10. Traumatic Childhood Fuels Fight For Justice
A major staple of the superhero movie is the “sad childhood,” in which your main character is revealed to have a turbulent or haunting past that drives them to either fight crime or “face their demons,” usually in an attempt to bring justice to a world filled with anarchy. This is a great way to fuel any potential superhero, of course, and that’s the reason why it remains so popular.
But check your recent array of cinematic superheroes and you’ll find that nearly all of them have daddy issues. In the recent Spider-Man reboot, the writers even added in a brand new sad backstory for Peter Parker to agonise over, and both Thor and Tony Stark have had to face up to their father-based demons in Thor and Iron Man 2.
It’s probably safe to assume that by the time the next Batman reboot rears its ugly head, Bruce Wayne’s family will be gunned down in the same incident that we saw occur in Batman Begins. But how about we give Bruce a different reason to become a superhero next time? What’s the point, after all, in telling the same story all over again?
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52 Comments
Emma Stone played GWEN STACEY, not MJ Watson and seriously Loki? as the prime cinematic example of pure evil, he’s whimpy and whiny for crying out loud he can’t even measure up to Tom Hardy’s Bane… If you’re looking for an examplemof a cinematic comic book villain that is evil through and through.. look no further than THE JOKER
God Bless U
exactly, this guy is having a little trouble with those two.
Oh boy, you called Emma Stone’s character ‘Mary-Jane Watson’. The mistake is understandable, but just wait for the trolls.
TOTALLY agree with #1, and not just in the movies. If you are reading the Marvel NOW comic books, it seems every science-based hero (Hulk, FF, Iron Man, Spider-Man) are working on world-altering inventions on the side like pollution eliminators, new energy sources, etc., etc. The problem with this is that the world in the comics should be a disease-free, energy plentiful utopia in three years and that won’t happen.
The Heroes CAN die???
Don’t agree on no. 1. I don’t think genius IQ is a cliché in superhero movies. Let’s face it, in the Avengers, I don’t know who was your third genius, but I can only count two : Bruce and Tony. Tjose are the geniuses, those are the one who work together to find the Tesseractm they are the only ones who understand each other when they are speaking science. Aside from that, Peter Parker can be considered a genius, and I think that’s about it. Batman is no genius IQ. He is skilled with fights, knows a lot of martial arts, can use darkness, has got a lot of gadgets to his help, but Bruce Wayne is only a really intelligent man. I think his training with the League of Shadows might have taught him a lot, but he doesn’t enter a room and automatically knows what people are talking about, and answer everyone’s question : What is Iridium ? (Well, it’ a stabilizing agent). That would be the difference between a genius and an intelligent man. Plus, Bruce never had a hand in the crafting of all his equipment, while Tony Stark was building his Mark I out of scraps in an Afghan cave, while being held prisonner, with a mechanical heart.
Where I agree is on no.3 where you write “(…)maybe sometimes it can be justified for them to just go ahead and do it anyway?”
YES ! YES ! Someone said it ! You know, sometimes a villain is just a pain in the a*s, and everyone in the city would be better if he just wasn’t alive anymore. Like the Lizard. Maybe they kept the Lizard for a Sinister Six adaptation, if so ,I understand they had to keep him alive. But it’d be so satisfying to finally see a superhero give his enemy the punch of his life, and see the enemy’s lifeless body on the ground. I think only one hero made it that far on movie screens, Harry Potter. The only one who understood that killing the bad guy is a pretty neat solution to many problems had to be a 17 years old. And the only one to actually do it !
lol, batmans the f*ckin batman. If anything they dont realise how smart bruce is, who’s on par with the martian man hunter, and above supes. he’s got a gadget for everything, and where do they come from.He’s The BATMAN.
Actually when Voldemort uses the wand on Harry,the spell rebounds off of Harry when Voldemort attacks him in a dual, and it hits Voldemort instead. But yes he did destroy the horcruxes in order to kill Voldemort
Love your nmumber 1, I’d love to see a movie where the hero is a complete village idiot and doesn’t even realise he’s saving the world
Some of these clichés are indeed a little bit tiresome, but it’s hard to get rid of them whilst remaining faithful to the long-standing (and very relevant/important) source material.
