As mentioned on the front page of this trope, superhero films tend to be one of the most common victims of this trope. Many families have the stigma of associating anything superhero-related as being perfectly OK for kids, possibly because many of these franchises, especially the works of DC Comics and Marvel Comics, have been heavily marketed to children, mainly through merchandising and animated television series.
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Dark Horse Comics
- Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army:
- Since the hero is named "Hellboy" and not "Heckboy", you don't expect your kids to see them, right?
- The Neo-Nazi movement is the main antagonist of the first movie.
- Hellboy gets uneasy towards German people and calls Johann Krauss a Kraut, which is a slur towards German people.
- In the second movie, Johann wants Hellboy to stay "fock-used" (his way of pronouncing focused) sounded like he dropped an F-bomb.
- The monsters encountered in both movies are frightening.
- Hellboy (2019) is Bloodier and Gorier and Ruder and Cruder than the Guillermo del Toro movies, with an R-rating to boot.
- The Mask feels like a live-action Looney Tunes movie starring Jim Carrey but has sexual humor such as where Stanley Ipkiss shows off a used condom while making balloons, smoking, comic/slapstick violence and profanity. It originally had a Precision F-Strike before it was replaced with "frigging". It also has two men getting exhaust pipes jammed up their rear by the "hero". Luckily, there is a made-for-television edit that removes or alters most of the content.
DC Comics
- The various Batman films from 1989 on have been prone to controversy over their appropriateness for kids:
- All have had PG-13 ratings, but they were not all created equal in terms of violence and intensity. Joel Schumacher's films were intentionally Lighter and Softer than Tim Burton's in part because of complaints. Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy reboot is adult. In some countries like The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Germany, The Dark Knight was rated 15 or 16 (no one under 15/16 admitted) for its psychological horror, Nightmare Fuel and gruesome (but either sanitized or implied) death scenes involving pencils, guns and knives.
- In Argentina, they heavily marketed The Dark Knight to children, including coloring books, sticker albums, and action figures based on the movie.
- It's like that in North America, too. There are children's toys and Fruit Roll-Ups themed after The Dark Knight. There were even The Dark Knight kids' meal toys!
- Batman Returns got
Happy Meal toys. Look, the Batmobile! Follow it, Dad, before the Penguin kidnaps and drowns all the first-born sons in Gotham! (Stuff like this led to at least one daytime talk show that summer covering the complaints from parents over the movie...) - Tim Burton lampshaded this during an interview about his movies. He mentioned that executives were very displeased with the film, with comments like "Look, Penguin eating raw fish, spewing black stuff out of the mouth, how am I going to put this in a Happy Meal?!?!". Fortunately, Joel Schumacher's films being directly related to the whole Batman franchise going comatose for almost a decade vindicated Tim Burton's movies. Most of the "Batman is for kids" mentality though is because of older generations used to the campy Adam West Batman series of the 60's being their only exposure to Batman.
- There have been The Dark Knight Rises action figures for kids that must be at least five or six years old. You know, The Dark Knight Rises? That delightfully family-friendly movie outing featuring such delights as a graphic blood transfusion in the opening scenes, multiple shootings, one resulting in a hospitalisation, Bruce Wayne having his back broken and with the appropriate sound effects, several other people having bones crushed and necks broken by Bane, including one who has his skull crushed, and of course, several realistically presented bombings. The last of which should not be surprising since some are depicted in the actual trailer. It's PG-13/12A for a reason.
- After the July 20, 2012, mass shooting at a midnight showing of this movie in Aurora, Colorado, that left 58 injured and 12 dead, there were people on several forums who were pouncing at the fact that articles were stating that some of these victims were under 10 years old, and were like, "What were these parents doing bringing their young kids who are less than 10 years to a midnight showing of a very violent movie?!"
