5. Humbled Heroes
Despite being out of the game for eight years, Bruce Wayne believes he is still just as good of a Batman as he ever was in
The Dark Knight Rises. He discounts Alfreds warnings about Bane, thinking he can just fight harder like he has before. Instead, Bruce Wayne loses everything. First, he loses his longtime friend and adoptive father, Alfred. Then, Bruces money is stolen. Finally, Batman loses a fight, enduring a brutal beating at the hands of Bane. Bruce is stripped of his cape and cowl, falling from grace as he is sent down into an underground prison where he must rebuild his body and rediscover his will to live in order to comeback and stop Bane. An over-inflated ego is nothing new for Tony Stark, but he takes things to a new level in
Iron Man 3. After Happy Hogan is injured in a bombing (kind of like Batman coming back after Gordon was shot), Tony Stark publicly calls out the Mandarin. If that wasnt enough, Tony even provides the Mandarin with the formers home address and waits for an attack. Tony gets his wish, as the Mandarins soldiers destroy Starks Malibu home and Tony literally sinks to the bottom of the ocean, left for dead. He escapes, barely, but still suffers a fall from grace of his own, literally dropping out of the sky and landing in what might as well be the middle of nowhere. He loses his digital companion and confidant, JARVIS, and his Mark XLII suit, which runs out of power. Tony has also lost his confidence. While a garage in Tennessee is more comfortable than an underground prison, Tony Stark has to rebuild his mind, body, and armor in order to comeback and defeat the Mandarin. Knocking these characters off of their respective purchases was an effective way for each film to legitimize the danger they were in while drawing yet another emotional investment from the audience. Combined with emotional troubles already plaguing each man, these plot elements are brilliant summations of the total cost of being a hero on the level of Batman or Iron Man. Then, and only then, can the true measure of their sacrifice be appreciated.