Like, here's my issue with the superhero discourse. I really don't think there's anything interesting in answering the question "what if Superman was real and he was good?" He's not, and if he were he wouldn't be good (or he'd die of stress within days).

It's like asking "what if active interventionist God was real"? Well either everything would be perfect or fck him.

The world is bad. Any mature fiction has to work from this premise

And frankly children's fiction should too, because kids shouldn't grow up thinking things are going to be nice

This isn't the same as stamping out all hope. Star Wars, the originals, taught me to expect something like the world we live in. It's not a huge ask.

Philosophers talk about the "problem of evil" because the world is self evidently bad. Stories are about struggle because everyone has some badness they have to overcome. Suffering is a constant. Fiction that seeks to deny this is, truly, immature.

This is not the same as endorsing the idea that really bad movies about Superman are actually good, but it's worth considering that maybe, no, Superman is not an inspirational character, he's a depressing one, because no one IRL will ever have that sort of power.