For decades,superheromovies have been central to cinema and pop culture. Thanks in part to the massive success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe, each of the movies from these franchises follows the journeys of inspiring characters who utilize their unique abilities to yield positive change in their fictional worlds. They entail the heroes going against villains, anti-heroes, and in some cases, themselves, as the films' plots arrive at their respective conclusions. While these flicks have brought some fresh and innovative ideas to the action genre, they have also relied heavily on familiar tropes that have become exhausted and predictable.
Certain tropes are baked into the writingbetween the premise and the resolutions of comic book movies. These tropes are formulaic patterns meant to guarantee internet-breaking scenes, deliver fan service, or make social commentary on real-life issues. Initially, these tropes achieved their purpose by adding complexity and depth to the movie. However, it is getting to the point that they have become abused. Now, they lack substance and even diminish the story’s essence. Here are some tropes in superhero movies that require more creative attention from the writing room.
Updated on July 25, 2025: If you are also sick and tired of superhero movie tropes, then you will be happy to know that this article has been updated with more content by Samuel Cormier.
As well as being fun standalone adventures in their own right, it’s no secret that over the past fifteen years or so, superhero movies have become opportunities to set up future stories. After all, few superhero films nowadays exist in their own world and, instead, form a part of a larger shared universe (or even multiverse) of comic book-inspired characters. With so many characters floating around, filmmakers and producers often take the opportunity to promote future or past films by inserting cameos into the narrative of the movie.
Cameos Are Fun, But Can Be Distracting
Sometimes a cameo can be a fun bit of worldbuilding, but other times, it is distracting and brings everything to a halt. The worst offender was recently inThe Flash, which stops dead in its tracks to show CGI deep fakes of Christopher Reeves as Superman, Adam West as Batman, and Nicolas Cage as Superman that have no meaning to the characters and are meant to generate applause from the audience. The MarvelStan Lee cameosget a pass, though.
13The Hero Creates Their Own Villain
Villains come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes they have a personal connection to the hero, and sometimes they don’t. All too often, though, the villain turns out to be someone from the hero’s past that was wronged by them in some way. Perhaps they were a loyal fan who was ignored by the hero, like Syndrome inThe Incredibles. Or maybe they were the relative of an innocent bystander that the hero tried but failed to save, or even the relative of a former villain of the same hero, such as Harry Osborn as the Green Goblin.
It’s Been Overused For a While
Whatever the case, they grow up to resent the hero and turn to villainy to exact their revenge. While there are certainly a couple of fun examples of this, it’s certainly a trope that has been used a few too many times over the years. One needs to look at every villain in the original Sam RaimiSpider-Manseries and see how they all had some connection to Peter Parker.Tony Stark in the MCUis responsible for the creation of Aldrich Killian, Ultron, Vulture, Mysterio, and many more.
12Power Loss Makes You Stronger
Though superheroes don’t necessarily need superpowers to qualify, most of them possess at least one. Whether it’s spider-like agility and strength brought on by the bite of a radioactive spider, telekinesis as a result of genetic mutation, or god-like abilities that hail from another planet, the powers a hero possesses play a big role in informing both their character and their story. While origin stories tend to establish how characters gain their powers, sequels like to revel in the idea of the hero losing them and being forced to become ‘normal’ once more before regaining them in the final act.
A Tired Trope to Drive Character Development
The idea behind this is that the protagonist is supposed to learn the lesson that it is the strength of their character that makes them a hero, not the special abilities they once possessed. It also helps them to understand that they shouldn’t take their powers for granted. However, this concept has been used so many times insuperhero movie sequelssinceSuperman IIthat it has become highly predictable.Spider-Man 2,The Wolverine, andWonder Woman 1984are just a couple of examples.
11The Cooler Sidekick
Sidekicks are essentialto the superhero universe. The relationship between a hero and a sidekick reflects the mentorship and leadership traits of the superhero in focus. The most famous duo is probably Batman and Robin, albeit better known in comics themselves than in cinema. However, the sporadic insertion of sidekicks into storylines subconsciously shifts the spotlight from the main characters the movie/series should be about. Think Baby Groot, a comic relief character who completely overshadowed Star-Lord.
Audiences Are Tired of the Sidekick Dynamic
Another jarring issue is when sidekicks quickly take on superhero mantles of their own, making the superhero less relatable as they no longer have any normal friends but only those with superpowers. An example that was somewhat successful is Rusty inDeadpool 2, because it is incredibly difficult to take the focus off of Ryan Reynolds. With that being said, this trend has failed many times by either overexposing the sidekick, or, on the contrary, making them an incredibly forgettable character.
10Fake Relatability Between the Hero and the Villain
Protagonists and antagonists are on opposing sides of morality. In some movies, the antagonist’s motives even trigger debates about whether their actions are justifiable. The best example of this isby far Thanos, who decides to wipe away half of the earth’s population in order to save the other half from a depletion of resources, as happened on his home planet. Really, is that much worse compared to superheroes who cause multiple car accidents, a collapsed building, and a broken bridge just to catch one bad guy?
