Billions of dollars in Marvel movies can’t be wrong. We love the physics-defying powers of superheroes and the cut-and-dry world of hero/villain and that the hero always wins in the end. It just feels right to us. That sense of justice is ingrained into as children. We learn it playing tee ball, soccer, or any activity that socializes us in a competitive environment. We learn that the rules matter because without them, there’s no point in playing.

In a world without rules, winning becomes meaningless. Taking home the prize becomes the only goal and the value of competition, the point of which should be to push oneself to become better, elevating the entire field, gets perverted into a melee for a prize without honor. We see it almost daily on the news. Transgender athletes, abortion rights, the presidential race, DEI, it’s all quite the can of worms, isn’t it?

When winning becomes more important than being the best, we all lose. Comics tried to teach us at in the early days. The ideal of victory in battle as being a moral victory has been a theme of history. Not that the ends justify the means, but that the victor in the end was the result of superior morality. Superman didn’t beat Lex Luthor just because he was more powerful, he did because he HAD to, because he was right. Because Luthor was EVIL. and good had to beat evil, right?

Right?

We love comics because they make everything so simple. Good vs evil, right vs, wrong. And the good guys always win in the end. We love them because of the nostalgia of our youth, because once you’re grown up, you realize the world doesn’t work that way. You realize that sometimes, lots of times, the bad guys get exactly what they want and there’s no one to hold them accountable. Shitty bosses on power trips; angry Karens trying to ruin your life to feel mighty and fill a void in themselves; THE GOVERNMENT. lol.

In a world where it seems like the rules don’t matter because people are more interested in moving the goalposts to suit their own ends, passion for the simplistic world of comic books is easy math. Comics are awesome because they reinforce the ideal that it will all work out in the end, to keep the faith during the difficult times and that it will all be worth it, nor matter how tough the climb. In the current age, we need a Tony Stark and a Steve Rogers to look to just to keep from being driven insane by an insane world.