6 Seriously Flawed Moral Decisions By Movie Superheroes

To make matters weirder, Tony found Spider-Man by spying on him until he figured out he was secretly a high school kid from Queens. And since he's obviously collecting intel on metahumans, he could have just as easily gone one borough in any direction and recruited a ninja lawyer, a superstrong private detective, or an invincible badass -- all of them full-grown adults.

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So yes, any nerd knows Spider-Man is the best hero, but as far as Tony knew, Peter was just an awkward teenager with potentially awesome abilities. Of all the choices, why pick him to go up against history's greatest fist fighter and a Nazi cyborg assassin if you're not specifically trying to watch a child die?

Some fans claim the extended, R-rated cut of the film is better. Which in this case is like saying, "You have scrotum cancer, but good news: All scrotum cancer diagnoses come with a free cowboy hat." And while the extended version does help explain some of the nonsense in Batman V Superman, it also adds some plot holes of its own that make the heroes look like even bigger dicks.

The torturously longer version tacks on an entire subplot explaining why Superman has a problem with the Bat in the first place. Admittedly, any explanation is better than "Lex Luthor told me to kill you, so unless our moms have the same first name, you're freaking dea- Wait, what's that? You said your mom's name was what?!"

Warner Bros.

So, in the film we learn that Gotham and Metropolis exist right across a bay from one another. We also learn Batman has been active for about 20 years and that his violent vigilantism has escalated to the point where he's practically crippling jaywalkers.

Superman, as journalist Clark Kent, starts investigating Batman's overzealous crime-fighting and decides he's not happy with it. It makes sense Superman would disagree with mutilating criminals, but that's the problem. Are we supposed to believe Superman is just now finding out Batman exists?

The Bat is kind of sneaky, but he drives a car shaped like a bat and gets summoned by an iconic spotlight, also shaped like a bat. He's not exactly a secret. He beats suspects to the brink of death and then burns bat shapes into their mangled flesh while they scream. The whole time Superman was in town, was he overhearing this with his super-ears and just thinking someone at Chili's was dropping a hot fajita pan in their lap?

Warner Bros.

Actually, forget super-senses -- this kind of thing would be the top news headline every day, probably at Clark Kent's own newspaper. If he somehow didn't know about the hilariously world-famous vigilante from one town over until just now, you have to seriously question his abilities as both a superhero and a reporter.

No, previous paragraph. There isn't. Not only is that terrible job almost certain to piss him off, Rio is about as densely populated as it gets. A single Hulk-out could mean the deaths of thousands and thousands of sculpted butts. And the fact that Bruce has to shove himself through muggers and literal rapists to get to work? That can't help.

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And let's not forget an elite military force is scouring the globe for him and he is in a place where his famously wanted American face would be especially conspicuous. The only way Bruce could have a higher chance of a fury rampage would be if he got a job testing mousetraps with his penis or proof-reading Garfield comics.

If Ryan Lochte, the world's most chill dude, can't handle Rio, a gamma-filled Bruce Banner doesn't stand a chance. And sure enough, one of the first things we see is Bruce having a confrontation with his co-workers. Apparently tensions run high in noisy, miserable, 110-degree warehouses. What is he doing there? He's a genius biochemist. Couldn't he make artisanal suntan lotion or butt cream? Are you telling us there's no market for butt cream in Brazil? Come on, Hulk.

Fans of the Agent Carter series -- or one guy named Jeff, as they are known to the Nielsen Company -- can tell you that Howard Stark was a megalomaniacal ass. The only reason Howard didn't build his own robot suit was because his poontanging schedule didn't allow it. In short, being a douche is a dominant gene in the Stark DNA.

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You probably don't remember Iron Man 2, since you spent the movie discussing how the film's villain, Whiplash, could have been solved by any ordinary security guard with a gun, but the plot involved trouble with the palladium in Tony's chest. You see, palladium is great for powering a rocket-launching jetsuit, but has the troublesome side effect of slowly and painfully killing its owner. And since Zack Snyder already called dibs on "superhero movie where you just watch a guy wither and die for 150 minutes," they had to find a way for Tony to replace his toxic pacemaker. So he got help from his dickish dead dad.

Tony knew he needed an entirely new element to replace the palladium, because Iron Man exists in a universe where rewriting the fundamental laws of chemistry is less complicated than heart surgery. Luckily, he discovers his father already dreamed up the mystery element, but took his research to the grave. Double luckily, Nick Fury shows up with a diorama and a video tape that form a complex series of clues only Tony can decipher. So he has a team-up with his deceased father to achieve a historic scientific breakthrough while also discovering his father secretly loved and respected him all along!

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It's a sweet story if you're a Stark, but bizarrely selfish if you're anyone else. Howard created a miracle element that could have changed the world, and instead of developing it into a life-saving, free-power-generating technology, he hid it in a cute game only his neglected son could solve so that he could learn he was loved far too late. Which means one day Howard Stark had to have thought, "I love my son, but I'd also love to set the world record for most convoluted way to tell him that."

If Howard would have only hugged that kid, the second Iron Man movie could have actually been about robot suit battles instead of scavenger hunts.

Peter Parker and Harry Osborn, the Green Goblin, forgive each other for whatever nonsense it was they were fighting over, and Mary Jane forgives Peter for punching her in the face.

Columbia Pictures

The apologies don't end there. Spider-Man forgives the Sandman, who killed his uncle and definitely several more people during the many bank robberies he commits over the course of the film. And when we say "forgives the Sandman" we mean Spider-Man stands there and watches the teary-eyed murderer crumble away like a glitchy PS1 cutscene.

Columbia Pictures

You might be thinking to yourself, "Wait, there was no trial for the killings?" Nope. There will also be no restitution to the other victims, who were not consulted as to whether or not they were willing to forgive. But don't worry -- the Sandman, like most psychopathic sand monsters, will presumably just stop after he finds out there are no consequences for robbery and murder.

Also, let's be clear on one more thing: Throughout the entire film, the police are powerless to stop Sandman. And this isn't the cool Marvel movie universe where there are Norse gods, super soldiers, and terrific archers. In this world, Spider-Man is the only superhero available to stop Sandman if he decides to kill his way into another bank vault. Unless Spidey decides to once again forgive him on behalf of society.

Columbia Pictures

On a similar note ...

You see, Gamora is the adopted daughter of Thanos, the Conqueror Of A Decade's Worth Of Post-Credit Scenes. Along with her sister, Nebula, Gamora committed atrocities in the name of her corduroy-chinned father, up to and including wiping out entire races. When she enters prison with the rest of the Guardians, almost every single inmate wants her dead because of her bloody trail of murder.

So say you're some space guy in the galaxy and you hear they pardoned the masterminds of a prison riot that, let's not be coy, got hundreds sexually violated and/or killed. They're the same people who gave a planet-melting gem to the worst guy in the universe, and have collectively killed too many sentient people to count. Would it really matter to you if they helped defend space police headquarters or that they have fun dance-alongs to classic pop hits from Earth? Who is running the damned Nova Corps payroll board?

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Stephan infrequently tweets over at @StephanRoget, where he's mostly chuffed he didn't need to use an underscore or anything. Nathan is a Christian and is positive that "letting murderers run free" is NOT what Jesus meant by forgiveness. Check out Nathan's hilarious website here. DO IT.

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