They Don’t Need to Be Relatable
But the cliché lies when the villain, who is clearly trying to cause needless harm and bloodshed, renders a narcissistic monologue in which they draw parallels to make themselves seem like the hero with the classic old phrase: “You and I aren’t so different.” The Green Goblin to Spiderman, Dr. Evil to Austin Powers, The Punisher to Batman AND Slade to Robin… Do we need to go on? Whenever someone hears a variation of this phrase, they will be forced into a mindless discussion about the philosophy of crime. Yes, you are so different after all.
9Repeating Origin Stories
While it’s crucial to establish a character’s backstory, many superhero movies rely too heavily on the same basicorigin story formula. This has caused many to wonder at what point to stop retelling original stories of well-established characters. Unless it is a character yet to have a live-action debut, every other well-known superhero on television needs no more origin stories. How many times do audiences need to see the origin of Spider-Man, Superman, or Batman?
Origin Stories Are Tired Starting Points
Thankfully, the last iteration of Spider-Man incarnated by Tom Holland skipped over the radioactive spider bite, whether it be in the Avengers movies or his own. Let us hope Marvel Studios' upcomingFantastic Fourditches the origin story. And then there are heroes (or villains, like The Joker) whose origin stories are not consistent between movies. On the other hand, numerous storylines of diverse superheroes are yet to be adapted to the big screen, and it’s time studios began exploring them.
10 Superhero Movies That Stand Perfectly Fine on Their Own
You don’t need additional films to provide context or continue the story; these superhero movies are perfect as is.
8The Villain Rejected by Society
Still on the topic of origin stories, every villain has one that explains their sinister motives and twisted worldview. Somevillains' origin storiesare tragic and even cause us to empathize with their plight. But for others, their dark past is nothing more than being social outcasts. This is a trope that has played in several superhero movies. Commonly associated with The Riddler inBatman Forever, it has since been used from Electro inThe Amazing Spider-Manto Cheetah inWonder Woman 1984.
Doesn’t Set a Good Example for Young Viewers
These villains perpetuate evil and cause a menace to society because they want to feel equally important or superior to the hero and every other character in their universe. Then, there is alsoThe Dark KnightJoker, who only causes trouble to disturb society as per his anarchic “values,” and tries to force Batman into making choices that he does not want to make. While it was fun at the beginning of the 2000s, it now feels pretty sad to see that the only future for bullied or traumatized children in superhero movies is to become a big bad villain. No doubt that studios can dig further to create their nemeses.
7The Evil Superman
One of the newest tropes introduced to superhero movies is “the evil Superman.” He is an extremely powerful and indestructible character. Unlike the kryptonite journalist, this character uses his god-like abilities to wreak havoc and propagate fear. Although this trope has its genesis in DC Comics, the evil Superman tropes mostly exist in dark comic genres outside of DC and Marvel.
The best examples of characters that portray these tropes are Homelander inThe Boys, Omni-man inInvincible, and Ikaris fromEternals. Originally, these characters were created to show the dangers of power in the wrong hands — and, more interestingly, to flip the switch on the “with great power comes great responsibility” mantra every superhero must uphold. This trope worked for a while, as it has been a fun subversion of the most popular superhero.
It Feels Like a Lazy Solution
The issue is that it has been used so many times, and also, for a good while, it seemed like the only thing DC knew to do with the actual Superman. Evil Superman was teased through the DCEU, the CW seriesSuperman & Lois, and theInjusticeanimated film; at this point, the idea of a classic Superman started to feel like a radical one. Luckily, the recentMy Adventures with Supermanand James Gunn’s upcomingSuperman: Legacywill see a more classic Superman.
6The Evil Variant Versus
The Flash vs. The Reverse Flash, Antman vs. Yellowjacket, Hulk vs. Abomination,Superman vs. Zod, the list goes on. Yes, it is thrilling to see a hero go toe-to-toe against a villain of their size and abilities. However, it has gotten to the point that film writers and directors just want to pair two similar characters against each other without a concrete plot tying the fight event together. All that matters is to see how one will use their non-super-skills to beat the other, while rarely diving into the values or motivations of the characters.
It Isn’t Interesting to Watch
While it may work on a thematic level, it isn’t quite as interesting as seeing a hero and villain with different power sets face off and seeing how they conflict with one another. This was always part of the fun of the X-Men movies: seeing different powers clash with one another. What is stronger, wits or strength? Ice or fire? Mind-bending or hyper-perception? The best thing is seeing how the superheroes are better than the supervillains beyond simply their powers.
5The Fake Death
How often have we seen heroes draw their last breath before shutting their eyes or fall from an unsurvivable height only to return to life angrier, wiser, and more powerful enough to save the day? To an extent, it isn’t a complete superhero movie if it does not have a fake death scene with a somber musical score playing in the background. The most controversial example of this isNick Fury from the MCU, who returned from the other side without much explanation and only to serve the plot.
Lost the Emotional Impact
Furthermore, many superhero movies feature a hero making a sacrificial play. While it does go a long way to raise the plot’s stakes and demonstrate the hero’s selflessness, this trope has become so common that it has lost some of its emotional impact on the audience. And the worst is if the hero survives their demise: the audience is both relieved to see their hero survive, but there is also the bitter taste that actions rarely seem to have consequences on superheroes.
