A creator who's gender-swapped an established character in his own franchise tells us the industry's too reliant on already established franchises

Popverse says Robert Kirkman, co-creator of Invincible, spoke at the ComicsPro convention about how the industry's too reliant upon long-established franchises like Batman, Spider-Man and Transformers for comics and other such ventures:

Batman is one of the most popular characters in the comic book industry. Absolute Batman was the top-selling comic of 2024, and Batman’s monthly adventures regularly garner huge numbers, topping sales charts. Looking at data like that, it seems like the Dark Knight is a positive thing for the comic book industry. However, Robert Kirkman believes the overreliance on characters like Batman is hurting the medium long-term.

Kirkman, who co-created Invincible and The Walking Dead, explains that focusing on decades-old characters (which he admits he does as well) has kept the industry from exploring new things.

“Things have their day and then settle down,” Robert Kirkman says during a keynote speech at ComicsPRO 2026.

“I sometimes think the original sin of this industry, the thing that holds it back the most, is that we as an industry often refuse to move on. Batman was created in the 1930s. Spider-Man was created in the 1960s. Transformers was created in the '80s. Invincible was created in the 2000s. All of these started as new ideas. They had their peaks in popularity, and they’ve had new peaks and new valleys to varying degrees of success ever since.”

Of course, as long as Batman and Spider-Man bring in huge sales numbers, it’s doubtful that Marvel and DC will be giving them less of a focus anytime soon. Still, Spider-Man debuted two decades after many of DC’s most iconic heroes, and Invincible made his first appearance 40 years later. It might take a while, but the next breakout character is just waiting to be created.

But they don't actually bring in enormous sales numbers, and for years already, the supply of pamphlets printed up - and presumably sold - rarely go above a million copies. Interesting they cite Batman again instead of Superman, because all they've done is confirm a continuing problem with how the industry's similarly become too reliant upon the darkness in marketing. And Kirkman predictably doesn't address how Spidey's story quality and merit long collapsed, even before One More Day. So too has Batman's. If he won't address those creative issues, what he's telling won't carry much weight.

The argument presented by Kirkman at the convention does itself have value, but let's consider Kirkman's dampened the impact of his own by resorting to gender-swapping on the Invincible cartoon (and perhaps the comics are next?), instead of introducing a brand new female character organically without doing it at the original male character's expense. And what next, will the sex-swapped take even turn out to be a lesbian? Which would only compound another serious issue with modern entertainment: it's become disturbingly hostile to heterosexual relations/romance, if they even explore the concept of romance at all. How does Kirkman expect to improve upon an overt resort to nostalgia if he himself resorts to another sad cliche of modern times in Hollywood? Some established franchises have even suffered from worse than what Kirkman's cartoon series is now turning to.

And let's not forget Kirkman's also the co-creator of the Walking Dead, a horror-themed franchise. That's another sad issue with how modern entertainment's being marketed, and that too is something both comics medium and Hollywood have become far too reliant upon. That too needs to cease. Perhaps it's time they "moved on" from the horror genre too? For now, Kirkman needs to rexamine his MO and ask whether he's undermining his points by turning to the same playbook as his fellow leftists have pushed upon entertainment for years already. And he could also consider developing comics with romance themes, and show the courage to explain to everybody why romance is worth it.