Gimme the small stuff

One problem that I think the common style of telling stories in comic books has is "cosmic overload." In other words, it's the simple overload of stories that have absolutely immense stakes. If the hero loses, the earth will be either destroyed, or at least conquered by the resident baddie. (Think another visit by Galactus)

Yet, story after story like that, and yet the world remains, it's still free, and even the USA is free (or as free as it ever is, but lets not get political). It pretty much has to be that way. No matter what else may happen, we know that the good guys are going to win. After all, could you imagine that the chaos if the latest "conquer the world" plot in Outsiders were actually to play through? (Think when they had to stop a demon horde from entering the world). You know they are going to win out in the end. Those sorts of stories just end up being... ho hum.

On the other hand, if the villians have smaller goals, the writers can afford to let them "win," now and then. For instance, take the good ol bank robbery. Can you have a story where the baddies hit a bank, and then manage to ditch Spiderman, and keep their loot? Sure. You figure you'll end up seeing them again, and Spidy will haul em in, but because there is a real chance of their scheme working, there's actual tension in the story.

Of course, the flip side of that is that with the real over-powered heros (Superman, Wonder Woman, Iron Man or the like), they really need big time threats to go up against. Can you write a decent story with non-metahuman bank robbers in Batman? No problem. They can even be total ciphers. Utterly "normal" villians, not a wierd color or the like in sight.

Now try doing the same thing with the Flash? Hm, gets a whole lot harder fast, doesn't it? There are super-powered characters I like (Capt. Marvel for instance), but as a rule, I prefer the unpowered, or the "medium" powered heros, just because there's more room to give them stories with real tension.