Photo: Marvel Studios
Superhero movies are no longer strictly for comic book fans. Even though superhero films are more popular than they’ve ever been with Iron Man and Black Widow becoming household names, people without a comic-book past have embraced their inner-nerdiness and let their geek flags fly with the rest of the die-hards lately.
Comic books are considered more than just cheap entertainment and audiences are recognizing that they actually offer some pretty valuable life lessons, including these 10 inspiring takeaway lines from your favorite superhero films.
Part of the journey is the end: Go Full Circle With One-Sentence Summations of Every MCU Movie
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Ten Best Lessons Taken From Comic Book Movies
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Real love is forever. (‘The Crow’)
In the 1996 movie The Crow, Eric Draven and his bride-to-be, Shelly, are brutally murdered on the night before Halloween. Draven will come back from the dead a year later to “make the wrong things right.” Simply put, he murders a bunch of dudes that murdered him and his girlfriend first. After he avenges his bride and defeats the bad guys, he returns to the grave, into the waiting arms of Shelly. As the two embrace, a young girl named Sara shares this bit of wisdom:
“Buildings burn; people die. But real love is forever.”
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No amount of money ever bought a second of time. (‘Avengers: Endgame’)
Try to wrap your heads around this one. When Tony Stark meets his father in the past during Avengers: Endgame, the two exchange some fatherly advice with one another. When Howard, soon to be a new father himself, asks Tony for some words of wisdom, he tells him that his father once gave him this advice:
“No amount of money ever bought a second of time.”
Howard seemed to like that line, so much so that he would go on to tell his son the same thing one day. His son was, of course, Tony. Say what? Time is weird and nothing matters.
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You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. ('The Dark Knight')
This was, perhaps, the line in a movie full of good ones. It not only foreshadowed the tragic transformation of Harvey Dent into Two-Face; it also encompassed the no-win situation that Batman will always find himself in. Plus, it was just good advice on its own.
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Mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it; a kiss can be even deadlier if you mean it. (‘Batman Returns’)
Sometimes love is the most dangerous feeling in the world. It’s scary, immobilizing and completely, beautifully chaotic. Guns and knives can kill you, but love is a fate worse than death. So when Catwoman has Batman down for the count on top of a Gotham rooftop, she doesn’t kill him. She does something much, much worse. She kisses him.
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Don’t be what they made you. (‘Logan’)
At the conclusion of Logan, Wolverine is on his death bed (or branch, rather) after a savage fight with his deadly doppelgänger. Before he goes to that school for gifted children in the sky, he looks at his daughter, X-23, and tries to give her some fatherly advice that nobody ever gave him.
“Don’t be what they made you.”
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Anybody can wear the mask. (‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’)
In a world where fans get outraged at live-action casting choices, they were a lot more lenient with Miles Morales being Spider-Man in the hit animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Of course, it helped that the film also included the original Spidey, along with a colorful cast of other Spider-People. Throughout the film, the theme becomes evident but it’s put into words at the very end, when Morales tells the audience that “anyone can wear the mask.”
Metaphorically, this quote meant to tell viewers that they, too, can find the heroes inside of themselves and that’s the best advice one can walk away with from a superhero movie.
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I’m still worthy. (‘Avengers: Endgame’)
In Avengers: Endgame, Thor is a shell of his former self. He drinks too much, isolates, and has the dad bod to end all dad bods (though, to be fair, even his beer belly has muscles). He is obviously in a pretty bad place but while this characterization is mostly played for laughs (because depression/alcoholism is hilarious), there is an especially poignant moment towards the middle of the film.
After traveling back in time and returning to Asgard on the day of his mom’s death, she confronts him and gives him a swift talking to, as only a mother can. While Thor doesn’t immediately snap out of his depression (because nobody can just snap out of depression), he does gain enough confidence to return to his present time to finally stop Thanos. But before he goes, he has an epiphany. He reaches out a trembling, meek hand and a moment later, a newly-restored (or, actually, not-yet-destroyed) Mjolnir is returned to the hand of the rightful king. Near tears, Thor looks up at his mother and says “I’m still worthy.” This moment shows that depression, addiction, and all sorts of mental health issues do not make somebody unworthy. We are all worthy; Thor’s mom said so.
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Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up. (‘Batman Begins’/‘The Dark Knight Rises’)
When a young Bruce Wayne falls into a well at the beginning of, um, Batman Begins, it is not Lassie that saves him, but his father. In a moment of sheer brilliance, Thomas Wayne gives his son advice that will last his entire life:
“Why do we fall, Bruce?” he asks his intrepid son. “So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”
This is a theme that will present itself throughout The Dark Knight trilogy and it’s a line that forever endeared Thomas Wayne to audiences. We all make mistakes. We all have regrets and we all fall. But it is not the fall that matters. It’s whether or not we pick ourselves up.
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With great power, comes great responsibility. (Every ‘Spider-Man’ film)
Anyone can wear the mask, according to Miles Morales. But if you do, you should be prepared for all that comes with it. Whether we’re dealing with super heroics, being a boss, or having any sort of authority, we should all heed the advice of Uncle Ben: “With great power, comes great responsibility.”
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Sometimes, you just can’t get rid of a bomb. (‘Batman: The Movie’)
Word.
