I dont know im pretty happy with the game. I wish they included Hawk Girl.

No it's a pretty good lineup.

Remember, every character on the DC side had to have a unique yet familiar look, and get approval from DC. I think they did a great job.

I think there should have been more but that's just me.

A roster of 22 is about right for the usual MK game.

To render either fanbase adequately represented, more characters were definitely needed. That doesn't necessarily need to mean more playable characters, but with no adventure mode, I suppose that's the only option.

I'd like to think modern instalments in well developed franchises should be aiming for the mid-thirties, these days. Particularly if additional content is going to be as light as MKvsDC was.

SF4 will have, I think, 25 characters in the home version. The arcade only had 19.
I'm not sure how big the rosters of Tekken and Soul Calibur have grown but in my opinion, their biggest problem is they almost never leave characters out, which gives the impression that there's no true change in the storyline and every game is just the same as the last with a few additions.

All the major franchises seem to have one major weakness, although, with the advent of massive amounts of animated sequences, SF seems to be doing well to take care of it's.
I wouldn't call Street Fighter "well developed", though. Not in the functional context of building on modern instalments. That said, the fact that SFIV is so specifically built on a period of nostalgia still says something a little negative about MKvsDC's twenty-two playable characters.

SFIV is also only appeasing one franchise.
Tekken hasn't employed writers for their storymode, either. (Ouch!)

The balance of characters, function, and plot, is not terribly impressive in MKvsDC. If they weren't crushed beneath the onset of an uncompromising deadline... Wow! I'd rather think they were.

Well there's no doubt that the game feels bare, especially after Deadly Alliance and Deception spoiled us with their Krypts. Even Shaolin Monks followed the pattern with a huge collection of artwork.

But I would argue it's not characters that's missing. A roster in the 20's certainly feels more comfortable and natural to me than one in the 30's.

That said, I'm looking forward to a few DLC characters. It's just that I'm comfortable paying the extra for them, because I don't feel entitled to more.
Alternate costumes, more stages, and concept art all should have come with the game. I would not be okay with paying a DLC price for that material. Characters though? Yeah, I recognize that as a bonus.

I do have a bit of a weird hang-up about games meeting base expectations and recommended retail value.

no i like the amount they put in there. midway doesn't do very good job programing alot of characters, especially when they work with a new engine. i would've liked a diferent roster though.
don't worry tho, it's mk. they're probably gonna add a shitload of brand-spanking new characters (which r gonna suck like they have been since mk:da). cuz if the mk team continues it's style of making mks i already know what to expect: more content, more characters, more gimmicks, LESS DEPTH

22 is good. They should keep this number in a coming game. It's not too little and it's not too much.

I like how they're handling the DLC too.

Reptile
Kung Lao

Martian Manhunter
Lobo

looks likely.

I wouldn't mind

Quan Chi
Mileena

Hawkgirl
Doctor Fate

They're "darker characters" outside the poster boys.

SWAMP THING FTW!

In a way, it's better this way. Simply because adding to many characters would require more labor to testing, where as now they can work on those extras for dlc, and balance em out as well.