Not everybody who has a messed up childhood, or is the victim of a crime, or suffers a terrible accident becomes a superhero or a supervillain. Our very real world is a clear example of that: around 100% of kids who are orphaned, people who see their Uncle shot in a botched mugging or unfortunates who stumble into vats of acid do not take this as a reason to start wearing lycra and jumping out of shadowy alleyways at petty criminals. There are real life superheroes, but usually they're just regular people with overactive imaginations. So why is it that nearly every superhero requires a tragic origin story? Batman's parents were gunned down before his very eyes, Spider-Man's uncle got killed and he could've stopped it, Superman's entire home planet was destroyed, Daredevil was blinded stopping an old man getting hit by a car, all of the X-Men had pretty bad times of it. All of these are given as justification for why these people take up the mantle of protecting and serving their fellow man, but why can't one of them do it just because they want to? Or they feel a duty to helping others because it's a little sociopathic not to? Because tragic origins have become the standard, that's why. And it's growing a little tiresome.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
