How to Give Your Superhero Story an Optimistic Tone (Patreon)

Golly, I wonder what has me thinking about superhero stories with an optimistic tone?

In my opinion, this has been the best summer for superhero movies in a long time, and the tone, overall, was surprisingly light. The chief villain in Thunderbolts turned out to be depression, and the last half hour is the closest thing we may ever get to Psychonauts: the Movie. Superman is easily my favorite Superman movie ever made, largely because of Krypto. And Fantastic Four, or as it was called here, O Quarteto Fantástico, is the Fantastic Four movie I’ve been wanting since I was a kid reading the comic.

I think I may have mentioned it before, but Ben Grimm, the Thing, has always been my favorite superhero. Second and third place were Nightcrawler and the Beast. Stan Lee had his flaws, but it was a stroke of genius to realize that shy kids with self-esteem issues bought comics too, and probably bought more of them, in the long run.