- And then there’s The Batman (2022), which was heavily marketed to the family demographic as well. This despite its reinterpretation of The Riddler as a deranged Serial Killer, several moments that stretch the PG-13 rating to its limits even more so than the Nolan trilogy, and an incredibly bleak tone. Indeed, many critics compared the film’s violence, tone, and gore to far more adult crime and political thrillers (such as Se7en, Klute, The Parallax View, and Zodiac). In addition to the European countries above, which gave The Batman similar ratings to the Nolan trilogy, even the BBFC in the UK - which has been fairly lenient on superhero films despite being stricter on violence overall than the MPA - slapped The Batman with a 15, making it the first Batman live-action solo film to get the rating since Batman Returns.
- DC Extended Universe has its own fair share as well:
- The color palette of Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Zack Snyder's Justice League as well as the dark tone and intense drama can throw adults off who grew up with Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman. The Ultimate Edition of Batman v. Superman and Zack Snyder's Justice League were both given R-ratings. The final cuts of Justice League (2017) and Wonder Woman (2017) were made to get rid of some of these elements.
- Suicide Squad (2016) showed off some frightening portrayals of villains such as the Enchantress and Jared Leto's Joker and is too intense for a PG-13. And ended up winning the 2017 Kids Choice Awards for best soundtrack - which itself highlights the violent and unlawful mindsets of its main characters. It does show a little more humor than the first two DCEU films. The sequel is straight-up rated R with plenty of Black Comedy and Gorn throughout the running time.
- SHAZAM! (2019) is considerably more lighthearted than the bleak, grimdark tone of earlier DCEU movies, but it is still PG-13 and it has that rating for a reason. Many were the parents who didn't get that, took their little kids to see the film, and had to take the screaming, traumatized kids home after the high-octane Nightmare Fuel that is the boardroom scene.
- Birds of Prey (2020) features fan-favorite Harley Quinn but it contains tons of F-bombs, graphic violence, drug use and sexual themes, leading to the franchise's first R-rated theatrical release, making parents who bring children to see it extra guilty. Also, the marketing made this film seem more like a typical PG-13 superhero fare than an R rated movie like Deadpool. Not helping was the fact that Harley Quinn has been heavily marketed to young girls for some time.
- The Suicide Squad: Don't let the bright visuals and the fact it was directed by the guy who had written Scooby-Doo (2002) fool you, this film is easily one of the most goriest superhero films of all time. The language is also as foul as Birds of Prey.
- The film adaptation of Watchmen did not take long at all to fall victim to this:
- Consider: Comic book fans all know this story is by no stretch of the imagination appropriate for children. Okay. Now think of all the people out there who are not comic book fans, have never heard of the novel, and only saw an awesome trailer with superheroes doing cool stuff. The film does have an "adults only" rating in most parts of the world, but we all know how well some adults acknowledge those.
- There is some merchandising. One imagines a little kid walking around with a Doctor Manhattan or a Rorschach lunchbox.
- In fact, Debbie Schlussel wrote an entire column bashing Watchmen as another example of marketing extreme content to children. When she was called out on this, and told that the film was not intended for children, she replied by saying that the existence of merchandise based on this film proved her right, apparently not understanding that the filmmakers and merchandisers are completely separate groups and that the filmmakers likely were forced to include a merchandising agreement in their contract, despite the film being rated R. For that matter, numerous films, comics, video games and other things very clearly not marketed to children still have merchandising, such as the Alien franchise, the porn-comic Morbis Gravis, etc.
- On a similar note, some DVD covers of the Watchmen movie don't censor Doctor Manhattan's privates. You can't really tell he's naked since he looks so inhuman and sort of like a Ken doll, but he's still naked.
- Parodied in "G-rated Watchmen comic" and "Saturday Morning Watchmen".
- The failure of Watchmen within the United States pretty much killed any chance of any more R-rated superhero movies. It wasn't really until the box office success of Deadpool, which is almost a textbook example of the trope, that producers began to see the value of such movies. According to Bruce Timm, there were plans for an R-rated DC animated film, but the poor box office haul for Watchmen put the kibosh on any future superhero movies with anything higher than a PG-13 rating. (not that some DC Universe Animated Original Movies don't push the rating as far as it goes).