You can’t do Batman without the back story, you can’t do Iron Man and make him an idiot, you can’t really change the manner in which someone like Spider-Man got his powers.
With that in mind, they’re not really ‘movie clichés’, as such. They’re comic book clichés that, if you’re going to make a movie based on the character, need to be included in the movie depictions.
The only way you’re going to avoid these clichés is to make movies with superpowered individuals that aren’t based on comics, like Hancock, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Chronicle etc.
That said, the general superhero clichés (movies aside) are become a little tiresome. But I’m hard-pressed to think of storylines, from origins through to deaths, that could totally avoid suh clichés.
Suh = Such*!
I’d honestly have to write a complete article just to go into how wrong this article is. In short I will say that the author is entitled to his opinion and that maybe superhero movies just aren’t for him.
I couldn’t agree with you more Brian. You literally wrote what I was thinking while going through the countdown
whomever wrote this article simply hates comic books.
Why do you say these are “cliches that need to die”, and then go on to list all of the factors that define a superhero movie ?! How else would you make them ?
It’s kinda like coming up with a list called “James Bond movie cliches that need to die” and list: 1) Bond is almost invulnerable 2) The bad guys are somewhat unbelievable and often deformed in some way 3) The women all have silly sexist-jokey names… etc etc.
#1 should be 105 lb women going through 225 lb men like they weren’t there. Anne Hathaway’s feats of strength in The Dark Knight Rises is just 1 of the many things in that movie that makes me shake my head and say to myself ‘..but The Dark Knight was so good?’.
More and more I am becoming convinced that this site adamantly hates Superheroes.
Most of these cliches are imbedded in the fabric of the the characters themselves and not organic to the movies.
This list has some interesting points, but it seems like it was written with more malice against the first spiderman movie than anything. Also some of these “cliches” are actually vital parts of these heroes stories and changing them would change the characters and there impact drastically. So we do need to see Bruce Wayne’s parents die in the next goddam reboot.
The Sam Raimi Spidey movies were the most guilty of these cliches.
http://www.ugo.com/the-goods/25-superheroes-who-killed
Most superheroes have killed already :)
I’m absolutely tired of the biggest cliche almost 99 percent of all comic book movies share, the climactic battle between the heroes and the villains in a huge metropolitan city.
I swear, doesn’t matter if it’s Marvel or D.C., seemingly every movie has to end with the huge battle that takes place in and among huge skyscrapers and features:
1. a hero or villain crashing into the side of a building, causing big chunks of the building to fall off and threaten civilians below
2. a hero or villain flying through the middle of an office building while screaming office workers scramble, while papers fly everywhere
3. a huge line of stalled vehicles in the middle of the road, while civilians get out and run for safety in panic, and said line of cars explode and overturn in sequence
4. rows of National Guard tanks and soldiers march towards the fight
5. a bus full of civilians or school children becomes the focal point of an action sequence
Isn’t there somewhere else in the universe where these fights can take place? Does it always have to be the same old boring confrontations?
Why would they attack some small city? The villains want to hurt/kill as many people as possible. If they did it in a small city or the middle of nowhere the villain would not have done his “job”.
Actually Thor ended with a small town in New Mexico being destroyed.
The only one I really get tired of is the girlfriend kidnapped one. The others are good.
I think it is a mistake to call most of these themes “cliches”. Particularly with the Marvel and DC characters stated, these themes are essential and classic moments from their publication history. It is understandable to call them cliches if we are taking about a more modern character simply reusing plot devices from other super heroes, but Characters like Spider-Man, Batman, Iron Man and Super-Man are the reason we even have these plot devices. They were first utilized in comics to tell these characters stories. So what I’m trying to say is Spider-Man’s girlfriend getting kidnapped or Batman’s parents being gunned downed aren’t comic book cliches. They are important elements of the lore of those characters.
Agree with Tim. What’s described in the well-written list are genre conventions which are inherent within the comic-book source material.
Perhaps, it’s more the over-saturation of “superhero” films at the cinema which has deemed them cliche, however, there has been some very good movies. They are genre films and as long as they are done well then I really enjoy them.
