I loath what superhero movies have done to the expectations of film and tv execs/producers of speculative fiction narratives.
Just one example:
My God, if I have to hear, “But who is the clear villain in this story?” one more fucking time, I’m going to scream.
I thought Hayao Miyazaki solved this toxic expectation when he flipped the script on the concept of villains.
Not every story has or NEEDS a villain!!!
Which is funny, because one of the most frequent tropes of superhero genre is the infighting between the heroes (a clear example is Civil War, or most of first encounters between heroes) or the friends gone bad because serious mental issues (two X-Men films, latest Dr. Strange). In the comics, there has been space for comedy, helping misguided teenagers, benevolent aliens unable to understand humans... Or stories where the main character is the villain.
The problem with films is they spend so much money, they need every movie to be the greatest, most spectacular and dramatic story ever. Which doesn't make sense for most of superheroes, which usually work better as very long soap operas. That was originally the main reason of Marvel Comics success, specially Spider-Man (which was really a coming-of-age romantic comedy with mad scientists) and the X-Men (which was about friendship and racial issues, where Luther King and Malcolm X served as inspiration for Charles Xavier and Magneto).