- Mark Millar has also said this is why none of the studios were interested in Kick-Ass, which ultimately ended up as an indie production and a surprise success.
- Consider: Comic book fans all know this story is by no stretch of the imagination appropriate for children. Okay. Now think of all the people out there who are not comic book fans, have never heard of the novel, and only saw an awesome trailer with superheroes doing cool stuff
- The animated shorts collection Batman: Gotham Knight features horrific violence - and unlike the live-action version, it isn't bloodless. The usually more conscientious commonsensemedia.org thinks Gotham Knight is appropriate for 11-year-old children (in comparison, they unanimously thought otherwise for The Dark Knight). Because it's animated, and it's about Batman, right? Thankfully, none of the shorts featured The Joker, or there would be kids in therapy. Some stores even sell the film in the children's section, and it was even aired on Cartoon Network, albeit with a TV-14 rating and some of the violence toned down.
- DC Universe Animated Original Movies, all of which are aimed more towards adults and teenagers than younger kids (the fact that they're rated PG-13 and sometimes R should point this out, though some movies aren't as dark as others) and could count for this trope.
- Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, which contains very disturbing and Squick-inducing content that manages to surpass The Dark Knight Returns.
- Batman: Year One and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns are rated PG-13. They earned those ratings, with their frank depictions of prostitution, violence (particularly against women), hard-edged vigilantism, and Anti-Hero-ism, with The Dark Knight Returns having both a male-to-female transsexual Nazi with swastika pasties covering her breasts, as well as the gruesome massacre and death of The Joker. Not only does DC Showcase: Catwoman have graphic portrayals of strippers, but Catwoman takes part herself.
- Batman: The Killing Joke became the first animated DC film to be given an R rating.
- Justice League Dark: Apokolips War: The movie earns its hard R rating with some truly gory deaths and even an F-bomb, almost like a horror movie, despite starring Superman, Batman and other heroes.
Marvel Comics
- Hulk might look like a Marvel film but is actually very intense and dramatic with a surprising PG-13 rating, which is probably why the film tanked in its second week. The themes include father-son issues, animal testing and nuclear weapons, which should make parents think otherwise.
- Daredevil, especially the director's cut is definitely not family-friendly due to its focus on legal drama, brutal action, mild nudity and profanity. In the theatrical cut, there is a sex scene between Elektra and Matt Murdock. In the director's cut, there is a subplot that shows a drug abuser played by Coolio put on trial.
- Howard the Duck got a kid-friendly PG rating despite a few scenes of naked or semi-naked women, but apparently it was okay since they were ducks.
- Blade, Blade II and Blade: Trinity features a Marvel superhero that fights vampires but contains plenty of graphic violence, drug use, strong language and sexual content. They are also some of the first Marvel films rated "R", predated The New Mutants as the first Marvel horror films and are the first Marvel films that use Country Matters.
- Ghost Rider (2007) and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance are more along the lines of horror with frightening imagery, intense violence and profanity.
- Not even the Marvel Cinematic Universe is immune to this trope, especially after Phase 3:
- Iron Man for the first 5 minutes when Tony Stark gets exploded and captured in an Afghan cave, and then the painful surgery scene to a heart reactor. It's also notable for featuring an explicit sex scene in the beginning of the movie, which was avoided by later movies after Disney bought Marvel Entertainment.
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) isn't the worst offender on the list but many people did think this movie was a kids movie, mainly due to the presence of a talking raccoon and that it was from the writer of Scooby-Doo (2002). However, the movie itself has curse words, sexual jokes, drinking and some rather over-the-top violence (including a scene where Groot impales a group of soldiers, throws them around a spaceship, and then smiles).
