someone on reddit asked for peopleâs answers, and mine ended up quite long, so I wanted to share:
I once read an interesting categorization that said grimdark vs light/fun was a flawed way of looking at comic book stories.  It proposed that gritty vs light-hearted is a different axis than cynical vs idealistic.  And Iâd agree.  To me, DC is idealism, and cynical DC stories donât work very well.  But that doesnât mean it canât be dark or gritty. Â
It just means that the heroes represent and choose Good even in the darkest of nights. Because of this, DC heroes arenât just characters. Done right, theyâre icons of something bigger. Thereâs a positive virtue that they each embody, rather than a character study in struggling people who happen to have powers.
Itâs Supermanâs hope and optimism, his adoption and service of humanity.
Itâs Wonder Womanâs compassion and love and refusal to stand aside.
Itâs Batmanâs determination and tireless struggle for justice, and his conviction that every life matters. Â He really embodies the teaching in Judaism and Islam that to take one life is to kill all humanity and to save one life is to save all humanity.
All three of them, as well as some others, operate out of a position where they have no outside obligation to help humanity, and all three have plenty of reason to look at the world and say, âNo, you donât deserve my help. You deserve what you do to one another.â Â They each have a compelling reason to say no: to rule humanity and force improvement instead of serving it, to abandon Manâs World to its own warlike devices, to wreak vengeance instead of fighting for justice and reform. Â But theyâre heroes because, as Wonder Woman says in the Jenkins film, âItâs not about deserve.â Â Each of their origins is entirely about that question: do you let humanity get what they deserve, or do you devote your life to saving people even though they donât deserve it at all?Â
That question holds the Trinity together, and in doing so, it gives DC Comics a central core that canât be compromised. And speaking of religious themes, that one is basically the central tenet of Christianity, too: that God doesnât go by what people deserve, but by love. By unmerited grace. The DC heroes, especially the Trinity but also Dick Grayson, Martian Manhunter, et al, regularly embody that divine aspect, and either you can see that as echoing Christianity or as incorporating that important message without the religious aspects.  Either way, it gives the Trinity a weight thatâs really hard to shake.
Itâs also, I think, why DC has such strong villains, especially for Superman and Batman. Because the villains arenât just there to put up a fight. Theyâre there to tempt us into thinking that humanity is bad. Lexâs greed and callousness. Jokerâs cruelty. Raâsâs compelling arguments about humanityâs destruction of the earth. And the heroes say, no, Iâm not giving up on humanity. Not all of humanity is like this, and not even you, through and through, are beyond redemption.
And then, to add the kicker to it, DCâs legacies are so strong and special (or can be/have been, despite certain efforts).  The sidekicks are almost as memorable and often just as iconic as the original heroes, and hell, DC basically invented the concept.  I got into reading comics because of Dick Grayson, and heâs really kept me invested through the highs and lows.  Dick has all of what Batman has above, while also carrying the positivity and joy of Superman.  And he particularly does something special with Batman in implicitly reminding us that Batmanâs fight isnât going to be won anytime soon. Itâs one that needs to be picked up and continued and passed on, but that doesnât make it futile. It just makes that fight all the more necessary to keep fighting.
Honestly, if it were just the Trinity and Dick, Iâd still be here. Theyâre a core that no other fictional world comes close to matching, in my experience.
But Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Shazam/Marvel, and co, meanwhile, vindicate the Trinityâs belief, by being the kind of humans that are worth celebrating. Â Sure, Barry was given a sob story background later, but heâs a hero because itâs the right thing to do with powers, and he didnât need an Uncle Ben moment to realize that. Â Hal is chosen for the ring because he, a human pilot, had more courage and willpower than anyone in the sector. Â And they do incredible things that remind us that humanity is amazing and worthwhile, that Superman isnât nuts to have adopted humanity for himself, that Diana is right to have left her Paradise for the messed up Manâs World, that Batman has a good reason for saving the shithole city of Gotham and refusing to kill even the worst people, because they are still people.
And thatâs why I love DC.
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