4. Pretentious Religious Symbolism
Its been said many times that super hero storytelling is modern myth. In a sense, these characters are god figures. In fact, Jerry Seigel and Joe Schuster, Superman's creators, took inspiration from the old testament in creating the character. However, we mustnt get carried away and equate superheroes to characters appearing in our religions. Case in point, Man of Steel finds a 33-year-old Clark Kent, who at one point is framed next to stained glass windows depicting Jesus Christ. In a later scene, his Kryptonian father encourages him to save everyone on earth. He accepts his divine mission, floats out into space in a Christ-like pose, and flies back to earth to protect the helpless humans. This crap is unsubtle and condescending. Make it stop. Please. As audience members, it becomes difficult for us to relate to a protagonist with near god-like attributes. Jor-El even says, "You will give the people of earth an ideal to strive towards. They will race behind you, they will stumble they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun." As alienated from mankind as Clark is, I wonder if such statements also alienate the audience further from him. A common distinction between DC and Marvel is that most DC characters tend to have more in common with Greek Gods while Marvel is more science-based, featuring flawed human beings. Unless DC characters headed to the big screen are adequately humanized, audiences will instead respond more favorably to Marvel's increasingly improving output.