I just don't find superheroes that interesting

I have to confess that i have never been the biggest comic book fan, I have at various times collected 'The Astonishing Spider-Man' and the 'Batman Legends' series that you can get here in Britain. And I do have a vast graphic novel collection, some of my favourites include The Crow and some Hellboy editions, amongst others.

Of all the superheroes it’s Spider-Man and Batman that interest me the most, Spider- Man because he is one of the few superheroes who is remotely relatable beneath the suit. And the idea of Batman is fascinating, a protector who works in the shadows and who brings down the worst of the criminal underworld that exists in most societies. Even if he is a bit of a sociopath who happens to be a billionaire.

The movies are entertaining for the most part, and worthy of a cinema watch, although I am beginning to find them less and less surprising with each passing release.

So why don’t I find superheroes interesting?

Well, as I eluded to in my first paragraph, very few of them are relatable and most have a superiority that I find uncomfortable with. Most are either super genius billionaires, military fighters, monarchic leaders, or simply powerful because they happen to be special.

Let’s take a look at the Avengers team, Captain America is effectively a super soldier, Iron Man is a super genius billionaire, Thor is a god, Hulk is another Scientist who happens to have anger issues, Black Panther is a king. Of course Ant-Man is just a down on his luck thief, but if you look at the bulk of superheroes, they follow a trend of being socially powerful people.

Even Wonder Woman is of monarchical birth, and trained to basically be a skilled killer.

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Which brings me to my other point, superheroes work within their own view of the world. For example Batman is someone who takes justice into his own hands by using violence, not thinking of the social circumstances of why he exists in the first place.

I of course understand that not all superheroes are like this, and within these fictional black and white worlds they exist in, real evil needs to be stopped.

But I still find so few superheroes particularly interesting, as I said, one of the few that I do find interesting is Spider-Man. Of course the character is a bit of a bully towards his villains, and he too is a talented scientist. But at least Peter Parker is relatable, he lives in New York and his story arcs are far more small world compared with most superheroes.

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Am I putting too much expectations on characters that shouldn’t be taken too seriously, and who were originally created to amuse little children? Likely.

But with the continuing influx superhero related media from movies to video games, never ceasing to end, it just disappoints me that interesting fictional characters are a bit of a rarity these days. Modern heroes seem to be powerful and that’s it, there aren’t any Luke Skywalker’s created any more. A genuine hero who went from being being zero to hero to save the day, whose journey was filled with mistakes and learning. But despite all his eventual power we knew he was a good guy who succeeded.

In today’s world we either get all powerful characters, the chosen one, or just the anti-hero who wouldn't be that different from the villains in other circumstances. And from my point of view that’s so disappointing, because the world could do with some fictional heroes we can identify with.