Personally, I don't follow the comic books. Never really have and have never owned a comic book in my life. I do watch the recent comic book based movies like the X-Men series, Daredevil, Punisher and the Batman movies. I also play City of Heroes.

I play the game because on a whim, I suggested that my sons get it for my wife as a Yule gift. I supplemented the gift with a 2 month subscription card so she had three months (it comes with a 30 day trial) to try out the game without hassle. Since then the entire family has created multiple heroes and played the game, including my 9 year old autistic son. Even though we are long time computer users and have played text-based online games for over a decade, this is our first MMORPG. We chose this one because it didn't have Player vs. Player combat. Since the first copy, we have gone out and purchased a second copy of the game and created a second account. This allows two people to play at the same time and we can support each other in the game. The environment is good and most the people we have met so far are good people.

I am sure that when Marvel releases their own game with its stable of characters as NPC's it will have a draw for people who are fans of that stuff and it will be successful. City of Heroes is successful but only has ~130,000 subscribers so it has really only barely tapped into the comic book market or of those who have watched the movies based on Marvel's characters. Most of these people will play multiple games.