A contemporary cliché, but a cliché nonetheless, this one is so prevalent that it's cemented in our minds as a totally irritating trope already. And, as it so happens, a large amount of them come from the depraved mind of Mark Millar. The foul-mouthed Scot has cornered the market in the gritty, "realistic" takes on the superhero genre over the past few years, from the violent vigilantism of Kick-Ass to the military-grade evil Batman analogue Nemesis. The "realistic" take on superheroes goes back further than that, though, taking in Alan Moore's early attempts to place the colourful four-colour world of comic books into the muted, serious context of the world as we know it. Which is awfully tiresome. Watchmen is certainly a classic, but Millar and his peer's comics are just variations on that same theme. Yes, if superheroes existed in the real world, it would be very different. Bad things would happen. It would be sad. The costumes would look silly. You're speaking a lot, but you're not saying much.
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/
