Where have all my heroes gone?

It's no secret that I was a big fan of comic books when I was a kid. Truth be told, I'm still a fan of comic books. Ask my wife. I get positively giddy every time a super hero movie opens. I peed my pants, (just a little, I didn't soak them or anything) when Batman Begins hit the theaters. After that movie exploded it seemed like every summer a new hero of my youth made their way on to celluloid. But something had changed. It seemed like these heroes were just a short hair away from their villain counterparts. The line between good and evil was no longer defined. There were gray areas. Now I know some people would say, "have you read a comic book in the last twenty years?" I must admit I have - but they weren't mainstream comics. I've been following Indie stuff, small publishers. So, I picked up a Batman comic book and I have to say I couldn't believe its contents. Here was the proof - in those all too familiar small boxes. This was the format that I remember from my youth - but not the substance. What happened? The mayhem, the brutal psychopathic violence- what were they doing in a medium for kids? What were they doing in comic books? I can just hear those goth teens at the San Diego Comic Con hissing at me and saying "They're not comic books. They're graphic novels!" OK, so maybe I'm just a fuddy-duddy showing my full forty years - but I believe there is a term called "appropriate medium." If there isn't , there should be. Comics are for kids. Aren't they? Shouldn't they be? For me comics were where I learned right from wrong. I may not have been able to fly or lift a car, but I sure knew that using your talents to help mankind was better than using your talents to harm humanity. There were no gray areas. No inner demons to battle. There was only Peter Parker who learned "that with great power comes great responsibility." And there was Superman: An alien from another planet - who disguised as mild mannered Clark Kent, a reporter for a major metropolitan newspaper, fought a never ending battle for truth, justice and the American way. I remember so vividly running around the house with a bath towel pinned around my neck and a masking tape "S" on my chest. I recently found out that since Superman Returns did so poorly at the box office - the Studio thinks a reboot of the franchise is in order. They want to make him a brooding and conflicted Man of Steel... "More like Batman." I cried when I heard that news, (not like Niagara Falls, but I did get misty). It's a sad moment when a literary hero - with all his Christlike light is reduced to a creature of depressed depravity. That's right - Superman is a metaphor for Jesus - deal with it. His father sends him to earth to be a beacon of light, "with powers beyond normal men." Need more proof? "They can be a great people, Kal El, they only lack the light to show them the way. For this reason I have sent them you." But I digress. Now, because of the "success" of The Dark Knight Returns - the studios think that Batman is the new prototype for all heroes. Conflicted, flawed super heroes = box office gold. Bleech! I'm sure that people could make the argument that society creates the demand. As a people we need our characters to have inner conflict, because how can we identify with heroes who don't? After all, we're all hooked on Prozac and need our therapists to soothe our conflicted natures, don't we? Here's a thought, maybe heroes should be above that. Maybe our spandex clad heroes are who our children should aspire to be. Not used as a proof that their angst is acceptable. Our super heroes are meant to soar above the clouds. Not sit in the gutters. Give comic books and their heroes back to kids. They need them.