Within a week’s time I have binged Daredevil season 2 and seen Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and it has left me with more than a few observations. First, Daredevil does a better job of analyzing what happens when two good men view goodness in different ways. One of the stories that is a building block for season 2 is the meeting of Daredevil and The Punisher, which was written during Frank Miller’s run on the book. Interestingly, The Dark Knight Returns serves as inspiration for Batman v Superman, also a Frank Miller story. Mr. Miller likes his moral quandaries, especially when the backdrop is characters who have strong ethics or codes of honor. Unfortunately, DC Comics’ latest cinematic entry barely skirts the subject. But, that is not why I am here. As I was watching the movie I asked myself, Could this movie had been made 30 or 40 years ago? Was the world ready to see heroes with moral conflicts on the big screen? Could Christopher Reeve’s Superman have been believable as an all powerful being who would come to blows with another hero who viewed justice differently? I’m certain that Henry Caville’s Superman would not have been accepted in the late 70s and early 80s… just like Christopher Reeve’s Superman would be widely panned now by the general populace.

I believe that we now live in a world where we, as a people, need to see our heroes flawed, to see them as human – I know that I certainly do. It is why Superman has undergone so many revisions in the past 10-15 years, but Batman largely remains the same. It is why you may see race or gender swaps of Marvel characters, but their personalities pretty much remain the same. Marvel has this amazing way of giving us superheroes with everyday problems and it continues to pay off. Many of the smaller companies have figured this out and continue to give us stories that resonate with us regardless of age, gender, faith, or sexual orientation. It is that human factor that makes all of the difference.

So it doesn’t matter if you’re a costumed vigilante, a savage dragon, a spawn of hell, or an overweight superheroine, the writing must be relevant to the time to speak to the reader. The writer has to be aware of what it means to be human, to live, to breath, to love, to do all of those things that we do on a daily basis and take for granted until we either lose it or it is thrown in our faces. I challenge you to go back and read something that you have held dear for a long time. Do you still get the same message? A different one? Why?