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.

  • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip
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    16 hours ago

    Hmm. So that’s where the exceptionalism argument comes from. Kinda makes sense too, since you have to be exceptional to have exceptional powers. Can’t really make a movie about usual people having exceptional powers, now can you. Like, the whole point of the movie is to look at the life of someone who has strange powers, and getting to that point has to be somehow really weird.

    • lastweakness@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Yeah OC’s argument seems very shallow to me. Where does spider-man even fall in all this? The typical spidey depiction is a broke kid who isn’t even sure he wants to be a superhero. What does that make him?

      • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip
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        6 hours ago

        Well his personality and background aren’t anything compared to many other superheroes. The circumstances of gaining the powers is the only really exceptional thing about him. Other than that, he seems like a pretty average kid to me.