 6 heroes capable of handing out more hurt than the Hulk did in the Avengers. To me, that's lame. I'd watch it just to see them all on the big screen, but I would never in a million years expect it to be as good as the Avengers.

Ga-zillionaire is still okay. People can aspire to that, and that's why everybody wants to be Batman. They can't acquire Superman's alien origin or abilities later in life. Plus, saying "I want to be Superman!" is kind of like saying "I want to be God!" Yes, many people themselves would like to be God, but it borders on arrogant (and is flat-out uninteresting) to announce it.

You're comparing the least known of the Avengers with the best known of the JLA. Either compare Captain America to Superman, or compare Black Widow to, say, Cyborg.

I'd say the only original/main member of the JL that most of the population couldn't name if you showed them a pic is Martian Manhunter.

Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern.
vs.
The Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor.

The Avengers just came out and they've introduced the characters well enough in recent years so obviously that effects what people know. 10 years ago I would have said the Justice League was more popular. Just so happens that Marvel got their shit in the movie universe together before DC.

You could have asked anyone in America who Captain America, Thor or the Hulk is in any time period, and they would know. Marvel has been out selling DC for DECADES.

That's a fair point.
I think Superman and Batman, alone, are more popular than any Avenger you could name though.

Not to quibble, but Thor isn't at the level of the others, nor the main DC superheroes. If you'd asked me who Thor was a year or so before the movie came out, I'd have said a Norse God (without any reference to comic books), and if you'd pressed me further I'd have to admit I had no idea that he was an important comic book character at all.

That's a fair attempt at making Supe interesting. But really, Paul Bunyan was kind of weak as well and for the same reason. A Supe movie can be done well enough to make the character interesting. Too many times it's crap because it takes a strong effort to pull it off. Also, he's got Batman wrong. Batman isn't a playboy. That's the stereotypical Bruce Wayne persona created to hide Batman's identity. Batman is the brooding genius/bad ass ninja who is borderline psychotic, with deep emotional flaws, that still manages to do what he thinks is right. It's a compelling character.

Perfect

Maybe in the comic book world. No way in hell Captain America and Thor were more popular before their movies came out recently. I'd say The Flash, Wonder Woman and Aquaman are just as well-known despite not having a movie released in the past decade.

The only superhero in Marvel that could touch Superman and Batman in a battle of recognition is Spider-Man.. And even he would take third place to those two.

Edit: Maybe The Hulk or Wolverine. Still, neither is as popular as Bats and Supes