10 Superhero Movie Clichés Everybody Secretly Loves
Nobody likes cliches, but every so often one comes along that you can only pretend to hate.
It's no secret that superhero movies have become one of the biggest cinematic draws in recent years. With the launch of Marvel's cinematic universe in 2008 thanks to the release of Jon Favreau's Iron Man - as well as Christopher Nolan's second dive into the Caped Crusader in the same year - the conversation surrounding superheroes began to shift from one of ridicule and insincerity to one of admiration and intrigue.
Superheroes now dominate the box office, allowing characters such as Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, and the Guardians of the Galaxy to not only get a shot in the spotlight but, many times, outshine it.
However, with this increase in production and critical acclaim, the genre has also begun facing far more scrutiny. People expect more from these films now than they ever have before, and with such high expectation and examination, we notice every little detail, especially the tropes that seem to reappear in nearly every movie.
We groan at the countless clichés - but do we really hate them, or are we just trying to preserve a veil of sophistication when deep down, we love them every time we see them? Either way, here are some superhero movie cliches everybody secretly loves.
10. Nobody Important Dies (and If They Do, They Come Back)
When the MCU began to hit its stride in the early 2010s, many complaints about its stakes began to rise. Many avid watchers of the cinematic universe felt that the main cast of heroes never experienced any genuine peril.
Because nobody died, the stakes seemed fake, and even when they did kill characters - such as Quicksilver and Agent Coulson - they had such little impact in the overall story up to their death that it felt hollow.
The fact that characters seemed close to dying but ended up being perfectly fine later only worsened this sentiment. Nick Fury, Loki, and Agent Coulson coming back after being thought dead became another catalyst for the fans' complaints.
However, though we claim to want the most pivotal characters to die, do we really? We grow with these characters for years and we want to follow them even longer.
Yes, the fake out deaths can break tension for the future, but we don't want our favourite characters dying every other film. We want to see them encounter and respond to a variety of threats, and that can only happen if they can make it a while. We may not want them to live forever but we love that our favourite characters don't die.