unbreakable and comicbook realism

Which is better: Comic books that are written for children, like "Adventures in the DC Universe," or comics that attempt to treat the subject of superheroes more realistically?

In 1961, it was realistic to have Warren Worthington marvel at the sheer unadulterated joy of unaided flight, and to have Peter Parker become a superhero because a moment of self-absorption cost him his uncle's life. That stuff is fairly standard now and is no longer sufficient when we're talking about relative realism in comics.

During the "Dark Age" of comics, realism to an extent involved angst-ridden, bitter, smoking men and women who whine about the meaninglessness of life and read Jean-Paul Sartre and still wear tight clothes and do impossible things. In my opinion that sort of comic was done well by Frank Miller, Alan Moore and pretty much no one else.

If you haven't checked out Kurt Busiek's "Astro City," I recommend it. He does a lot of exploring the "off-stage" exploits of his superheroes, focusing on the superheroes' daydreams, their children's desire to be normal kids, their struggles with being good parents, and so on. One of his best story arcs involves an alien invasion of the earth, but the aliens are on the periphery of the protagonist's internal struggles for self-worth and identity.

The movie "Unbreakable" tries to go a step further and essentially asks the question, "If there really were people with super powers, what would they be like?" There's no fancy costumes or anything; the main character is simply at one extreme of the bell curve on a few points and has never thought of himself as a "superhero" or having "super powers."

If you're into comic books, it's an interesting movie, but it's slow-paced and character-driven, which is why it wasn't received as well as more conventional superhero movies like "Batman," "Superman" or even "Spawn." I personally prefer "The Sixth Sense," which had a much stronger twist ending since it relied on completely changing the viewer's interpretation of the movie. In "Unbreakable," there are some clues to the twist ending, but most of the information to make it work is brand new.