There’s been a few movies which have anti-heroes which buck the conventions described: SUPER being one of them.
Hi. Evryboddy
You’re listing almost all the reasons there has ever been during comics, what is there to come up with that is new anyway. And why would they change Batman’s reason to become Batman, that have been around for 70 years, it’s a classic story, you can’t change that now!
You’re listing almost all the reasons there has ever been during comics, what is there to come up with that is new anyway. And why would they change Batman’s reason to become Batman, that have been around for 70 years, it’s a classic story, you can’t change that now!
About number 1 what about superman? Given he’s clever (kind of) he’s just a farm boy who has the same education as an average human being.
Also for anyone wondering who the third genius in Avengers was it was Black widow or Hawkeye
So basically what you’re saying is you hate superhero movies.
Only Stark and Bruce Banner have genius IQs. I’m pretty sure Cap, Thor, Black Widow, and Hawkeye are smart but don’t have genius IQs in the movie verse.
I love superheroes: always have, always will. The cliches’ in the comics are vital to there being comics. Who wants to read a comic or see a comic book movie about some dumbass with a great family life who one day suddenly decided to become a superhero because he had nothing else to do? And another thing: some superheroes DO kill, but the whole premise behind a superhero is that they try to be better than the supervillians and protect people and don’t kill because they know that killing is wrong. Would you really wanna see Spider-Man snap the neck of the Green Goblin? Or Superman use his heat vision to burn Lex Luthor to death? Or even Charles Xavier using his mental powers to kill Magneto? (I know Xavier shut down Magneto’s mind one time but that is not the same as killing.)If superheroes killed every villian they ever faced, two things would happen: 1) they wouldn’t be the same character anymore and would anger fans who know their superheroes to not kill, and 2) every issue of a comic would have to introduce a new villian because the superhero killed all of his/her other villians, and that would be hell for the people who write and illustrate the comic.
Well, then just watch Kick-Ass.
The writer is blaming the cliche’s on the films but the original comics are the source for them all.
I’m with Frank, this list is basically about how superhero movies have to stop being like the superhero comics they’re based upon.
In my opinion a big part of the perceived “cliche” is all the reboots. How many times are we going to see slightly different versions of Peter getting bit by a spider,Bruce’s parents getting gunned down, Clark struggling with his 2 sides? Just continue on with the damn story! You can continue on with different actors successfully (see:James Bond)
See James Bond up to the three newest ones.
Is the third genius Ant-Man? He hasn’t even had his chance yet. And we do get our occasional over powered average guy. What about The other three non genius members of the Fantastic Four. Abomination or Sandman isn’t a genius either. My favorite one is the pep talk one. Who else is supposed to inspire the hero when the world is against him.
I think the author has pointed out some very hilarious points. That any of these points will ever dissapear from comic movie/book story lines…. not likely. I personally adore the “Dark Knight Trilogy” and all the Marvel “Avenger” movies to say the least. So without a doubt these “cliche” constructs are what make super hero tales…. super hero tales after all. With that said, this is still one funny ass piece, with observations that are just as comical none the less. As for everyone else dropping comments who seem to be freaking out over the author’s opinions…. Lighten up and get a life, dorks!! Ha Ha Ha Ha
I think the author has pointed out some very hilarious points. That any of these points will ever dissapear from comic movie/book story lines…. not likely. I personally adore the “Dark Knight Trilogy” and all the Marvel “Avenger” movies to say the least. So without a doubt these “cliche” constructs are what make super hero tales…. super hero tales after all. With that said, this is still one funny piece, with observations that are just as comical none the less. As for everyone else dropping comments who seem to be freaking out over the author’s opinions…. Lighten up and get a life, dorks!! Ha Ha Ha Ha
Number 7 is awesome, number 5 is sadly true, and number 3- look no further than the last fifteen minutes of The Dark Knight Rises to see that it speaks the truth.
The ironic thing is at some point in the past Hollywood actually referred to cliche action/adventure screenplays as having “Comic Book Plots.” I highly, highly, highly doubt that they still do.
