[lz_jwplayer video=”jVJmXb4y” ads=”true”]

Christopher Reeve’s debut as the Man of Steel in 1978’s “Superman” was silly, campy fun, with Gene Hackman chewing the scenery like it was a giant piece of taffy as supervillain Lex Luthor. But ever since the 2005 smash hit success of “Batman Begins,” there has been a much darker tone to many of the superhero films that have hit the multiplexes.

DC’s “Dark Knight” trilogy and its “Man of Steel” Superman movie had a somber tone, dark emotions, and extremely violent showdowns with the villains — culminating in the destruction of Metropolis in “Man of Steel” and Superman offending longtime fans by flat-out murdering the villain in the end. 

Marvel has had 12 movies and counting, with heroes from Thor and the Hulk to Iron Man and Captain America teaming up  with at least a half-dozen others in the “Avengers” movies and the new “Captain America: Civil War” — but generally, the Marvel movies have kept a lighter tone and employed a great deal of humor to take the edges off their more violent moments.

But still, it might be worth considering whether the negative effect of absorbing violence as entertainment truly is mitigated just because the perpetrators are good guys and gals in tights. The 2014 film, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” introduced a darker edge to the Marvel universe with a deeper, more politically complex plot that also featured more intense shootouts and chases than prior films from the company.

[lz_related_box id=”132252″]

And the new “Captain America: Civil War” — which kicked off summer movie season on Friday and carries a rating of PG-13 — has at least a dozen superheroes, including Marvel Cinematic Universe newcomers like Black Panther, duking it out against both baddies and each other when they are forced to consider whether or not to accept United Nations oversight over their actions. The resulting fight scenes are a nonstop blur of punching, kicking, choking, flipping, and throwing of bodies, not to mention the fact that the terror attacks scattered throughout the movie are portrayed with serious consequences to innocent civilians.

Thus, the question arises: If these same people were doing these same acts of violence upon each other without the context of being superheroes — as just everyday, normal human characters as found in other movies — would we be concerned? Particularly, when it comes to children seeing it? And considering that Marvel has plenty more of these films slated over the next five years, how much more violent are these films going to get in the future?

Close

[lz_third_party includes=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKrVegVI0Us”]

An August 2010 story by Richard Alleyne in The Daily Telegraph noted that Dr. Sharon Lamb of the University of Massachusetts addressed these concerns to that year’s annual convention of the American Psychological Association.

“‘There is a big difference in the movie superhero of today and the comic book superhero of yesterday,” Dr. Lamb told the APA convention attendees. “Today’s superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in nonstop violence. He’s aggressive, sarcastic, and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity.’”

Furthermore, the comic book heroes of the past did fight criminals, “but these were heroes boys could look up to and learn from because outside of their costumes, they were real people with real problems and many vulnerabilities,” said Dr. Lamb.

One key difference was that the early superheroes had real jobs and lives outside of their superhero activities, with Superman working as a reporter and the Green Lantern serving as a railroad engineer, while more recent superheroes have devolved into being sarcastic showoffs with little or no sense of the bigger picture (take “Deadpool,” for one — though hopefully you’re not taking any child anywhere near an R-rated “Deadpool” showing).

So, what should a parent do about all this? The parental advisory organization Common Sense Media suggests that children under seven years of age shouldn’t be allowed to watch the Spider-man and Superman television series (and by extension, their movies)’ and they should be eight years old before they watch the Batman series (many would say aim higher and take the PG-13 rating of the “Dark Knight” trilogy seriously). 

And when it comes to either seeing the movies or supervising the play that might result from watching these movies — a little parental guidance also goes a long way.