***SPOILER ALERT***
If you haven’t seen Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice and plan on seeing it STOP HERE!
I am a huge comic book fanboy … with the exception that I stopped reading comics in 1997. Admittedly, I have watched the movies and even thumbed through comics … I needed to change my focus in life and I chose to give up something I loved for something greater (because someone might ask). As I sat with anticipation to see the film play, I reflected on my love of great heroes. I cleared my mind and relaxed.
The movie played along and things bugged me. Then Lex told Superman to kill Batman or your mother dies. Next Superman says, something that basically indicated that to save his mom, he would kill Batman. WHAT!!! That is NOT Superman!!! He would use his powers to locate his mother while either listening to Lex or flying off to convince Batman to work with him to save lives. Not, um okay … I’ll kill him for you.
On the way home from the movies, my compadre and I discussed the movie. The point we came to quickly was that the modern take on superheroes is the anti-hero. Which is rubbish!
All growing up, one of the things that made the superheroes awesome was that while they aren’t prefect, they lived by a code of morals, values, and principles. For example, Batman did not use firearms and would not kill his enemies. He also NEVER went after some with distinct purpose of killing them!!! Superman would NEVER bend to the will of his enemies, he would always seek to solve the problem another way!!! Especially, if that meant people lived and the bad guy still came to justice!
Along this same vein, I recently watched Justice League: WAR, an animated Justice League movie. In this PG-13 rated film many of the superheroes curse. Now, if you can’t tell, this really changed the feel of the film. While the story was good, I was distracted by the word choices of our beloved heroes.
If you can’t tell, this change to the heroes of my youth is saddening. It is a change that shows how much the world has changed in the last 20 years. It is a change that means my boys will not be able to watch some shows or films until they are older and can understand that some of these changes are not reflective of who and what these superheroes are to me; that they are a reflection of the world and how it is different than when I was a comic book fanboy.
iron wil
