7. Doing It For Money
Appears In: Superman, Superman Returns & Iron Man Perhaps we shouldn't expect anything different when Lex Luthor is playing the bad guy, but in both the original Superman and Bryan Singer's Superman Returns, Lex Luthor's evil scheme revolved around a real estate scam that would make him super rich. In Iron Man, Obadiah Stane wants to get rid of Tony Stark for attempting to shut down Stark Industries' weapons program, which in turn cost him and the company a wealth of money. The problem is that, in the post-Batman world where grit is popular above all else, these schemes just come across as goofy. Furthermore, without a personal thrust at the front of the story, it's hard to get that viscerally involved in what's taking place on-screen. Couldn't they opt for something a little more interesting as their motivation?