Comic book heroes have gone the way of the dinosaur. Oh, sure they occasionally make an appearance but they don't attract readers like they once did. Today's comic book readers is a little more jaded than his predecessor. To him, the heroes of yesterday are played out and cliched.

Heroes have transformed into something darker. They have become anti-heroes. Originally, two-dimensional characters who's sole purpose was to showcase how powerful and virtuous the hero was. No longer is that the case. Instead of good versus evil, we often seen evil versus evil.

Not content to sit on the sidelines any longer, anti-heroes have emerged to take their rightful place in the pantheon of comic book characters. They don't battle for altruistic reasons, though. This new breed usually takes on the bad guy for personal or selfish reasons.

Sometimes these anti-heroes are new characters. Other times, they're they're bad guys who have been sidelined long enough. On rare occasions, the anti-hero is a hero who has fallen from grace. The great thing about comic book heroes is even if we don't want them, they'll always be there for us. Waiting in the wings for the day we want to see the infallible savior take up arms to save the day.

Learn more about this author, Mark Murphy.
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