Last summer, Superman was held in a pocket dimension on the verge of collapsing Metropolis. In 2016, Captain America, the symbol of our nation, was on the run from the government. In 2014, a U.N. body was infiltrated by a Nazi organization that survived from the 1940s. In 2012, the World Security Council dropped a nuclear weapon on New York. None of this is accidental.
For as long as they have existed, superhero stories have been an insight into American values and a sign of changing times. In the 1940s, Captain America presented a pro-military ideology while fighting Nazis and the U.S.’s isolationist policies. In the 1960s, the X-Men served as a symbol for oppressed minority groups during the civil rights movement, and the Fantastic Four continued to feed into growing U.S. excitement about the possibilities of space travel, as well as the social development of traditional family dynamics. As time has gone on, superheroes and their stories have evolved to reflect the trends in American society.
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Eventually, we get to the modern era of blockbuster superhero films. These films adapted decades-old comics for a mass audience, transforming superheroes from niche icons into America’s dominant modern mythology. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, the largest film franchise, began with Iron Man, which critiqued defense companies and the U.S. military-industrial complex, while portraying the government as bureaucratic and slow-moving.
Next, Iron Man 3 presents a critique of post-9/11 United States and the justification of the war on terror. In 2012’s The Avengers, the first Avengers team finally assembles, under the leadership of S.H.I.E.L.D., a U.N.-sanctioned body. Despite this, the climax of the film occurs when they disobey direct orders from the U.N. Security Council, with Nick Fury delivering the iconic line “I recognize the council has made a decision, but given that it’s a stupid ass decision, I’ve elected to ignore it.”
Later, in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, this U.N.-sanctioned body is seen to be infiltrated by the Nazi organization Hydra, and has to be disbanded and labeled as a terrorist organization. In the next installment, Captain America: Civil War, the Avengers are broken into two teams, and the titular character and his team fight the United Nations and the U.S. government, citing them as untrustworthy. The film frames institutional oversight as morally suspect, and repeatedly validates Captain America’s distrust. In the recent show Daredevil: Born Again, the show explores the rise and reign of Wilson Fisk as New York City’s mayor, portraying his anti-vigilante policies as negative.
If we look at DC, the 2025 Superman movie shows Superman being captured by the government that is working with an evil billionaire who heads a large defense technology company.
Taken together, these films reveal where the public increasingly stands: distrustful of government, skeptical of institutions, and more willing to place faith in exceptional individuals than collective systems. Superhero movies pointing this out isn’t a problem in and of itself. Democracy needs criticism to work: our democracy has evolved over the past 250 years because of it.
The issue is that these movies paint these institutions as bodies incapable of meaningful moral action at all. In these stories, the government and international bodies constantly fail, and it falls on individuals with extraordinary abilities (or, in Batman’s case, money and daddy issues) to break the rules to save humanity.
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While the fantasy of superheroes may sound appealing, the logic behind it is inherently undemocratic. Democracies are slow, procedural, and collective by design, relying on compromise, institutions, and the idea that regular citizens can shape their country together. Superhero stories operate on the opposite premise. In these stories, institutions are not merely flawed, but are obstacles to justice itself. The only people capable of saving society are those willing to place themselves above the system.
The fantasy is emotionally satisfying. It’s also politically dangerous. Democracy requires people to believe that flawed institutions can still be repaired. When a society loses that belief, it searches for saviors. History shows that societies seeking heroes often end up surrendering power to people convinced they stand above the rules.
Max Drayer is a student writer with a longtime interest in politics, culture, and media.
