The phrase “superhero fatigue” has come and gone like waves in the wake of Marvel’s blockbuster Avengers: Endgame, with newer comic book projects having fans go from “we’re so back” to “it’s so over” at the flip of a dime whenever the new new doesn’t hit as hard as the golden age of superhero mania a decade prior. Now we have empirical data that young folks no longer desire what’s passed as superheroes. What they want is what the Washington Post has dubbed “competency porn.” Or more specifically, a kind father figure who’s really good at their job.
According to Deadline, a recent survey from the Center for Scholars & Storytellers at UCLA’s annual Teens & Screens found that nearly 60 percent of Gen Z and Gen Alpha would prefer to see characters like The Pitt‘s Dr. Robby Robinavitch or that guy pal hockey duo from Heated Rivalry. More specifically, the survey—conducted last August with 1,500 people ages 10 to 24 across the U.S.—found that young folks want more regular, emotionally present guys who can actually express their feelings without the whole world collapsing, rather than the churn of guys we often see in superhero films who are tortured by phenomena having to display emotions, much less enjoy doing so.
“For years, creators and executives have operated under the assumption that young male audiences prefer, or at least expect, stoic, independent male heroes,” says the report. “The data from our 2025 snapshot shows that the next generation of viewers is eager for a version of masculinity rooted in connection. By centering emotional vulnerability and active parenting, creators have a rare opportunity to provide the authentic representation that young audiences are actively seeking.”
From the survey, things that a majority of Gen Z and Gen Alpha would like to see more of in media are:
- Fathers showing love for kids
- Fathers enjoying parenting
- Men taking care of others
- Teen boys being expressive
- Men asking for help
- Men seeking mental health care
- Adult men being expressive
In essence, the kids of today yearn for men cut from the same cloth as The Pitt‘s resident “effortlessly sexy without even trying” king, who would snatch your phone, tell your boss to get off your back, and personally make sure your ER visit goes smoothly, and less of Dr. Strange reanimating his own corpse to sigil fight Scarlet Witch, who is very obviously going through something and requires a gentler touch.
Ironically enough, when GamesRadar asked about superhero fatigue back in 2024, the Russo Brothers squarely placed blame on kids. Though their scapegoating of the youth stemmed more from the “sort of collective ADHD” from their TikTok-brained attention spans against the two-hour format deluge of superhero content from across all sides of the intellectual property aisle, post-Endgame.
“There’s a generation that’s used to appointment viewing and going to a theater on a certain date to see something, but it’s aging out. Meanwhile, the new generation are ‘I want it now, I want to process it now,’ then moving onto the next thing, which they process whilst doing two other things at the same time,” Joe Russo said at the time. “You know, it’s a very different moment in time than it’s ever been. And so I think everyone, including Marvel, is experiencing the same thing, this transition. And I think that really is probably what’s at play more than anything else.”
“The superhero fatigue question was around long before the work we were doing,” Anthony Russo added. “So, it’s sort of an eternal complaint, like we always used to cite this back in our early days with superhero work. People used to complain about Westerns in the same way, but they lasted for decades and decades and decades. They were continually reinvented and brought to new heights as they went on.”
While yes, Anthony wasn’t wrong in noting that superhero fatigue didn’t materialize out of thin air—though we’d argue a more apt comparison than Westerns would be the zombie media boom that rose alongside it and burned out twice as fast. Still, the Avengers: Doomsday directors missed the mark in assuming the issue with connecting to Gen Z was simply short attention spans rather than a generational shift towards wanting portrayals of men who feel more personable and less antisocial.
Who knows, maybe their cryptic, drip-fed trailers of Captain America and Thor that look like pharmaceutical commercials are their way of getting ahead of the curve and extending an olive branch to lapsed adolescent viewers. We’ll see if that gambit pays off once the Doomsday dust settles on December 18.
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