- Avengers: Infinity War: Oh look, a movie with all of our favorite MCU characters joining together! Seems like a fun family outing, huh? You are aware this was called Avengers: Infinity War Part I and its then-untitled sequel Infinity War Part II until Allegiant's failure discredited the idea of Movie Multipacks, and that any movie whose title ends or used to end in "Part 1" is unlikely to end on a happy note, right? Not only is this movie Darker and Edgier than your average PG-13 superhero film, but the film ends with Thanos collecting the Infinity Stones and wiping out half of the life in the universe. Because of there being no family-friendly films in theaters the week this was released, many parents opted to take their little ones to this, ending in many children leaving the theater in tears.
- The sequel, Avengers: Endgame, also suffered this. Not only is the film more violent than its predecessor, but it contains not one, but multiple heroic sacrifices, and some characters not undergoing Disney deaths.
- Eternals has an explicit sex scene and a more mature and philosphically overall-tone, even visually referring to the bombing of Hiroshima.
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a straight-up dark fantasy horror movie especially since Sam Raimi directed it. Viewers consider this not to be your typical Marvel film and it's much darker than most films of the MCU. The atmosphere doesn't help either.
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 features some of the most brutal violence in the MCU to date such as animal cruelty (especially with Rocket Raccoon's backstory) and a bloody, skinless mauled face of The High Evolutionary in full detail. This has actually sparked discussion of the modern relevance of the PG-13 rating, and whether it’s time to introduce a new rating between PG-13 and R.
- Spider-Man Trilogy:
- In Spider-Man, Mary Jane is nearly raped by gangbangers and wore clingy clothing that shows off her nipples, and it shows terrifying imagery from the Green Goblin and Norman Osborn.
- Spider-Man 2: Doc Ock's wife, Rosie, is killed by shards of glass, and Doc Ock brutally murdered all the doctors in the hospital.
- Spider-Man 3 shows terrifying imagery from Venom and the symbiote and the symbiote's effects on Peter and Eddie Brock resemble drug addiction.
- X-Men Film Series:
- Starting with X-Men: First Class, every film has at least one use of "Fuck". The most notable was the cameo of Wolverine from First Class, where his only words to Charles Xavier and Magneto are "Go fuck yourself". In Days of Future Past, Xavier remembers that scene but says "Fuck off" instead.
- Mystique looks near nude with scales covering her unmentionables. And Days of Future Past downright has a butt-naked Logan. (the scene is even uncut on Disney+!)
- X2: X-Men United shows a demonic blue mutant attempting an assassination on the President of the United States even though he was mind raped by an anti-mutant.
- X-Men: The Last Stand has a terrifying plot involving a cure for mutants that might remind viewers the dangers of curing autistic people or those who are part of the LGBT community. Even the Juggernaut says "I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!"
- Both X-Men and X-Men: First Class start with a flashback to the Holocaust that is rather hard to watch.
- Deadpool and Deadpool 2 have TONS of gory violence, LOTS of cursing, raunchy humor and a lot of things that shouldn't belong in an average PG-13 film. They are rated R for a very good reason.
- It didn't help that Deadpool has appeared in various family-friendly Marvel media, such as the 90's X-Men animated series, the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series, Marvel Super Hero Squad Online, Marvel Pinball, Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel Future Avengers and Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers.
- Writer Grace Randolph made a petition to get Deadpool released in an alternate PG-13 cut, so that kids who were fans of other superhero movies could go see it. Ryan Reynolds said he was sympathetic to her concerns, but that the movie was so raunchy and violent by design that a PG-13 cut would only be a few minutes long.
- A PG-13 cut of Deadpool 2 (including a new framing sequence starring Deadpool telling the story of the film to Fred Savage) was released around Christmas 2018, retitled "Once Upon A Deadpool". It was later revealed that the reason for this cut was to get the movie into the lucrative Chinese market as Western R-rated movies automatically fail censorship in their original forms. It was released in the Middle Kingdom in January 2019.
