I know not every superhero story is the same, but I feel like recent superhero media has moved away from showing heroes actually saving people. Even vigilantes like Batman and Daredevil rescue civilians—they’re not just crime fighters. Superheroes may not be realistic, but they’ve always prioritized saving lives.
That’s one reason I like The Flash on the CW—it balanced both saving people and crime fighting, even if the crime-fighting usually came first. Superman & Lois does this even better. Almost every episode shows Superman stopping disasters or accidents, not just punching villains.
Superheroes aren’t just super-powered cops, soldiers, or secret agents. They should also be part-time super-firefighters. Shows like 9-1-1 and Chicago Fire make me wish we had more of those rescue scenes—but with superheroes. Not every episode has to be about saving the whole city.
THIS, EXACTLY THIS.
I find it strange to call today’s supers “heroes” when the least they do is help others. They look more like guys with superpowers beating each other up, more like Japanese Shonen than anything else (mind you, I like Shonen, but there’s a limit).
That’s why I love that in The Batman (2022) the climax is seeing Batman saving civilians, the same with James Gunn’s Superman.
I WANT TO SEE MORE SUPERHEROES BEING HEROIC, DAMN IT.
Have you watched Thunderbolts and the new Superman? They do actually rescue people (Superman way more).
I was thinking in the theater while watching Thunderbolts: “Huh, a scene where the heroes are rescuing people? I haven’t seen that in a long time.”
Superman even saved a squirrel. 🤩
Villains sell toys and merch. You can’t make an action figure of the public
“Not with that attitude, you can’t!” -Lego
You should read Parahumans:Worm by Wildbow. The best superhero story I have ever read, and it’s completely free! :)
The variety and use cases for all the different powers are especially interesting.
Worm also has far and away the best in-world explanation of why everyone puts up with the cops and robbers BS as well. It’s just so freakin good.
I just hope at some point they’ll be able to reformat/release it as an ebook or something. I know a lot of people get turned off by it being on wordpress. ( I know there’s at least one unofficial one but still. )
In project management, we call it “scope creep.” Day one, the job is to use your newfound powers for good. Maybe stop a mugging. Day two, catch a bad guy. Day 3, try to balance life and your secret identity while foiling a bank heist. Day 200, you’re negotiating with an interdimensional cosmic deity for the survival of the Universe by demonstrating feats of strength and fortitude.
This has been a problem for far, far, longer than you think. The silver age definitely had it, the golden age probably did, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it cropped up in the proto-superhero stories, like Zorro. It’s a consequence of having a long-form story where the narrative’s status quo isn’t allowed to meaningfully change and characters either aren’t allowed to die or aren’t allowed to stay dead. Recurring antagonists also can have much richer characterization and more complex relationships with the protagonists, which makes writing stories about them more appealing the more often they appear.
The usual trajectory for a new superhero or new incarnation of an existing superhero is to start off with street-level problems, then get a nemesis that has strong ties to those street level problems, then have the dynamic between the two grow in prominence to eclipse all other parts of the plot. The Joker, for instance, always starts off as either a mob boss with a gimmick or a serial killer with a gimmick, not far removed from the mundane crime Batman always starts with, but always winds up with a fixation on Batman and spawns stories designed as some commentary on Batman’s no-killing rule. Again and again and again, dozens of times over the decades.
Why? Because the dynamic between the two characters tends to be fascinating and results in audience engagement.
Eh, most of the old school titles are just too ‘Soap Opera ish’ for me. It’s was supposed to be action and adventure and mystery with good art. Last 2 decades, it’s become people coming back from the dead, clones, ridiculous story lines that have nothing to do with the original character.
It’s ridiculous.
Indie books and limited series are my go to now. Even those start to run out of gas if they are kept around too long.
I like how Invincible addresses this. He tries to save people but it always ends disastrously because normal people break really easily when handled by someone with super strength and speed. His best bet is to take out the villain that is the source of danger.
I recommend two good videos about superhero movies.
1 - Defenders of the Status Quo
2 - The people vs Clark Kent
there was a Superman comic about him getting cancer and dying. really good, bout the only superhero stuff I liked. not being edgy, it was just good because it was finally about something