#8 goes directly with #2. If a superhero, say Spider-Man, told the whole planet that he was Peter Parker not only would Gwen or M.J. get kidnapped but also his Aunt and anyone else he would be close to. Isn’t that kinda why Gwen dies in the comic books? And this applies to most superheroes.
So a non-genius Batman whose parents didn’t get shot? That literally removes two of the defining elements of the character. It removes his reason for being in the first place but even just making him less of a genius takes away the justification for him being a master strategist/detective/engineer etc. These abilities and his genius-level mastery of them are what balances him against dumber heroes.
If Bruce Wayne ever revealed hos identity, every criminal and psychopath in Gotham would try to kill him every single day. He would have no peace.
Change the orgin of Batman? Never work. Fanboys and the general public would crucify anyone that tried. The problem is faced with anyone trying to adapt a story to the screen. The cliche’s are in the comics as well but in a comic has more freedom in how it presents as well as not having to repeat it every time they want to reboot the series.
This is like saying they need to end the cliches of everyone dying in Shakespeare’s tragedies, or stop ending romantic comedies with a wedding. TJ Barnard, are you really that stupid? The movies are not original written works, they are adaptations form source material that is quite loved by many people. So what, now batman’s inner demons and motivation should stem from something else? You want moviemakers to rewrite the character? Yeah, that’ll go over well. Just like this article. Remind me never to read anything written by this “writer” again.
I don’t think the writer realizes that Batman’s history is Batman’s history. If they reboot Batman with a completely different origin, it’s not Batman. Most of these “cliches” are there because that’s how the character is written, and the “alternate” versions can’t really happen because then it’s not the same character. Ironman is the story about somebody who pilots a robot suit that he built. Would it make more sense if they changed Ironman to be some kid that a genius randomly decided to buy a robot suit for? No!
I hope everyone realizes that these “clichés” are going to be in superhero movies forever. That’s just how they work. Unless someone makes up his own superhero and makes a movie about it, there aren’t going to be any changes. If someone adapted a comic book hero and changed everything about him, fans would be furious!
Secret identities are a cliche in Superhero movies the way big dresses and corsets are cliches for movies about Victorian England. I mean, really, Near Death? Well, geez, if the movie doesn’t take the hero to their limits, is the hero really that heroic?
And really, cops and military being against people who run around taking the law into their own hands? That’s more like common sense.
Training montages. Well, do you really want to waste screen time and dramatic points showing your superhero getting up to speed? They need to be super soon enough that people can buy that they don’t get killed opposing criminals and supervillains.
As for sad childhoods and traumatic events, really, these are movies based on comic books, and this is standard fare, part of canon for these characters. Krypton has to blow up! Uncle Ben must die! You will never see Bruce Wayne’s parents live past his childhood.
This guy just doesn’t seem to understand the difference between a cliche and a convention. Now I’m all for breaking with convention, doing something fresh, or new, but it’s important that people understand that this will be meaningful mainly because of the convention it defies, and won’t be inherently artistic or original for that. I mean, I bet you every convention he talks about defying here has been defied at some point, and perhaps even has become part of the mythos. I mean, how many comic books or movies have come out playing off of superheroes as heroic figures? How many Superheroes have quickly revealed their secrets, or not had truly traumatic childhoods?
Folks need to realize that meaning often comes from the execution of the concept, not merely from turning left when everybody else turns right.
Genius IQ “Where’s the average intelligence guy who gets super powers?”
How about Captain America?
“Where are the purely evil villains?”
What about the Joker or Bane? What about Shaw from XMen:First Class?
“Concealed identity?”
It’s a known fact that the more people that know a secret, the harder it is to keep said secret. For every friend you tell, the odds of you being discovered by the badguys or authorities increase tenfold, which leads me into “Why are the cops always after the superheroes?”
Vigilantism is illegal. There’s a reason for that. If Spider-Man is allowed to swing around and take out baddies, than anyone is. If we allow that to happen, where does it stop? To not add this element to a superhero flick instantly destroys the suspension of disbelief, and for movies about mutated people, you need to be as grounded in reality as possible, otherwise you’re just not going to care or become invested in the story.