In their original conception many of these superhero stories have a pretty decent message, the problem is that as time goes on they drift further and further away as the IP is expanded and reinterpreted by people who did not "get them" and do not agree with the original intent. Then of course you have the ideological dilution that always happens when something becomes successful with big money interests behind it and gets commercialized for mass appeal such that the message becomes less and less radical until the lowest common denominator is reached. And in this process of Hollywoodization of course most movies that involve big budget action scenes more often than not become involved with the US military which also makes sure to insert it's fascist, imperialist, US war machine glorifying ideological taint into the project.
And so the question is at what point does the original intent start to become irrelevant in the face of what the IP has morphed into, in the face of what it represents in its most recent and popular incarnations? Defending Marvel movies for instance with the argument that the original conception of the superheroes portrayed in them was positive for me personally is kind of like saying that the Swastika was originally a symbol of peace - that may be so but clearly it has since become irreleversibly tainted.
In their original conception many of these superhero stories have a pretty decent message, the problem is that as time goes on they drift further and further away as the IP is expanded and reinterpreted by people who did not "get them" and do not agree with the original intent. Then of course you have the ideological dilution that always happens when something becomes successful with big money interests behind it and gets commercialized for mass appeal such that the message becomes less and less radical until the lowest common denominator is reached. And in this process of Hollywoodization of course most movies that involve big budget action scenes more often than not become involved with the US military which also makes sure to insert it's fascist, imperialist, US war machine glorifying ideological taint into the project.
And so the question is at what point does the original intent start to become irrelevant in the face of what the IP has morphed into, in the face of what it represents in its most recent and popular incarnations? Defending Marvel movies for instance with the argument that the original conception of the superheroes portrayed in them was positive for me personally is kind of like saying that the Swastika was originally a symbol of peace - that may be so but clearly it has since become irreleversibly tainted.