In the late 90s we got a series of movies which fixated on the banality of consumerism being embraced as a lifestyle, which ultimately leaves people dissatisfied with their lives (e.g. American Beauty, Fight Club). These stories were not made in imitation of one another, but the general cultural ethos of the time led to tonally comparable movies being produced contemporaneously. A similar coincidence was the 2010 releases of Kick-Ass and Super, two purportedly darkly ‘realistic’ satires on the superhero genre. I hated Kick-Ass when I saw it years ago. It was a mean-spirited comedy that never escaped the laziness of edgelord humor. Super is superficially the same movie, but it is at least fully aware that its characters are not remotely heroic. It doesn’t fall back on raw shock value, but it’s still not for me.