When asked what makes up the traditional superhero story, what comes to mind?

Do you think of a selfless character with crazy powers and a bright costume? A villain that monologues their ingenious plan? A damsel in distress that needs saving? These, among many other tropes, are all well-known traditions when it comes to superhero storytelling.

The problem, however, is that these thematic conventions were shunned for decades.

The bright spandex was traded for leather jackets, optimistic outlooks were replaced with pessimistic “realistic” looks at the world and politics, and icons were systematically broken down to where they were depicted as just as much of a problem as the villains they fought.

Like all literary movements, there is no set starting date for when the shift to dismantle superheroes began. Still, a commonly agreed-upon starting point would be the 1980s, where superhero comics en masse began a shift to more mature narratives. At the time, these stories were seen as juvenile, disposable entertainment. They were meant for kids that wanted to read a colorful comic about a man who can fly. Then in 1986, the comics “Watchmen” and “The Dark Knight Returns” were released.

These two books were the culmination of a growing need from comic book writers to legitimize their medium, which helped them rise above the ephemeral campiness into something

gritty and real. Each story purposefully and meticulously countered the conventions of superhero storytelling, carving out a new path for the genre to follow.

These books were a rousing success, being held in the highest regard to this day. They influenced the industry as a whole, which made both readers and writers embrace a turn to more “adult” storytelling.

However, these victories became a double-edged sword.

While writers began to truly flourish, feeling as though they have broken down restrictive guardrails, the movement began to become too all-encompassing.

Now every hero needed 15 layers of tragedy in their story. They were not allowed to be expressly good, and there needed to be slight flaws and caveats within their ideology. By the early 2000’s, superheroes were actively trying to discredit their previous iterations.

A prime example would be the “The Ultimates”, written by Mark Millar. Released in 2002, “The Ultimates” were an alternative take on the Avengers, portrayed as much more cynical. While the Avengers began as a group of heroes banding together to stop a greater evil, the Ultimates are individuals selectively chosen by the United States government to act as an anti-terrorist group.

Film adaptations were no different. In presenting these stories to a wider audience, the films shed a lot of the conventions that defined the books, and in some cases, becoming an adaptation in name only. The “X-Men” films of the early 2000’s are one of the more popular examples, which decided to dress a team known for their bright yellow uniforms in black leather so audiences would take them more seriously.

From the 80s to the 2010s, an innumerable amount of stories came into being with the express purpose of stripping away what makes superheroes what they are.

But what happens after?

The answer is a reconstruction of the superhero. A rebuilding from the ground up, countering the counterculture. After years of being character flanderization, writers have begun to take the broken apart pieces and put them back together.

A distinct turning point would be the “DC Rebirth” comic line in 2016 , which was DC Comic’s response to readers complaining about the gritty and isolated tropes that had been characterizing comics by that point. This era embraced legacy and heart, qualities that on the whole were sorely missing. Namely, it removed the pessimistic Superman, replacing him with the icon of hope that been missing for years.

We are witnessing this shift in the grander scheme of pop culture as well.

Within the recent Superman film, audiences witnessed a full embrace of superheroes and what they stand for to all new degrees: battling giant monsters during the work week, evil geniuses casually making pocket dimensions to throw their exes into, and a protagonist that is unabashedly a hero.

What were common tropes on the page are now revolutionary on the silver screen.

Audiences have wholeheartedly accepted this take on Superman as well, with the film being part of the zeitgeist since June 2025. The film ended up being the largest piece of proof that the market is done with their icons being dismantled and dramatized. They want to see Superman get a cat out of a tree, or Spider-Man helping a kid with his science homework, and they are starting to get those stories again without tongue-in-cheek angst about the cliché.

Heroes are finally allowed to be heroes.