12 Ways Comic Book Movies Totally Ripped Each Other Off

12. Making Really Awkward Puberty Allegories

The odd consequence of Hollywood's fascination with rebooting superhero movies, or concentrating mostly on their origins and formative years is that the primary theme in 90% of them is now a thinly veiled puberty allegory.

In the X-Men, teenage mutants come to terms with their bodies being different, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Superman in Man Of Steel and Batman all embark on journeys to find themselves (and also, inevitably, come to terms with new powers and looming responsibilities) and Spider-Man goes as far as to make secret masturbation jokes about Spidey's web slinging.

It's now got to the stage where every superhero movie with half an eye on origins will present that arc as a puberty allegory, and it all comes down to the fact that it worked for Bryan Singer.