(UTV|COLOMBO) – We do not like to think about that. But deep down we are perfectly aware of this obvious fact. Consider this: in all seriousness, we enjoy watching superpowered beings clad in gaudy spandex take on similarly clad bad guys, who are also mostly overpowered. There are cosmic journeys across parallel worlds and fictional realities and bridges connecting several universes and whatnot. If we did not enjoy seeing them in action so much, superhero movies would have been dismissed to the ignoble realm of kids’ movies, as they used to be once.
The self-serious thing worked well for, let us say, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy because of Batman, who was too much of an ordinary mortal. Although he was equipped with advanced gadgets, weaponry and immense physical strength, but he was still safely inside the sphere of possible. Batman of comics was already pretty down-to-earth, and Nolan brought it down even further. It is easier to suspend disbelief when it is just a muscular man fighting criminals who are not demons or alien monsters but routine drug dealers and mobsters… and psychopaths with clown makeup.