8 Superhero Movie Tropes That Need To Die

Can we move on from all the crying?

We€™re a good fifteen years or so into this wave of superhero mega-franchises which continue to batter the fair cliffs of cinemaland, and given the amount of universe expansions, origins stories, sequels and prequels in production currently it looks like we€™re in this for the long haul. As such, there are a lot of conventions that have sprung up around the genre, all loudly proclaiming €œYOU€™RE WATCHING A SUPERHERO MOVIE GUYS€ just in case you were worried that you€™d accidentally wandered into Alvin And The Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel. These range from the basically harmless (capes, cowls, completely absurd pecs) to the vaguely irritating (Stan Lee€™s cameos) to the ones which are actually limiting the scope and scale of superhero movies. The tropes on this list are in danger of hemming the superhero genre into a prison of its own making, endlessly referencing other films and watering itself down into a reductive shadow of what it could be. Apart from anything else, the one thing a superhero movie should never be is boring, and these tropes are in real danger of lulling the whole enterprise into a sleepwalking stupor, each film only differentiated by the design on the hero€™s chest.
Contributor
Contributor

Holding midfielder; can get forward. Decent engine.