How They Ruined Superhero Movies

The BrainFood Show

Cloud10

Education, History

4.9 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2026

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“In mutant heaven there are no pearly gates, but instead revolving doors.” - Professor X In the realm of comic books, the rules of the respective universe you’re reading about tend to differ wildly from the rules of our own. Besides the obvious thing of the world of say Marvel or DC being populated with virtual gods, iron plated dictators who sit atop flying laser thrones and a CEO who beats up criminals in a billion-dollar ninja-themed fur suit, problems in these universes sort of seem to just, go away. Property damage, the judicial process and paper works are just a handful examples of things that don’t particularly seem to matter in comics and as a result, are rarely dwelled upon. There are exceptions of course, but for the most part the stories told by comics are allegorical so such details don’t really matter. Perhaps the most unusual reality of life comics have made a habit of sidestepping though is the idea of death, which is often portrayed as being about as much of an inconvenience to a comic character as an out of office hours work email. A trope so common even the characters in these stories have started to call it out. Now, to begin with, think of a comic character. Do you have one in mind? Good. Okay so there’s a good chance that, at some point, that character has died, been buried, mourned and memorialised before springing back to life to continue slapping aside criminals and supervillains in form-fitting spandex as if nothing happened. And if they haven’t “died” there’s a good chance they were presumed dead after an explosion or something and then came back as if nothing had happened. Starting with some of the heavier hitters from the DC side we have Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow and Robin. All of whom, at some point in their comic history have “died” and then came back. Author: Karl Smallwood Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Host: Simon Whistler Sponsor: Incogni - Use code BRAINFOOD and get 60% off an annual plan using the link https://incogni.com/brainfood Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	In Mutant Heaven, there are no pearly gates, but instead a revolving door, Professor X.
0:05.7	In the realm of comic books, the rules of the respective universe you're reading about tend to
0:10.0	differ wildly from the rules of our own. Beside the obvious thing of the world of, say,
0:14.6	Marvel or DC being populated with virtual gods, iron-plated dictators who sit atop flying
0:19.8	laser thrones and a CEO who beats
0:21.8	up criminals in a billion-dollar ninja-themed first suit, problems in these universes sort of
0:27.3	just seem to go away. Property damage, the judicial process and paperwork are just a handful of
0:32.9	examples of things that don't particularly seem to matter in comics, and as a result,
0:36.9	are rarely dwelled upon.
0:38.2	There are exceptions, of course, but for the most part, the stories told by comics are allegorical,
0:43.4	so such details don't really matter.
0:45.6	Perhaps the most unusual reality of life, comics have made a habit of sidestepping, though,
0:49.8	is the idea of death, which is often portrayed as being about as much of an inconvenience to a
0:56.0	comic character as an out-of-office hours work email. A trope so common, even the characters
1:00.9	in these stories have started to call it out. Now, to begin with, think of a comic character.
1:06.2	Do you have all in mind? Excellent. Okay, so there's a good chance that at some point this character has died, been buried,
1:13.6	mourned and memorialized before springing back to life to continue slapping aside criminals
1:18.1	and supervillains in form bidding spandex as if nothing happens.
1:22.3	And if they haven't died, there's a good chance they were presumed dead after an explosion
1:26.4	or something and then came back as if nothing had happened. Starting with some of the heavier hitters from the DC side, we have Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow and Robin, all of whom, at some point in their comic history, have died, and then come back. On the Marvel side, we have Spider-Man Gene Gray, Wolverine, Gene
1:45.2	Grey, Captain America, Gene Gray, Punisher, Gene Gray, Daredevil, Gene Gray, Hawkeye, Gene Gray,
1:50.3	The Hulk, Thor, Gene Gray, and, a list we forget to mention, Gene Gray. All of whom
	...

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