- Logan. Like the aforementioned Deadpool (2016) and its sequel, it does feature a popular X-Men–related character (in this case, Wolverine). Furthermore, Wolverine forms a father-daughter relationship with an adorable little girl. The catch? It's filled with so much violent and horrific imagery that parents would be wise not to take their kids to see it. (like Deadpool, it earned an R rating) In fact, the first scene depicts Wolverine jamming his claws through a mook's head with the thug gurgling! It doesn't help that this is the Grand Finale to Hugh Jackman's tenure as Wolverine, meaning that kids would be not only scared, but also sad. Some clueless parents who don't care much about Hugh Jackman also thought it's a safe movie for their kids because one of the lead characters actually is a kid (Laura). So, they thought it was a good idea to let their kids see a little girl become a superheroine... and said little girl ends up murdering a lot of bad guys in pretty graphically violent scenes. Unlike the Deadpool movies, this isn't filled with colorful visuals and plenty of humor, which makes this film more like a Western or Drama.
- The first two Wolverine films are just as violent, especially the unrated cut of The Wolverine.
- Despite having the same age rating as most other superhero films, an argument can be made that X-Men: Days of Future Past goes so far with some of the deaths in the Bad Future to the point that it should have received a higher age rating. The opening scene especially is rather disturbing and not at all child-friendly. Plus, there's Wolverine's naked bottom after getting out of a bed that was also occupied by a naked woman. The Rogue Cut adds more violence and a second Precision F-Strike.
- X-Men: Apocalypse has a terrifying Mind Rape scene that may remind people of sexual assault.
- The New Mutants. Children beware, you're in for a scare. Despite being a PG-13 movie, the trailer makes it very explicitly clear this film isn't for kids, unless they want to be traumatized by said film's horror imagery. They even made a "G-Rated trailer" in Taiwan with all jumpscares blurred out just to show parents how scary is this film. Child sex slavery and religious abuse are part of some of these character's back stories.
- Fantastic Four Duology:
- While more tame than other Marvel movies, it had some cursing, sexual humor, graphic violence (thanks to Doctor Doom). Even the second movie got a PG rating despite its mature content.
- Doctor Doom causes one Family-Unfriendly Death per movie. In the first movie, he shoots a bolt of electricity through Ned Cecil's chest. In the trailer, he would electrocute Ned near a puddle. In the second movie, Doom shatters General Hager.
- Sue Storm (played by Jessica Alba) is an Invisible Streaker in both movies. Luckily, you don't see her breasts and vagina, just her underwear.
- Galactus of Rise of the Silver Surfer may evoke watching a cosmic disaster movie.
- Fantastic Four (2015): It is notably more intense, graphic, dark and profane from the Tim Story Fantastic Four films due to multiple uses of "shit", abusive relatives, Flipping the Bird (from the villain) and bloody deaths (Planet Zero and Dr. Doom's Hallway Massacre with an on-screen head explosion and blood splatter in the walls). And somehow, it still got a PG-13.
- Sony's Spider-Man Universe:
- Venom (2018): The fact the film is rated PG-13 like most superhero movies might mean that some would assume Venom himself is toned down and his human-eating is Adapted Out. The film actually features them biting off a mook's head on screen, something the film directly acknowledges and draws attention to.
- Venom: Let There Be Carnage is even worse in that regard, as no matter if there is no gore Carnage lives up to his name in being vicious and Ax-Crazy. There is even a Precision F-Strike!
Other
- Kick-Ass got complaints from misinformed parents thinking it was a fun superhero movie despite the R rating it received. And, you know, the word "ass" right in the bloody title. Amusing because some theaters even censored "Ass" on the ticket stub. Presumably, these parents learned their lesson after that, as this mistake did not seem to repeat itself much when the movie's sequel came out, as both films are packed with gruesome, bloody violence, very strong language, and overt sexual content.
